Marty’s photo of the day #5020: Exploring the Everglades was the only adventure in my nonfiction books where my wife didn’t accompany me. I was on a college speaking tour in Florida and scheduled multiple days off for exploring. Because I had to pack all my college speaking gear, the only camera I had room for was a little pocket Canon. At the time, the Everglades trip wasn’t in my thoughts for inclusion in a book, but so many interesting events happened that it forced its way into “Endangered Edens.” I was able to capture some high-quality images with that little pocket Canon, but I also had a greater percentage of “just missed” shots than I would have had if I’d been able to bring my Canon digital SLR and multiple lenses. Without a long lens, capturing publishable images of this anhinga took stealth and patience. Some turned out fine, but this one was a little soft because the anhinga was moving. I made it another subject for my photo revival project, as explained below:

Although my current books are fiction, my first two books, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents and Endangered Edens: Exploring the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, the Everglades, and Puerto Rico, were nonfiction, featuring photos and stories of Deb’s and my adventures as we traveled the world looking for rare and interesting wildlife.

Those travels took place between 2001 and 2014, and in the years following, digital cameras, photo editing programs, and my own photo editing skills have come a long way. My current project is to revisit photos I rejected for my books but might have included had I been able to overcome their quality issues.

Now, with better editing skills and programs, I can save many photos I couldn’t have saved before. While not all blurry, soft, or noisy photos are repairable, it’s tremendously satisfying to revive photos where the animals did their job, but either I or my equipment failed.