Looking backwards

 So far, 2025 has been the year of restoration. While things have been quiet on the photography front, the photo restoration business is booming! I have been giving some thought as to why this might be and my best guess is that the unsettled nature of life in 2025 makes us want to look back to happier times past. While people look for cheap photography or forego photos altogether, clients rarely quibble about the cost of restoring their precious old photographs.

The photos I have restored this year vary from Grandparents' wedding pictures with water and mold damage to an ancestral baby picture from 1905. Each case is different but the value placed upon these pictures is pretty much the same. 

And not just physical photos need preserving! I recently spent some time going through all the photos I have taken of my grandchildren, since Maddy was born in 2008. They are all digital, so it was "just" a matter of going through them all and deciding which to keep in my Forever account. I copied a selection from each year into several albums, so that if (God forbid) anything happens to my computer and external drive, I will still have memories of them all growing up. Despite choosing only a few from each occasion, there are hundreds of pictures in the archive. 

Finally, there are the videos. Forever has been running a great sale with 50% off boxes and I've had a lot of interest in digitizing memories. One new client told me that she had a water issue in her basement which led to her buying a box to send her surviving memories to Forever for digitizing. I bought a box myself, to digitize some 8mm film rolls I found in the basement.

I have often said that photographs are physical memories. Looking at a photo of a happy family event, the memories come flooding back. So if you are thinking about what to get Mom for Mother's Day, how about a gift of memories? Set up a family photography session to create new memories, gift Mom a box to digitize all those old videos, or some permanent cloud storage to keep them safe.  Finally, have her favorite photo restored and framed. Flowers and chocolates don't last but memories are Forever!