Breckenridge Starbucks

If you stop for coffee at the Starbucks in Breckenridge, Colorado...

You are in their house. 

(Photo credit: Ancestral Journeys, Breckenridge, Colorado. Copyright 2012.)

Silent Sunday...mostly: Unknown Couple

These photos are in our family collection, along with others, that belonged to a C.C. Christie. To be honest, the relationship is vague at best to the Christie family, and I have done little research on them to date (leaving that for this coming winter.)  

The images eventually came to us through my great-grand aunt, Carrie (Brown) Carlyle, who lived in Carnation, Washington. 

I think it is quite apparant that they were taken on the same day, by the same photographer. The mats and image quality are identical. There is no writing and no dates anywhere on either image.

Photography: Dealing with Albums & Glass

In my vast collection of family memorabilia, childhood arts & crafts projects, diaries and letters, I only have one or two of those photos. You know, the ones that have been under the same piece of glass for a hundred years and you are so afraid to touch it, but really need a copy for preservation purposes, but you just don't know what to do!


So, I asked.

I didn't ask an archivist, though I could have. I didn't ask a historian, another genealogist, or anybody who I would consider an expert in framing and glass. Perhaps I should have.

Instead, I asked a photographer.

Because the glass and the frame, though probably of some historical value, is secondary. If something has to be damaged, ruined, or left in disrepair in the process, I'd rather it be one of those. I want the photo.

Keep in mind, I have a personal connection with this particular person, and we've struck up numerous conversations relating to genealogy and photography, and how those intermix. See my previous post, with significant contributions by Mr. Mike Brown, Photography: Questioning the Scanner.

The question I posed to him was this:

"How do we deal with old photos that we inherit that are glued to a photo album, or have been in a frame for who knows how long? Do you take it apart or try to preserve as is?"

His response is worth a read. I picked up a trick or two, I hope you will also.

"Reproduce before you try anything. Then if what you try goes wrong you have a backup copy. [Great advice for just about anything, right?] I have had customers that brought in photos that were cut out of the album page and still had the page glued to the back of them, this works if there are no photos on the other side of the page.

Sometimes it is possible to find something that will soften or remove the glue without harming the photo, but I really do not like to experiment with important or irreplaceable photos. Album pages cab be reproduced as a whole or one can just do a single photo at a time, to me much better than trying to take it apart. 

As for removing photos from a frame, the same thing applies, reproduce before you try anything. [Again, refer back to the techniques he describes in the post above to take a picture of a picture.] Here you really need to know what you are looking at. The usual problem is that the photo was not framed correctly and it is in contact with the glass. Moisture has gotten in and caused the photo to stick to the glass. If it has been in there for a very long time it can be quite difficult to get it apart without doing damage to the photo. If it is a black and white photo, remove the frame and try soaking the glass and photo in a tray of room temperature water. This may take several hours and one has to be very careful when trying to peel them apart, but it sometimes works. 

Most importantly, if you are at all unsure about the original or the process, don't do it. Take it to an expert and get some advice one on one.  

Be forewarned, if the photo looks like it has been retouched or colored, do not try this as the water may very well remove the coloring. I have had people tell me that they have done this with color prints, however, I do not like to do so. 

[How do you know if its been "colored"? Take a look at the examples below for an idea. Although this example is a "full" colored image, not all images were done this way. At times, it was much more pastel, or only part of the image.] 

Original image, non-colored.
William W. Brown and sister, Bessie, 
Colfax County, Neb.
Private holdings of author.

Same portrait session as above,
but with coloring added.
William W. Brown, Colfax County, Neb.
Private holdings of author. 

There is a special situation that I should mention. I have had customers who had house fires and when the fire department got done putting out the fire, every photo hanging on the walls was soaked and starting to get stuck to the glass in the frames. The cure for something that has just gotten wet is not let it dry out. As soon as possible, submerge the entire thing in water (ever see a bathtub full of framed photos?), carefully separate the photo from the glass while its wet, then let the photos dry. The damage to the house was extensive, but the house was rebuilt, and when all was said and done, the same photos, in new frames, hung proudly on the walls." 

 This brings me to a couple of questions for all of you; the readers.

• Have you found a product that works to remove photos from albums? I would especially like to find something that works on construction paper type surfaces, as I have a lot of those. 
• Have you done this? Does anybody have a story of submerging a framed photo to separate it from the glass? Success or failure, I would love to hear about it. Leave a comment, or put the story in your own blog, and send me the link. So far, I've been to chicken to try. 

Always willing to take questions and input on the issue at hand, please leave a comment for myself or Mr. Brown below. Between the two of us, we'll try to get to it as soon as we can. 

With over 50 years of photographic experience, Mike Brown is now semi-retired from the everyday hustle and bustle of owning a photographic studio. He now splits his time between consulting, teaching and mentoring in the photographic world and trying to keep up with a whole herd of grandchildren (another of which was just born!)

Photography: Questioning the Scanner

Photography. All genealogists use photography in some way or another. We preserve old photos and documents, we pursue images from around the world of headstones and cemeteries, we transcribe using digital imaging techniques. As we progress more and more into the world of technology and digital media, our photography skills must advance with us.

Breckenridge, Colorado
Image Copyright Jen Baldwin,
Ancestral Journeys, 2012

I am not a photographer. I have always been curious about the art, and have enjoyed the hobby as a creative outlet. However, the technical aspects behind a camera often elude me. My advantage is a personal connection with a semi-retired photographer, Mr. Mike Brown. So, I asked him a few questions that had been on my mind for a while.

One of his favorite things to tell me is how much better it is to take a picture of something versus scanning it. What?  My scanner is one of my best friends. Everything gets scanned! So, that was one of my first questions: why take a picture of something when I can scan it?  Although his answer is long, its worth reading through to the end:

"If one is serious about reproducing photographs, I am convinced that the only way to do so is to copy them using a digital single lens reflex camera (DSLR). You also need a couple of lights and some filters and a bit of knowledge. Your camera should have a lens that incorporates a "micro" mode and will accept a polarizing filter. You will also need a set of polarizing filters for your lights (two lights are recommended). A tripod rounds out the equipment list. Now this sounds like a lot of gear, but hang on, it's really not that bad. Of course the camera can be used for other things from family reunions to documenting grave stones, so it is not just a single purpose item. The polarizing filter for the camera ($30.00 or so, depending on the size needed and where you get it) is also a great thing to have when shooting a great scenic photo as it helps get those deep blue skies. For lights, get thee to the local farm store and pick up a pair of "chicken brooder" lamps, maybe $10.00 each. Put a 100W, Daylight balanced CFC bulb in each one. You will need a sheet of Polarizing film that is big enough to cover both of your lamps. Theater supply or larger camera stores carry this for about $50.00 or so a sheet (the sheet is 17 x 20 inches; one sheet would make a filter for both lights).

A tripod is a very handy item for photographers and they come in an extremely wide range of sizes and prices. For this you do not need a very big or too expensive one. In fact, a good way to use a small tripod while copying photographs is to lay the tripod flat on a table so at the camera looks down at the floor, place something heavy on the tripod so it does not fall from the table, lay the photographs on the floor, clamp the lights to a couple of chair backs, turn off the other lights in the room and you are in business! 

Once you have all of this, you can easily reproduce just about any photograph or document that you want. Originals that are too big too fit on a scanner are not a problem, just back up till they fit. Have one of the old oval convex portraits where the middle of the picture is several inches higher than the edges? Have a photo that is stuck to the glass and you are getting too much glare? Maybe a painting with glare from some of the brush strokes? Want to lighten up the image on that old tintype that is almost too dark to see? All of these problems can be easily solved with the equipment described above. The technique is called "Double Polarized lighting."

But the biggest use of this type of lighting is when you are faced with trying to reproduce an old photo that displays "Silvering". Silvering is usually visible in the darker areas of the image as a result of the halides breaking down and the metallic silver becoming visible. By simply turning the filter on the camera one can just dial out the unwanted reflections and capture the image!  

These are copies of the same silvered photograph, one taken with the Double Polarized Lighting method, the other scanned with a typical flatbed scanner. Neither has had any other work done to them except for resizing."  

With Scanner

With Camera

"And of course, if you really want to go first class, some of the more affordable cameras come with the ability to connect directly to your computer so you get to see the images as you take them. Doing so allows one to easily quality check each image as you work your way through the stack. 

I realize that not everyone may be all that interested in this kind of do it yourself photography and may want to send this out to someone else. If that is you, then I would suggest contacting photo studios in your area and asking them if they can do copy work employing the "Double Polarized Lighting Technique." If they say no or do not seem to know what the term means, go somewhere else!"

I'll have more from my conversation on photography within the realm of genealogy in future posts. Feel free to leave comments or questions for Mr. Brown, or myself, and I can include those, with his responses.



With over 50 years of photographic experience, Mike Brown is now semi-retired from the everyday hustle and bustle of owning a photographic studio. He now splits his time between consulting, teaching and mentoring in the photographic world and trying to keep up with a whole herd of grandchildren!