Sunday afternoon I was talking it over with Hutch about my thoughts, over a span of four weeks, to take pictures at my friend’s delayed retirement service and the after-service meet-and-greet. I said to him that I had decided not to take pictures but then moments before the service I saw that I just wanted to do this for myself and not for the gain of others. I needed to treasure these good memories of my friend and former pastor, Bernie Lawrence. In 1980, he founded Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, North Carolina.

A long time ago, Bernie was involved in the youth and at that time I was invited out for water sports and later, several times more we were all invited to his house for an afternoon lunch with his family. That gesture of kindness and hospitality meant a lot to me.

Now many years later, I would occasionally see him, but it wasn’t until after Bernie retired (before the pandemic) that I worked more on our friendship.

Last Sunday I used the Fuji X100S, only my second week using it. For these pictures, I had to move myself as there is no zoom. I enjoyed using the physical buttons for shutter and exposure control. The X100S colors appear darker in the greens and shadows. To that, in Capture One Pro, out of all the styles I had installed, SPR-06 looked best. It gives these photos a vintage flat yellow that softens the highlights.