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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

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.

October is Family History Month.  Here at Star Photo we are really good at helping preserve, protect and promote family history through photography. We can scan photos, put them on a dvd or flash drive or create a collage that will be enjoyed for generations to come. We can bring a badly faded picture back to life. And in our studio, we can capture images of babies and family that will make grandmothers cry! With happiness, of course. And we’re super proud that we can do all that for you.

We happy to tell you we have a new tool in our photo gathering arsenal. We now have a link on our in-store kiosks that will allow you to download images from your phone, tablet or laptop much faster and easier. Once you are connected to our wi-fi, you can select images from your phone without downloading a thumbnail of every image as we’ve had to do in the past. This makes life better for us and better for you, so it’s a win-win!

Last, we’d like to acknowledge the victims and the heroes of the recent events in Las Vegas. We can’t image how frightening and devastating it must have been to be there, not knowing where the shooting was coming from, and watching friends, family or strangers being injured or worse. When things like this happen, photography and videography play a huge role in documenting events, helping answer questions, identifying the dead or wounded and reuniting those separated from loved ones.  This supports one of our core beliefs: photographs are an important part of our lives, and sometimes are the only link to those who’ve gone before us.

We know you’ve heard this before, but for us, it bears saying again. Hug your loved ones. Take nothing for granted. Every is a gift and not guaranteed. We wish you peace.

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