Book brings reminders of trip

The postcard arrived Friday.
By Sunday, I’d ordered the book.
The image on the postcard shows a wet, black bear intensely chewing on a fish it has just scooped from a mountain stream.
I knew before I read a word that the photo was of one of Kelsey’s.
Anyone who takes pictures likes to fancy himself or herself as a photographer, and technically that’s correct.
But when you encounter someone who truly has the gift, the eye, and the skills, you realize that there are photographers and there are Photographers.
Thomas Kelsey is a photographer with a capital P and maybe boldface italic type.
He’s operating at a level those of us who just take pictures can only dream of.
I first met Tom back in 1987 when Spirit of Jay County, George Reitenour’s 1936 Studebaker Dictator, was competing in the Great American Race.
The Commercial Review had paid for naming rights to the car as a way of supporting George’s effort, and covering the race seemed to be a good way to build both civic spirit and reader interest that summer.
Appropriately enough, Tom and I met in Disneyland. It was on Main Street U.S.A. to be precise. The race (actually a rally) was about to start. In short order, Tom introduced himself and his wife, said goodbye to her, and informed both her and me that for the next eleven days or so we’d be “nitwits” as we made our way across America.
Only he didn’t say, “nitwits.”
Although it would have been appropriate.
The pace of the Great Race was such that we would be in a different city every night and gone the next morning. We’d roll into towns for lunch or pit stops, schmooze and grab some refreshments, then be down the road before we realized where the heck we were.
Kelsey and I traveled together in a “pace car,” moving in and out of the field of vintage vehicles. We’d take pictures. I’d look for story ideas. Then at the end of the day, I’d file a story for The CR and Tom would pitch some of his pictures to metro papers or the wire services.
He was a photojournalist for The Los Angeles Times, but during the Great Race he was the official race photographer. He used a couple of weeks of work for the race to help make his mortgage payments in California.
From the beginning, we were an odd couple, the California kid and his boring big brother from the Hoosier state. But we hit it off instantly.
It helped that we shared a love for old cars and great photography. In Tom’s case, you’d have to add a love for the American West and the great outdoors.
We got along well enough that I did a repeat of the race coverage the next year, then in 1997 I spent about a week as a Great Race staff member. My official title was driver for the official race photographer. My paycheck was a couple of t-shirts and my housing along the way.
The last time I saw Kelsey was when the Great Race made its pit stop in Portland.
But we’ve kept in touch, and I was delighted to receive the postcard announcing publication of his new book.
It’s called “The Spirit of the West,” and the images are compelling.
Tom has been a photojournalist for more than 30 years. He’s covered popes and presidents, the NFL and Major League Baseball, but what he loves most is the outdoors.
That’s the focus of the book: Mountain streams, big old clouds high in the Sierras, moose, foxes, and other wildlife.
And so, when the postcard came, it was easy to place an order.
There are no shots of the Great Race, no views of our exploits with a crop duster in Colorado, no pictures from when we got lost on the Yuma Proving Grounds, and nothing from our “nitwit” behavior from Lubbock to Erie, Pa.
But maybe that’s for the best. It looks like a pretty good book just the same.[[In-content Ad]]