For Better Or...

We do it to remember.                           Photo: © Stan B.

I recently burned my greatest hits unto gold discs for posterity's sake... Yeah, I know, I know- delusions of grandeur. They probably won't survive a succession of dark, damp basements, or being melted in the Goodwill furnace. But this concerns... "the process;" no, not how to burn dvd's- that's simple enough (it really is). 

It's about preparing the files themselves- viewing them as critically as possible and making the necessary edits, a lot of basic stuff and small details that somehow previously escaped: localized contrast and exposure, color balance, etc... issues big and small that were somehow overlooked. 

This is "for the ages," so ya wanna get it right once and for all, like when submitting a file for an exhibition quality print- you want everything as perfect (or near perfect) as you can personally manage. And that's what this exercise forced me to do- and there were, admittedly, a lot more images I had to finesse than I previously imagined. I started in January, thought I'd finish by the end of the following month, and didn't finish dotting the i's and crossing the t's till mid-May (although there was a full month's detour shooting and self publishing a whole new & unexpected project in the interim).

Don't know if they'll last the hundred years advertised, but I'm glad I got it done- if only to have said images at a level of competency I can now show without hesitancy! That alone was worthwhile, and there's always that chance, however slight, that the images will actually endure into their stated longevity to be appreciated in a time they long preceded...