Can you trust your eyes?

One of the projects I have been working on here in Kenya is making the digital presence of Amani more attractive. They have had a number of products for sale online for a while now, but contribution has been giving them the nudge from normal to something special when it comes to some of their images (or at least that is what I am trying to do). For the past couple days I have been running photos from an extremely rushed quilt shoot through my computer.

Now, I am an okay photographer when i put my mind to it. I can take my chunky SLR out and get some nice shots, but what I enjoy even more is a little digital slight of hand. I love post-production. Sure taking out dust spots might not sound super to everyone, but giving a photo a little more life than it could naturally have really makes me happy. Here's a little example of what I am talking about:
Photo 1 is more or less what came straight off my camera. I was having a hard time getting the lighting right in our limited space and we were ducking the rain all day. Instead of our usual location to photograph quilts, we had to get these quilts shot in a few hours so the could be shipped. No time for the usual trek out to the tea fields. On top of that, while getting some of these beautiful quilts photographed, I noticed that the focus ring on my go-to lens is loose...which messes with my ability to focus in on the subject correctly. All-around this was not my best day of work, that and our garden at Amani was being replanted so we had a lot of bare spots. Here's what we got-
not bad... def not great

Here's what a little digital TLC turned it into-

Little bit of a difference. Maybe still not great but definitely better.
Just wanted to give you a little taste of the nuts and bolts of what serving in Kenya has looked like for me, and encourage those who are looking to serve abroad through non-traditional means, that your talents and interests can be put to use to help people

Wondering where you could snag one of these quilts? Check out Amani's etsy page at http://www.etsy.com/shop/AmaniYaJuu in a few weeks for some fresh listings.
B