Family Portraits to start 2007

January 06, 2007 Comment on this post [8] Posted in Musings | Parenting | Z

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A new year, and time to head out to get some family portraits. Even more fun when you are three rather than two. We started out the day going to an "upscale" photo joint. I asked them to shoot RAW rather than JPEG, and they obliged (...after some shock. Apparently I'm the second to ask for this.). The photos were nice, but we were underwhelmed some how. Perhaps we think we're prettier than we really are.

We went to lunch at the mall with my dad, and there's a "low budget" photo place in the food court, and there's no sitting fee. They aren't digital, but you can buy the negatives and copyright for the whole roll for US$70. What the heck, we said.

Turned out that the mall shop photos were all gold, IMHO. They shot in 120mm, rather than 35mm, so the negatives are a medium format, so I'll need to find a negative scanner that'll take them.

I scanned the pictures at right on my Canon Pixma MP500 Multifunction with no color correction at 600dpi. The photos on flickr are 1280pix, but the scanned ones are of sufficient detail to create borderless 4x6 photos on the Canon that are nearly indistinguishable from the original prints.

Once I scan the clean negatives (and do some decent cropping, my cropping at right is lousy, I can see now) I'll be able to make 8x10's no problem for gifts and such.

This is our first (yearly) portrait with Z, and I'm looking forward to the next seventeen.

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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January 06, 2007 10:00

Scott:
Happy new year to you and your family!
You rock...Thanks for sharing every detail from your side...
I appreciate your openness.
-SR

January 06, 2007 10:22

Oh, you shaved your beard? You looked nice with that "vacation" beard. q;-)

Martin Plante

January 06, 2007 12:54

Hey - which studio did you go to that sold you the negatives? That's pretty rare to find (and if it's the one that is in what used to be the Beaverton Mall, they've changed their practice since I worked there) Nikon makes a great scanner, however they run something like $1500 for medium format. You might try going to a photo developing place that can scan medium format & burn them onto a CD if it's just one or two rolls of film every now and again. I used to go to Suburban Photo when I lived in the area, not sure if they offer that sort of scanning there these days (of if they are even still open) There's bound to be a place in Portland if Suburban can't help you.

Jerry Ann

January 06, 2007 20:20

Nice pictures! We too are having our first family pictures taken in a couple of weeks. It's going to be an exciting time!

Javier Lozano

January 09, 2007 2:29

Great pictures. I joined Codezone but do not yet have access to all the links or to all the areas on this site (unsure why, but I believe that the site staff are taking care of the bug). Your blog is one of the links I can access, and glad I did. Great pictures and sounds like you all had a good holiday.

Nilda Hernandez

January 09, 2007 22:51

Welcome back from your trip, it's been fun reading about your adventures overseas. Great pictures of the family :)

T Lohman

January 09, 2007 23:26

Very nice. Funny how the cost doesn't always equate to the value. ;-) With regard to the next seventeen years, a friend of mine (in her 50s) still has her two sons (in their 20s) take portraits every year. That's all she asks for Christmas from them. I thought it was a great idea...something to keep in mind perhaps.

tod hilton

January 10, 2007 1:57

You have a very beautiful family - you must be very proud. Have a Happy New Year!

Dan Sniderman

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