Tag Archives: photos

Family Photos

We all have them – new ones, old ones, colour ones, black and white ones. Maybe in albums, maybe in boxes, maybe both.

Recently, while looking for two or three specific photos for another blog post (which I did find), I came across this one of my parents and thought why not scan it at the same time?

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My parents

This square photo had a white border around it, albeit yellowed but there was no date stamped on it. Back in the day, when they came back from the lab after processing pictures almost always had the three letter abbreviation for the month and the last two digits of the year stamped on the border – usually on the side.

My guess is this one was taken in the 1950s possibly before 1956.

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My parents

My Epson scanner has a colour restoration feature. Click the box before or after you do the scan and you can see the difference on the computer screen.

I don’t always like using this feature. I think an ‘aged’ photograph has more character. But in this case, I thought it was worth saving both versions of the photo. In the lower picture, my mum’s suit is bluer and my dad’s shirt is whiter.

What do you think? Colour restore your yellowed photos when you scan them or leave them be?

 

 

Photos and such…

This was first posted on Feb 26, 2011.

I posted a photo of my grandfather and his first wife that was taken presumably on their wedding day a few years ago. I’m reposting it along with two more from the family archives.

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Grandpa John Robertson with his first wife, Susan Christie

This photo was definitely taken in a studio setting and judging by their clothing and the way her hair is styled, it had to be a special occasion. Hence, the thought of it being a wedding photograph.

Grandpa Robertson was born in 1856 and married for the first time 20 years later. And yes, that is my grandfather, not great-grandfather or great-great-grandfather.

After looking carefully at the photo for a few minutes, close your eyes and imagine it in full colour, an oil painting of huge proportions… 6 ft by 8 ft (or larger still) and it’s hanging on a rich oak panelled wall. Can you visualize it in that setting?

That’s where it is in my novel. This is the Laird and Lady of Weetshill on their wedding day.

In my novel, the old Laird looks much more like this…

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Grandpa Robertson as an old man

This photograph of an older Grandpa Robertson was taken some time before his death in 1930. I’m thinking maybe between 1915 (the year my grandmother-his second wife) and 1917 (the year my father and four of his nine siblings were admitted to The Orphan Homes of Scotland). By that time, he’d had a stroke with loss of memory and was unable to keep up the farm.

This is how I envision the hero’s grandfather. White-haired, balding, mustache and beard.

The old Laird in my novel also walks with a cane.

And finally this photograph from the archives…

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Peter, Robert and Angus Robertson

This photo was taken on my Uncle Angus’s wedding day in Scotland. My father (Robert) was serving overseas with the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders at the time but was able to get leave to go back to Scotland for the occasion. It would have been the last time my father saw his brothers.

Now there’s no mistaking the men in this photo are related but look closely at the young man in the first photo, the old man in the second one and lastly (mostly Robert) the men in this photo. Perhaps, a natural progression of how my hero will age?