3 posts tagged “jim”

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

(Those with an aversion to hunting may wish to skip this post.)

I normally use a very light touch with Photoshop--not doing much more than fixing up scans of old photos, color/contrast correction, and occasionally removing distracting details. But for this photo I decided to do a bit more:

Hunters (Original)

It's a picture of Drake, his Dad, and his brother this past hunting season. I didn't take the photo (I didn't go back this year for hunting season) -- a family friend did. It was taken with our old digital camera, which Drake brought with him. I loved the photo of the three guys, but felt the photo needed a little something.

The inspiration came from a beloved family photo of hunting in the mid-1950's. That little guy in this pic is Drake (with his folks, of course).

Hunters c. 1956

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And so I decided to do an antique-y treatment on the photo, but I didn't want to go all the way to black-and-white or duotone. I wound up doing more of a faded-color-print effect, with a bit of a "burned" edge around it:

Hunters (a little bit vintage)

Drake found the perfect bronze-hammered-metal frame, which provided just the right rustic touch. I thought the whole thing turned out quite nicely--and both Drake's brother and his folks really enjoyed received the framed prints.

I took this photo in November of 2005. It's of my niece Jess and I included it in a iPhoto book of the 2005 deer hunting season that I gave Drake's folks. A couple of weeks ago Drake's Dad asked if he could have an 8x10 print of this photo - that it was his favorite photo of Jess. I just got the print (framed) in the mail to him today.

Jess

I had a photography instructor who maintained that 90% of a good photo is the light. I wished I had framed this photo better (without cutting off the top of her head), but I love the light in it - coming from the big picture window in the hunting cabin.

Last night, I put my order in for my new digtial SLR. I love taking photos, particularly of people, but had grown so weary of the limitations with our digital point-and-shoot. I am looking forward to a whole lot of photo fun in 2007.