When I saw that this week's Sepia Saturday theme was WALK, this photo from my grandmother Sally's albums came to mind for me. One thing that has struck me when reading her old letters is that they walked a lot back in those days (and as I know the neighbourhood a bit, I also have some sense of the distances). This photo is a bit blurry, but I'm pretty certain that the man with his back to the camera is Sally's brother Nils; and in the trio of young women, it's Sally to the right. I also guess it's probably their sister Hildur to the left; while the one in the middle I suppose must be a neighbour or guest.
The image stands out from most photos in the old albums in that they're actually "on the move" and not standing still, posing. I think the photographer is probably my grandfather Gustaf, and the time might well be that last winter when they still lived at the farm (1929/30).
I'll let this photo be my only contribution this week, as I'm in the process of setting up a new computer, getting acquainted with Windows 11, and reorganizing my archives...
Good image of walking persons to match the prompt! And knowing (guessing) who they are makes it personal too. Good luck with all the newfangled doo dads.
ReplyDeleteThanks Barbara. Yes, I feel I've been dealing with quite a few of those over the past couple of weeks... "Getting there", though! :)
DeleteI really like this picture. There's just something engaging about it - the way they're obviously greeting one another, and Nils' stride is very manly. :) And yes, GOOD LUCK getting the new computer set up. I know I'm going to have to do that one of these days as I'm working on a Windows 7 made to look like Windows 10 and I'm starting to get messages certain things are no longer going to be working for me. (sigh)
ReplyDeleteThanks La N. I think I've managed most of the "basic" set-up now, but on the other hand I also tend to quickly forget... (Like: Where was it again that I found the settings for this or that...) Plus, I'm also trying to rearrange some of my photos and documents... especially "saved and scanned" ones to do with family history... (phew)
DeleteThe man looks so much bigger than the women. I like the way they are walking along too.
ReplyDeleteKristin, the man looking bigger is of course partly to do with perspective; but Nils also really was a very big, tall man. (I remember him from my childhood.)
DeleteIt's a perfect fit for our theme and a good wintry contrast to the summer day in Norway. Finding photos of people in action in the olden times is rare since the cameras were less sophisticated and usually movement just created a blur. Snow also is rare because the old film could not cope with bright contrasts. This photo succeeds in part because of the dark coats but I wondered if there was more.
ReplyDeleteI hope you won't mind Monica, but I took the liberty to try correcting your scan with a free(ish) online photo software, Pixlr.com. By using its editor features to sharpen the image, reduce exposure, increase the contrast, and reduce the highlights I was able within seconds to give the picture a much stronger tone that revealed the well-trodden icy path in front of them and even let their smiles shine as they glance toward Nils. I recommend this website as it's a lot of fun to fix photos like this and a thrill when it brings out hidden details.
As to Windows 11, last year when my old computer informed me that not only was it incompatible with the new Windows system but that Windows 10 would become obsolete and unsupported too, I invested in a bigger, better, faster Dell and I've been very pleased with the new Windows features. So far I have not had any crash like those in Win 7,8, and 10 and everything seems faster. The hardest task was just cleaning out my digital closets and restoring old software, which fortunately all transferred without problems. I hope it works for you too.
Mike, I've bookmarked that photo editing website to have a look at sometime. I'm afraid most "advanced" photo editing programs I've tried looking into so far have just given me headaches! (either because of not understanding them, or for purely visual reasons) So normally I just keep to Picasa3 which I've been using as long as I've been blogging (i.e. since 2009). Luckily I managed to install Picasa once again on my new computer!
Delete(Meanwhile, if you kept your edit of my photo, maybe you could email it to me if you like?)
One problem with my old family photos is that most of them are firmly glued into albums and hard (or impossible) to properly scan on my scanner. So with most I've just used my camera to copy photos from the albums, and that never gets perfect. Most of the original paper photos are also really small. This one, for example, is only 6x7 cm in the album...
My new computer is an ASUS laptop (as was my previous one) but most of the time set up as "desktop" connected to bigger screen, "roller-mouse" wrist support and wireless keyboard, + printer/scanner. I've been able to transfer or copy all personal files from the old one to external hard drives. Taking my time now to get acquainted with the new one (and Win 11) - finding the right settings, and (re)downloading familiar software etc. Some of my "own" camera photos and old documents I'll probably leave on external drives this time. (Having more than one copy of the important stuff.) But my family history folders are among those I've also imported to the new machine - aiming to try to get them organized a bit better... perhaps... ;)