just getting started here

[PaulC]

From Colchester, VT  US and Owen Sound, ONT  CA. Just learning how to navigate through these forums etc. A Photoshop hobbyist for several years. Hope I can contribute to OPR.

[Mhayes]

Hi Paul, welcome to OPR from Kansas. Have fun navigating through the forum and it will keep you out of trouble and off the streets.  :)  Seriously, it really is a great way to pick up some tips and when you are ready, post your first restore (both the original and WIP) to see if anything else need to be done. I think you will have fun here and it really helps to get pointers. Thanks for volunteering.

Margie

[PaulC]

I've poked around here in various corners just to learn the forum design and layout. One thing I haven't found is OPR history. Is there anything reviewing how OPR got started, grew legs and started running? Just curious. Also, how it operates.

[Tess (Tassie D)]

Paul unfortunately the original blog on web.mac is lost I think. That had some great photos etc.
This is one that our original founder wrote about the trip to Biloxi. http://www.operationphotorescue.org/forum/index.php/topic,883.0.html
There are quite a few in his office there to read.
There is also our main blog here http://www.operationphotorescue.org/2006/08/ which goes back to 2006 so you can read forward from there.

There is also our gallery with many photos showing the Biloxi copyrun and others. this will give you an idea of how it works. http://www.operationphotorescue.org/forum/index.php?action=gallery;cat=1

[Tori803]

Operation Photo Rescue was founded in 2006 by photojournalists Dave Ellis and Becky Sell in response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, August 29, 2005, along the Gulf Coast of the United States.  On assignment from her employer, the Free Lance-Star of Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA, Sell photographed the damaged region and the emotional turmoil of the hurricane victims. Her editor, Ellis, was struck by one photograph in particular. "Our photographer took a shot of a woman standing in front of her destroyed house holding one of the few objects she was able to find still intact, a framed portrait of herself that was destroyed by mold and water. When I saw the picture, that's when the seed of the restoration idea popped into my head. I asked the photographer what the woman had done with the picture and she said she had thrown it away. We began to discuss the idea of restoring damaged pictures for people, give them at least some pre-disaster memories back. A group of us went down for a week and just kind of flew by the seat of our pants."

With the support of the Free Lance-Star of Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA, Ellis and See traveled to Pass Christian, Mississippi, and collected some 300 photographs for restoration. According to Ellis, "This was something we do every day in our jobs, and here you're face to face with the subjects and victims of this tragedy. We can help and we can reap the reward of doing something valuable for another human being."

Reports of their project were published by the Associated Press, the Evansville (Indiana) Courier and Press, a Biloxi TV station, and a local newspaper.  Ellis and Sells also started an online journal,  began to recruit friends and colleagues, and became a 501(c)(3) organization with volunteers from around the world.

Activities

Operation Photo Rescue has made copy runs to collect damaged photographs in Mississippi, Louisiana, Minnesota, Texas, Iowa, Georgia, and Tennessee.  OPR has also received photos from the Galveston Historical Society, the African American Museum of Iowa, and from California wildfires.

[PaulC]

Thanks Tess and Tori. That's a great Biloxi story. It's going to be fascinating to work along and learn more about OPR.