When I was learning about photography, I was also living in Belgium and shooting film (yeah, back in the day). I had my hubby’s old beat up Canon AE1 and a 50mm lens and a 100mm lens. That was it for gear and I would walk around and shoot b/w and color film all day long. Of course, I was not an expert in how to create a crisp clear photo, but I like to think I took some nice photos that reflected what I was doing at the time and had some redeemable qualities at some point in processing. Of course, at that time, I was shooting film and the only way to post process on my terms was with a dark room.

Hero that he is, my hubby again came through with building a little dark room in the basement of our little Belgian townhouse. And so, I went to work learning the ins and outs of creating prints from my black and white film.

Fast forward to now and I have all this 20+ year old b/w film in notebooks and I’m starting to digitize and restore some of my favorite shots. Kinda like going back in time to see these images. I swear I can remember when I took the shot and where and a whole lot more of what was going on that day.

And thanks to some cool digital tools, the scratches and dust can be removed and blur can be added or removed. I try not to do too much to these particular images just because I want to see how I can improve them without losing the integrity of the shot and my skills at the time. But, so you know they are enhanced and it is done with digital tools in Photoshop, Lightroom and DXO.

“You might see an angel anytime and anywhere. Of course you have to open your eyes to a kind of second level, but it’s not really hard. The whole business of what’s reality and what isn’t has never been solved and probably never will be. So I don’t care to be too definite about anything.”

— Blue Horses: Poems by Mary Oliver

More Recovery Coming

I plan to keep working on these photos over the next few months. And will post in a new gallery of Black/White so stay tuned. Recovering photos and memories is kind of a nice way to spend a morning. And I plan to keep looking, seeing and being in tune with things around me… might see an angel anytime, anywhere.