It's almost like my photography history didn't begin until 2005.

All the available pictures that I have are from that year or later. Those are the images on hard drives in the studio, organized neatly in iPhoto and Aperture libraries.

If I want to pull a photo from the Beijing Olympics in 2008, no problem. But if I want to use a landscape from Scotland in 1992, that ain't so easy.

Why?

Well, I shot the Scotland trip with Contax cameras and slide film. The images are tucked away in archival sleeves, organized in 3-ring binders. It's actually a model of efficiency... for 1992.

Over the years I have experimented with digitizing slides a variety of ways. I have mounted slide duplicators on to DSLRs, invested in cheap standalone units, and sent my work off to India for scanning there.

None of these really hit the mark.

It's funny that the solution that finally stuck involves a favorite Micro Four Thirds camera, my iPhone, and a 1990's slide projector. (Nimble goes archival!) This trio provides the right combination of fun, ease, and quality. I actually like digitizing my slides now. It's become a great break for me when I want to step away from the computer.

You can read about this combo in the article, DIY Slide Digitizer with Olympus OM-D and Leica Projector. I also take more about it on this week's podcast.

My lost years were from 1968 to 2004. I feel like I just got a big piece of my life back.

I'm looking forward to sharing some of those images with you.

-Derrick