1948 Photo Shoot

Our Christmas card

original color... before changing to sepia tone

My husband loves to restore things.  He can make lawn mowers and snowmobiles look brand new.  He can fix up an old wooden rocker or an antique dresser to look like they did in days gone by.  But, one of my favorite projects of his, was completed back in 1983 when he was just 19 years old.  All on his own, he completely restored a 1948 Ford Truck.  He bought the truck two years prior from an old man who wanted to make sure it was not turned into a hot rod.  That was no problem for Todd because he desired to restore it back to it's original form.  Now, all these years later, we still enjoy driving Todd's '48 Ford around town.  We often go to church on Sunday mornings in it.  

     Todd and I love "old stuff"....antiques, old movies, stories of our relatives' past, old photos, etc.  We go to steam-powered tractor shows and we are constantly on the look out for things we can grind in our grinder run with our flat belt stationary engine!  We love it when there are power outages so we can use all our kerosene lamps in our house.  And, we've been known to pull out an old record or two just to listen to it on our old record player.  So, when I suggested that Todd and I get dressed up in vintage 1948 clothing and do a photo shoot with the '48 Ford, he was all for it!  

     We had the truck, now we just needed the clothing and a photographer.  Luckily, I work with someone who has a daughter who enjoys making costumes for a small town's drama club.  So, one day when I was attending Sarah Sakry's production of "Little Women" (that she had adapted for stage herself!) I asked her if she'd have any costumes for my little photo shoot project.  A few weeks later, my co-worker Pam Thompson brought in a whole bag full of goodies for me to choose from.  I had a blast playing dress-up with it all.  I chose four of my favorites, took photos of myself wearing them and put them on Facebook to ask my friends which outfit they liked best.  It was basically a tie between two of the dresses.  So, when it came time to do the photo shoot, we had to take a little break so I could do a "quick change!"  

    When Todd and I got engaged in 2008, we asked our pastor and friend, Rob Olsen to take our engagement photos.  We just loved them!  Pastor Rob enjoys taking photos and does such a nice job. So, he was our first choice to be our photographer, and after being rained out three times, we finally found a day in early October to get our pictures taken.  It was such fun!  He took nearly 80 shots, but I've just chosen my favorites for this blog.

    We had Pastor Rob take all the photos in color, but I knew all along that I wanted the brown tone (sepia) for the final photos.  That's just the way I envisioned it.  So, if you look at the second photo on this blog (in color) you'll see that my blue shoes really do not match my outfit at all.... but that's okay because there wasn't going to be color in the end, anyway.  

    After our photo shoot time with Pastor Rob, I still wasn't done with our great costumes!  So, Todd and I set up the tripod and camera to take a few more shots of ourselves...this time with our old, antique radio from the 1930s.  Since listening to the radio was a very popular pastime in the 1940s, it seemed so very appropriate.  

     In our home we have a large framed poster on the wall with five of our favorite photos from that day.  We used one of the photos for our Christmas card.  And, I created a few Shutterfly presents using the photos too.  I'm so glad we took time to make this little dream of mine come true.  In fact, the photos turned out even better than I had imagined thanks to our awesome photographer, Pastor Rob, and thanks to the fabulous costumes from Sarah!  I'll forever be grateful to them both.  And, I'm bursting with glad that I have a husband willing to play along with my crazy ideas!  Enjoy!