TIFF, JPG, Photo Editing

I've been pondering lately the potential worthiness of re-scanning all of the family photos that I have. See, when I started this whole thing, I didn't do it right. When I brought home the old family albums after visiting my niece several years ago, I immediately went out and bought a scanner. I dug right in and started scanning. Didn't do an ounce of research. Just started scanning.

Now, three years later, I learn that it's better to scan in TIFF format and not JPG format. I learn that it's better to scan at a minimum of 300 dpi and not the scanner's default of 200 dpi. I learn that 600 dpi is even better. I also learn that TIFF files are bigger, and 600 dpi is quite burdensome too.

So here I am pondering the enormous task of re-scanning at least 809 photographs in the right format. As I was pondering all of this in the back of my mind, I organized my computer room once again, in preparation of the task at hand. This meant putting up the folding table in an aleady crowded room, so I'd have some room to work without the risk of spilling drinks on the pictures, since I tend to always have a drink by the computer.

Then I ran up to Michaels to see if they had any photo-handling gloves. They didn't, but they did have lots of other stuff. I decided to buy a few packs of scrapbooking paper kits to experiment as I work on the scanning.See that red, white and blue paper? Aunt Marianne would look SO GOOD saluting in one of those frames. Then I came home and scanned a picture of my father's mother (Marianne's mother, too!) on her wedding day. I saved it first as a 600 dpi TIFF file, but boy did my computer slowwwwwwww down! So I deleted it and re-scanned it at 300 dpi, and saved it in TIFF format twice, once smaller for a blog post and once at the default. The smaller one ended up a bit blurred.

After I scanned the image and saved it in the formats, I opened up my MS Picture It! 2003 to clean up a little of the dust.

As I was working on the picture, I noticed that, on the MS Picture It! Program, it gave me the option to save it in several different formats, including TIFF. So I opened an old photo that I've had for a long time, then clicked on "Save As" and changed the format from JPG to TIF. It worked!

So tonight I learned that I do not need to re-scan all the pictures to save them in TIFF format. Now it's simply a matter of whether or not it would be worth it to re-scan the photos in order to gain 100 dpi (remember, all photos scanned up until about a month ago were scanned at 200 dpi). I guess my next test will be to scan one picture in 200 dpi and then again in 300 dpi, then print them up.

What do you all think?

BFF Award

Looking 4 Ancestors gave me a new award called the Blogging Friends Forever Award.

Here are the rules:
1. Only 5 people are allowed to receive this award
2. 4 of them followers of your blog.
3. One has to be new to your blog and live in another part of the world.
4. You must link back to who ever gave you the award.

I don't know if I can find 5 people anywhere that haven't gotten this award yet, much less someone in another part of the world, but here goes:

I'll start with Elizabeth of Little Bytes of Life.

Then I'll move on to Denise of Family Matters

Then I saw some awesome pictures at Terry Thornton's Hill Country of Monroe County.

And then Lori Thornton of Smoky Mountain Family Historian

And finally, Donna of Waiting for Lauren Elizabeth.

I don't think any of these are from out of the country, but let's assume at least one of them has spent some time out of the country. I'll stretch that as far as I can!

Blog Takeover

Hi alla mama's genea-blogger friends! I'm Izzie, mama's loveable dog. I decided to hijack her jeanie alogy blog for the day so I can see what she spends so much time on when she's ignoring me.

Mama told me that she uses this box to find her ants estors, whatever that means. She says it means she’s trying to find out the people from whom she de-sends. I usually don’t much care what others do, so much as it doesn’t affect me. But I just had to give this jeanie alogee thing a try. So here’s my first attempt at tracing my pack.

Mama was told that I am a Pomeranian and Cocker Spaniel mix. Let’s take a look at that.

First let’s take a look at the Pomeranian, since mama says it’s easy to see the Pom in me, with my curly tail and incredibly springy feet. My eyes, too, but definitely not the ears.

Picture on the left courtesy of: http://www.kennels.co.uk/images/T.Pomeranian.jpg

According to Dog Breed Info (www.dogbreedinfo.com), this part of me originated in the Prussian region of Pomerania (gee, what a concept…Pomeranians hailed from Pomerania). There was a dog breed there known as the Spitz, and apparently the Pomeranian de-sended from that that breed. Now just how they make one "pure-bred" dog from another I will never understand, but I digress.

Did you know that Marie Antoinette and Mozart once owned Poms? So did Queen Victoria!

Dog Breed Info also says that Pomeranians are smart and would make good circus animals. Hmmph. You never hear humans say “oh he’s a smart guy, he’d be great as a circus performer”.

Now, on to the Cocker Spaniel. Mama says it’s hard for her to see the Cocker in me; sometimes she’s not so sure. But a few times as we were leaving Petsmart (mama loves that store; I hate it, though I do like trying to creep under the racks of dog food for kibble) she’s heard people comment without talking to mama “Look a Cocker Spaniel mix”. Hmmm. Let’s investigate.

This is what an American Cocker Spaniel looks like with me next to her:

Now, in most pictures mama has seen of American Cockers, mama doesn’t see any real resemblance. But she kind of does in this picture, taken from http://www.greatdogsite.com/admin/uploaded_files/
thumbnails/american_cocker_spaniel368x_1190665991490.jpg here. Mama can see a little similarity in the fur on the legs. Do you?

Here’s a little bit about the American Cocker Spaniel. Dog Breed Info says these dogs de-send from the English Cocker Spaniel, which I’ll talk about next. Both Cockers were once used to flush out woodcock birds, which is how they got their names. Mama says that may be why I can creep along on my tummy with my legs off to the side as I move towards kibble under the food racks at Petsmart. One of these days she’ll get a picture of me doing that. She says it’s funny.

Now here is a picture of the English Cocker Spaniel and me:

http://www.petplanet.co.uk/

Now mama can see some similarities when she looks at a picture of the English Cocker. She says the fur on my back grows in a similar pattern. While my head is thinner, the flatness along the nose line and forehead is somewhat similar. Also the lines along the rear upper leg and the hips are similar to the English Cocker, though you can't see it in this picture of me.

The descriptions of both Cockers identify this breed as fun, loving, and great with kids. Well, I’m okay with kids now, but I used to be terrified of them. But I don’t play with them, or anyone else, really. I sometimes play fetch with mama, but not for long and only when *I* want to. Mama says that’s because the Pomeranian in me shows the stubborn streak, and, moreover, she says I wasn’t socialized well when I was a puppy. I was reportedly kept in a crate most of the time and never learned to play or not be afraid of others until I was taken out of that place.

Well, that’s my surmised story, and I’m sticking to it. I know I’ll probably never know who my true ants-estors are, but perhaps I’ve reconciled my packs. What do you think? Do you see Pomeranian and Cocker Spaniel in me? Mama says she could make The Genetic Genealogist proud by mentioning that there are Doggie DNA tests that can determine the breeds of mixed dogs, but mama says it really makes no difference. She loves me just the way I am.

This Old House

Maureen Taylor of The Photo Detective had a post a little while back "Pictures of the Old Homestead: Nothing New". She inspired a re-post of this photograph, passed on to me by my cousin Mike.This picture shows the members of the DOYLE and TIGHE clans in front of, I believe, the Leo DOYLE home on Union Street in Pittston, Luzerne County, PA. I think I've also mentioned before that the boy standing up on the 3rd row from the bottom, left side (wearing short sleaved white t-shirt) was the grandson of my great-grandfather John J. DOYLE (1876-1944). The boy shown here was also named John J. DOYLE and he is the one responsible for my getting into genealogy. I'd found a white grave marker engraved with his name, rank/serial number, place and date of death in a group of photographs I was scanning and re-organizing. I started to search Google for the information on the marker to figure out who this person was, since I knew it couldn't have been my great-grandfather. The rest is, well, history.

Two Houses Make a Home

This entry is for a blog Carnival. This Carnival is called "Smile for the Camera" and is hosted by the footnoteMaven. This edition's topic is:

The 3rd Edition of Smile For The Camera takes its word prompts from a celebration of home. Where is home and how do you celebrate? Choose a photograph of an ancestor, relative, yourself, or an orphan photograph that shows a celebration of home.

This is what I will always remember as my true home. This is the house I grew up in on Garlow Road in Niagara Falls NY. When I lived there, there was a huge tree limb that reached across the front window from the tree to the left (top of it is barely visible in this picture from about 1980). Not only was this a great house to live in, the house was in a great neighborhood called Colonial Village. Everyone knew everyone, and everyone's children played in every other family's yard (except for Yarnell's yard; when going from one house to another next to theirs, we had to cut to the street, walk past that house, then cut back up in the yards again). Speaking of yards, this was our back yard, which played host to cousins and grandparents and aunts and uncles as well as neighbors and friends. Notice something? NO FENCE. Well, when you see the fence on the next house, the white picket one here doesn't really count.This house survived numerous pick up football games, a miniature (a REALLY miniature) hockey rink, a sewage leak in the middle of the back yard, a huge crack in the basement caused by the rock quarry down the street, and most of all, it survived .............well......... ME. I haven't lived in this house for over 30 years, and haven't seen it in real life for over 20 years, but the thought of it will always bring back the very best memories of my childhood.

When I was 13, my family decided to leave Niagara Falls NY (from where hell freezes over in the winter) to Tempe, Az (to where it's hotter than hell in the summer).

The biggest problem with this house? Well, my brothers would say it was the fact that it only had three bedrooms (which meant they had to share one, since I am the only girl!). But I say it was the fence. Sure, it was functional, and it kept the dogs contained (Mandy here was a great one, but never fear-she was only out front when we were right there to watch her). But it didn't foster much in terms of offering warmth to the neighbors.

I noticed a few unique differences between the two important cities of my life: In one (NF), we ran FOR cover when it rained. In the other (Az) we ran FROM cover into the rain. In one, we ran FOR cover in the summer heat (Az), while in the other we ran FROM the cover in the summer warmth. One house was the center of generational activity and the other was the center of one generation coming of age. Two houses, two different meanings.

They both add up to a single, loving home.

The Carnival of Genealogy

The 51st edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is posted now by this month's host, Thomas MacEntee of Destination Austin Family. The topic was Independent Spirits, and there are lots of good reads linked in Thomas' article. Thanks for putting it together, Thomas.

I myself have been rather absent from blogging lately, and I am much chagrinned about it. I won't even make excuses about it, either, because who ever believes excuses? Suffice it to say, I'm BACK!

I have returned to scanning the pictures from what I am calling the Bell Book: A very old photo album with a velvety cover and hard pages with pictures cemented to them. A little while ago I discovered that my scanner's lid comes off, and this is allowing me to scan these photos without tearing the pages out of the book. The first group of photos are below. As I looked at these photos, I couldn't help but wonder if perhaps they were taken on a trip in celebration of something, perhaps even Independence Day. Though there are only guys here, so it was probably a boys weekend out or something.

After I scanned these photos at 200 dpi using the .jpg format, I remembered a tip I'd read about scanning at least at 300 dpi resolution in .tif format, so I scanned the others using those settings. For some reason, though, blogger won't upload the .tif images, though their help section says that format is accepted. I then tried to upload the pictures to my account at imagecave, but .tif pictures are not supported there. So I couldn't post those pictures. Which is a bummer, since they are pretty cool pictures!

Also as I was scanning these photos some other thoughts occurred to me. First, because these photos are cemented forever to the hard-back pages of the album, I'm having to scan entire pages, then crop individual photos from the page. I'm using the software that came with my all-in-one unit, an HP 1500. The software is called HP Image Zone. I can do some very basic editing with this once the picture is scanned. I basically only use the crop and rotate features of the editing program. It's kind of a pain, though, as when I go to save the photos, the default setting is to save them to a folder created by the software ("My Scans") and I have to scroll to the folder I want them in. It will not let me change this default. It gets rather tedious to do this after each photo is ready for saving. I don't save them to the default and then move them all at once because my stupid computer (using Windows XP) has a tendency to make copies of any file I attempt to move or delete, therefore defeating the purpose of saving space. So as I was scanning today I thought, I wonder if I can scan from my photo editing program, which will allow me to change the default folder in which to save them?

So I opened up my obscure Microsoft Picture It! 2003 to try this out. Yes, it lets me scan the photos from my scanner, then offers me all the editing choices of the program that I use anyway. The only problem is, once I crop one picture from the page, the page I scanned disappears and is replaced by the one image I cropped from it.

Which brings me back to this: I'm really wanting to do some serious photo work on my computer. So much so that I'm thinking about asking my niece to ship me out the photo albums I "restored" for her years ago that got me into genealogy so I can re-scan all those photos again, using better settings than the default. This would be one heckuvan undertaking, to rescan all the photos I have.

So I am left with decisions. First, do I go through all that trouble? Second, if I do, and I'm leaning towards it, I will need a better photo editing program. Third, if I really want to do a good job and make the most of the program, I need to learn how to use it in the least frustrating manner possible. So do I get a program that requires a class to take along with it to figure it out? And do those classes exist where I live?

Lots of questions. Would love some advice!

Walking on Sunshine

The topic for the 49th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy wins hands down over Sports Illustrated: It's the Swimsuit Edition!

Pull out the old photos of Grandma Moses in her seaside bloomers, Auntie Mae in her pin-up girl suit from the 1940s or 50s, cousin Paula in her psychedelic bikini from the 1970s, or even yourself in your Speedo! Let's have some fun here! Memorial Weekend is knocking on the door and that means the start of the summer sun, sand, and seaside season so let's get in the mood with summer fun photos. What? You don't have any swimsuit photos you dare to share? No problem! Tell us your best family beach stories instead!

I don't know if I have many photos of swimsuits, but I do have some photos of family having fun in the sun. My parents' families grew up in Luzerne County PA, and I grew up in Niagara Falls, NY. It was a great place to grow up, and summers were definitely the best times of the years. Swim lessons at Niagara Wheatfield High School in the mornings, softball practice/game in the early afternoon, followed by outdoor swimming in our neighbor's above ground pool, to the MR. SOFTIE Ice Cream truck! Oh how I remember scrounging up every penny I could find to buy a soft-serve ice cream cone! Mr. Softie was often the only thing that could get us out of the pool at the very sound of its music (our parents should have recorded it and played it when they wanted us out for all the effort they put into screaming at us to get out!).
This is a picture of some neighborhood kids with my neighbor's father putting up the aforementioned above ground pool!

At any rate, summers were so much fun growing up. In the summer between my 7th and 8th grade years, my family moved from the Falls to Tempe, Az. My friends were a little jealous of all the sun we'd have, which of course meant, suntans! I did spend some time every summer in the sun, lying in wait for the tan that rarely came. I'm fair-skinned, and merely burned and freckled.

However, time makes us wiser so they say, and I no longer sunbathe. I am fortunate so far to avoid the monstrosity known as Skin Cancer, but my brother had a scare with it last year, though he moved to Atlanta many years ago. He's fine now, but it was a wake up call nonetheless. So while we remember to have fun in the sun, also remember the one important ingredient: Sunscreen.


Clara HODICK, I believe the Clara that married my father's mother's brother William as opposed to Clara GORSKI HODICK who marriend my father's mother's brother Joseph.









Aunt Marianne, with whom most of you are now well-familiar, with her uncle, Jack THOMAS, who married my father's mother's sister, Susan HODICK (1903-1964). Looks like food was center of summer time fun in this family!











Noreen (Norie) McHUGH SCIBILIA ROZANSKI (1934 - 16 May 1996), my father's sister.







Jean Ann O'ROURKE McHUGH (18 Jan 1938 - 13 Nov 1988). My mother on a trip to Niagara Falls.

And finally, one that actually includes water:

My niece, Kelley with my brother Terry. Notice she's wearing a hat? Smart girl. Must be why the Law School of Washington and Lee University in Virginia accepted her into their fall 2008 cohort! (Sorry. Couldn't help but get that in there!). Congratulations, Kelley.