I don’t mean really seeing you for the first time, but seeing an image — a photo — of you for the first time.

Have you ever seen a photo of someone dear to you, a photo that you had not seen before. “Wow,” you might say, “that’s my Aunt Hannah!” “Wow,” you might think, “I’ve never seen her face like that before, and I never noticed her hair like that, and I’ve never seen her holding a baby like that!”

I love seeing family photos I never have seen before. As I continue scanning in family photos from the many albums we have, I encounter familiar faces, but faces with different nuances of expression. It is as if I am meeting that individual for the first time again.

At times, I scan in a small photo at a high resolution, only to be amazed at the outcome: I can now see the person’s expression for the first time. How very exciting to see an expression on my grandfather’s face that I had never seen before in photos — or even in real life as I remember him.

At other times, I “clean up” a photo using the “retouch” feature of the Picasa editing program. Once the extra lines, spots and assorted blemishes are gone — voila! — I can now see the subject for the first time again.

With photo editing tools, I can make a light subject darker, correct the colors of a photo, add contrast and reduce saturation. The result is often a photo that shows the subject in a new light — seen clearly for the first time.

Why is all this so important to me? Why do I get a thrill when I see a “new” expression on my dad’s face that I had not seen before?

It is because I see the image as the person. I do not see just a photo — I see my dad. And when I see an image that I have not seen before via clarification-editing, enlargement or actually seeing a new photo, I am saying “Hi” to dad for the first time again. It is almost as if he is returning from the afterlife for a brief moment to say “Hi, Robert.” The “new” image I see makes me believe that I have entered his world, just as he has entered mine. What an amazing feeling. I am excited and peaceful at the same time.

Mr. Ebsen may be contacted at robertebsen@hotmail.com