Heartbroken - Waco Eagle Wrap-up

Yesterday, I lost a great friend to COVID. The world lost a great photographer and family-oriented man that freely shared his experience with anyone willing to listen (and sometimes shared with those not wanting to listen!). You have heard me mention him many times in my photography blog/e-mails (copied from him). Dr. Spencer Moore changed my life for the better. Without him, I would not have the eagle photos (and more) so many of you have enjoyed the past two weeks. Without him, I would have remained a snapshot photographer.

If you wish to see a REAL photographer's work, take time to visit his photography at

https://www.drspencermoorephotography.com/

It was on August 21, 2014 that my photography began an amazing journey of improvement. A leucistic hummingbird was reported in Bryan with a few shots shared on Facebook. I contacted the lady, Cher, to ask if I could come see it and attempt to photograph it (silly thought in hindsight!). She replied certainly. As I was teaching during the week, I had to wait until a Saturday - the 8/21/14 mentioned above. A couple other visitors were already set up on her back porch with cameras ready. The subject bird would come to the feeder every 15-30 minutes or so. One of the visitors was a tall, white-haired man and he took the lead on the conversation including camera/photography technique. He delivered a print of the photo below from an earlier trip and a couple others to Cher as a thank you for sharing her porch. I was amazed  at the National Geographic quality and started asking questions about gear and technique. He freely answered them all and more. That chance meeting began a friendship that I would never have imagined. He continued to reach out to me to discuss photography and life. I'm terrible at making friends and rely too much on others reaching out. If left alone, I will crawl back into my hole. Spencer kept pulling me out and I thoroughly enjoyed making the many trips to Waco to visit and shoot with him. When he would find a new subject or location to photograph, he would call me and we would arrange a trip as soon as possible.

I asked him to include Pedro in our photography conversations. Pedro (and a few others) got me going down the digital photography path in my DuPont days and I knew they talked the same language (plus baseball). Spencer adopted Pedro just as he adopted me. We had many great adventures traveling around and photographing nature with Spencer always working to make us better. We called ourselves the three amigos on those trips. One memory near the top in my life was an incredible 2+ week vacation (May 2017) with the three of us plus wives to Cody, WY, Yellowstone, and Grand Tetons. Spencer had visited those areas many times in the past and showed us all of his honey-holes - and there were many.

I already deeply miss him and cherish the memories made even more.

Shortly after Spencer entered the hospital a little over a week ago, in the middle of sharing my eagle photos, I talked with him and let him know I was enjoying those photos and memories. His voice was weak but claimed to be improving. Today was to be the wrap-up end of my eagle trip photos - still shared below. Is it telling that my last photo from that trip is the eagle flying away? Fly high my friend.

Below are the last of the eagle photos from that trip. The first three are a continuation of the last shots shared yesterday. The final photo was not going to be shared since it was a butt shot and I was unhappy with the bright exposure of the tail feathers. After receiving the news of Spencer's passing yesterday, I decided it must have been fitting - he left me with improvement still to be made.