Marty’s photo of the day #5012: In 2004, Deb and I were on a 53-mile-long backpacking trip through Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe when we came across a pack of 18 painted dogs. At the time, there were only 700 painted dogs in Zimbabwe and 4,000 in all of Africa. We sat and watched the pack until they took off after an impala. Unfortunately, the distance between us and the pack challenged the lightweight zoom lens on my camera.

This shot is part of 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,” 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.