Bringing Memories Back to Life

Richard Haines on the importance of making the most of your vintage photographs

You might not realise, but our photographs are one of the most valuable things we own.

Why? Because they are irreplaceable. You may think that because your photos are stored away or displayed in frames around the house, that they are safe from harm. Sadly, our physical photos are deteriorating all the time. It is unavoidable, no matter how well we store them, and because this tends to happen slowly over a longer period, often we don't realise until the deterioration has become severe.

This might be due to fading in the sun or being stored in less-than-ideal conditions causing mould and cracks.

Not only are the photos deteriorating but they are also susceptible to being lost or misplaced, or even accidentally damaged. This is why having your precious old photos digitised and restored is crucial.

We are lucky today that most photos are taken digitally, meaning they are automatically stored somewhere safely.

After we've pressed the button, we barely give it a second thought, and we certainly don't have to worry that the photos we have taken might become lost or damaged.

However, photographs were taken for nearly 200 years before the "cloud" was invented, and they deserve to be preserved for now and the generations to come, to ensure we can all stay connected to our past. It is so easy to share our photos today, and now with photo digitising and restoration it can be just as easy to share those classic photos of the past as well.