Feb. 2002
President's
Message
Focus On...
Focus On...
John Hamilton
Years ago I took many pictures of my children growing up and neighborhood parties. Then the camera was put in the closet and discarded like a child’s old toy.
As I was preparing to go to my 40th high school reunion in my little hometown in northern Pennsylvania, I went to a camera store to buy one of those new miracle point-and-shoot cameras people were taking about. I had way too much free time on my hands and was looking for a new hobby. I said, hey, I used to enjoy taking pictures so let’s go all the way and buy a single lens reflex. As soon as I started to go out into the country and slow down and start looking through the viewfinder, my whole world changed. Everywhere I looked the world was beautiful! I was hooked. That summer I went to Washington, DC to hear Outdoor Photography’s Dewitt Jones speak. It was so moving, and I couldn’t believe that he and most of the audience got as emotional as I did when photographing nature.
I was shooting print film, piles of it, standing by the one-hour photo machines until they were developed and saying, “XXXX why don’t they look like what I saw out there.” Reading many books on photography and asking the people at the camera stores to critique, my photos started to look closer to what was seen out in the field. Eight years ago I found out about the Delaware Camera Club and went to a meeting. Pat Dempsey was President and, in her wonderful way, she introduced me to Bill Talarowski and Ray Firmani, showing them some of my prints. They were very complimentary about my work (since then I’ve found out they don’t always tell the truth) and with this warm welcome I had found a home and, over time, many true friends.
I mainly get thrilled with photographing nature, landscapes being my favorite, but I like to try anything that will broaden my knowledge of photography. That first year I bought a studio strobe outfit and photographed each of my employees, which I had blown up, matted and framed as Christmas presents.
As time went on, the Club competition
became overly important to me and I have had to put the brakes on and
remind myself that winning is nice, but seeing the beauty all around and
getting out with our cameras, is really what it’s all about.