Riding the Toy Train (Restored Photo)

Riding the Toy Train (Restored Photo) Originally uploaded by randubnick

My father was born on August 28, 1918, and would have been 90 today! This is one of my favorite photos of him, taking my cousin and me for a ride on the toy train. (My cousin is the little girl sitting on his lap.) This photo was taken in Pueblo, Colorado, but I am not sure whether this was at City Park or at the State Fair. The picture was probably taken by my uncle Ike, professional photographer and family historian. After my dad died, I did a painting based on this photo, and gave it to my cousin. On my trip to Colorado earlier this month, I took a digital photo of the painting (which is hanging in her house) and plan to post it tomorrow. I had planned to post this photo first, but it needed to be rescued. There were a few marks and small scratches on it, exactly in the wrong place, one on my father's face, and another on the hair. So I opened the image in Painter IX and used digital pastel to restore the photo. It was like doing a bit of portraiture because I had to draw in the parts of the features covered up by the scratch. Anyway, here is the rescued photograph. Tomorrow I will post the painting.