Do you suffer, as I did, with headaches and anxiety attacks over boxes and boxes (and more boxes) of old negatives and slides? Is your spouse giving you dirty looks over those boxes and talking about, oh my goodness, downsizing? Well, scanning would work, but I’d need another lifetime to do all that scanning.

Check out my new class at www.kelbyone.com on my camera scanning technique and a bunch of helpful hints on the best and quickest way to digitize your old negatives, slides, and flat art. The quality is as good as if not better than desktop scanners.

Here’s one of my tips on how to better handle your negatives in archival pages: https://tinyurl.com/5p3jvh5f

The photos below arejust three “found gems” that I rediscovered in my archives. They were street photos taken when I was a teenager and ended up in an exhibit of 11 of my photos in a show at the Rochester Museum and Science Center in Rochester, NY.

Here are two comments online about my Scanning With A Camera class:

“This is an excellent class. Great breadth of topics related to scanning ‘analog’ film sources, digitizing them and processing them to look their best. Jack is a clear speaker and explainer. Definitely something to use as reference for us fellow “hoarders” of older images (and flat art or prints)!“

And:

“Quite simply one of the best courses I’ve watched on KelbyOne. Thank you so much Jack, for coming up with something that is hugely informative throughout the first chapters, then becoming incredibly moving towards the end. What a body of work you have! What memories for you and all the people, communities you’ve photographed. “

I recently went on a photo walk in Brooklyn's DUMBO area. DUMBO by the way is not a description of the people there or any Disney characters in the wild, but rather an anachronism for "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass". I love the area because it's so easy to get to by ferry from my apartment on the East Sideof Manhattan. A great ride on the East River, which sets the mood to shoot much better than the two subway trains I'd have to take.

The photo walk was put on by C. Bay Milin, my former SVA (School of Visual Arts) grad student and presently a full time photographer, who planned and put on for the new graduate class of 2015-2016. As one of the SVA instructors, I tagged along. Photo walks are great in that you are with a group of photographers and you're all on the hunt for images. DUMBO is a great area for inspiration and images, especially on a beautiful end of summer day. A fun morning for all. I regretfully couldn't stay for the full 6+ miles C. Bay mapped out, but below are two of my favorite shots, bit taken at Jane's Carousel in Brooklyn Bridge Park. This merry go round was built in 1899 and housed in a modern glass structure. I found inspiration in both the old and the new. I took this opportunity to test out some new equipment, like my 50 megapixel Canon EOS 5DRS camera (awesome and sweet) and a 11-24mm lens (equally impressive). The detail in these two images beyond the screen resolution here, is splendid and spectacular.

If you've never taken a photo walk, I highly recommend it to get your creative juices flowing and your photo eye engaged. Not to mention the good a walk will do ya.