My Earliest Memory

My Earliest Memory, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Sweet Earliest Memories

I have blogged about this photo before so if you have seen it, you must keep reading because there's more to come! This photo is a crop of the side of my parents' house. When did my mother have time to plant all theses flowers and have a baby? 

Many of my early photos are black and white. I am glad they are because the ones that are early color are turning yellow and it is not because I am old. 

My friend, Maureen Taylor, in her book titled, Preserving Your Family Photographs (Picture Perfect Press, 2000) says on p. 95 that, "Kodacolor film used between 1942 and 1953 has one of the worst preservation records." Yellow staining (even in the negatives) is causing irreparable harm to both the prints and the negatives.

Photo collection of Midge Frazel, 1952

So many photos of mine are stained yellow. I am experimenting with scanning them and removing the yellow cast. I can tell that I am not working fast enough. As I put them in archival envelopes, they are getting worse. I have managed to do a few and the color seems better after I am done. It is a long process. There's no quick one click fix. I keep trying different programs and apps but this fix requires the use of layers.

Any help is appreciated!