The Windsor/Detroit Waterfront

    I took these few shots I share here today back on June 28, 2007.  I was at the Windsor waterfront with a friend of mine form church and a friend of his; who was an amateur photographer.  I had only had my new camera for a few months and hadn't started really learning how to use it yet.  He showed me how to set the aperture to stay open longer with the camera on a tri-pod.  He explained to me that with the aperture open longer for a night shot it allowed the lights to be focused longer and the picture to appear crisper.  I have to admit that when I got home and opened this shot I was pretty happy.  The picture and composition was like a post card.  I was hooked and had to try more.

    As the sun sank that night, the sky lit up a rich orange.  I focused my camera with a zoom lens across the river where this lone water tower stuck up between some buildings. All of which appeared to be abandoned and dark. The contrast of the rich, bright orange sky and the blacked out buildings made for this shot. I think it turned out pretty good. 

     While strolling along looking for shots and talking we came to this spot where the pier jutted out into the river with an old fashioned lamp post at the end. I liked the composition of the rail in the for ground with the pier and it's lamp centered and the Ren Cen of the Detroit Sky line in the background and finally the light of the lamp on the water through the rails. So I set up the tri-pod again and set the aperture to stay open for about 14 seconds. My friend had said "one is good, two is better".  Meaning it was always better to take at least 2 shots to insure you got the shot.  So I reset and was about to take the shot when a couple walked out  to the end of the pier. I was going to wait for them to leave but thought they could stay there for quite some time and so figured a shot with people on the pier might be cool. So I took the shot. After about 4 second of the aperture being open they walked off the pier. I figured the shot was spoiled and took a third. When I got home and checked the shot though I was pleasantly surprised. Take a look at what I found .....

    Look closely at the end of the pier and you see a "Ghost Figure" there, under the lamp.  I couldn't have staged such a shot if I had wanted to at that point in my photographic knowledge.  I had come away with a cool shot that I didn't plan or know I had. The lady was wearing an older style trench coat and appears to be an apparition from the past looking at the current state of the waterfront. All in all it was good night of learning and snapping photo's.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them and discovering the passion of Photography. I will always "Remember When ...." I took my camera for a stroll by the waterfront. 

Photo's Tell the Stories of Our Lives

    I have always been interested in family and knowing who everyone is and or was. It was only natural that I became the family Genealogist. I have collected and copied most of my mother's older family photo's that she inherited as the executor of her parents estate. I have also seen to restoring the ones that were a little rough.  This was my first efforts at Photo Restoration. The first Photo I did was not to bad, but took me nearly 5 hours to restore. Now I could do even better quality work in about half an hour. I have restored dozens of our family photo's at this point and printed and shared them with the extended family. Some of them when they were younger caused the damage to the photo's (throwing darts at them, when mad) and now as they are older and have kid's of their own, appreciate the work and effort it took to put restored copies into their hands, to cherish. I have also collected the photo's from my father and his brother had all the old negatives which I went through and brought back to life. I have also met extended relatives/distant cousins on line and shared photo's. Again, I restored photo's they shared that needed the restoration. My father about 25 years ago bought a really nice camera with lenses and all sorts of attachments. I loved it and couldn't wait to use it. Later I was able to finally afford my own semi-professional camera. I bought a Canon DSLR Rebel  a few years ago. I have been taking pictures whenever I can.
     On this site I will share the restorations I have done and some of the photo's I have taken. I am still quite the novice at using and taking photo's but i hope to continue learning and growing in my knowledge and love of photography. My son has taken an interest in photography also and he has taken some pretty good shots. If he wants to we'll share some of those too. After all that is what Genealogy and photography are all about, sharing the past through photo's and memories, and that is why I will always 'Remember When...."

Side by side The original on the left and the restoration on the right. 

This was one of the first photo's I restored. I have already posted the restored photo on my genealogy blog "Remember When Genealogy" . 

It is my great grandfather Eugene Lafleur and great grandmother Marie Louise (nee Trudel). 

Originally taken in 1956 after 40yrs of marriage.