SLane wrote: All negs gone, all back-up gone. In hindsight, off-site back-up is a good idea for digital negatives.
Don't beat yourself up about this.
I was pre-equipped with hindsight because my cousins were burned out in the 1969 bushfires, with only their clothes they had on, a car, some beach towels and a set of golf clubs saved, and my grandparents' house threatened in the 1983 fires. However before there were scanners I was not pre-equipped with any practical way to back up my film (almost all on transparencies). And it has taken years to get everything scanned; I just did the last batch this month, 9 years after I started.
If it makes you feel any better, one of Australia's best landscape photographers, Olegas Truchanas, lost his entire archive in a 1967 bushfire. I believe most of it was 35mm Kodachromes, which, as you might know, were very difficult and expensive to duplicate properly. He kept shooting, and from the images I've seen this time used Ektachrome on a larger format. (There doesn't seem to be any of his work online, but IMO he is Australia's Ansel Adams—and, as mentioned, working in colour before it was the done thing.) One of his images became very famous in the unsuccessful fight to prevent the flooding of Lake Pedder. His protege became the most famous Australian landscape photographer.
Many died, but we fear the total will be in the hundreds.
It is reminding us here in Victoria of the 2009 Ash Wednesday fires, in particular Marysville and Kinglake. Many peoples' thoughts are with you, and perhaps also some practical advice for the recovery could be offered/sought at state level.
Nov 18, 2018 at 08:13 PM
Previous versions of melcat's message #14668235 « All gear is gone, Camp Fire took it. »
