Based in the suburbs of Chicago, we are a husband and wife photography team specializing in fine art wedding photography.
Stop! Take a minute to think… where are your childhood photos? If you were born before say… the year of 2000, your photos just like mine are print images sitting in a shoebox somewhere.
As a girl in her 30’s (eek! yes)… I have many, many photos from my childhood (gasp) not in digital format! Heck, even our wedding photos which seems like a short 11 years ago were film prints.
The topic of this blog hits all too personally today. It had been raining very heavily for a solid day and a half when I was woken up at 5 am this morning in a panic because my husband called out, “we have water in the basement!” Six years in this house, and we have never even heard so much as the sump pump go off. Today that all changed. My heart dropped, where were those photos? Did I put them in the crawl space? Did I leave them in on the floor? Ugh! The sick feeling in the pit of my stomach begins to grow.
Luckily the majority of our childhood and wedding photos although on the floor were in Rubbermaid plastic bins. So although the water was up 2 inches on the plastic bin. Nothing inside was ruined. Talk about a close call.
So I started thinking, we have all heard about the importance of backing up your digital photos, but what about those fantastic 3×4 and 5×7 prints from years ago?
Prevention
1.) Photos should be stored in a cool, dry place. By dry this also includes NOT storing photos in a basement that could possibly collect water.
2.) Ideally, transfer prints to digital images. There are many local and online services that will take a box of photos and transfer them to digital format. Check out: www.scandigital.com // www.fotobridge.com // www.scancafe.com.
Restoration
Maybe you are like me and the idea of your photos getting flooded never crossed your mind, but now they are soaked.
1.) Photographs in water will begin to deteriorate quickly. Photos must be dried as soon as possible to prevent total loss. Begin with images without digital or print negatives.
2.) Separate images from frames, photo albums, unstack and separate from other images. If images are left stacked together to dry, the images will easily rip as being separated.
2.) Drain excess water, be careful not to touch or rub the photo surface.
3.) Lay images flat on an absorbent surface such as paper towels for 48 hours. Placing a fan on the images will help dry out photos faster. Photographs may curl during drying. Photos can be flattened later.
However prevention is by far the best solution. Take the next 20 minutes and move these preccious photos somewhere safe and sound.
Based in the suburbs of Chicago, we are a husband and wife photography team specializing in fine art wedding photography.