Neighbors: Dave Kostura

LAKEWOOD RANCH — At nearly any major community event, Edgewater resident Dave Kostura is there with a camera in hand.

A longtime photography enthusiast, the retired engineer now spends his days photographing families at Lakewood Ranch Community Activities’ events, editing pictures, playing tennis and more.

“I just enjoy the experience of taking pictures of people and seeing their reactions — making memories,” Kostura says. “I am having a great time living in Lakewood Ranch, pursuing my tennis and boating hobbies, and operating my photography and digital imaging business, PhotoGraphic Media.”

Kostura grew up in Johnstown, Pa., but ventured to Louisiana to study electrical engineering at Southwestern Louisiana Institute, now called the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

To launch his first real career job, Kostura, in 1964, joined a team of engineers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in working on the Gemini project, a pre-cursor to the Apollo mission that sent men to the moon. There, while working on NASA’s Gemini project, Kostura supervised a group of electronic technicians who installed telemetry equipment into the first stage booster, Saturn 1B, so scientists could evaluate the status of the rocket while it was in flight.

From 1966 to 1971, Kostura worked at Bendix Corp. in Baltimore, Md., where he served on the design team for FPS-85 Space Track Radar, which is still in use today. Kostura then spent 30 years at Eglin Air Force base, in Florida’s panhandle, as the chief of telemetry data processing at Freeman Computer Sciences Laboratory.

“During the first Gulf War, we tested smart weaponry,” Kostura says of his time at Eglin. “I ran a data-processing lab that got information from missiles and analyzed it to see it if it was within the manufacturer specifications and hit where it was supposed to hit.

“They can drop a bomb from 20 miles away and have it hit a target and drop into a basement and explode,” he says. “It’s unbelievable what they can do.”

Then in 1999, Kostura retired from government work so he and his wife, Nan, could be closer to their children.

“Our kids live in Orlando and Lakeland,” Kostura says. “My parents used to live in Miami, and we drove here on vacation in the 1970s and 1980s. We decided to come here (to the East County area).”

Kostura continued working until 2002, transitioning to the private sector upon his move to Florida.

Then, Kostura ventured into his own part-time business, PhotoGraphic Media, an event photography and digital imaging company, in 2006.

“During the first Gulf War, we tested smart weaponry and I got involved, practical knowledge of digital cameras,” Kostura says. “That transitioned into (an interest in photography).

“I’ve always liked to take pictures,” he says. “It was a progression into this.”

Although Kostura tries to keep his schedule full with work, he makes sure to carve out time for tennis twice a week.

“I schedule everything around that,” Kostura says, noting he got involved in the sport seriously in 2006. “I play doubles. It’s easier on the knees.”

The Kosturas also enjoy riding around their neighborhood and visiting St. Armands Circle and the beach — particularly Lido Beach — whenever possible, he says.