My brother-in-law and photo buddy, Bob Walker, arrives at SPECTACULAR. (More about that in a minute.) This is my most favorite image for this date, for a lot of reasons. If you have been following this series, you have seen Bob before at Bear Lake in Colorado.
Bob and I share a lot of happy memories together. There have been so many happy family gatherings over the years. Every year at Christmas we would spend part of the holidays in Denver with Bob and his family. One year Melissa and I took Bob and Melinda’s two daughters to summer camp along with our three children. We had quite a time having five youngsters for a week. We bought all five of them matching shirts.
Bob and I both happen to like photography. Since Bob lives in Denver and I grew up in Colorado, our first photo jaunts were to Rocky Mountain National Park in the 1980s, and then all over Colorado. We have done serious photography together in Missouri, Iowa, Michigan, California, Utah, Alaska (Bob and his wife Melinda joined Melissa and I on a 30th wedding anniversary trip to Alaska), and Bob and Melinda joined us for another trip of a lifetime to Tahiti. So it is hard to put into words what we mean to each other.
Bob is a happy guy and this photo captures some of his natural joy. This is one of my all time favorite images of Bob. Note the bag of M&Ms.
Every year in July about 1,000 teenagers and staff from countries around the world gather at Graceland University for a week long “summer camp” called SPECTACULAR, or SPEC for short. On opening day I captured this image of many of the campers and staff. Eawch delegation comes with their own unique shirt. I was there as a photographer and Bob was there with campers from the Rocky Mountain West. Jointly sponsored by Graceland University and the Community of Christ, SPEC is a busy week of sports , fine arts, music, classes, celebrations, and worship.
SPEC, Graceland University, Lamoni Iowa. July 23, 2005.
SPEC participants begin to gather at the football stadium for the evening celebration.
OSU Workshop Field Trip, Ohio. July 23, 2011.
At Jeremy Bruskotter and I’s first photo workshop for OSU, we took all of the workshop participants on a boat trip to a remote island in Lake Erie to photograph at an alvar, a rare and interesting geological formation. This is another of my favorite photos for this date.
Links
Series: Favorite Photos by Date – all about this series
Favorite Photo, September 26 – Bob Walker at Bear Lake, Colorado
SPECTACULAR on Facebook