Monday, September 26, 2011

But all I've got is a photograph....


Here is what I currently use for my Beatles photos. It is a Creative Memories "Picfolio." You just slide the photos into the pouches. For larger photos I use just a regular office binder and acid free page protectors.

Here is another good way to store your photos. Use photo corners. They are easy to get the photos out of. Just do not use tape or glue! The tape will turn yellow and you end up with the black paper stuck on your photos.


Here is a close-up of a scrapbook that is a magnetic album. As you can see the top and the bottom have turned yellow. The yellow part that is touching the photos will be very difficult to remove. If the owner is not careful, the Paul photos will rip in half. If these aren't removed right away, then the whole page will eventually turn yellow and the photos will never be saved. Yikes!

Someone spent $500 on this magnetic album full of Beatles fan photos. Great item but I would hate to spend that type of money on photos that are ruined.


Here is one of the photographs I had in a magnetic album. It was taken from a magazine article. Notice the "lines" in the photo. I could not save the picture itself. It was too stuck to the page and was being eaten away. I scanned the photo to preserve it. Whenever I see this photo on other people's blogs and websites, I have to chuckle because I know it is my scan. Surely someone has a better copy out there!

Here is another installment of me sharing with all of you about preserving photographs. It is not a surprise that I collect Beatles photographs, because I love photos. Photos are cherished memories in our lives. Just a glimpse of a memory of something that has happened in the past. I enjoy looking through photo albums of people that I barely know. I even enjoy taking photos, but I am lousy at it. In the late 1990's I got into scrapbooking. It is something I have really enjoyed doing because it allows me to be creative and I find it to be relaxing. I somehow got hooked up with the company, Creative Memories, and my consultant started talking to me about preserving photos and using acid-free materials. At first I thought she was silly. I had used magnetic albums for years in the past and never had problems. I stuck photos down using Scotch tape and sure the tape turned yellow, but the photos were still there. That is until my Grandma passed away in 2000. I started looking through the old family photo albums in her closet and wanted to cry. She had many photos in magnetic albums and the acid of the magnetic backing was literally eating through the photographs. Wedding photos, photos of newborn child, vacations, all ruined just because she used an magnetic album. So I decided to save all of my magnetic album photos before it was too late.

I also realized that I had bought a Beatles scrapbook that was put together in the 1980's that was in a magnetic album. This was much harder to salvage because many of the things in that album were newspaper and magazine articles that had bonded with the album and could not come free.

So the question remains: What are you to do if you have your photos (Beatles or other wise) in a magnetic album? Or if you win an auction for one or are given one?

A few steps you can take:
1. Scan all of the photos before you try anything. This way you at least have a copy of the photograph that you can print out in case things go badly.

2. Try to remove them with your finger nail or small knife. Some photos just need a little prying and they pop right off.

3. For the more difficult photos you need to use a hair dryer and regular dental floss (the non-wax kind). Use the hair dryer at the lowest setting and go over the photo until the glue heats up a little. Then take the floss and move it underneath the photo like a saw to get the photo free. I will warn you that the floss turns in to a knife and I have ruined a few photos this way (and don't even try it on a magazine or newspaper article).

Good luck! Remember that photos are worth saving!

1 comment:

  1. Very well informative about these photos. Some of my childhood photos were much damage during the past typhoons, but I save some of my pics especially the memorable ones. I stored some of my pics in my photo album, The ones that the photoshops give you for free. From Sonia

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