FotoBridge | Digitizing Photos Blog

From it's base in Washington D.C. and offices in Brussels, Belgium - the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) has been representing the world's leading aviation manufacturers for nearly 40 years. It's critical role is to advance the interests, safety, and activities of general aviation on behalf of airplane, engine, and avionics manufacturers.

"We selected FotoBridge to digitize years of company 35mm slides and photographic prints (a 15,000+ legacy image collection).  Throughout the entire process, we were most impressed with Fotobridge's exceptional customer service.  They were always prompt to respond, provide frequent status updates and are a pleasure to work with." - Rachel Gilbert, GAMA

General aviation includes all aviation with the exception of military and commercial airlines. It plays an important role in economic growth and represents one of the most important and dynamic industries on the globe. In 2006, general aviation contributed over $150B and $53B to the US economy in output and wages (respectively, including direct, indirect and induced). General aviation also supported 1.2M jobs during the same period.

 

Celebrating several high-profile client wins from fields as diverse as Fine Arts and Photography, Hollywood Motion Pictures, the Literary World and Pop Music.

Legions of Anne Frasier fans can now get a rare glimpse of a few real world images that may have figured in her soon to be published memoir, The Orchard. The prolific, awarding-winning author of thriller and romance novels recently gathered up hundreds of decades-old color slides and sent to FotoBridge to be digitally preserved forever. A few sample gems have been posted on her popular blog, MONKEY WITH A PEN, as a preview for devotees.

"Color me impressed.  FotoBridge exceeded my expectations in all areas—from communication throughout the process to the quality of the final images.  I highly recommend FotoBridge for digital conversion needs!" - Anne Frasier, author, June 23, 2010.

Anne's contemporary romance novels were written under the Theresa Weir pseudonym. In 1999, she was awarded a Romance Writers of America RITA Award for Best Romantic Suspense for Cool Shade. From 1988 through 1999, she penned 13 top-selling romance novels. During this period, Frasier's editors would often ask her to loose the "blood and bodies" from her plots. It was then she transitioned fully to thrillers beginning with Hush in 2002. Since then, her novels were published under her name and included Sleep Tight (2003), Play Dead (2004), Before I Wake (2005), Pale Immortal (2006), Garden of Darkness (2007).

To say NJ businessman Henry Vaccaro has a story to tell could be the understatement of the year. In fact, he's got several stories that would knock your socks off. The saga of how he came to own a trove of Jackson Family memorabilia is the stuff of Hollywood movies, novels and a soon-to-be-released publication. It began more than 30 years ago when Jackson’s father Joe contacted him about a real estate deal at the Jersey shore and still continues to today.

In the 1980s, Mr. Vaccaro met Tito Jackson when making guitars for him as part-owner of Kramer Guitars. The guitar company achieved world-wide success for it’s innovative guitar designs and stable of high profile players like Eddie Van Halen and Richie Sambora. But despite it’s early success, in 1992 the company filed for bankruptcy. A company owned by the Jackson family agreed to purchase the guitar company from Henry Vaccaro, but soon defaulted on the payments. Thus began the decades-long series of legal battles that ultimately resulted in the legal transfer of priceless Michael Jackson and Jackson Family items to Henry Vaccaro. The collection is reported to include over 60 unreleased master tapes, costumes, letters, documents and gold records. It also includes thousands of never before publically seen photographs captured on Kodachrome slide film. The photos include professionally shot Jackson 5 concert performances and other images spanning years of Jackson family history.

Understandably, safeguarding this one-of-a-kind photo collection had been a top priority for Mr. Vaccaro from day one. Michael Jackson’s tragic and untimely death in June 2009 created a burning imperative to commission the professional digital archiving, preservation and backup of the entire photographic collection. Henry Vaccaro and a group of expert advisors chose FotoBridge for this important undertaking.

“We were delighted to be selected for this high-profile project”, said Julie Morris, President of FotoBridge. “The collection includes extraordinary images, many never seen, not only of Michael Jackson, but the entire Jackson family. It contains an important visual heritage of one of the most remarkable musical celebrity families of modern times. The commercial value of the collection was likely incalculable at the time we initiated the effort. Clearly, our strict absolute-privacy practices, facility security and advanced media handling process earned the confidence of Mr. Vaccaro’s team.” added Ms. Morris.

During the first quarter of 2010, FotoBridge surpassed 5,000 customers!

"We are delighted to have reached this noteworthy milestone and are thankful to our clients for having entrusted us to digitally preserve their most valuable memories, visual heritage/content and collectible images", said Julie Morris, president of FotoBridge. In just over two years, the company has digitally archived millions of  photographs from prints, transparencies, slides and negative film. The FotoBridge formula appeals to consumers, institutions and businesses with large, highly-valued traditional photographic collections. "While acquiring 5,000 customers is exciting, we are even more pleased with the levels of customer loyalty, satisfaction and referrals garnered to-date", added Ms. Morris.

Who Uses FotoBridge?

Individuals and organizations with large, traditional photographic collections to be digitally preserved, shared and re-purposed for a variety of uses.  Clearly, baby-boomers, retirees, scrapbookers, crafters and families make up a large part of the FotoBridge community. Similarly, professional photographers, artists, media agencies and collectors also make up a significant portion of the client base. FotoBridge also serves a diverse group of institutions and businesses including universities, private schools, hospitals, creative firms, publishers, musical groups, art galleries, photo journalists, designers, retailers, federal/state/local government entities, and non-profits.