LAST WORD
Eyes on Eiler
T
erry Eiler, BFA ’66 and MFA ’69, returned to Ohio University to teach for one year in 1974. Nearly 40 years later, he’s still at it. Although he retired as director of the School of Visual Communication last spring, Eiler continues to teach — great news for VisCom students, who benefit from Eiler’s experience with magazines such as National Geographic. » CORRINE COLBERT Who takes the best holiday pictures: you, your wife, your daughter, or your father-in-law? [All are outstanding professional photographers in their own right.]
Robert Hardin MA ‘14
My father-in-law, Chuck Scott, takes the best tight candid portraits. He is the go-to photographer for captured moments of people’s faces. My spouse, Lyntha Scott Eiler, takes the best candid relationship images. She finds good moments between multiple people at holiday events. My daughter, Christina Eiler Baird, takes the images that make us laugh. She makes quirky images of people in bizarre situations. I am relegated to the group images and panoramas.
I just enjoy taking photographs. I see the world through my cameras. I photograph nearly everything and everywhere. I am excited to photograph the good, the bad, and everything in between. Now that we have reasonable cameras on our phone, it is easy to always have a camera available. What’s your biggest pet peeve?
Anyone who believes that making good images is easy and/or lucky. There are the often-held beliefs that photographic artists run around the world waiting for lightning to strike or bumping into good pictures. Consistently making good images is the result of a lot of hard work. Waiting for the moment, understanding the light, making lens choices, being prepared for failure more often than success, are all part of the work of creative image-making.
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Do you enjoy taking personal photos, or is it kind of a busman’s holiday?
Which do you prefer: film or digital?
What’s the weirdest thing in your desk?
There is no good answer to that question. Digital is convenient and the expected professional tool of the day. I love the color palette of Kodachrome and even Velvia, but those are the tools of another era.
A 30-inch long printer’s ink-stirring rod with the saying on it, “The beatings will continue until morale improves.” It’s my way of remembering that it is up to me to find something positive in every situation.
Are you a dog person or a cat person?
What one thing do you always have with you?
Dog. We have owned four standard poodles. Our current dog family includes a rescue standard poodle named Izzy and a bichon named Kodachrome.
A lens-cleaning cloth and a pocketknife.
What, if anything, do you regret?
The many, many images that I saw but did not capture.
What do you do for fun?
Fly-fishing. There is something magical about standing on water drowning line while sightfishing with a dry fly. You are waiting for a moment slightly beyond your control, the critical moment. It takes patience and timing.