Photo gift #2: Drake's Dad

I've been trying to organize some of my photos, getting a few of the better shots together in some folders. I came across this photo, which I took in 2004, of Drake's Dad in the old machine shed (which interestingly enough blew down this year and was recently replaced). It's part of a series of shots I took of both Drake and his Dad in the old machine shed.

Jim (original shot)

I'm not sure how Jim would feel about this picture of himself, but I think it captures so much about him: his thoughtful nature and his love of farm machinery. I wanted to give Drake a framed print of it for Christmas. This was another photo, however, where I felt it needed a little something. I decided to highlight Jim more by blurring/darkening the surroundings a bit. I did my best to use a light hand with this, so it wouldn't look too contrived.

Jim (reworked, slightly)

It always makes me a little nervous to work with photos in Photoshop in this way, because it's so easy (at least for me) to totally wreck a nice photo (not really of course because I'm working non-destructively). But I like how this turned out.

Here it is in the frame:

Framed