After decades spent criss-crossing the country, composing images and teaching others to do the same, Terry Deglau has fulfilled a legacy as the third generation in his family behind a lens.

Deglau built a name for himself in the industry working at Kodak, lecturing around the world to portrait photographers and capturing images of the famous, including Sen. Ted Kennedy, Arnold Palmer, President George W. Bush and 190 heads of state gathered for the 2000 Millennium Conference.

Deglau, 74, of Greensburg still remembers the fateful day when he was 8 years old and his uncle let him snap his first portrait in the family's Latrobe studio, owned by his father and his grandfather before that.

“I was in the studio and my dad ran out for coffee ... an attorney came in and wanted a picture, was in a hurry,” Deglau said. “The guy said, ‘OK, give it a try,' so I shot him on 5-by-7 film.”

Now, even after a stroke in 2005 affected his left side, he works from a wheelchair in his room at Redstone Highlands, a senior living community.

He sends a Sunday blog post to 700 followers about some of the best images on the web.

Greensburg photographer Jonathan Nakles, who has known Deglau since he was young, said his friend still has the “eye” for beautiful images after decades of work.

“He hasn't lost his chops at all. He can see the picture” and compose a beautiful image, Nakles said. “He has a great eye, which is rare.”

Nakles is working with Deglau to craft a portrait of St. Vincent's Archabbot Douglas Nowicki with multiple exposures in a dynamic-range image for an updated official portrait.

“I've always been fascinated with the portrait image,” Deglau said. “I would say I'm pretty much a traditionalist with, I hope, a quirk of contemporary in it.”

He worked for 20 years in the Latrobe studio after studying photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology, photographing high-school seniors and other clients' portraits.

Decades of local history captured on film by the Deglaus was lost in the early 1970s when the studio burned to the ground.

Son James Deglau remembered the family getting a phone call that night and what it took for his father to rebuild the business, which handled film developing, printing and even framing of photos.

“We just sat in the car and watched the building burn to the ground,” James Deglau, 50, of San Francisco said. “He rebuilt the whole operation after that.”

In 1984, Terry Deglau started working at Kodak, becoming marketing coordinator of professional photography, using his talents to contribute shots for promotional material — like one of a country singer in the desert that was made into an insert for every camera sold by the company.

Jeff McLeod, 63, of Birmingham, Ala., retired marketing manager at Kodak, said Deglau earned the opportunities given him through a combination of artistry, humility and business savvy.

“He has always been, for me ... ‘Mr. Kodak,' ” McLeod said. “He had the credibility, but he didn't use that credibility in an unfriendly way; he used it to help others.”

McLeod recalled Deglau's work on the Millennium Conference photograph, which took six months of planning and a team of people.

“He was actively and intimately involved in the entire process,” McLeod said.

Deglau recalled how officials were worried about the position of the room where the heads of state were posing, on risers with diagrams for their foot positions and a banner overhead with “smile” written in six languages.

The photo was sent worldwide within 30 minutes, and Deglau was interviewed on CNN.

One of Deglau's favorite images is a landscape that hangs in his room at Redstone Highlands.

His son said in the late 1990s, he traveled with his father on snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park and spent half a day stationed near a snowy hillside.

“We found that spot and waited for the buffalo to get to the location where he wanted them,” James Deglau said.

That image was used on 700,000 Kodak Christmas cards and won numerous awards, including from the Professional Photographers of America, where he served for a time as a board member.

To carry the family's legacy into a fourth generation, Deglau's daughter, Sydney Deglau Ceren, is a wedding photographer in Georgia.

Deglau said he has stuck with portraits to capture people and their stories, but doesn't often ask for smiles.

“I'm not fond of big smiles ... I don't think people typically use a big smile,” he said. “One thing that's imperative to me, the photographer has to emote his call for the expression in his own expression ... so that you can react to it.”

If St. Vincent's archabbot smiles in his portrait, then, it might be because he's reacting to Deglau's demeanor, proud to capture what he called his “swan song into retirement” in a letter discussing the art direction for the image.

Deglau said he is reluctant to give up the passion he shared with his father, who continued taking photographs until he was 87.

“It is said retirement is a time for reflection and satisfaction,” Deglau wrote. “Retirement never suggests a time for doing and inspiration. I do not look forward to that word many envy — retirement.”

Stacey Federoff is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 724-836-6660 or sfederoff@tribweb.com.

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