Meet Eric Basir

"I appreciate the importance of maintaining as much of the original "untouched" appearance [of a restored photograph] as possible." Eric Basir

Lest anyone panic unnecessarily, let me clarify that I usually only scope out and do the harsh critique on those who are claiming to be "professional" restoration artists, or those who are doing work for clients. I don't usually subject the hobbyist to such stringent assessment. However, I am a total perfectionist when it comes to my art, photo restoration, and tend to hold other professional restoration artists up to the same exacting standards I hold myself to. More fall short than not and I've started to try to educate those who may be looking for a restoration artist to restore their precious family photos on how to choose an artist that will do the best possible work for them. I've been searching the internet, high and low, looking for restoration artists that I'd actually consider hiring to work on my photos. I mean, if I wouldn't trust them with my family, why would I seriously recommend them to anyone else? The pickings have been slim to non-existent, frankly, but I have found two whom I would like to introduce you to. Yesterday I put a bit of the spotlight on Christine Pentecost, a terrific photographer, awesome restoration artist and really nice lady.


Eric Basir

I found Eric through Twitter (he's @photografix, by the way!). I have a search category, "photo restoration", and try to have a look at anyone claiming to practice the art, to keep an eye on what's out there. As I've said before, I haven't been impressed very often. Almost never, truth be told. But I was pretty impressed by Erics work. I've been doing photo restoration a long time and am not awed at all by people claiming to be "the best" who only show relatively minor damage in there before examples, no matter how good the actual restoration work. If you're that good, let me see how you handle the really tough stuff! One thing I like about Eric is he doesn't actually claim to be the best at anything! He's confident in his work and knows it speaks for itself. Plus, he does show the tough stuff and handles the challenge quite well!



Eric Basir of Photo Grafix began his restoration journey as a photographer, as so many do. With eight years of photography and photojournalism under his belt and a love of history in his heart, he began to not only do restoration work, but teach it as well. Today Eric is a well known teacher of the restoration arts, a speaker of some renown and the author of two books on photo restoration! Although Eric still teaches restoration, his work now mainly focuses on retouching, working with photographers, publications and ad agencies. Eric is also on the Board of Directors of the Genealogical Speakers Guild, an excellent resource for anyone looking for genealogical speakers!



Eric's dedication, professionalism and talent jumped out at me and place him in my very small circle of restoration artists I admire!

Meet Christine Pentecost!

"I think that with today's market of cheap scanners and a simple version of Photoshop, a lot of people are going to be taking up photo restorations. The difference will be in those that want to do the quick fixes, and those, like myself, that want to bring a photo back to life down to every last detail!" Christine Pentecost

Something I've done, even before I started my photo restoration business, is go around the internet and visit other photo restoration websites. I did it, at first, in the form of researching my potential foray into this business, to gauge the competition, see what the going rates were, test the waters, as it were. I admit to be a bit underwhelmed, back then, but not devastated by the lack of talent and user friendly websites. Of course that, as with all things, was relative. I wasn't underwhelmed because my talents were still fairly underwhelming. I'm talking a lot of years ago! I was still working as an analyst and an illustration artist, happily restoring away at the family photo archive! I'd discovered a talent for the restoring thing and liked it and was looking for a way to go into business for myself! Ay yi yi! How many times I've heard that, since! Anyway, when I did finally quit the corporate jungle and went into business for myself, it wasn't just as a restoration artist. It was as everything I had any talent for...ever! I was all over the place! But I kept restoring and improving and learning. It was finally shown to me in big, neon (metaphorically neon, that is) letters that I was supposed to be, needed to be, had to be a restoration artist. A total epiphany moment. For once in my life, I listened, and hopefully, one day, the rest will be history. I'm still learning and , I think, improving, though. Problem is I'm not seeing that very many others are...improving that is.

Many of you have been subjected to my lamentations when, in the course of my travels through photo restoration websites, I'm continually disappointed. I'm either finding unacceptable skill levels, usually attached to a "I'm the best!" statement, or an "I'm the best!" statement with no examples of said best work, whatsoever! Since you're all made to listen to my moaning and whining over the abject badness of it all, I thought you might appreciate my sharing with you when I'm NOT disappointed! What?!? I know, right? Like that...never happens! Well, it has! Not once, but TWICE! Seriously! I've stumbled across them (though I actually already knew one!), I love their work and I want to introduce you to them!

Christine Pentecost



I've known Chris Pentecost for a while, now, in a purely internet kinda way. A past President of Operation Photo Rescue, a wonderful volunteer effort to help save photographs damaged in natural disasters through digital photo restoration, Chris was my Yoda when I first joined. She guided me along, encouraged me when I felt beyond the task and didn't chide me at all when I picked the most badly damaged photo, EVER for my very first attempt! If it weren't for Chris, I probably would have turned that first attempt in, failure that it was, and moved on, never looking back at OPR again! But she did encourage and she did manage to talk me down from the ledge. Even though Chris eventually stepped down from the helm of OPR and took some well earned time off to be with her family and enjoy the nature that abounds in her back yard, we kept in touch through our mutual membership in the National Association of Photoshop Professionals and our participation in the NAPP forum. I knew, of course, that Chris did photo restoration, but I came to think of her as more of a photographer. Then one day while reading a post she made on the forum, I clicked the link to her website, Bridger Mountain Photo, in her signature. That's when I realized that not only is Chris a great photographer, and even though I knew Chris did photo restoration, I never realized that she was an awesome photo restoration artist! I was really impressed! In her photo restoration gallery were not just a couple mediocre attempts, but very strong, consistent, well rounded, skilled restorations!



Chris got started in restoration the way most of us do, working on her own family photos. She then branched out by restoring for friends, neighbors and her community. She did one hometown church project that consisted of around 100 photos! On the job training, indeed! Joining the OPR effort in 2006 further challenged and enhanced her skills. Not one to just take praise and rest on her laurels, Chris embraced the philosophy of continually growing her skills and learning more of the craft. She believes that the damaged photos should be restored as closely as possible in detail and character to the original and that the work should never be rushed. To her way of thinking, the more attention to detail, the better the finished restoration. Chris believes, as I do, that photo restoration is an art which requires skill and patience to develop.

I don't know why it took me so long to notice and click Christine's link on her NAPP forum signature, but I'm very glad I did! It was a very pleasant surprise!

Tomorrow: Eric Basir

Slowing It Down...

Way back when I started this blog and this whole Social Media roller coaster ride, my mentor/guide, Nancy Masse, told me not to post every day. She told me not to get caught up in the "I have to post something today because it's Monday" or Tuesday, or Wednesday thing, because it would be a short road to a big burnout, if I did. So what have I ended up doing? Listening to the little OCD demons in my head, that's what! I've been making myself crazy trying to write an article every day! Now, let me interject, here, and say that I haven't burnt out, yet, that's not what's going on here, but if I don't let something slide, I will, real quick!

Some of you may have caught a couple posts on Twitter, last week, about the incredible amount of work that's been coming in. Great news for us, let me tell you! Well, I went into the weekend with 30 restoration projects (paid), a very tough OPR restoration (volunteer) a very large genealogy project (paid), a huge scanning/printing project (paid) and two Random Acts of genealogical Kindness projects (volunteer). I also have a presentation to prepare for Aug. 25, and another for Oct. Add to all that the fact that I have to clean my house and am responsible for all the yard work and upkeep/maintenance of Casa de Smith, well, time is not on my side! On Saturday I got five more client restorations. Over the course of the weekend, I finished three, and nearly finished two more, restorations. That still leaves 30 to do plus the other projects. I realized I had no time to write a blog post, and might not be able to for some time.

SO...I'm taking Nancy's advice (again), finally. I'm not going to be posting every day. In fact, it might be quite random for a while. I'll finish up the Wednesday posts because there's not that many left and my Great-Great-Great Grandfather was kind enough to write them for me. I'll also be starting a new project (I know... smart, huh?) with the help of my friend Erik Bernskiold who has designed a rockin new blog for me! It's a three day a week round up of the best articles from the great people in MY blogesphere, all of you! It's called The Frib, and it's an off shoot of Fribble Friday, a sort of community newspaper of our community!

I'll still be dropping in on Twitter and the NAPP forum, hopefully, daily for little bits of time, just to say hi and see how y'all are doing, so be sure to holla back!