Recently, Gail and Ron Deemer from Ashtabula, Ohio contacted me to restore a large and badly deteriorating photo. It was in a closet for many years and had been folded causing multiple cracks. …
A couple years ago, Jim Morabito called to see if I could save an old photo from the 1920s or 1930s that was deteriorating and fading badly. He found it in his attic and realized it had been passed around in his family for several years.
The photo is of the first house that his grandparents lived in on West 65th Street when they immigrated to Cleveland from Italy in the early 1900s. Jim's grandmother had a grocery store and his grandfather had a barber shop downstairs. His grandparents lived in the back of the building and Jim's family lived upstairs. …
In 2009, I was asked by the North Ridgeville Rotary Club to donate my photography services for their 2010 Calendar. They sold it as a club fundraiser.
After meeting with members of the club, I suggested doing some “unusual” shots featuring a different member each month. I wanted the calendar to become a collector's item because of the fun photos I had in my “mind's eye.” …
Winter in Northeast Ohio can be pretty dull – white and gray everywhere. Almost makes you want to hibernate (let alone take outdoor photos) until the weather gets nice.
However, a cool and affordable software program I discovered has changed all that! It can take ANY drab photo and make it a work of art.
What is so amazing about the software is that once you load a photo into the program – you can make dramatic changes to it with a couple simple clicks! Yeah, I was skeptical about that until I tried it. Two of the three photos in this story were instantly created with this software. The original, black-and-white photo was taken in Wakeman, Ohio in Lorain County. …
It's been a long time since I've attended the Cleveland National Air Show – going back to the days of shooting film. With my digital photo and video cameras in hand – I just couldn't resist the opportunity to go this year!
I kept my photo count down to around 350 shots – unlike the guy next to me who was there all three days – shooting several thousand pics with a variety of extreme telephoto and zoom lenses. And he said he was just shooting for himself!
I captured some nice shots of a few of the stunt aircraft but the high flying Thunderbirds were my main focus as seen here.
I'm really excited to be asked to show how to take better vacation photos at the May 20th meeting of the North Ridgeville Arts Council. I will be presenting “Discover 7 Secrets to Better Vacation Photography.” The information can be used to improve vacation photography, pictures of friends and family, sporting events and more.
Topics to be covered include: how to choose a camera, creative composition from unusual camera angles, use of natural light and electronic flash, how to help people look their best, enhancing photos after they're taken, saving and preserving picture files to guard against loss from a computer crash, different ways to display photographs for maximum enjoyment and more.
The presentation is free and open to the public.
The meeting is on Monday, May 20th at 7 p.m. at North Ridgeville Library,35700 Bainbridge Rd, North Ridgeville.
With the recent flooding in Northeast Ohio and possibly more high water on the way, I decided to put together several tips to save water-damaged, heirloom photos.
When floods and fires hit, most people don't grieve losing a stove or couch. It’s the loss of valued family photos, scrapbooks and memorabilia that makes them cry. Living in North Ridgeville and seeing how hard the residents were hit was a real “eye-opener.” It motivated me to do some research and put together a guide to help flood victims save their photos.
When facing piles of soggy, mud-spattered photos and other valuables – saving them may be possible by using some of following tips.
Carefully extract photos from muddy water. Remove photos from soaked albums and separate any that are stuck together. Be careful not to rub or touch the wet surface on the image side of the photos.
Gently rinse both sides of the photo in a sink filled with clear, cold water. Again, don't wipe the image side of the photos. Be sure to change the water often.
If you have time and space, immediately lay each washed photo – picture side up – on clean blotting paper like paper towels. Don't use newspapers or printed paper towels because the ink from those materials may transfer to your wet photos. Change the blotting paper every hour or two until the photos are dry. It is best to dry the photos indoors if possible because wind and sun will cause photos to curl more severely.
Save money with a company that allows you to back-up your files online to secure web servers.
See an affordable photo restoration software that will help you fix your photos on your computer.
Buy archival storage products for your photos.
More photography related resources to be added as I discover them.
As a photo restoration specialist, I combine today's digital technology with old-fashioned artistry to repair worn, stained, spotted, torn, cracked, bleached and faded photographs to their original luster. Digital restoration costs have been reduced to at least half of what they used to be and the quality has improved substantially!
See samples of badly faded or damaged photos and how they look after restoration here. You will be amazed with the results.
Learn about our photo restoration services here. Get our FREE guide with tips for saving water or flood-damaged photos here. See a photo restored in a high-speed video here. Read our photo restoration FAQs that may answer questions pertaining to your faded or damaged photograph here.
Do you have damaged, faded or crumbling photos representing an important part of your family history? Don't give up on them just yet – they may be recoverable! For a no-cost, no-obligation appointment to examine your photographs and receive a quote – contact us TODAY through this link or call 440.748.6300… BEFORE it's too late. (NOTE: This is a landline so text messages won't come through.)
Have you have a personal experience with photos damaged by a flood? Why did you have them restored? To preserve a special memory? To remember a special family member? Please share your story with a comment, here.
A new conspiracy theory spreading throughout Northeast Ohio is that Cleveland's legendary meteorologist Dick Goddard used his “mystical powers” to summon the huge snow storm that has buried the area.
Thursday marked Goddard's 80th birthday so rumor has it that he wanted it to be remembered for the blizzard that hit the area late last night and extending through this morning.
Happy birthday Dick – and thank you for all you do for the animals!
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The photo of Dick Goddard in the snow was created by placing his portrait (bottom left) over the photo of the snow gnome (bottom right). I then erased part of his portrait so that it just covered the snow gnome’s face. All this was done in Adobe Photoshop but can be achieved in many other less expensive photo editing programs.
A couple weeks ago, I had the pleasure of presenting, “Photo Restoration – The Art and Science of Resurrecting Damaged and Faded Photographs” to members of the North Ridgeville Arts Council and the community.
The presentation covered what causes damage and fading to photographs and how to avoid it. There were several before-and-after photos showing pictures that were once unsalvageable using old restoration techniques that can now be restored to their original glory with “digital magic.”
Learn about our photo restoration services here. Get our FREE guide with tips for saving water or flood-damaged photos here. See a photo restored in a high-speed video here. Read our photo restoration FAQs that may answer questions pertaining to your faded or damaged photo here.
Have you had a damaged or faded photograph restored? Why did you have it restored? To preserve a special memory? To remember a special family member? Please share your story with a comment, below.
By now, you've seen the photo of the 33-foot, 40-ton whale that crash-landed on a sailboat off Cape Town. When I first saw it, I immediately thought something was “fishy” with the picture. I've seen photos of huge fish hanging on ordinary fishing poles that were created by combining two different photos in Adobe Premiere Elements or Adobe Photoshop. Apparently the recent whale photo is the real deal!
To show how two different photos can be merged together to create the unexpected, I took a photo of a golfer (David Gillock – Mayor of North Ridgeville, Ohio) and combined it with a squirrel photo. The image seen here was used on a calendar for the North Ridgeville Rotary Club.
A couple other photos for the calendar were created in a similar fashion. Check them out at http://bit.ly/b8Wgid
If you have a photography related question, please post it under “Comments.”