My Great Friend, Sol Negm



This was one of the last pictures I took of Sol on a visit he made to us in November of 2007. Unfortunately my friend Sol passed away on July 29, 2010, at his home, after a long period of failing health. He was born March 10, 1935, in Alexandria, Egypt, the son of Selim and Helen Negm, he moved to the United States as a young man and served in the U.S. Army. Sol was an innkeeper and restaurateur, and came to the Seacoast in 1969 to open the Helm Restaurant. He also opened the Matthew Marsh House, Harvest House and Eliot House restaurants. He then went into real estate and operated the Sol Negm Real Estate Company for many years. In addition to a regular Monday night poker game and monthly trips to Foxwoods Casino, He and I enjoyed many years of fellowship in and serving on the Board of Directors in the Warwick Club, a private men's club in Portsmouth, NH.

April's Wedding Day - 30 June 2007

I found a video on the Internet that showed how to create this effect with any photo. Though it was a fairly time consuming process, I like the effect and have often wondered how it was accomplished. Using PaintShop and the original photo on the right, I first converted it to a black and white, created a series of “masks”, performed a gaussian blur on the background, then brought out the color with the eraser tool, directing the viewer’s attention more to April, the real focus of the picture.

My Cousin John Coxon

I created this from a picture I took of John while we were having breakfast on a visit he made to us in March of 2007.