Many students choose easy electives to balance their rigorous coursework, but for Bob Kesling, this seemingly simple choice turned into an unexpected journey, highlighting the lessons learned along the way.
He was taking a photography class in the spring quarter of his senior year. As a communications/public relations major, it was a mandatory requirement, but Bob expected the class to be more of a creative break from his more rigorous coursework.
However, as the quarter was coming to an end, he struggled with the technical terms of photography, such as aperture, shutter speed, and depth of field, which quickly overshadowed the excitement of a creative break.
His class was assigned to venture out over campus, taking pictures: flash headshots, flash full-length shots, flash bounce, and headshots with a speed graphic.
After taking the pictures, they would return to the darkroom to develop their work. It couldn’t be too dark, too light, or too grainy. Bob says, “I was struggling.”
As the quarter came to an end, the class assignment was to compile all their work into a folder with a picture illustrating the various techniques used in taking a photo. All of Bob’s looked the same.
That is when fate stepped in, or a misplaced blanket. Bob recounts the incident: “Toward the end of the quarter, one of my friends came running into class to tell me my apartment up in Ft. Sanders was on fire. I wasn’t sure if he was kidding or not, but I ran back up 16th Street in time to see a firefighter tossing my roommate’s expensive, smoldering stereo speaker out the upstairs window.”
A blanket had gotten into a space heater. There was a lot of smoke, some fire damage, but also significant water damage from the fire hoses.
Bob entered his room to find most of his clothes ruined with smoke damage, but his school work was spared inside the top drawer of his desk.
The final photography class project was due in a few days after the fire, and Bob began working on a plan. He recounts, “I gathered all my pictures. I took only the ones in focus and ones that might fit one of the required categories. Grabbing a lighter, I proceeded to set some of the edges of the photographs on fire for effect. Others, I smudged up with the remnants of the fire from our apartment. It was obvious, I thought, they had been through one heck of a blazing inferno.”
The class, including his teacher, had heard about the fire and wanted to know if Bob was okay, feeling sorry for him and offering to help if he needed anything.
When it came time to submit the project for a grade in the class, Bob wrote a cover sheet outlining the fire and its devastating impact on him and his roommates. He wrote: “We lost pretty much everything we owned, but I was able to save and salvage these few pictures.” He urged the teacher to consider that when grading his project.
There were enough pictures to fill all the categories, and many of the pictures had red question marks from the teacher, noting that perhaps they really weren’t depth of field pictures.
Fate, a misplaced blanket and a merciful teacher resulted in a B- for the course.
Bob says he is not really proud of misleading the teacher, but he notes that when you are a senior, you sometimes have to take drastic measures to survive and advance.
Readers will be fortunate to have more BobTales coming soon.
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