Don’t let time erase your most cherished memories. Now is the time to restore them and keep them alive.
Every moment in your family’s life exists only for a brief second. Then it’s erased forever.

I don’t say that to depress you. Very much the contrary. It’s to help stress how precious and special each of these moments is.   
Yes, I know that you always have your memories in your mind of important events in your family’s life.    But admit it, you’ve probably caught yourself wishing you could stop time, and hold onto the priceless moments you’re sharing on a daily basis with your loved ones.   

I’ll bet you’ve caught yourself smiling (or even laughing) about something one of your family members did in the past.   
These are the moments that are priceless. Those moments make us smile and realize how truly blessed and fortunate we really are.   

Maybe your son or daughter made a silly face at the dinner table, a face that made everyone laugh.    Perhaps your son or daughter showed an interest in a certain subject, and you realized this was the start of a life-long passion for something.

Or maybe you had spent an evening with your family doing something mundane and simple, like going to a movie together, or playing a card game, and it dawned on you that these were the truly precious moments in life.

Have you noticed how fast time seems to be going by? Your child says his or her first words. They take their first step. They go out on their first date (that’s a tough one). And before you know it, they’re moving away and starting their own family.

We can’t stop time.  if you know how to do that – bottle it and seal it now That’s the one thing we can always count on, time will continue to march forward. But we don’t have to be a slave to that fact.

Every day you probably notice how much your family is evolving and changing. Kids get older. And boy, have you ever noticed how much even their smile kind of changes as they grow up?   

One of the worst things we can do throughout our lives is to get so caught up in the “day-to-day” stuff that we    take the time and effort to capture some of these unique moments – to capture the essence of your family’s relationships and emotions.

First, your child takes his or her first step. Next, learn to ride a bike. Later, he gets a driver’s license.    Graduates from high school. Gets married. Starts a family of his or her own.
These are precious times photos, and although things will change, this moment never has to slip from your fingers.   

Family photos are priceless. Like a memory, a photograph is a frozen moment, stolen from the grasp of time. A collection of photos is a visual history of your family, your friends, your life.

Most people cherish photos. That’s why they keep them safely stored in the attic, the basement, under the beds, or in a drawer or shoebox. If they’re ambitious, they put their favorites on display, either on the wall or in photo albums or scrapbooks. But are they safe?  As a photo restoration and photo retouching company, we deal with thousands of important photos that have been damaged due to a wide variety of unforeseen problems.
                                             
No matter what’s wrong with your photos, we’ve seen it before. And we’ve fixed them.
The photo restoration artists at Bouchard’s photo restoration combine old-fashioned artistry    to repair stained, spotted, torn, cracked, wet and burn, and faded images like yours every day.    at    our photo restoration studio.

Memories are priceless, and what is a photograph but a frozen moment in time? Children grow up, and loved ones are lost. But with our photo restoration services, those moments live on forever again, every photo is precious to us.  We treat your photos with the care a family heirloom deserves.

So, get those precious photos out of the shoebox and take them to Bouchard’s photo restoration. Take that photo out of the junk drawer and onto the mantle.

No matter what’s wrong with your photo, we’ve seen it before. And we’ve fixed it.

The photo restoration specialists at Bouchard’s photo restoration combine old-fashioned artistry with digital technology to repair stained, spotted, torn, cracked, bleached, and faded images like yours every day. At some of our photo restoration work.

Memories are priceless, and what is a photograph but a frozen moment in time? Children grow up, and loved ones are lost. But with our photo restoration services, those moments live on every photo is precious to us.  We treat your photos with the care a family heirloom deserves.

So, get those precious photos out of the shoebox and take them to Bouchard’s photo restoration, get that photo out of the junk drawer and onto the mantle.

“A photograph never grows old. You and I change, people change all through the months and years but a photograph always remains the same. How nice to look at a photograph of mother or father taken many years ago. You see them as you remember them. But as people live on, they change completely. That is why I think a photograph can be kind.”

Albert Einstein

Precious memories last forever. Unfortunately, photographs do not. Photographs capture a moment of time to keep those memories alive, using a fragile blend of organic materials and modern technology. But as you’ve learned in Bouchard’s Photo Restorations, no matter how careful you are, it is practically inevitable that some of your cherished photographs will eventually fall into disrepair.

What’s In a Photo?

The nature of photographic prints has changed often since the advent of popular photography in the mid-nineteenth century, as tintypes, daguerreotypes, and sepia prints have given way to the advanced color prints of today. Still, any kind of photographic print is nothing more than a collection of minerals and chemicals that react to light. Any number of factors can cause your images to fade, discolor, stain, crack, peel or fall apart.

When Holly Smith found the heirloom photo her mother had loaned to her in the bottom drawer of the hall cabinet, snapped in half, she couldn’t hold back the tears. Mounted on a type of card stock that had grown brittle with time, it was the only image of her grandmother as a little girl, posing with all her relatives. At first, she wanted to take it out on the kids. But instead, she decided to ask for help.

Photo Restoration:

Holly was relieved to find that her image could not only be patched back together but also restored to its original luster. Not the original photograph, mind you, but a new image. An image that would last a lifetime. An image that could be printed over and over.

The experienced photo restoration artists work not with the original photo, but with a reproduced image. They fix whatever may be wrong with it. Printed as a photograph on an archival printer. That means it will last a lifetime – probably even longer than the original.

When Holly saw the outcome of her photograph, she cried again. This time they were tears of joy. It was so beautiful she ordered copies for her mother, her brothers and sisters, and her grandmother’s youngest sister – the only surviving person in that photograph.

Worth Every Penny

If disaster strikes your cherished photographs – whether it be in the form of flood, fire, professional movers, ultraviolet rays, or two-year-old kids – there may be hope. New photo restoration technology has made it affordable to restore your priceless photos.

A photographic image looks like something that will last forever, but even the most modern prints are not designed to last for more than a few decades.

Black-and-white photographs made up of light-sensitive silver salts, known as silver halides, last longer. But color photographs and slides, which are made up of dyes and plastics, are more fragile. Still, any photograph will eventually succumb to the effects of a hostile environment – and a host of natural enemies. Photo restoration services are the pound of cure that can be avoided by preserving intact photos today.

What hurts the photos most :

High temperature and relative humidity.

The emulsion layer of a photograph – the light-sensitive component that actually captures the image – is made up of organic materials, including gelatin. That makes the emulsion susceptible to mold and fungi – especially when subject to the combination of heat and moisture. Photographs should be stored in a cool, dry place – below about 78º Fahrenheit and under 50% relative humidity.

Ultraviolet Light.

Go ahead. Tempt the fates. Hang a color photograph on a wall in your house where the sun hits it every day, and you can start watching it fade within just a few years. To prevent fading, keep your photographs out of direct exposure to sunlight. If you absolutely must display that picture in that perfect spot, you buy preservation glass to protect the color photo. Take intact photos to a photo professional to be scanned and archived to disk. If you’ve recently had a photo restoration done, make sure to have a digital copy on file.

Wood and Paper Products.

What could be more natural than a tree? That may be true, but many wood and paper products contain harmful acids, bleaches, and other chemicals that can damage the emulsion of your photograph over time. Use only acid-free paper products. When shopping for “archival” products, make sure you are getting what you pay for – there is no accepted “archival” labeling standard.

Adhesives & Rubber

Remember those easy-to-use sticky-back photo albums? Bad news and we all know it. But most adhesives, including the rubber cement often used in so-called “magnetic” photo albums, contain harmful chemicals such as PVC that will eventually destroy your photographs. Rubber bands can have the same effect. That makes them both a big no-no.

Air pollutants

It may come as a surprise, but even the fumes from household cleaning products and fresh paint can damage photos. You probably won’t notice the effects right away, but in time they will become painfully obvious.

Metallic Objects

On a more practical level, metallic objects such as keys and paper clips can scratch the surfaces of your prints and negatives. Don’t clip your photos together, and try not to store them in the same box as your screwdrivers.

A Word of Hope

Preserving photographs, which are organic and temporary by their very nature, may seem like an uphill battle. But with smart decisions about storing and displaying your photos, it doesn’t have to be. And you’ll be that much closer to making your photo collection last a lifetime.  Photo restoration and photo retouching are our business, but preserving precious family photos is our mission.

One of the most common photo restoration requests we get is to fix one form or another of water damage. Whether it’s humidity or more severe contact with water, water damage brings us a lot of photo restoration business. We’d prefer to keep your family photos intact in the first place.

Whether your house was flooded or caught fire, your prized photos have suffered from water damage. The first rule of handling water-damaged photos? “Don’t Panic.” You may be able to salvage many or all your pictures. You might want to contact a photo conservation (restoration) professional or consult a book on the subject, but here are a few tips:

(A note of caution) this is not to do with computer printed photos because these are completely varied materials usually are made of ink (the image will wash out) and you may lose it

Black-and-white photographs made up of light-sensitive silver salts, known as silver halides, last longer. But color photographs and slides are made up of dyes and plastics.

Don’t let the photos dry out!

As your photographs dry, they will stick to each other and any other materials they may be in contact with. You’ll find it impossible to pull them apart without causing potentially irreparable damage.

Get to work as soon as possible.

Your photographs shouldn’t stay wet for more than two or three days. Now is a good time to call (a photo restoration expert) for advice before you try pulling anything apart or before doing anything that will further damage the photos, the following are.

Use cold, clean tap water.

While you’re working on your photos, put them in a container full of cold, clean tap water. The colder, the better. Don’t add chlorine to the water but change the water often. The chlorine in tap water is enough to prevent the growth of fungi and other biological threats.

Rinse your photos.

Rinse your photos in a container of cold, clear running water. Don’t run the water directly onto the photos because that could damage the chemical emulsion, causing permanent damage. Keep rinsing them until the run-off water is clear.

Separate them cautiously.

Carefully remove your photographs or negatives from the water, taking the smallest quantity possible. Pull them out of their wrappers and gently separate them. DO NOT FORCE THEM APART.

Separate as many as possible before returning them to the cold water and starting on another batch. Repeat the separate-soak cycle as many times as necessary.

However, sometimes you may not be able to separate materials without forcing the issue. In those cases, you will probably have to just accept the corresponding damage.

Store them in water.

Once your materials are separated, store them in water until you can wash them individually, using cold, clean running water. Use cotton balls, a soft cotton cloth, or a soft foam rubber brush to remove foreign objects if needed.

Rinse your photographs or negatives one more time after cleaning is complete.

Hang-dry the prints.

Hang-dry prints and negatives from a clothesline. Make sure they will not be exposed to dust.

As an option, special solutions are available that facilitate uniform, spot-free drying when applied to negatives and slides. These solutions can be purchased from your local photo restoration provider or photo lab.
If your prints curl while drying, wet the paper side (NOT the emulsion!) with a moist sponge and place each one between two pieces of acid-free paper or photo blotters, and leave them under a flat, heavy object for a day or two.

Even if you follow these instructions, some of your prints will probably suffer permanent damage. In that case, take them to us.

Did your old photos get too brittle or damaged in storage or up in the attic?

Do they just not have the same color they used to?

Have they been damaged by fire, water, mold, and/or time?

Well, dig them out and bring them to Bouchard’s Photo Restorations. Bouchard’s can restore all your precious memories back to life because they specialize in heirloom-quality photos.

Bouchard’s are a family-owned business who do all of their restorations at their studio, so you don’t have to worry about losing your treasured photos.

So gather your damaged photos, large or small, and stop by Bouchard’s Photo Restorations. They will    analyze your photo and give you a free estimate. Bouchard’s is located on Memorial, one block east of Eldridge, or call them at 281-493-0561. Don’t wait to restore your memories, they will only fade more. 

It happens in the best of family’s shoeboxes full of old photographs are damaged by heat, humidity, acidic paper, ultraviolet rays, or marauding children. Now, those photos can be saved.

People are pleased and surprised by what we can do, said Mercedes from Bouchard’s photo restoration the photo industry-leading restoration service. I still get in a rush every time I see a really astounding restoration job, even after 40 years in the business.

Photographs are supposed to preserve our memories. Yet by their very nature, photos aren’t    built to last. Since most people are unaware of how fragile photos are, many stores display them in a way that may be harmful.

Yet the image is not lost. Today, photo restoration specialists combine digital technology with old-fashioned artistry to repair worn, stained, spotted, torn, cracked, bleached and faded photographs to their original luster. The results are stunning.

There is no other service we offer that creates so much joy, says Mercedes of Bouchard’s Oftentimes, it’s tears of joy.

Locally, you can get your photos restored at Bouchard’s photo restoration. The artist works on the reproduced image. Your original photo is never actually touched, and all work is done in-house.

It’s a good thing, too. The emotional attachment to old photos is real.

We have people who will literally steal the print of their grandma’s wall and take it in, those are cherished mementos for them, and they just won’t let them go

Make your photos last a lifetime

Family photos are priceless. Like a memory, a photograph is a frozen moment, stolen from the grasp of time. A collection of photos is a visual history of your family, your friends, your life.

Most people cherish photos. That’s why they keep them safely stored in the attic, the basement, under our beds, or in a drawer. If they’re really ambitious, they put their favorites on display, either on the wall or in photo albums or scrapbooks. But are they safe?  As a photo restoration and photo retouching company, we deal with thousands of important photos that have been damaged due to a wide variety of unforeseen problems. Photo restoration is something to remedy problems that we’d all be better off preventing.

Do you know some of a photograph’s natural enemies? Read on to find out where and how to store your photos.

Keep These Valuables in a Cool, Dry Place

Uninsulated attics and basements are the wrong answer. The extreme temperature and humidity swings in an attic will make your photographic paper crack, and the moisture of a basement is often off the relative humidity scale. In case of disaster, the basement is the first place that gets flooded, and the attic is bound to go up in smoke.

The key is to find a cool, dry area of your home that is protected from violent changes of temperature. The ideal climate for photos is below about 78º Fahrenheit and under 50% relative humidity.

If that sounds a bit like a safe-deposit box at your bank, you may be right. Especially for one-of-a-kind photos, there is no safer place. But it’s not a practical choice. Your photos will be safe if you store them in a cool, dry area of your home.

Showing Them Off

Most of us love to share our photos. We use them to decorate our homes, offices, and cars, or we put them in scrapbooks and photo albums that are easy to show off. But we need to be careful.

Before you hang that photo on the wall, make sure it’s safe from the sun. Direct exposure to sunlight can cause your photographs to fade in just a few years. If there’s no other option, you can either buy a special filter to protect the image or just hang a copy on the wall and keep the original safely stored.

If you’re into scrapbooking, be highly selective. Most photo albums should be avoided like the plague. Even some materials marketed as “archival” contain acids, adhesives, rubbers, or other materials that will eventually destroy your photos. Ask about true archival photo albums. Bouchard’s photo restoration experts in the art of preserving old photographs.

If preservation is more important than presentation, consider storing your photographs in special envelopes, safe plastic sleeves, or an enameled-steel storage cabinet. Those treasures are worth the effort and the expense.

Save it Forever with Digital

The best way to save your valuable photos is by eliminating the paper altogether. Consider making digital images of all your photos. Unlike emulsion-based prints, digital images don’t fade, erode, or crack. In theory, they’ll last forever – or at least as long as we have access to the right technology. If you choose this route, you should consider storing a backup copy off-site. Several options are available on the web. Your local photo restoration experts can likely burn your photo restoration or intact photos to CD or memory drive for a small charge.

It’s a lot easier to wipe off a CD or download your backup than it is to repair a pile of images damaged in a flood or fire…