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Operation Photo Rescue and DigMyPics

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Operation Photo Rescue was approached more than a year ago by Katie Miller, MFA, Associate Professor of Web and Digital Media Development at University Wisconsin-Stevens Point, about getting her students involved in helping restore photos. We communicated by emails infrequently, but that was all to change when earlier this year a letter was sent out to the membership asking for donations to fund a trip to Cedar Rapids, IA that had been hard hit by flooding.

OPR not only received a donation from Katie, but an offer to volunteer as needed for the Cedar Rapids trip.  The Chair of her department at UW-Stevens Point allowed Katie to donate her time volunteering, and the university also granted partial funding to cover some of her travel expenses. Cengage Learning, the publisher of Katie’s photography textbook, Photography for the 21st Century, also donated funds to cover her travel expenses.

This was great news as Katie is an excellent photographer and would be traveling with camera and equipment. I don’t know who was the most excited about the Cedar Rapids trip—Katie or her students. Check more about the trip on Cedar Rapids Blog.

Being involved with Operation Photo Rescue means getting the chance to work with some pretty amazing people and Katie was no exception. Most of the time she worked the camera and we teased her that she would be sore from kneeling and bending over the camera/tripod to get the best picture. Helping Katie was Christine Crossen, daughter of Scott Crossen with DigMyPics. Seeing how well they worked together gave a good indication of her ability to work well with students. Upon returning from their trip, Scott had this to say: “Katie, Christine’s time with you really reinvigorated her love of taking photos and she couldn’t stop talking about you.”

When Katie returned, photos from the Cedar Rapids copy run were available for her students to work on. I asked that she keep me posted about their progress and also send some photos. One of her emails says it all: “My students are now working on OPR files. They’re so engrossed with the work that I have to turn off their monitors to get their attention! Thank goodness there’s a switch at the front of the classroom for that purpose!”

Here are a couple of comments from the students and what the experience meant to them:

“I think that photos are a priceless memory and keepsake. For there to be an organization who helps others when those memories get destroyed or damaged is outstanding. I love that I was given the opportunity to learn about this organization and learn how to do the process myself is something that I’m really grateful for. When working on this photo I was very excited when one section got fixed because I felt like I uncovered another piece of the puzzle. I also got to explore with new tools to do a task and it allowed me to really expand my skills.

And from another student:

“The OPR photos we were exposed to in class were part of an enriching learning experience. These photos represented real lives and real feeling of a diverse group of people. We, WDMD students, could express our own emotions through the retouching of these photos. I know I tried to be as precise as I could because I had an idea in the back of my mind that who ever photo I was working on would be greatly appreciated and would bring back fond memories that might have once been lost. These photos gave us a sense of real life and challenged us to develop well thought out retouching techniques. I’m glad I had the opportunity to work on these photos which led me to feel like I was a part of OPR.”

And from Katie, this note:

“Thanks much Margie! This is really great. From my perspective this has been an excellent project for the students. Not only did it bring them into a real world project, but it also encouraged them to see the importance of photography from a social community perspective. It also honed their visual analysis skills and forced them to learn Photoshop at a whole new level.”

All Photos CourtesyTom Charlesworth