I love photography. I love beautiful images.  I love looking at them, making them, surrounding myself with them. I really do.

This journey started when I was a Boy Scout working on my Photography Merit Badge. My counselor took me into his dark room to show me how to develop a picture. To this day I remember that moment, watching that image appear in the developer. It was the single most magical moment of my life. I was hooked. So I started taking pictures, earned a degree in it, worked in studios. My strengh was in the darkroom which was good, because my bosses liked to shoot. Then I quit. I didn’t like it anymore. Something was missing.

Then digital came along and I started playing again. I missed the dark room, but I was amazed with what I could do in Photoshop. So I started almost all over again. I’ve been shooting a lot, but I’ve been spending most of my time in Lightroom and Photoshop. I love what I can do to an image, how I can make it better, stronger, more interesting. So I’ve been trying to figure out how to get back into the game. To do something I really enjoy and get paid for it. To be able to spend the time at it to get really good.

It finally hit me a couple of weeks ago. It only took me 35 years. I shoot as a means to another end. What I really enjoy, what I’ve always enjoyed is the post work. The darkroom and now Photoshop. I’m a sloppy shooter, I’m technically tight in post work. I’ve always shot as an input to the post. So I going to concentrate my efforts there. I’m exploring if I can build a business doing post work. I’m liking this concept.

In the mean time, here are a couple of images I’ve restored recently. The first one is my wife as a baby. I was able to clean up the damage of a lot of years of neglect and abuse. She was very excited. 

I posted my wife’s baby picture on my Facebook account to show it off. My uncle saw it and asked if I could do something with a picture he had. It’s a picture of my cousin when she was much younger. It was pretty faded and he can’t find the negative.

First I popped what was there. 

Then I did some hand coloring to give her skin, hair and the fence some color. 

They both turned out really nice – and I enjoyed the process. Now, how to get people to pay me for this…