Red, White and Blue

All set for the Fourth!

Happy Fourth of July, everyone. I apologize for disappearing for such an unseemly length of time--I have been traveling with limited internet access. The house in the above antique photograph was all decked out with patriotic flags and bunting for the holiday, but unfortunately it was in black and white. Sometimes these were hand colored for a more festive look, and I decided to see if I could emulate this with a quickie photo editing program. My efforts were quite crude, but that sometimes is the charm of hand-colored photographs.


Here is the original photo:

First, I colored in the bunting, then added green shutters while incidentally fixing the roof:

The hydrant and telegraph pole were distracting, so they had to go, even though the kids in the photo might resent having their source of water removed on a hot July day.

Finally, a quick wash over the trees and lawn, and some garish pastels for the clothes completed the effect. I blush when I think how much better this could have been done by one of the talented bloggers out there, such as Mark Ruffner, but the project was fun, manipulating old photos is addictive, and now I am ready to celebrate America's Independence.