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We’ve been working on a new documentary for the Alleghany Historical – Genealogical Society, about Minnie Lou Edwards Irwin.
The negative, above, was made by Thelma Davis, at her studio in Sparta, NC on October 26, 1945. It’s one of the first we have copied from her extensive collection, which she gave to the Historical Society a few years back.
Imaging Specialists is honored to be involved with the television project to memorialize Mrs. Irwin and the project to archive the photography of her friend and colleague, Mrs. Davis.

This backlit, projection setup will allow us to copy a large number of negatives faster and more efficiently than we could with a scanner. The low resolution images will be ideal for internet access.
In this way, the Historical Society (and anyone with an idea for an online archive) can share low res images quickly and easily. Anyone needing larger files can order high resolution scans or prints to be made and proceeds from those sales can help pay for the access site and storage of the data.

ISI works with our customers to develop effective, attractive social media posts that inform and entertain visitors.

Elements like links and tags develop interaction and improve visibility. We pay close attention to statistical information provided by Facebook so that we know our audience demographic, what they like and when they’re online.

Imaging Specialists not only develops social media posts but we also help administrate those type of pages. We monitor post responses and interact with site visitors, answering questions and requests, “liking” comments, sharing customers’ posts and, sometimes, even eliminating negative comments or attacks.

It’s called reputation management and it is becoming more and more necessary for companies- no matter the size- to interact with web site and social media visitors as they once would have in person. Think of it like an online customer service department.

We also help monitor and respond to visitor posts at customer review sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp. Even informational and directory sites need to be monitored and updated periodically.

We have even had to work to remove “unofficial” Facebook or Instagram accounts. Pages that were initiated by former employees who might still have access or by someone, not affiliated with a company or organization can cause problems or confusion.

It is necessary, at an increasing number of types of sites, to respond to requests; to answer reviews (both good and bad!) and to monitor the internet for disinformation.

 Imaging Specialists has just finished the latest project from Star Route Books- The Ashe County Public Library Veterans History Project.

The book is a companion to the online Veterans History Project an archive of “stories, video interviews, pictures, and memorabilia of Ashe County veterans collected by community members and Ashe County High School JROTC students.”

We worked with Ashe County Librarian,  Suzanne Moore, to assemble  images and stories from the Library website. The dramatic photo, below, came from John Gentry, who served as 1st Sgt. of a combat engineer company during the 1969 Tet Pleiku Offensive in Vietnam.

We were able to adjust basic settings to enhance photos, that were, sometimes, made under less than ideal conditions. Below is a before-and-after of a photo of Ronald Lee Phipps, brother of contributor, Robert Phipps. Ronald served in the Navy from 1965-1969. He trained as a Navy SEAL and was in Vietnam for 2 1/2 years.

This August 10, 1945 edition of the Shelby Daily Star is from the collection  of Hugh Hamrick who was captured by the Japanese at Bataan April 9, 1942 and was a prisoner of war for 42 months.

Imaging Specialists is proud to have been able to help with this historic project by the Ashe County Library.

We’ve just finished the third book in the Stratford Oaks series by Dr. Suzanne Mellow-Irwin: The Tale of Cricket and Cracker.

Dr. Irwin has continued her series with the help of photographer, Ian Jarvis. Imaging Specialists has added photos made by Ian and other photographers to the story of two burros, transplanted from the dusty American Southwest to the lush, green hills of Alleghany County, North Carolina.

The photographs are a departure from the first two volumes that were illustrated with artwork by Zach Hamm.  But design elements like fonts, gradients and page layouts should help make this more “grown-up” story of the animals at Stratford Oaks Farm familiar to fans of the series.

ISI designed the cover and interior pages, again, this time and we added an artistic, painted effect to the images so that photos from different sources (local photographers, stock and family photos- even the Library of Congress!) would have a uniform look throughout. We, sometimes, added elements from different photos to build scenes for the book. The donkey  at right in the photo, above is an example. We added Cricket (or maybe it’s Cracker?) from another photo.
No historic photos or photos by Ian were manipulated.

The book incorporates a little area history in the telling of the story of the donkeys. We added one of our own photographs of the historic 1908 Courthouse just across the state line in Independence, Virginia.

If you’re looking for the perfect Christmas gift, consider the third installment of Stratford Oaks Tales – The Tale of Cricket and Cracker.