If you’ve been keeping up with me, you might remember that I’ve been going into my archives and revisiting images that never got the proper attention that they deserved when they were first created.  I’ve been taking a second look.

Recently, I was asked if I might have any images from Ireland that would be suitable to decorate a family waiting room in a local nursing home.  A local family wanted to decorate this austere room in memory of their mother who recently passed away and simultaneously provide a warm, welcome environment where other families could visit.  Since the family had proud Irish roots, they thought an Irish theme to the room would create that welcoming atmosphere.

I’ve been to Ireland twice and both times have come home with thousands of images. Ireland is an image rich land and it is a photographer’s dream location. But, after the initial excitement of arriving home and downloading the images, life often takes over and I don’t have the time to thoroughly review and process all the images.  So, in preparing a selection of images for the nursing home, I had the pleasure of revisiting Ireland all over again.  And the gift of time gives me a different perspective regarding the images. That seemed to fit the bill of a second look, so I thought I would share a few of the images here.

If you are not a photographer, here is where I’m going to let you in on one of the industry’s acronyms, SOOC.  Well, I was going to tell you what it means but then thought it would be interesting to see if you can figure it out.  As you will see in this gallery of images, there is a “before” and an “after” image.  The “before” is without any processing or enhancements and the “after” is well, after.  I process the digital file to optimize the exposure and other settings (digital images are usually low in contrast and saturation in their original form), then do various enhancements to the image based on both my memory and my vision for the scene.  SOOC is the “before” image.  Any idea what that stands for?   Leave a comment with your guess below.  I’ll send a set of 4 Irish note cards featuring a few of these images to a randomly chosen person with the correct answer.

All of these images are available as prints in the Ireland collection here.

Please remember to share this if you know someone who would enjoy my work.  Thank you!