CYBER MONDAY Photo Restoration Limited Time Offer.

Just in time for the holidays:  A Cyber Monday Limited Time Offer!  Buy one restoration service at full price, get a second one for half price!  Services start at $39.95. This is good from today until 11:59 pm Monday, November 30, 2020.

When I was very young, I loved looking at my grandmother's photo album.  All of those people, deceased by that time, were mysterious to me and it was difficult to understand how they were related to me, if they weren't really there now.

As I've gotten older, I've taken my most favorites and kept them in a safe box specifically for storing photographs.  When I learned Photoshop in 2006, one of the assignments was to restore an old photograph.  I chose my favorite one of her, in a ball gown; it was faded into that awful magenta, so common with photographs from that era, mid-to-late 50s.

Keeping in mind that my grandmother already loved pinks and purples, I painstakingly painted in the wall colors and furniture, the embroidered sampler that my mom still has, and her gorgeous gown.  It came to life!  I remember calling her to find out the color of the flowers of the corsage, and a few other details.  When I presented the photograph to her, in a sparkly, tiara-like frame, she cried, to see it so beautifully restored.

Since then, I've done a few here and there.  I've had requests of taking snapshots of people who passed away, and retouching them for their celebrations of life, and had them printed as 16x20s on either canvas or metal.  These pieces were especially displayed at these celebrations, so as you can see, turnaround is very quick for this kind of situation.

As it is a luxury service, my rates start at $39.95, and increase depending on the damage of the photograph, such as tears, stains, rips, etc.  Please know that I take the utmost care to restore your favorite photographs to their beautiful, original state.

If you have a cherished photograph for which you'd love to have an estimate, please scan it, at 1200 ppi, and email it to meganmartineau6@gmail.com.

The Psychology of Old Photos

"Those were the good ole days!"

"They don't make things like they used ta!"

"Back when I was a kid, I walked a mile uphill in waist-high snow both ways to school!"

Did you ever wonder what that looked like?  

Well, the third one about walking was always an exaggeration; it's to tell kids that they really have it easy these days with school-buses and car-lines for drop-off and pick-up.

We are really lucky to be living in today... because most families have at least 100+ years of photographs of their loved ones, when they celebrated life, got a photo in the corner of the yard against the flowering bush, and the hunting photos!  It seems that even with how bulky and heavy cameras were back then, people knew the value of photographs.  It was a record to them of good times, brought joy, and helped them to remember that exact moment in time.

When you go home for the holidays in December, do you lug out the old photo albums?  I mean the ones with the black pages where the black and white and sepia photos were encrusted with corners that had been licked and placed to keep the photo in place.  I mean the ones with the sticky backs, that had so much acid in them, your photos turn yellow.  I mean the ones with the static pages that when you ripped open the film covering on the page, your hair would fly up!  

Do you sit on the sofa or on the floor with your mom and grandmom and peruse the albums? Do you ask questions about who is in the photos, and what's going on?  Do you try to insert yourself in the moment to discover what that day might have been like: the warm sunshine, the cool breezes, the smell of the flowers, what the colors actually were, what their voices sounded like?

I encourage you to dig out an album or the shoe box of photos, and get on Zoom with your grandma, and ask her about the photographs.  I bet you'll hear stories that you never heard before, and gain an appreciation of exactly how easy we do have it these days!

I mean, anti-perspirant and washing machines/dryers! 

Bee in love with the heart-work of your life.