Please take me up on this!

You may notice a lot of the pictures I post here are a bit...grainy (like the one in my previous post of Sam smoochin' Joe). I do my best to touch them up, make them look cool or edgy or what have you. Often, they end up black and white, because that's really the only way they work. Truth be told, I really just need to learn how to use my flash properly. I can't stand the pictures I take with the flash. Too stark, always that sharp shadow framing the subject matter and the ever present red eye. So usually I slow the shutter speed down to just-before-blurry ( 1/30 or so) and up my ISO. The result? I'll get the perfect little moment captured, but ugh, it's dark and who wants a picture that looks like this?



The good thing about this is that I have gotten pretty good at "rescuing" photos. They don't always come out like I wish, but usually it's loads better than what I started out with.


I have also found that I really enjoy it...it's a challenge. It appeals to the treasure hunter in me. The same part of me that has me buying dilapidated pieces of furniture from thrift stores and watching those shows about panning for gold in New Jersey. (Amy, there are emeralds in North Carolina, emeralds! I think a field trip is required next time in Asheville). And what better treasure than Memere with her boys at Christmas!





So the other day on Oprah, they were talking about jobs. You know that whole "follow your passion" kind of talk, which always makes me a littlte sad, because I have no idea what that may be. They also spoke of knowing yourself, and working with your personality...to see negatives as positives and working to exploit your personality traits for a benefit. I have always been a good assistant. I like to help people with things that are important to them. It's a people-pleaser curse, but I really feel a sense of pride and content when I am able to provide someone with information, or service that makes their life easier. Especially when it is something they don't know how, or have the time, to do for themselves. When I worked for the GC, I really enjoyed helping my less than computer-literate superiors with all sorts of personal projects...vacation booking, photo organizing, internet research.

Anyway, where am I going with all this? I was thinking, what if I combined these two parts of my personality? Help rescue some photos for other people. I know these kind of services are available all over the place, but I am bored and need to DO something...connect with other people, help them out. It would be totally free. I, of course, can't do a ton of this, but hey, shoot me a photo and I'll see what I can do!

So, do you have a pic that just KILLS you that the light wasn't better, color seems strange, the flash didn't go off, or even the weird guy in the background distsracts from it all? Been trying to find the time to figure out how to make it look better, but don't have the energy to figure it out? Send it to me and I'll tinker with it! All I ask is that I can post the results here.

email a jpeg to ksunger@yahoo.com