THIS is exactly what I LOVE doing! I may not have been the photographer for my cousin's wedding but she allowed me to put my magical touches to this photo. When I first saw this photo, a vision popped into my head. And to our amazement, this glorious photo came to be...

My heart aches for every one who is suffering from current natural disasters of fires and floods. Fortunately, in some aspect, my family and I haven't been affected by fire or flood. However, we have experienced the tremendous smoke from nearby fires.

On our recent trip to the Grand Tetons we met a wonderful couple who are from Texas. The woman is a wedding planner and brought up the idea that many photo albums are probably damaged due to the floods. And they would need to be saved as much as possible. This brought an idea to my mind....

So you had an amateur photographer for your wedding. Or simply that your favorite photo didn't come out right like the lighting shifted due to clouds or the sun, your best pose/smile/look was not at the ideal location, or someone ran into the frame at the same time. Whatever the case may be, the point is, when you look at your photo, you're not happy.
My mother remarried back when I was in college studying to be a Digital Imagist aka Photo Retoucher. I've learned photography and had a job with the College's newspaper as a Photo Journalist. (That sounds so cool doesn't it?) 
I was so excited about this new photography skill and having the means to borrow a professional camera I asked my mother to be her photographer. What does she say? "Of course!"
Little did I know that it takes more than a pro camera to take stunning wedding photos. I was still so new that I totally missed that special Newly Wed couple pose of magic. The best one they like is...well...you can see below...Just you wait to see how it comes out in the end!

Don't you just love newborn squishiness? I was given the privilege to photograph this special little newborn still in the hospital. Yes! Still at the hospital. No special equipment, lighting, tools was needed. Just my camera and flash. And a blanket.
Then comes the magic....

That's my motto when it comes to challenging restoration projects.
Take this photo, for instance. 
​Looking at it closely you can see it's almost like a dot print art.
Not much detail to work with. I thought it would take days for me to clean this up. But as I started working on it........