Bob Colvin used to work in automobile and tire sales, but now puts mileage on his car to pursue his passion for photography. Last Saturday, he gave a program to the Windsor Historical Society titled “Backroads and Beyond.”
The main subject of the program was where the backroads he travels have led him: To churches.
“My photographs always have a cross in them,” he said.
Colvin, who is from Jefferson City, is an ecumenical church photographer, capturing images of country chapels. He uses a digital infrared camera, which takes black and white pictures that capture the texture of the buildings and the stone markers in the rural graveyards, and the contrasts in the cloud formations above.
Bob posts his photographs on Google Earth, and frequently gets requests from people who ask to use them on the church websites.
The best reward he ever received for letting someone use an image he took, he said, was a flag that was flown in his name over the U.S. Capital building, then sent to him.
Colvin said he likes wildlife photography best, and is getting a new lens for his next trip to Yellowstone. He gave the program in Windsor at the invitation of Walter Moser of Windsor, who met him at a photography club in Jefferson City.
Colvin included photographs of vintage cars and old buildings in Saturday’s program, documenting the loss of businesses in small towns. Windsor is undergoing a renaissance as the junction of the KATY and Rock Island recreational trails, but has just lost its oldest continuous operating business, The Windsor Review, started in 1876. WHS treasurer Martha Carter reported that the sign from the outside of the Windsor Review building has been donated to the historical society for the local museum, as well as the plate of the newspaper’s 1966 masthead and other memorabilia.
Another former Windsor business will be celebrated at the August meeting of the Windsor Historical Society, which will hold the annual reunion of people who worked at the International Shoe Factory or had relatives who did. The meeting, on Saturday, August 10, starts with lunch at 12:15 p.m. at the fellowship hall of Windsor United Methodist Church, 216 S. Main. Fried chicken will be provided, with guests asked to bring a side dish. All are invited to share or listen to stories of working in the factory, which opened in 1932, and how life changed in Windsor when it closed in 1985. #
For Civil War buffs, Windsor Historical Museum curator Susan Luck is planning a new exhibit, featuring a cannon her husband built. Susan is asking museum visitors to “choose up sides” by having their photograph taken as either a Federal or Confederate soldier, posing behind the figures she created. The museum also has an extensive collection of military history books, donated by Randall Chapman, that are available to check out.
The museum, at 214 S. Benton, is open May through November on Sundays from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. There is no admission charge.
For more information about Bob Colvin, go to bobcolvinphotography.com or call 573-619-9388.
