Yearly Archives: 2018


Holding Photographs

A number of years ago, my mother, my brother and I went across the country to close up my grandparents’ home of many decades and move them to a nursing home. Their combined medical and physical needs were beyond what any family member could do. In the course of getting them settled, we took an evening to view my brother’s recent family and vacation photos on his laptop.

Now you would think folks who had watched television come into existence, and who watched tv on a fairly regular basis, this wouldn’t be all that big of a deal.

But as I watched them stare at the screen, I could see one thing as clearly. These folks, my nearly 90-year-old grandparents, they were not connecting with this. Not at all.

Now, they were going through big changes, and the slideshow was meant to give them a glimpse of family life, of their great-grandchildren, a connection with their tribe. But I think they needed to see and feel actual photos. Paper to hold and look at closely then set aside for the next one. I could see there was no emotional connection with that screen. That didn’t register as family photos for them.

There’s nothing like holding a photograph in your hand. The feel of the paper, yellowing around the edges, in sepia tone – there is no comparison to what happens on a computer screen.  It makes me sad to think that so many younger-than-me people aren’t going to wind up with photo albums or a big box of loose photos to sort through, or even framed images handed down to yet another generation.

So, that why Star Photo Digital Arts is here. It’s our job, one of our missions, our calling, to urge our clients and friends to make copies of photographs to share and to hand down. It’s important, and it’s art and we can help you do that.

Get the picture?


Turning Back Time

Turning Back Time

We see the toll time takes on old photos and documents every day in our work. Photographs that weren’t stored in the best of conditions, an old fashioned marriage certificate stuck in a frame, old army photos rolled up forever and ever in a drawer…

We see it all the time. And here you come through the door, wanting a copy, wanting to hold on to history and you are sure we’ve got the answer.

And you’re right.  We do.

We can scan your item, or photograph it in our studio to create a digital file – no harm or changes made to the original item. We can then print from that, or, if more help is required, we turn the file over to one of our artists who do absolutely amazing things to restore old photographs. And I do mean amazing.

Take a look at the original and the restored version in these examples:

     

Am I right? It’s crazy what we can do for you. And we love the stories behind the photographs and the history and how happy it makes folks when we can help them recover that bit of history.  It is our passion and our calling and we’re so proud to be just a little part of your story.