Okay, so I wanted a cool, vintage-looking picture of Mickey Mantle for my office. I’m a huge Yankees fan, and Mantle is just a legend, you know?
First, I started by just browsing around online, looking at different images. I wanted something that felt authentic, not just some random, overly-glossy photo.
My Image Hunt
I spent a good hour just scrolling, and honestly, a lot of the stuff was pretty meh. Too modern, too posed, or just plain boring. I was getting a little frustrated.
Then, I remembered my dad had some old baseball cards. I figured maybe scanning one of those would be the way to go! So, I called him up.
- “Hey Dad, you still got those old cards?”
- “Yeah, somewhere in the attic. Why?”
- “Looking for a good Mantle picture. Mind if I dig around?”
- “Go for it! Just don’t make a mess!”
So, I drove over to my parents’ place and headed up to the dusty attic. It took some serious searching, but I finally found the box! It was filled with tons of cards, all wrapped in plastic.
I carefully went through them, and boom! There it was – a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card. It wasn’t in perfect condition, had some wear and tear on the corners, but that’s what made it perfect! It had character.
I carefully took the card out and used my phone to take a few pictures. The lighting in the attic wasn’t great, so I moved downstairs to the kitchen table, where there was more natural light.
I tried a few different angles, making sure to get the whole card in the frame, but also capturing the details of the wear and tear. I didn’t want it to look too perfect, you know? Authenticity was key!
After snapping a bunch of photos, I picked the best one. I did a little bit of editing on my phone, just to adjust the brightness and contrast a bit, nothing major. I wanted to keep it looking as natural as possible.
Finally, I printed it out on some nice, thick paper, put it in a simple frame, and now it’s hanging on my office wall. It looks awesome! Totally worth the effort. It’s way better than anything I could have found online.
