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Archive for Photograph Restoration – Page 8

Family Photobooks Are So Worthwhile

Colette first contacted me in October 2012 and since then I have scanned many of her family photographs. I asked Colette to tell her story…..

“I think it all started with me seeing your advert in a local magazine and being sad at seeing my son Fabrice’s photos, taken in the 1970s, deteriorating rapidly. I had made an album for him for his 30th birthday in Dec 2002. I more or less stuck the original photos in chronological order in the album and wrote a line of text underneath each photo with the date and the place it was taken. Fabrice was absolutely thrilled with that first album. For him, it was like going back to his roots, if you see what I mean. I had the impression of having given him his childhood back and he was very moved that I had spent quite a bit of time making that album.
After I saw your advert, I thought you were the person who could save Fabrice’s photos. I gave you a small job and I was very pleased with the work you did, so I unstuck all the photos which were in Fabrice’s handmade album and gave them to you to scan and optimize in a view to make a new album. You showed me the albums you’d made for your children and I thought they were brilliant.That’s when I thought I had to do the same for my other children, Marianne and Hugo, not just Fabrice. While the work was in progress for the first albums which I gave to my children for Christmas 2014, you gave me plenty of advice and you showed limitless patience as I changed my mind time and time again.

My three children got their second album for Christmas 2015 and to see their reaction when they first look at it is priceless and worth all the efforts. They look at each other’s album and exchange memories and ask each other questions. As a parent, it is really wonderful to see. Albums number 3 are in the pipeline for Christmas 2016, for the three of them as their pictorial history continues.”

Here’s a double page spread of one ofr the the finished photobooks – 29cm x 29cm, 100 pages – a great opportunity to enlarge the best photographs too

29cm x 29cm, 100 page  photobook

29cm x 29cm, 100 page photobook

The Miracle of Digital Storage

Photographs To Be Optimised

4057 Photographs To Be Optimised….

A customer recently brought me the entire collection of his photographs dating from 1945 to 1985.

This turned out to be a total of 4057 photographs that completely filled two large suitcases, with each of the 87 folders carefully labelled.

I scanned, cropped and optimised every photograph and put a digital copy of every photograph before and after optimisation on a 32Gb USB Memory stick.

This created a total of 8114 digital files which all fitted onto the memory stick and incredibly there was remaining space for a further 16,000 digital photograph files!

Kingston 650

32Gb Memory Stick containing 8114 digital photographs and still with enough space for a further 16,000 images. 24, 000 photographs on your key ring can’t be bad!

 

Happiness Is a Photograph of Mum

A few days ago I received this touching story from Jane H following my restoring this photograph

Photographs Forever photograph restoration

Photographs Forever photograph restoration

“Our daughter said that as soon as my husband saw the photo of his mother that you managed to create from the old somewhat dilapidated little old photo, he would probably cry. I wondered if I ought to give it to him on some other day rather than his 86th birthday if it would upset him. However I did eventually give it to him yesterday on his birthday.

With my help he unwrapped it as he only has the use of one hand. He said nothing at all just kept staring at it. At last I realized he had tears in his eyes as he hadn’t realized there was any kind of photo of his mother who died many years ago.  He put it on the table next to his chair and just kept picking it up and putting it down still unable to say anything. However as soon as other people begun to arrive to celebrate his birthday he insisted they come and look at the photo he is so proud of.

As he is disabled in a wheelchair he has carers twice a day to help. The first thing he did was to hand them the framed photo explaining in his own way that it is his mother. Our daughter was also quite emotional when she saw it remembering her old cockney grandma. I told her she was right her father had cried but only with emotion and happiness.
He is amazed that you were able to restore such a small,  damaged picture into a perfect photo of his mother who he was so close to as she brought him up alone. He now has the picture on a table where he can see it at all times. We have numerous framed photos of family but until now he had nothing. I just wanted to thank you so much for the trouble you took in restoring the photo and giving him such pleasure.

Thank you again. I have told everyone who has seen it who restored the photo so don’t be surprised if you hear from a few next year!!”

Two Special Ladies Remembered

This is a letter I received from Maurice after I had carried out some work and the story behind his photographs

“I was delighted with the work you did for me. You took old faded, a bit ragged looking photos, some showing cracks, and restored them to original condition.  Your manipulation, to achieve a full length photo showing only my late wife, from two separate group photos, was unbelievable. I get the feeling that if it can be done, you have the skill and the patience to do it.

There is a saying, “Love the work you do and you will never work again”. I suspect this applies to you. I assume most people having photos restored, are rekindling memories, or trying to extend memories, and the fact that you can help them do that must give you great satisfaction.

My reason? My first wife, the mother of my four sons, died 1981. My second wife died 2015, I was married for approximately 30 years to each of them. Two very special ladies. I feel like I have had two lives. So photos have been resurrected and restored, and photos have been enhanced, and thanks to you are now on display. Thanks once again Richard, I wish you well for the future. Yours sincerely Maurice.”

Here are the photographs Maurice is referring to

Example of Photograph Restoration

Example of Photograph Restoration

Photograph Manipulation Example

Photograph Manipulation Example

Photograph Manipulation Example

Photograph Manipulation Example

Mum and Dad Together At Last

This is Irene’s touching story

“I first came in contact with Richard earlier this year when he restored a badly damaged photograph that I wanted to include in my autobiography.  Over the years it had been folded in half, ‘mended’ with sticky tape and was in a really bad state.  Richard restored it beautifully and it is now scanned onto my writing.

Later, while reading Richard’s blog, I came across Lucy’s story, how she had asked him to restore and combine two photographs in order to create one of her parents and grandparents.  This started me thinking of my own parents and the fact that I had never seen a photograph of them together.  My father was in the Royal Navy serving on HMS Achates on the Russian Arctic Convoys.  He was lost at sea during the Battle of the Barents’ Sea when I was two and my brother just six months old.   Sadly, my parents had just over three years together and my brother and I never had the chance to know our father.  We always wanted a photograph of our parents together and over the years did everything we could to find one, even trawling the Internet but to no avail.  I really wanted one not just for my dedication page but also to hang on the wall at home.

I had a photograph of Dad in his uniform and a rather blurry snap of Mum taken with my gran, aunty and grandad.  The two photographs were taken 13 years apart but I asked Richard if he could somehow create a photograph of my parents together, not knowing if this would be possible. Well, his expertise took over and soon I experienced the absolute thrill of seeing my parents together in the same frame.  The time difference didn’t matter as seeing my parents together was priceless and very emotional.  I’m not usually lost for words but I was when I saw the photograph for the first time.  Richard set it in a beautiful black frame and I ordered another one for my brother as a surprise gift.

Dad and Mum Together Again

Dad and Mum Together At Last

When he saw the photograph, my brother, too, was absolutely delighted.  Thanks to Richard’s skill and expertise, we have something we always wanted but never really thought possible.  My children are so pleased, calling it spectacular and special.   Now, when I arrive home and open the door, I see my parents – together again.  Thank you so much, Richard, for making a dream into a reality and for your dedication, professionalism and kindness.”

Restoration of Family History Photographs Creates Full Gallery

Here is an interesting story from Graham Jones who has carried out a massive amount of research on his family history with great results to show for his hard work. Here it is in his own words:

“Recently I have been working with Richard to create a set of some 20 framed photographs that now form a complete record of my family back to 1850. The initial idea came from a very battered, postcard size photograph dated 1895 that showed my great-grandparents and their eight children. I asked Richard to scan, restore, enlarge to A3 size, title and frame the photograph. The result caused so much interest in my family that apart from ordering a further three copies, the wider project was born. Collectively, the family has pooled our best photographs of parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and even two great great grandparents.  Apart from normal restoration and enlargement, Richard has also prepared several composites to splice together the various groupings that we requested. The complete set now forms its own “gallery” in my home and the whole family is delighted with the result” 

Here are some of the photographs in question and the gallery Graham has created

Photograph Restoration/Montage

Photograph Restoration/Montage

Photograph Restoration/Montage

Photograph Restoration/Montage

 

Restored Photograph Gallery

Restored Photograph Gallery

What To Do When Your Favourite Photograph Is Lost or Damaged

This is Jennifer and Frank’s Story as told by Jennifer

“I first contacted Richard at Photographs Forever to see if there was anything he could do with a photograph that had huge sentimental value to my partner Frank as it was the only one he had of his two daughters at that age. The photograph had accidentally been very badly damaged by falling from a car window in the rain and being repeatedly run over by several cars, here’s the photograph in question.

Richard said that unfortunately there was nothing he could do as the photograph was too badly damaged to restore.
I knew there was one other photograph of the two girls that was one of those tiny photographs in a key ring fob.

So I sent this to Richard to restore and also to ask if there was anything he could do to recreate the original photograph of the two girls with hi-vis waistcoats and hard hats. This is the resulting photograph that Richard created and sent to me

Richard sent this photo of the girls, to be signed for, and as I am at work, I missed the postie, got a card through the door to pick it up from the sorting office in West Bromwich. I did not know where it was so I asked Frank to take me. (I have not lived in West Bromwich very long). When I collected it he could see it was photos by the packaging, I told him that I had got you to do “something” to the picture of his girls but I would not tell him what because it was to be a surprise for his birthday, he seemed quite uninterested.  He has since told me that he thought you had just made the photo bigger and made it oval, why he thought that I will never know! ANYWAY, when we got back home I opened it, I got goose pimples!
I said “You have got to see this, I cannot wait for your birthday”
He replied “No, put it away somewhere and I will have it for my birthday”.
I pulled it out the envelope again and said “No I cannot do it, you have to see this”.
When he saw it, well……………….. He is SO HAPPY, his bottom lip started to quiver and I have never seen him like that, he was astounded.  I was afraid that he may not like it as it has been manipulated, it is not actually a memory, as photos normally are but no  – he LOVES IT! We cannot believe the attention to detail, I thought that the girls were wearing hi-vis COATS on the original photo but they were not, they were actually waistcoat hi-vis’s, and the hard hats -on the original  – the oldest girl has a blue hat and the youngest a white one, Richard is SO GOOD. AND the pen in the hi-vis on the youngest, AMAZING. WHAT MORE CAN I SAY……….. WE ARE SPEECHLESS, totally, I cannot thank Richard enough, he has made Frank’s day, his year, his birthday! I told Frank I would buy him a frame for it for his birthday, he said “No way, we are getting a frame on Saturday”.

Any ideas what I can get him for his birthday now please Richard??????????????????”

Photographs Forever Featured in Newspaper

Last week I sent out an email to my customers and this was seen by Sam Satchell of the East Grinstead Courier and he thought the story of Lucy Dixon’s photographs was a very interesting one and consequently called me for more details.  The full page article was published today!

EG-Courier-Article

Photograph Restoration Montage – A Special Gift

I recently competed an interesting request to combine two photographs in order to include and exclude all the right people.

Here are the two photographs beside the finished photograph montage . My customer’s touching story is below

Photographs Forever Montage

Photograph Restoration Montage

“Earlier this year my husband and I made the decision to put our house on the market. It wasn’t just any old house. It had belonged to my grandparents since 1957 and we bought it from my mum and her brothers after Grampy passed away in 2008. Over the last few years we renovated the house and garden, but with a growing family we felt it was time for a change.

When we told my parents the news they were so upset at the thought of saying goodbye to the house, that they decided to sell up themselves and buy (back!) number 10!

My husband remembered an old photo of mum and dad outside the house and we thought it could make a wonderful housewarming gift. We trawled through album and eventually we found it! Only it wasn’t quite how we’d pictured it. There were 2 photos of the whole family, neither was perfect and we really only wanted mum, dad and my grandparents in the frame. Enter Photographs Forever! Richard restored one of the photos to it’s original condition and colours, removed the other family members and pets, took Grampy from the other photo and popped him right in behind nanny as if he’d always been there. He even gave him a body! My parents loved their gift, they couldn’t believe that it wasn’t an original photo. It now takes pride of place on their mantle piece. Thank you Richard!”      Lucy D.

60 Year Old Wedding Photograph Restored

This charming photograph was taken on this couple’s wedding day 60 years ago this year. The restored version can now be printed and enlarged to virtually any size whilst keeping the colouring and feel of the original. David M and his wife were very pleased with the result and he emailed to say “Thank you so much for your patience – so pleased with your excellent service and will be more than happy to recommend you”

Restored Wedding Photograph - Photographs Forever

Restored Wedding Photograph – Photographs Forever