109/365 Presidential Memories

4-19-2013

It has been a school year of lasts for Dr. Burks.  Tonight, was the last Faculty Staff Dinner as President.
Liz Howell and Mark Prior put together a video that was a Snapshot of the Burks presidency that was really cool.  The pivotal movement for me was when Cliff Ganus III asked the Burks to step up to the stage and the crowd sang The Lord Bless You and Keep You.

The Burks are not leaving, but he will no longer  be the President.  I look forward to working with President McLarty, but it won't be the same as working for Dr. Burks.  To me Dr. Burks has been Harding as I have known it.  I came as a freshman in the fall of 1988, the second year of Dr. Burks' presidency.  I have been the University photographer since the fall of 1991.  We have spent a good deal of time together over the years and its been fun.  It is also kind of cool that Dr. Burks has a photography background.  He worked in HS and at Harding as a yearbook photographer.  He understands what is going on in my world and what I am trying to do as I work because he has been behind the camera himself.  I guess what I am trying to say is he may be the President at Harding but I feel like I have the best job at Harding and for that I am thankful.

Tonight, I got a photo of the First Ladies of Harding: Ann McLarty, Louise Ganus, and Leah Burks.  I have already taken a shot of the three presidents but I have never seen a photo of the First Ladies before.  That is a shame because they are an equally important part of the success of Harding.

As I think about it, I have known all of Hardings Presidents except J. N. Armstrong who was the first President.  I took Dr. Benson's photo for the Petit Jean my freshman year.  Dr. Ganus has been my care group elder for years and he comes over periodically with photos when he needs power points made for speaking engagements.  Dr. Burks and I definitely have a relationship.  As for Dr. McLarty, I didn't know him until 1992 when he came to College Church as the pulpit minister.  I did know all the other McLarty family members because Julie and her family grew up with them in the Holmes Road Church in Memphis.

I am thankful for Dr. Burks' leadership at Harding and I look forward to the future photographing Dr. McLarty.

On a side note-

This is Dr. Mike James, fellow Photo a Day blogger, receiving his 40 year service pin from Provost Larry Long.  Congratulations Mike on your years of service.

Lou Butterfield

Today, I took a retirement portrait of my college photography professor. I took photography in the spring of my freshman year (spring 1989) so I could learn to do darkroom work. In the fall I had gotten a job with the Yearbook but I had no darkroom skills. Leslie Downs, the head photographer, taught me to print but they all acted like developing film was rocket science. Mike James was the campus renown photograher and photography teacher at that time but he left in the spring of 1989 to work on a doctorate. Therefore I got Dr. Butterfield which was good with me, I didn't know the difference. I remember that I made an A in the class and only missed one test question. The question was something about 80A or 85A color correction filters and since I could never keep them straight I guessed the same answer for both questions so I would only miss one.

The real memory from that class came from a photo assignment to shoot a silhouette. I left class that day and walked to the student center and came upon a basket truck working on the power wires outside the student center. The sky was clear, and I could easily maneuver to get the sun right behind that basket. Using my trusty Canon T-90 and my 50mm lens, the only lens I had at that time, I took the photo. Developed the film myself and printed a beautiful 8X10 glossy of my silhouette assignment and turned it in. When Dr. B was passing the graded photos back he stopped on my photo and showed the class a good example for what he was looking for, he actually referred to my photo as a PERFECT example of what he was looking for in the silhouette assignment. Needless to say, I was feeling pretty good until I looked on the back to see that he had given me 4 out of 5 points for my PERFECT print. Since Dr. B was cool, I raised my hand right there in the middle of class and asked him if he hadn't said that it was a perfect example he agreed and then I showed him the score I got. Without missing a beat he said "it wasn't that perfect." He took the print back and adjusted my score to perfect and we all lived happily ever after.