Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Old Family Photographs

As my mom gets older and many of my relatives start to pass away, I thought it would be a good idea to try to restore some of the old family photographs by digitally scanning them & then retouch them using Adobe Photoshop. In my heart I knew that this was something my cousins would really appreciate but in my brain I knew that it was going to be a time-consuming & laborious process that I kind of dreaded. I just wanted to capture some of the details before all of the people who remembered them were gone. With my stereo cranked, I found out that by carving out a few hours each week I could slowly work my way through some of the older favorites which I've posted below in case anyone else has some interesting images they'd like to share.

In this photo from early 1901, my grandmother Janie is sitting on her mother Molly's lap. Her sister Zora (aka Aunt Zoe) is to the right. One of my earliest memories is sitting on the edge of Uncle Clarence's (upper left) bed at the old family homestead after a morning of trotlining for catfish with my grandfather. The two brother-in-laws would sit there and talk about the weather, crops & church stuff and I'd just listen. Kind of hot & boring back then. Wish I could go back & relive it now. Emmett (upper right) came home from business school in Jackson, MS in 1908 with typhoid fever. He died shortly thereafter. His sister Addie (to his right) who helped take care of him, died from it in 1909. Their portraits hang on the wall of my mother's house.



The photo above was over 120 years old and had extensive damage. Below is what a section of it looked like before I started retouching it. It makes it easier to understand why it sometimes takes 12~15 hours to restore a single photo. Sometimes I only finish a photo per week in my spare time.



This photo is affectionately referred to as "The Clampetts" around our house and was taken in front of my great grandmother Molly's house in Liverpool, Louisisana, St. Helena Parish circa 1945. The three ladies in the first photograph above are standing on the back row here 44 years later. My mother is the blonde girl in the lower left. Missing from this photo is my uncle Wilbur who is serving in WWII in the south Pacific. My uncle Vernon (14-years-old) to the right is wearing his beloved FFA jacket. My first cousin once removed, Helen Joyce, wearing the glasses on the front row, passed away a few months ago.



My great grandfather (dark jacket right) Billy's 84th birthday in 1943. His younger brother at the head of the table was born in 1861 during the first year of the Civil War so his name, Jefferson Davis Venable, is not surprising. To my mom, he was just "Uncle Jeff". My grandfather is wearing the dark suit & tie in the middle of the photograph. Aunt Dillie is serving the food. My mother's main recollection of this day as a six-year-old is that Aunt Dillie put gravy all over her rice and "ruined" her food. One interesting side note is that this image was scanned from the original Kodak 616 negative that was introduced in 1932. It was 2.5" x 4.25" for doing contact print postcards without needing an enlarger. I had to fabricate a negative holder to scan it since this film type disappeared long ago.



A 140-year-old tintype of my great grandmother Ida Elizabeth Taylor that my cousin found hidden in a book at my grandparent's farm 50 years ago. Some of it I retouched & repaired. Other damage where the emulsion separated from the tin (like the background near her shoulder), I left visible.



Ida from the tintype above in front of her house in the Pine Ridge community near Kentwood, Louisiana. For ventilation the house has a "dogtrot" down the middle of it. Some of the earlier homes like this would often be two log cabins sharing a common roof.



A picture of the Kentwood Baptist Church at Easter in 1941. My mother is the blurry blonde girl behind the two wrestling boys on the front row right. My grandfather is the deacon in the dark suit standing on the sidewalk far left. Uncle Vernon has the stylish white belt on the front row middle. Uncle Wilbur is in the middle top peering over the two dark-haired girls. He taught me how to fly fish & he's the reason I hunt. Aunt Aline is on the back row upper right behind the lady with the hat.

That's really cool odonata, love old family photos.

This is one taken in the late 40's of my father with his first moose. I had it professionally framed this is a picture with my cell phone of the photo.

I've been tasked by the guys I hunt with to start getting some of the photos I've taken of us printed up to hang around the camp. Photographs bring back some good memories!

So true!

I hunted for many years and only started taking pictures late in the game, do I ever regret that.

About those military photos that they take of all recruits to send home...in the civil war, they had a similar habit but photography was scarce and expensive. Instead, they used artists. An artist would roll into camp with a wagonload of partial drawings, body only. Then he'd draw everybody's head on the same body. This was an uncle of mine who fought for the south. His head isn't bad. My mother knew him when he was a lot older and said it looks just like him. However, the mass produced body sucks. Look at the left hand in particular. The rifle looks like something from Elmer Fudd.
They used to do baby pics the same way. My SIL has a drawing of her father as a baby. His head's distorted like he'd been through an orange squeezer.



This is my great aunt. She was a lot older than this when I was a kid, born somewhere around 1900. In her youth she was considered to be the family beauty but she was about the most naïve woman I've ever known.



My great grandfather and 1 of his wives. He outlived 3 and was married to a 4th when he died. All 4 were named Mary. None of the family records show any last names for the Marys or who had which kids. Geneology is impossible.

The Civil War drawing I have of a great uncle isn't any better than yours. It does seem pretty common that getting a likeness of the face was the main goal.

I appreciate all of you that posted, very interesting.

Pretty neat. Old pics are very interesting when you enlarge them and can really see stuff like the two kids messing around in the church photo.

A few years ago I went back & scanned all of my high school 35mm negatives from the 70’s. The digital images looked WAY better than the original prints ever did. The images were larger, sharper & had great detail.

I've been doing some of the same, using Affinity. The difficult ones are the old color prints that have faded to mostly magenta. Sometimes I can recover them, and sometimes the only cure is to convert to b&w.

The cool thing is that once you've done the recovery, the whole family has a very long lasting digital copy. Those old photos are precious.

Very cool Rock Chuck

Dad front & center with his 2 brothers and grandpa & grandma - 1940's


Dad on the right with his 2 brothers, sister and grandpa 1953 or so. My uncle in uniform is the only one still alive. He is 91 if I remember correctly.


Grandpa


Grandpa's family

Looking at those images, I thought, harder times in life, then I thought, better times in life for sure.

We all need to enjoy what we have and try to make it better for our families.

We surely can't go back in time.

Great pics, I have some of my family going all the way back to the early 1900 s.

Great pictures! Thanks for posting.

When mom talks about my grandmother’s miscarriages, the deaths by typhoid & scarlet fever, farming accidents, no electricity or running water & the setting of broken bones at home without a doctor, etc., it’s easy to realize how comfortable it is now. But mom also talks about growing up on a country farm as the best childhood ever.

Over the years we’ve gained some things but we’ve lost some too.

OP
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In this picture I noticed the 2 people.

Then my eye was drawn instantly to the image of soldier wearing a Confederate Hat in the red circle.

More in that photo than just 2 people ...
Their is a spirit that was captured in it also. IMO....
Just finger spread and enlarge that spot.
It's pretty unmistakable .
Man's face wearing a confederate Cap.
Unless it is some sort of double image or exposure.
Not a photography guy myself.....
Dunno.....


picture url

GOOD EYE that's really neat!

It’s interesting that you mention that because you’re not the first person to do it. The original scan is huge with more detail even though it is an old & damaged photo. Here’s an enlargement of that area. Is there something there? Or is it an optical illusion that tricks the eyes? Something supernatural would be the cooler option.

He is still their.
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