Here I am once again delving into my photo archives from those days when my son was small and my photography skills not so wonderful. I chose a photo of my son on a carousel at the mall. He seems so small. He is not exactly happy but neither is he unhappy. He just is. For whatever reason, I didn’t get the full carousel creature in the frame. In the background, other moms can be seen attending to little ones who each ride their own creature. What I want though, is to focus on him and only him. I want to capture the intense color of the hippocampus (half horse, half sea creature) on which he rides. I don’t have another chance to go and take this photo again. My son is now a teenager. So I just need to work with what I have in front of me.
Enjoy the Journey by Christy Strickler |Supplies Patterned Paper: My Mind’s Eye: Tape: Little B, Queen and Co.,Pinkfresh Studio; Stickers: Freckled Fawn, Crate Paper;Jewel: Freckled Fawn;Glitter Glue: Stickles; Sequins: PinkFresh Studio; Based on Scrapbook Challenges Sketch #439
I wrote about editing older, blurry photos before. However, today I used a different method to edit this photo. I chose to use the blur tool in photoshop element to blur the background portions of the image. The carousel scene is still visible but I feel as though my son is more prominent in the photo. I used several filters in Totally Rad Labs to add saturation and a whimsical feel. It fits with the carousel theme and adds a dream like quality to the photo.
Since I chose a busy text style background for the canvas, I didn’t embellish a lot. I chose one section of the text to become the title. Normally, the photo might hide the text. I used my craft knife to gently cut a portion of the words. This allowed me to slide the photo underneath. I then used glitter glue to make the words stand out a bit from the background. It made for an easy title and guided some of my journaling a bit.
Even though some of the photos I have of my son are blurry, I still plan to use them. I delete the worst of the lot saving those which can be edited for a better look. After all, I can’t go back in time to fix my photography mistakes and I still want to document these stories.
Scrapbook Challenges with Old, Blurry Photos