Faithful Lines / Shirley Vogler Meister

Photography and the awesome word of God

About a week before Ash Wednesday, my husband, Paul, celebrated a birthday.

Because he has been a photographer since attending and graduating from Cathedral High School in our hometown of Belleville, Ill., I surprised him with a unique book of beautiful nature scenes coupled with appropriate quotations from the Bible.

Actually, I meant to give this book to him for Valentine’s Day. However, I hid it so well that I couldn’t find it then.

Paul became a photographer at an early age. I met him at my hometown newspaper one summer when I worked there as a proofreader before returning to my alma mater, the Academy of Notre Dame in Belleville.

At the time, a girlfriend and I were dabbling with photography and darkroom work, but our interest didn’t last a lifetime. Paul’s did.

After we were married and moved to Chicago, where Paul worked as a mechanical engineer and I worked for a Chicago publisher, he soon was transferred to Indianapolis.

Through new friends, he learned about and joined the Riviera Camera Club in Indianapolis. During and after the years that we raised our three daughters, Paul was an active member of the Camera Club.

As the years passed, he not only continued with his engineering work, but also enjoyed photography as a pleasant avocation. His photography earned him countless awards, and he often served as a judge for many competitions.

The art of photography has changed considerably. However, he continued to remain up to date with new photographic equipment, and still enjoys the hobby that he began during his youth.

So I was pleased to present him with The Awesome Word of God by Ken Crocker, published by WinePress Publishing (P.O. Box 428, Enumclaw, WA 98022).

Crocker has been a freelance photographer for 25 years. However, he especially uses his photography to illustrate not only the beauty of creation, but also the beauty of Scripture.

He and some friends are the contributors to the book. They live in a variety of states. The other photographers include Jane Loughney, Lynn Bauer, Marita Sutherlin, Sharon and Bob Rhinehart, Candy Smith and Melanie Henning. Their collaborative result is beautiful, especially since the Scriptures shared with each photo are so appropriate.

Crocker lives with his wife, Beverly, in Celina, Texas. His photos and those of his friends show breathtaking views of natural formations, sunsets and clouds—and the Biblical passages are appropriate.

Although Paul plans no book, I know that our daughters will cherish his photographs after he and I are gone.

Photos are tributes to the past, and more and more I realize how important they are for the generations to come.

In fact, our youngest daughter, Lisa, has already begun a photography project at her home in Nashville, Tenn.

(Shirley Vogler Meister, a member of Christ the King Parish in Indianapolis, is a regular columnist for The Criterion.) †