Julie Barrett, R.I.P.

On Monday one of our long-time parishioners, Julie Barrett, 88, returned to her true home and is now in the embrace of our loving God. Julie had always been an inspiration to me, a woman to whom I listened because what she had to say was always worth hearing. But more than that, it was always said kindly and with a smile.

In addition to our shared faith, Julie and I shared a few interests. We both served in the U. S. Navy, Julie as a Navy photographer and I as a helicopter pilot. We were, of course, separated by quite a few years, so we never served together. As an amateur photographer, I always flew with my old Leica IIIf camera with me, in the event I happened on something worth a photograph. On a few rare occasions I actually took an interesting photo. But it was from the pros, the Navy photographers, that I learned what little I know about good photography. During my Navy career it wasn't unusual to have an official photographer aboard my helicopter to take photos of everything from returning space vehicles to Soviet ships and aircraft to aerial views of major events in which the Navy had an interest. I learned early to respect those Navy photographers who seemed to know instinctively how to capture a scene perfectly and to ensure I flew them to the right place at the right time. Julie and I, then, were both avid photographers. But there was one huge difference between us: Julie was a true professional while I simply dabbled, and not particularly well.

In 2004 when I was assigned to what then was a rather small St. Vincent de Paul Parish, I volunteered to take photos of parish events, ministries, people, liturgies...whatever was needed. Some of these photos were okay, but others...well, let's just say they were less than perfect. But then Julie arrived and I was relieved (as were many parishioners) of my photographic duties. We now had a professional aboard and the quality of parish photos improved dramatically. One of my favorites was one she took at a Good Friday service during her first Holy Week with the parish. Our large team of deacons surrounded Fr. Peter Sagorski, then our pastor, and filled the small sanctuary of that earlier church. A friend kindly sent this photo to me the other day, but Julie had given me a copy years ago.

Deacons Galore on Good Friday

But Julie was far more than a photographer. She was the mother of a wonderful daughter, Theresa Campbell, whom I've also known for years, and a loving grandmother. A woman of deep faith, Julie attended Mass daily and always had a kind word for everyone. She will be greatly missed.

Julie Barrett with her daughter, Theresa Campbell

Rest in peace, Julie. We will pray for your beautiful soul and for the family you leave behind, and trust you will plead for us before the throne of our merciful God.

Our Owl

The two owls continue to return to our tree each afternoon, so I can only assume the nocturnal hunting in our neighborhood is good.

They perch high up in our large live-oak tree, probably 60 or 70 feet off the ground. And like our previous resident osprey, they are camera shy and tend to fly off when they see me with my camera. I've had to shoot quickly and because a tripod is too unwieldy the photos aren't as crisp as I'd like. But they're not too bad. I took this photo a few minutes ago. Just seconds later the owl flew to another, more concealed perch. Beautiful birds.

Photographic Fun

As some readers of this blog know, I'm an amateur (very amateur) photographer. It is a hobby I truly enjoy, and for a couple of reasons. First of all, photography permits me to capture and relive unique places, things, and moments in time. I simply enjoy preserving at least a glimpse of those things in our world that I find especially interesting and surprisingly beautiful. Photography allows me to stop time and enjoy these things again and again.

But photography also offers a kind of unexpected revelation, a surprising disclosure of detail or symmetry or color or light or contrast or beauty that was not fully grasped when the photo was taken. In other words, I especially enjoy being surprised by a photograph, when it seems to capture a moment and scene so differently or so much more completely than the reality I experienced when I took the photo.

Dad and his Leica in Germany

As with many of my traits and likes and dislikes, I seem to have inherited this interest in photography from my father. Like me, he always had a camera close by and the results of his six decades of picture taking are stacked on shelves here in my study -- thousands upon thousands of 35mm slides that I have been sorting through and scanning a few at a time for several years now. Of course, all of his photos were taken during the days of film, before the advent of digital photography. My goal, then, is to digitize his photographs and pass them on to his descendants. I'm especially interested in preserving the many photos he took at the end of World War II and during the subsequent occupation of Germany.

Dad always had the latest and greatest when it came to the things he enjoyed. He seemed to believe that one should never approach true interests hesitantly, but should jump in enthusiastically. I'm sure he would have loved digital photography and the tremendous freedom it offers the photographer. And, yes, I know there are still purists out there who use only film, but as digital technology continues to improve, I expect most will eventually make the transition.

For those of you who do no more than take occasional snapshots with your cell phone or point-and-shoot digital camera, I will give you a simple example of the capabilities of digital photography.

This afternoon, while going through some photos I took on a trip to Italy in 2010, I came across a picture taken of a portion of Siena's Piazza del Campo, one of the great medieval squares of Europe. The Campo is a large, oddly shaped square in the center of Siena in which the Palio, the city's famous annual horse races, are held. As Diane and I strolled along the edge of the piazza trying to choose a restaurant for lunch, I took a few photographs. I especially like one of these photos which depicts some of the locals and tourists enjoying the beautiful sunny afternoon following a rainy morning. Using Photoshop software, I gave the photo an "artsy" brush-stroke look, and printed it on my wide-format printer as an 11x14 color print. I will eventually print it in an even larger format on "canvas paper" to enhance the effect of a painting rather than a photograph. The doctored photo is below. Click on the image to enlarge it and you will better see what can be done quite simply with digital photography.

Siena's Piazza del Campo on a sunny afternoon

I also played with another photo taken on an earlier trip to Italy. This one is of a church in the Borgo district of Rome, adjacent to the Vatican. The Church, Santa Maria in Traspontina, has a beautiful old bell tower which I photographed. I thought the photo would be more dramatic in black and white so I used software to convert it and then printed it as a large 12x18 inch print. (See below)

Santa Maria in Traspontina (Rome)

Photos of Romans

I enjoy taking candid photos of people I encounter while traveling. And for some reason that I haven't fully worked out, I prefer these photos in black and white rather than color. Perhaps with color photos the eye is drawn more to the color than to the actual subject of the photograph. But there might well be other reasons. As I say, I haven't quite worked it out.

Earlier today I uploaded a dozen or so of these photos to my flickr.com page. They were taken in Rome and and few other cities in Italy. Should you feel the urge, you can view them in a slideshow by clicking here. I've included a few of my favorites below. You can view a larger version of each if you click on the photo.

Tired pilgrim in St. Peter's Square after a papal audience

Roman lovers oblivious to all else in the Borgo district

Four nuns hurrying across an empty Piazza Montecitorio in the early morning

Roman teens chatting and waiting for a bus in central Rome

Pilgrims (Diane on right) resting along Via della Conciliazione near the Vatican

Young boy playing at Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome

Photo Contest

Today I entered the annual photo contest sponsored by The Villages Media Group here in The Villages, our large retirement community -- really a community of communities -- in central Florida. I entered the contest for the first time last year and one of my photos took a 2nd place and another got what I'll call an "honorable mention." This wasn't too bad a showing, if you'll pardon a wee bit of pride, since about 2,000 photos are submitted. It seems that among the 80,000 or so people now living here, most with a lot of time on their hands, quite a few are snapping away at all kinds of interesting subjects and scenes.

My problem this year is the same I faced last year, one of selection. The contest has a number of categories -- landscape, sunrise/sunset, animals, architecture, flowers, food, etc. -- and one is allowed to enter only one photo per category. This year I submitted five photos, but had a very difficult time choosing which photos to submit. I tried to resist selecting photos I personally liked, because they tend to be a little on the "arty" side. Looking at last year's winners it would seem the judges chose well composed photos of interesting subjects -- nothing very odd -- and I have a lot of very odd photos. And so selection is always a painful process. But, fortunately, this time I asked Diane to help me choose. I placed three or four 8x10s on the table in front of her and asked which one I should enter in, for example, the architecture category. In each instance her choice was the same as mine. But now, if I don't win, I can always blame her. Ain't marriage great?

The winners will be announced later this month and published in a separate, dedicated section of our local newspaper, The Villages Daily Sun. I will let you know how I do...if I win. If you hear nothing from me, you'll know that Diane chose the wrong photos.

I've included below my second place photo in last year's contest, as well as the photo that received an "honorable mention."

2nd prize, 2010 potpouri category: Balcony in the Borgo district of Rome

Honorable mention, 2010 architecture category: Duomo in Orveito, Italy

Wish me luck...