Something From Nothing

T.M. "Tim" Spoonster has been taking photos all of his life.
It wasn't until he retired from his career as an educator, including a 10-year stint in Japan teaching the children of U.S. Navy personnel, and enrolled in the architecture program at Miami University that he began to realize his work might be better than average.
"I used a lot of photos in my presentations and people were extremely complementary," he said. "So I went back over the photos that I'd taken over my life. They spoke about all of the places I've been to and the things that I've done.
"I think they portray something off the beaten path."
So he titled an exhibition of his work at the Cozy Cafe on High Street in Hamilton "Images From a Life's Journey."
"You don't see the typical tourist thing," he said. "You don't see people standing around with Mt. Fuji coming up out of their heads.
"Instead, you'll see the leaves on a tree from the Imperial Palace in Kyoto. That's what I noticed to be most beautiful. I always carried my camera with me to take pictures of where the light has brought something to life."
That's why for his business cards and professional logo he's chosen the Japanese characters for "capturing light."
Every picture, he said, also has some kind of story behind it. Behind what appears to be a breathtaking sunset at the Grand Canyon, for instance, is an encounter with a group of Japanese tourists.
"They were all gathered around waiting for the beautiful colors," he said. "I was there with my camera and a little watercolor set so that I could paint and take pictures at the same time."
He overheard them talking in Japanese, remarking on his camera and his paints. "He must be very good," they said.
"I'm not that good," he replied in Japanese to their great surprise, and he chatted with them for a while before a woman with a white glove signaled for them to get back on the bus.
"The photos are the saga of my life," he said.
Now a resident of Hamilton's Dayton Lane Historic District, Spoonster has traveled to 33 countries. Among his adventures, he accompanied a film crew from the History Channel's "Deep Sea Detectives" series when they set out to explore the sunken ship that his father was on during the invasion of Normandy, D-Day, in World War II.
Before he died in 2001, Spoonster's father often said that he'd like to have his ashes scattered in Normandy, so he saw this as an opportunity to make his father's wish come true.
"Since that time, I often think about a song by Judy Collins with the line 'My father promised me that someday we'd live in France.'
"My father wasn't the kind of person who promised me anything, but I got to take a trip of a lifetime to honor him, so these photos are his gift to me."