Mother and son at docks on Hoover Reservoir is My Final Photo for May 17, 2013
Today’s photo is slightly different than most I select for My Final Photo. At least it has a different treatment.
The scene is relatively ordinary. A mother helps her family lead their boat onto the trailer at a loading dock at Hoover Reservoir.
The unusual aspect is the brightly painted aluminum 1958 Starcraft with a 1959 Johnson 7-½ Sea Horse motor. The family has owned it for several summers but often have taken to the serene waters of Hoover in a pontoon boat.
As their son get older the pleasure of a water outing is more often towards the Starcraft. Even with the lowered engine limits on the lake, the family enjoys the speed and maneuverability of this boat.
This was the boat and motor of my youth. My father, a World War II veteran who revered life after war, built two houses. on Lake Hutchinson in central Florida. The first was nothing more than a foundation, concrete floor, a pedestal of block walls and old growth pine boards more like a work shed than a weekend retreat. No matter that the walls never kept our strong rain storms or hungry mosquitos.
A hand painted sign over the door named our weekend retreat “Jan’s Juke” after my mother. The family, especially my younger brother and sister, thought it a great name. My mother took it in stride despite the somewhat sinister and illegal operations of a “Juke joint” just over the county line where alcohol could be served.
The structure was later replaced with a normal lake house with bedrooms, a bathroom, screened front porch, and running water. Running water no longer meant running down to the lake with a bucket for water. The old house became storage for our summer supplies, still with the sign over the door.
iPhone version of the mid-century family
As I studied this family returning from their excursion I remembered my youth and the joy of family on the water.
Even as I shot the photos I knew I wanted to use a Photoshop plugin and smart layers to add a retro look as a visual reminder of those times. My father was an avid photographer shooting Kodachrome for the important moments so I ran the photo through onOne Perfect Effects for the grungy slide look and added a contrasty, warm color lookup table for the final color.