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This summer, as my extended family gathered at my brother's house for a cookout, we assembled in the front yard under a few shade trees to get some photos.

As we neared the end of the "photo shoot," we also hoped to get a group photo of everyone.

There wasn't a good place to sit the camera to use the timer, and we didn't have a tripod.

My brother, Michael, suggested that he could pose in the first couple of photos and then we could switch places, each taking a turn as photographer.

"You can just add me or you later to one of the pictures on the computer," he said.

This made me laugh, but it's true. My family knows what I am capable of with a graphic program at my fingertips.

Back home, I loaded the photos onto the computer. I looked over a few of the group pictures to determine which ones might work best for what I had in mind.

With a little work, I added my brother to the setting.

No one would ever know the picture had been pieced together as it was unless we told them.

I started playing around with Paint Shop Pro in December 2000. Although the software program isn't the graphic industry's standard, it was recommended to me by many online graphic hobbyists as one that's easy to learn and would suit my needs.

I bought the program to make some e-mail tags and stationery. I soon found out how handy it was for working on photos.

About a year or so after I learning many of the ins and outs of Paint Shop Pro, my mother showed me some old black and whites and sepia toned photos of my grandmother on her wedding day in 1913.

One was wallet-sized and enlarged from an even smaller photograph my aunt had found. She had carried the picture to a drug store kiosk to make copies for my mom. Part of the photo had been torn, including part of my grandmother's hat and dress.

I brought the pictures home to scan and archive digitally on CD. I didn't plan to do anything beyond that.

But, after pulling the photo into Paint Shop Pro though, I wondered if I could reconstruct the hat and dress from its mirror image on the other side of the photo.

After a few clicks of my mouse, using some tools within the program, the photo was made complete. Some of the more noticeable scratches were removed.

I e-mailed the picture to my mom.

Delighted with the results, my mother and aunt wanted to know if I could enlarge it without compromising the integrity of the photo. They hoped to get some 5 by 7's or 8 by 10's out of it if possible.

I went to work on some other photographs she had sent me. I used the scratch-remover tool and some of the other features to help each photo look its best in order to reproduce them for family.

For the next year or so, my mom and aunt continued to send me pictures for retouching and resizing as needed so that nicer copies could be made and shared with family members.

As I have always loved poring over old photos, it was a lot of fun to study the details of the faces and surroundings of these pictures - most of which I had never seen - of my grandparents. God took what started as a hobby and used it to reveal to me a talent I was unaware that I had.

He gave me an opportunity to bless my family through it as I restored old family photos. It continues to be a fun journey as God develops the talent further.

"Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them."
- Romans 12a

Linda Vestal is a wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend living in Gibsonville. Contact her with comments or story ideas at lindavestal@triad.rr.com.