FAQ
The Class Photos
1.This website was primarily conceived as a place where I could display
my panoramas without the size restrictions or membership
requirements offered by free/pay image hosts. The class photos
section came
about because I visited a popular website
and noted how small
the posted class images were. At first I blamed squeaky uploaders, then I discovered the 150kb size limitation.
2. Can people send in class photos, will I host them on the website?
Definitely.
If you have scans of your own class photos by all means email them to
mark@classorama.com, if they are of poor quality don't be offended if I
say I can't use them, if they are excellent don't be surprised if I ask
for a tip or two ;-)
I've
found it is easy to lose perspective when working with a lot of
photographs, the quality of the original copy is very important but
with concerted software manipulation you can make all but the most
hideous picture marginally viewable. 1992 was a bad year for class
photos, a pitted laminate was used to cover at least a couple of
schools class photos, I've tried my best. As with any class photo on
this website, if you have a better version send it in and I will
happily make way for it.
If you have
any historical photographs of the area you think other people might
like to see send them in and I'll make them available.
3. Privacy issues?
This issue has been raised by some of the people I've contacted during
the last few months. I'm in some of these myself but
only people who already know me can pick me out of the crowd, I
also won't be adding any names to the class photos. These are pictures
of the people we once were and have a historical significance, if only
for the different hairstyles and terrible cardigans on view. A popular
website already hosts many school pictures from around the country, I
am providing a place to host better versions of those pictures. In
my opinion an indecipherable picture is as good as worthless. As the
website grows I hope more schools and institutions allow me to
scan their archives. I have already been most fortunate in my dealings
with 4 Upper Hutt educational facilities, and hand on my heart, I
sincerely thank all the people I've dealt with so far, classorama would
be a pale shadow of itself without your assistance.
4. Is there a cutoff year beyond which I'm not collecting class photos?
Yes, 1999. For institutions I will scan beyond 1999 so an
archive is complete but I will not use any of this material on
classorama.
The Panoramas
Hope you like these, there are more to come, I've been busy lately and
when I get some free time I'll upload the newer panoramas. To be
honest, as much as I enjoy taking them and viewing the end result, these
pictures are taking a backseat to the class photos.
The Website
Keep
in mind I started this website to host large images, if you
are on dialup it might take a few minutes to download each
picture. I have hopefully got the balance right on the thumbnail pages.
In old trunks in dusty attics and basements all over the country there
will be long forgotten class photos that really should see the light of
day. Help me see they do.
There, I promised to clean up this page and I finally have :-)
--
Mark - 21/10/07
Update 16/12/2008
The Upper Hutt Library
For the last 3 or 4 months I've been assisting the Upper Hutt
Library in the task of digitising negatives donated to them
by local professional photographer, Revelle Jackson. Mr Jackson
was active in the Upper Hutt region from the 1950s, I had
previously scanned a number of his photographs while digitising other
family archives, and I'd often thought it would be great to get my
hands on Mr Jackson's collection. This was a pipe dream though, in my
experience old photographic archives just aren't available, either
dumped at the tip because they take up too much space or under lock and
key, essentially forgotten.
By an incredible stroke of luck I was contacted by the Library and asked if I would digitise Mr Jackson's collection.
There were many thousands of negatives, an envelope might hold
only a couple of negatives (a portrait, perhaps) or there could be
120 negatives (a Hazelwoods Xmas party), and there were many, many
envelopes to scan. 3 sizeable boxes full of negatives. After you have
scanned a few envelopes of single person portraits it is easy to settle
for one of two shots that you feel best capture the subject and quickly
(he lies! there is no `quickly' in scanning) move on but whenever I
opened an envelope of Santa/Xmas Party shots (Dunlops, General Motors,
Hazelwoods) I felt dutybound to scan every last one of them.
It has been a pleasure digitising the Revelle Jackson
Collection and my dealings with Liz and Jolene were harmonious,
long may the relationship continue.
Any material I use on classorama that comes from the Upper Hutt Library
archive will have the designated numbering system used for the Library
records in the filename: ie 0978_UHC_1970_001 - The 0978 prefix
is the number you would quote to Library Staff so they know how to
locate the source material. I'll add any further details as I acquire
them.
Later
Mark