Evolution of a family heirloom

[HAB911]

Obviously, I didn't take this photograph, but I want to share it with those I believe can really appreciate it. Photographs are as close to a time machine as we have. I can't count the hours spent bringing it to life. The original is a 2.75in x 4.5in negative taken by my mother or father of my older brother, by 12 years, (RIP dear brother) in about 1942 or 1943. He is standing on my dad's new Southern Bell telephone truck. The first photo is the raw scan, the second is the processed b/w, and just today......I colorized it. I really hope you enjoy it.

[Glorfindel]

1. Excellent

Thanks for sharing, HAB911.

[MLAA]

2. Super cool! Was it taken in Rural Florida?

My parents grew up in North Florida and I visited there many times and always got sand in my shoes! The roads were dirt roads until the mid 70s if I remember right.

[HAB911]

22. That was taken near Athens Georgia

and thanks, it has been a project of love

[wendyb-NC]

3. Excellent work

You have brought the past to life. That's a mesmerizing photo. Thanks, for sharing the picture and how you made that forgotten memory back to life.

[Cracklin Charlie]

4. Love brother's bibs!

Handsome little feller.

[Heartstrings]

5. Way cool!

What a treasure!

Beautiful!

[AndyS]

6. Well done!

Much better than Ted Turner!

[brer cat]

7. Nice work!

[Callalily]

8. You did a wonder job!

We should all cherish and preserve family photos. They tell such wonderful stories and bring back such wonderful memories.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

9. This is just wonderful, my dear HAB! What a great memory. ♥

[StopTheNeoCons]

10. Beautiful work!

[patphil]

11. What make is the truck?

[BHDem53]

17. Ford.

[HAB911]

23. yes, probably a '42 Ford

just before he went into the Navy as a SeaBee, telephone communications of course and eventually served on a PT boat base in New Guinea

[Grumpy Old Guy]

33. My uncle served on P.T. boats in the South Pacific.

He had two boats shot out from beneath him.

[HAB911]

34. Old Chinese proverb

"Nut not fall far from tree"

As Seabees worked somewhat outside of normal channels, he came back with a mahogany chest full of photographs and contraband I spent a year on the DMZ and came back with a load of photos myself. The commonality of the two sets is astounding. The Army however took all my contraband, lol.

Here are a couple of my very first consciously taken as a "photographer" while in Korea, and I have hundreds.


https://www.democraticunderground.com/103678326

[George II]

12. Looks like a Bell Telephone or AT&T trunk?

[HAB911]

29. Yes, Bell System

you can see the WWII gas ration sticker on the windshield, just before he went into the Navy '42 or '43

[George II]

30. An interesting piece of trivia that many people don't know about - gas wasn't rationed because....

....there was a shortage of gasoline. It was rationed because there was a shortage of rubber for tires and it was needed for the military.

Probably the only useful thing to come out of WWII was the development of synthetic rubber.

[Grumpy Old Guy]

13. Nice job!

Back in the day, before instamatics, amateur cameras used roll film with decent sized negatives. Unfortunately, they were often "box cameras" with no control over the settings. We often got contact prints back from the photoprocessor.

Nice job on the colorization. Did you try a version with perhaps a little more saturation?

Grumpy

[alfredo]

20. The cool cast "ages" the image.

[Grumpy Old Guy]

21. That's true.

👍👍👍

[HAB911]

24. funny you should ask

I deliberately dialed down the saturation, knowing that some would not like the very idea of colorization, to give it just a touch of age

[Grumpy Old Guy]

26. LOL! The heck with those people.

One of the things that I hate about colorization is that it usually looks so pallid. The world didn't really look like that. Nature is a colorful place. We have Kodachrome, Technicolor and other color processes from those days, and the colors were saturated. I say go for it.

Just my humble opinion.

[Grumpy Old Guy]

27. What do you think?

[HAB911]

28. LOL, yes that is good

reminds me of Technicolor, like it was just taken yesterday!

I will probably offer the family several versions for mounting/framing. There are at least seven b/w copies in the family, the largest is around ~16x20, but I plan on this guy going to full frame at 17x30, maybe bigger, most likely on aluminum.

[Grumpy Old Guy]

32. It's nice that you're able to do that for the family.

[alfredo]

36. I like what you did. You added a bit of a warm cast?

[Grumpy Old Guy]

37. Thanks.

I just added a little bit of overall saturation to the entire image. I was careful to bring out some of the green in the foliage without going too far to the little boy's flesh tones. It was just a quick edit on my phone in Snapseed. If I was going to do a more serious edit I would apply some correction to the truck too, while still protecting the little boy's face, maybe just adding a little warmth there.

[alfredo]

38. It's fine as is.

[TNNurse]

14. Nicely done, old friend.

[HAB911]

25. thanks, you know how I love photography!

[SergeStorms]

15. A moment in time...

preserved forever.

Love your progression of photo processing.

[PatrickforB]

16. Really well done!!!

[reACTIONary]

18. Great! Fantastic! nt

[alfredo]

19. You did a great job restoring that picture.

[HAB911]

31. thank you

it was a real labor of love

[alfredo]

35. Restoring family photos is a labor of love