START YOUR ENGINES! (1914)

Welcome to the American Photo Colorizing.com photo blog. We colorize black & white photos for museums, television, print media . . . and families like yours.

A visit to our website gets you started: http://www.americanphotocolorizing.com

The year is 1914. You can almost smell the exhaust and smoke in the air in this image of an American auto race of 100 years ago. As always, a little color makes all the difference. So, if you don’t want to whiff the fumes – just focus on the black & white image.

LINCOLN & McCLELLAN (1862)

Welcome to the American Photo Colorizing.com photo blog. We colorize black & white photos for museums, educators, media . . . and families like yours.

A visit to our website gets you started: http://www.americanphotocolorizing.com

The year is 1862. It’s October 2nd. President Lincoln makes a rare battlefield visit to discuss General McClellan’s handling of the Battle of Antietam. McClellan led the Union Army to victory – however, General Lee and his troops were allowed to escape. Despite Lincoln’s belief that McClellan was a capable general – he released him from command a month later.

I actually created a composite of two photos of Lincoln’s meeting with McClellan, to get the most complete record of the scene, as well as the best clarity possible, prior to colorizing. If you look carefully at the Black & White images, you can see how the composite photo was made. This process was tedious, as the photos also needed to be cleaned up. The effort paid off, however, and now we have as complete a record of the meeting as possible – and it’s in full-color!

ACTRESS, ELLEN TERRY (1864)

Welcome to American Photo Colorizing .com’s photo blog,.We colorize black & white photos for museums, television, print media, and families like yours. A visit to our website gets you started: http://www.americanphotocolorizing.com

The year is 1864 – REALLY! A beautiful girl posed for this haunting photo at the age of 16 . . . in 1864. Her name was Ellen Terry, and she became Britain’s top Shakespearean actress, performing on both sides of ‘the pond’. Ellen’s theatrical career spanned 7 decades – into the 1920s. But, here we find her frozen in time at 16 years old – during the American Civil War era. This is an excellent example of how color can bring a 150 year-old scene into the present.

In May 2015, just a few short months ago, we were commissioned to colorize a small collection of Civil War-era etchings and photos for Washington, DC’s “Grand Review Parade of 2015”. You can find a full presentation of the Grand Review on our website’s “Welcome” page: http://www.americanphotocolorizing.com

The parade was broadcast on C-Span – and our colorized Civil War images were used for all Grand Review promotion and souvenir items.
Here’s the official souvenir book with one of our colorized photos featured on the cover.

GRAND REVIEW PARADE 2016

Welcome to the American Photo Colorizing.com photo blog. We colorize black & white photos for museums, television & film, print media . . . and families like yours.

A visit to our website gets you started: http://www.americanphotocolorizing.com

In May 2015, just a few short months ago, we were commissioned to colorize a small collection of Civil War-era etchings and photos for Washington, DC’s “Grand Review Parade of 2015”. You can find a full presentation of the Grand Review on our website’s “Welcome” page: http://www.americanphotocolorizing.com

The parade was broadcast on C-Span – and our colorized Civil War images were used for all Grand Review promotion and souvenir items.
Here are the official souvenir book and two t-shirt logos, all featuring our colorizations.

SPANISH MISSION (1912)

Welcome to the American Photo Colorizing.com photo blog. We colorize black & white photos for museums, television & film, print media . . . and families like yours.

A visit to our website gets you started: http://www.americanphotocolorizing.com

It all started with a simple post from Sheryl on David’s Facebook page: “Color this?”.

“Hey this is Sheryl I posted this picture for David to color…dont you think it would look great? Let him know…”
September 1 at 1:42pm

Joseph W. (Florida): “You do amazing work”.

Roy K. (California): “I know that this pic would look absolutely awesome and fantastic when David gets through with it, and I know this because he’s the best at what he does”.

With that kind of build-up, who could resist? And so, I proceeded to burn the midnight oil as I hovered over my computer keyboard . . .

The year is 1912. The San Buenaventura Mission in Ventura, CA (home of American Photo Colorizing) was founded by Franciscan priest, Junipero Serra in 1782. The first church building was destroyed by fire. Construction on the present church and additional buildings was begun in 1792, and completed in 1809. The dedication ceremony took place on September 9, 1809 – 206 years ago this week.

The church serves as a Catholic Parish to this day – and with its serene gardens and rustic interior – is also a very popular Southern California tourist attraction. The current Pastor is Father Tom Elewaut – a friend of American Photo Colorizing. It never hurts to have friends in high places!

Here is the San Buenaventura Mission as it looks today – fresh and modern, with a white exterior coat.

If you’re in the Los Angeles-Santa Barbara area of Southern California – Ventura is freeway-close along the Ventura Freeway (101 Freeway), or take scenic Pacific Coast Highway north from Santa Monica. Along with the mission, Ventura County boasts some of the top surfing spots in the USA – Surfers Point, Rincon, and Ventura County Line among them. End of tourism commercial.

* Scenic Ventura photos Copyright 2015 by American Photo Colorizing