Today, with heavy hearts, we bid farewell to Robert Harold Brewer. This is one of those first photographs I took of Bob, with a bit furtiveness, on November 27, 2015, while he was visiting for Thanksgiving.
“Always I have stood in the bow looking forward with hopeful anticipation to the life before me. When the time comes for my embarkation, and the ropes are cast off and I put out to sea, I think I shall still be standing in the bow, and still looking forward with eager curiosity and glad hopefulness to the new world to which the unknown voyage will bring me.” ― Lyman Abbott
The original text from when I originally published this shot in 2015 follows.
He was born in Danville, Illinois in 1927. He joined the Navy at 17 years old, requiring his mother's signature to do so because he was underage. He survived a kamikaze attack on USS TERROR (CM 5) May 1, 1945 off the east coast of Iwo Jima, an attack that resulted in 171 casualties: 41 dead, 7 missing, and 123 wounded. He returned home, married and worked different jobs including butcher, businessman in a hardware store and later a music store. He raised very two successful sons, became grandfather to four grandchildren and four great grandchildren. As the years have passed he's remained more fit and active than many people decades his junior.
His name is Robert Brewer, Sr. He's my grandfather-in-law and answers to "Bob," "Grandpa," and now "Peepaw." He's a fine gentleman who I've had the pleasure of getting to know over the past several years, especially as a guest of mine during USS RONALD REAGAN's (CVN 76) 2009 6-day Tiger Cruise from Pearl Harbor, Hawai'i back to San Diego, California.
This past weekend he stayed with us as a guest for Thanksgiving and I had the opportunity to get him before my camera as a test subject to get my lights positioned and metered for the nieces. His sitting in as a test subject did help me honestly, so it wasn't entirely disingenuous, but I could have metered my lights on my own. I really wanted to get him before the camera for a few portraits.
There's a certain psychology of being in front of a camera which makes many people suddenly change from their normal selves. That instinct needs to be countered one way or another. In this case telling him he was just standing in to help me set my lights for the girls worked since he didn't think I was doing anything other than performing some technical steps. It succeeded in keeping Bob his natural self.
Decent, kind, loving and loved: Robert H. Brewer.
1/160 sec at f/5.6 ISO 50
Canon EOS 5D Mark III with Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens at 140mm
I hope you enjoy today's J.W. Remington Photographics' Photo of the Day for February 24, 2018!
© 2015 J.W. Remington Photographics. All rights reserved.
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