Voyeuristic Photo Tech

A new grandma came in a wanted to print photos of her brand-new grand-baby, still in the hospital. Her son wouldn't let her use the flash, so we had to work around the florescent lighting. When the photos came out, they were very yellow, and a tad green. She hadn't bothered to correct them at all. I told her I would able to fiddle with them on the main computer we had. She was to come back after dinner. (She took her son out for a celebration dinner...not sure how I would feel if my hubs was out and about right after I gave birth.) I was able to color-correct the images to an acceptable near- flesh tone. There was still a green and yellow tint, but it was slight, and it just showed where the images were taken. One of them was of the proud papa and stressed-out newborn. There were some hospital see-it-all lamps behind them, and when I adjusted the brightness and the color, the lamp glowed from behind them like an translucent and eerie (in a good way) cloud. It looked almost ghost-like, and despite the modern equipment and clothes, it looked like it could transcend through time. They were memorable and beautiful images, and I feel blessed to have been able to see them. I wish there were more pictures of my birth experience.

Sometimes I feel very lucky when people allow me access to their images. I very much enjoy the glimpse into people's lives. It gives me time to think about the fact that even in this day and age, we still like our images printed, we still need to have a snapshot of that birthday or that car ride. I also like looking through old photos and postcards when I browse in antique stores. I'm that nosey.

A photo regular of mine came in, having stolen her husband's camera when he was sleeping so she could make prints of his images. We spent a long time talking about her fish images, which were of the fish they caught, her with the fish, and some fish guts on the ground. I printed 246 4x6s for her because her husband is a good photographer and had images from 2010. She can't see very well, and has a really thick accent, and she is getting old and crazy. But I like looking through her images, because evidentially she is very active. I also helped her pick out mousse.

When my coworker went on her fifteen minute break, I thought she went on her lunch, which means I thought it was a lot later than it was. The day dragged on.