There are two things about me that are important to understand. One, I have a BA degree in history, and second, that I am a Marine Corps Vet. Now add to that my love of photography and a desire to share that with others. Throw in the "Relive WWII Weekend" reenactment at the Sidney Hutchinson Memorial Park in Walker, Louisiana. The result is a LOT of images!

The event is a fund raiser to help support the Veterans Homes of Louisiana, and to honor all Veterans. As a history major and a Vet, I was attracted to the event, and as a photographer I knew it would be a great photo-op. And as I tend to do, I shot a LOT of images. (Almost 600.) When you have to go through them all and edit out what you want to keep, and then edit the keepers, this can take up a bit of time.

As I was walking around the park getting all those images, I began to formulate an idea on how to create a presentation that would best reflect the spirit of the event. After all, it was called "Relive WWII!" I wanted the presentation to help the viewer to see the activities I was photographing as they would have at the time of World War II. I also wanted to convey the feel of patriotism, courage, and determination that was felt on ALL sides of the conflict. And to show that regardless of political motivations, it is ALWAYS the individual soldiers that carry the burden and the consequences of war.

It took me the better part of three full days. Working, tweaking, editing, and starting over (more than once...) to finally generating my latest video slide show. The concept was simple. Take the best images for the presentation and produce two copies of each. The first would be the normal color original image (after normal post-processing) and the second image would be black and white, add a touch of sepia and reflect the 1940s time period. With the black and white images I edited out anything that wasn't "period" for 1945. The result was a lot of background replacement. Here is an example. First is the original color image:

And here is the edited version:

In the video I placed the color original images ahead of their edited counterparts, and faded from the first to the second. Then I added appropriate music. The last half of the presentation shows the combat reenactment. This required a change in music to something more dramatic and serious, and "action" shots, many of which included motion blur. I wanted the images to be as realistic as I could make them.

Here is the link to the video slide show on YouTube. Please go check it out. Also, all the photos used in the video are located here on my site in "Portfolio" and "Special Events."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjmKQC6k_n8

And here is a link to the reenactment organizationsa website:

http://www.reliveww2.com/​

I realize that nothing is perfect, especially when it involves my creativity, so I am always open to CONSTRUCTIVE feedback. So please do leave your comments. Either there at my YouTube channel, or here. They are always appreciated. Thanks! More soon...