A few months ago my Dad pulled out a picture in a frame and asked me if I would like to have it. I guess that I inherited my Grandmother's love of photographs because my heart skipped a beat. Old photos are usually treasured items in families that are kept on proud display or hidden away to keep them from being coveted by other family members. My own grandmother had a long standing feud with her sister over a box filled with images. So, when Dad held up a frame containing a picture of him on a bicycle at about 12 years old I didn't hesitate to grab it. For the last few months the picture has been proudly displayed on top of my roll top desk. One day I decided to get it out and scan it to digital to see if I could fix a couple of imperfections. This is the unedited version.
The major item that I wanted to fix is the scratch on his left arm. Other than that there were only a few minor issues such as that stuff I refer to as snow. The dusting of little white flecks all over the image that at one time I thought was lint. I have since dispelled this theory because I have cleaned the scanner bed and the problem is still there. So if anyone knows the solution to my problem I would love to hear it.
Here I have fixed the scratches and other imperfections that I found and decided to play with the color a little.
In this version I adjusted the tones of the overall image to make it appear a little richer.
In this version I added a sepia tone. I am not sure which one I prefer. After I play with images I have a hard time being objective. There is a little mystery in this photograph. It is not as easy to spot on the scanned image verses the real one but I will help you out a little.
If you look closely you can see clearly that there is a man standing in the field behind my Father. No one in my family knows who this man is. I suppose it could have been any of my Dad's cousins or extended family. Perhaps a neighbor. I wonder if this man knew he was in this photo? To sum it up, I love old photos, especially this one. I always have. Thanks Dad!
It's cheap entertainment and they are pretty cute. If I do say so myself.
Once upon a time when this little bugger was small....
It was easy to get a good smiley or giggly shot.
I said it was easy but it was not without some foolishness. Small ones laugh easily and readily if you are willing to put forth the "effort". What I mean by that is you have to act like an idiot.
Not a problem. When you give birth you leave so much of your dignity on the floor that you don't mind pulling faces and making heinous noises to get the attention of your munchkin for a millisecond.
It's just what you do.
Alas, there comes a time when they get a little bigger and the same honking sound, tongue clicking, or face pulling no longer gets the job done. The problem is, they have seen your whole bag of tricks. Unless you do a spot on Elmo impersonation it's all ovah baby!
And now you are in the same boat as me. You are left with a little smirky child who is bored with picture taking so you have to suffer through ten frames of this....
To get one of these..
And this is the evidence that what I am stating is the whole truth and nothing but.
To tell the truth though, some of the "natural" shots of my boy are the ones I like best. They capture his personality in a way that a sweet grin never will.
Anyone who is at least as old as I am should remember the now classic move The Karate Kid. If you don't, you slept through 1984.
This is a classic moment from the film in which Mr. Miyagi and Daniel are trying to catch flies with chopsticks. It makes me appreciate the fly swat inventor cause this method is for the birds!
Looks hard, right?
Let me show you something else that is not easy.
Meet my pumpkin.
She is cutting her baby teeth(or milk teeth for the British) and anything that comes within her arm's reach will be put into her mouth for chewing. At first feeding time was fairly easy. She waited paitently for each bite. Those days are gone.
Follow me.
Waiting like a little lady.
Now she sees Mommy with her peaches and it makes her H-A-P-P-Y!
She had her hand ready and plotted to take advantage of the close proximity of the spoon. See the determination in that face. Do not be fooled. Manners? She laughs in the face of manners! This is a war baby!
Here she is with her hand ready for what I think of as "the sneak".
Spoon leaves.
Insert finger.
It's a strange phenomenon. I don't understand it. I do understand the HUGE mess it makes. I used to try to wipe her off between bites to minimize the carnage. I gave that one up.
When I pause for any reason between bites.....
Stage 1: Impatient
Stage 2: A warning
Stage 3: The straw
Stage 4: A full blown fit(Yes, I am from Alabama and in the south, we "throw fits")
Next we have the aftermath....
The next bite gets more attention than the first one thought about.
Spoooon.....hhhaannds.....o my
Someone tell Kentucky Fried Chicken that peaches are where it's at. This is the new "finger lickin good".
So what's with the chopsticks intro? I was feeding her the other night and my husband must have heard one of my sighs because he asked if I was okay. For some reason The Karate Kid must have been on my mind because I replied, "This is almost as hard as catching flies with chopsticks".
I have not posted in a while because of frustration. I had a post that I spent a lot of time writing that got partially deleted and I could not retrieve it.
I have been racking my brain trying to figure out an easier way to work with text and pictures in the HTML editor but, alas I am not HTML fluent.
So I decided to use my flickr account to see what it could do for me. I am posting this from that site just to see what it looks like. I do not see a method for posting multiple pictures so I guess this is a dead end.
Anyway, this is one of my favorite pictures of my boy. He was just old enough to pull up in this shot. He used the water cooler for a little help. Like always he wanted to see if Mommy was watching so he turned around to look for me and as he did I snapped a picture of his beautiful cherub face.
I am a mommy to two wonderful children and a wife to the best man in the world. I have a mechanical engineering degree but am currently staying at home with my babies. So I am the Momgineer!
