"Hy on Boat Trip Across June 43" (with Woodcut Effect)

On Veteran's Day, I like to post an image of my dad, taken from the snapshots in my mother's old photo album. My parents met because of World War II; my dad was born in Brooklyn but was stationed in Pueblo, Colorado, where he met my mother at a USO dance.  A few months later, they married, a short time before he was sent overseas. While my father was away, my mother kept a album of pictures taken back home in Pueblo as well as photos my dad sent from overseas. This image began as a snapshot that I found in my mother's album. Sometimes there are notes on the pages or on the backs of the photos. This one is marked with the date on the back but the handwritten caption under the photo says: "Hy on Boat Trip Across June 43".  So this is his trip across the Atlantic as a young soldier.  The photographer must have been a fellow soldier.  It was a bright day, and I imagine not so easy to hold the camera steady, obvious from the original photo (a snapshot, about 2 x 3 inches). Yesterday I used iPhoto to do some retouching, square up the image, and adjust the exposure. Then I used Painter to add the woodcut and posterizing effects.  Despite the problems with the photo, my dad is recognizable because of that smile. No doubt he enjoyed the sun and the ocean but I am not fooled. This picture was going to my mother.  I know he was afraid for his life because years later he told me so when he was facing surgery for lung cancer. My father was a very peaceful man; fighting was just not in his nature. But he left his parents, sisters and brothers, and new wife and traveled far from home to do his bit to defeat the Nazis and stand up to tyranny.  I think about that a lot lately and try to follow his example.