Member Interview - Walter

[René]

#1 So Walter my good man, firstly, post your favourite self portrait of yourself here....

#2 Now, your a man of many great talents, apart from photography, what else are you passionate about?

#3 What inspired you to become a photographer, and what is the best lens you ever owned, [past/present].

[Chiller]

If you had a chance to spend one hour with someone, past or present, who would that be. You could photograph them or just chat...it's your choice.
Do you have any photographers that inspire you?

[Terri]

Hi Walter - First, I am interested in seeing your favorite photograph (that you took). Mind you, it doesn't have to be what you may consider your "best" photograph - just your personal favorite. And why?

Second - given your talent and abundance of landscape images, I am wondering if you've ever shot in LF. If so, could we see one?

[René]

Hi Terri, forgive my ignorance, but what's LF?

[Chiller]

Hi Terri, forgive my ignorance, but what's LF?
I think it means "Left Field":biglaugh::biglaugh::biglaugh:

[Walter]

#1 So Walter my good man, firstly, post your favourite self portrait of yourself here....

#2 Now, your a man of many great talents, apart from photography, what else are you passionate about?

#3 What inspired you to become a photographer, and what is the best lens you ever owned, [past/present].

This is cool...

#1. Self portrait:
http://aeve.com/1tpf/1/tbp/457-cj8409.jpg
Pacific Beach, San Diego, CA - July 2008, 4:00 am, waiting for the sun to come up.

#2. Passions:
Grand kids - especially the oldest two. They've always needed me and we've become very close through the 19 and 17 years we've hungout together. They mix well with my third passion, the desert.

#3. Inspiration and lens:
Drawing. I've drawn since I was three years old. It's a buzz for me, but I stopped and let the gift go fallow. Long, sad story. I'm trying to make up for my disregard through photography--It's a buzz for me.

My favorite lens is my sigma 10-20. I bought it 2-3 years ago, and when I got my d300, slapped it on and left it there until yesterday. Dumb move. Now I have dust on my sensor. I try to use every molecule of the glass, chromatic aberrations and all.

[Walter]

If you had a chance to spend one hour with someone, past or present, who would that be. You could photograph them or just chat...it's your choice.
Do you have any photographers that inspire you?

Albert Einstein. He was a great creative thinker.

I admire Josef Muench's photography. Also, Ansel Adams and Galen Rowell- for the content but more for them doing as they wanted to do. I try not to study them (anyone) too much though. I want to produce what I produce rather than being someone else.

-

[sleepingdragon]

Walter other than desert landscapes what else would you love to shoot?

[René]

Cool pic Walter. What photo software do you use for editing and also, if you could have your dream camera kit, what would it be, cost no object....

[invisible]

How long have you been doing photography? Has it ever been your livelihood? If not, what do/did you do for a living? (i.e., were you an accountant in any other phase of your life?)

Do you have any formal training in photography (or in visual arts in general)?

[Walter]

Hi Walter - First, I am interested in seeing your favorite photograph (that you took). Mind you, it doesn't have to be what you may consider your "best" photograph - just your personal favorite. And why?

Second - given your talent and abundance of landscape images, I am wondering if you've ever shot in LF. If so, could we see one?

A Busy Day at the Jackrabbit Ranch
http://aeve.com/1tpf/1/tbp/jr-ranch.jpg

Everything about this shot was good for me. The shot itself came out great with a minimum of processing.

My wife and I were returning home from 4 days in Utah where we visited Zion and a few historic locations in Nevada and Arizona. Coming out of Las Vegas we watched a rainstorm pounding a dry lake in the distance. It was beautiful. I had to get off the freeway. I asked my wife if I could take a shortcut across the Mojave National Preserve to see if we could catch some weather--It'd only add 2-3 hours. No problem with her.

The light was good, but nothing much to shoot. I pulled over in Cima, a little ghost town in the preserve. My wife was exhausted and fell asleep sitting in the Jeep. After about 10 minutes of me shooting a truck pulled up next to her. I was maybe 200 yards away and sort of behind a building. It's no big deal, a lot of times folks will stop when someone is parked out there aways to see if they're stranded and need help. The guy in the truck stayed there for a couple minutes though. I thought they may be talking. Then I noticed our window was up. The truck just sat there. I folded up and walked around into the truck's view. He held up his hands like, "is everything ok?" I gave the thumbs up. He drove off. I think he may have thought she was dead. Probably he was thinking then that how dedicated I was that I'd stop to take photos in the good light, then take my dead wife into the hospital in Barstow 120 miles away. After all, ... She can sleep without flinching though. It can be eerie.

Anyway, I went back to shooting. The ranch shot was the first shot out of Jeep and I could have left after 10 minutes. I printed it out 24x36 and had it matted and framed. Showed it in the local museum for a month then gave it to my niece for a wedding present. It's hanging front and center in their living room. Her and her husband tell me they love it, but what I think is cool, is that her friends have told me they that they are proud of it and love showing it off.

-

I've never shot large format. Working with computers since the mid-70s, and buying my first PC in 85, digital, when it finally came around was more convenient to me. I did some medium format stuff in high school and have a couple 35mm through the years, but being a pencil landscape freak, I always thought photography was cheating.

[Walter]

Walter other than desert landscapes what else would you love to shoot?

Mountain landscapes?

I like shooting people. But my photos don't seem to get that rewarding of a reaction. Probably because I shoot them when they look like a prick or are doing something stupid. I've been called exploitive and mean spirited several times.

Examples:

http://aeve.com/1tpf/xpeople/500-c0355.jpg

http://aeve.com/1tpf/1/sandiego/392-0407.jpg

-

[Walter]

Cool pic Walter. What photo software do you use for editing and also, if you could have your dream camera kit, what would it be, cost no object....

I use photoshop cs2. I had a client buy me a copy of ps6.0 years ago, but never used it as I figured my stuff was minimal.

I try not to look too much, so I don't know too much, but maybe some kind of large format digital. Probably Nikon because I like the strap. I'd really like to have some type of tilt-shift lens. If I could afford a remote trigger for my d300 then I could at least get into omething longer than 30 second exposures. And something with maybe like 25 iso and a teeny tiny aperture, f64, f128. Also, a burro to carry my stuff. And a trailer because camping can suck, and something decent to pull it.

[René]

Love the girl on the bicycle shot.....

[Walter]

How long have you been doing photography? Has it ever been your livelihood? If not, what do/did you do for a living? (i.e., were you an accountant in any other phase of your life?)

Do you have any formal training in photography (or in visual arts in general)?

About 14-15 years ago I got into web design. It was an extension of computer science, which was an extension of my interest in geometry, an extension of drafting, an extension of drawing. I bought my first digital camera in 94/95. Over the years since the photography became more of the product.

Before that I held jobs being

MIS manager for city government
Programmer/systems designer
Civil engineering technician/designer
Structural systems design draftsman
Technical writer illustrator

No formal training in anything. Just high school (Class of '71). I like to read.

[René]

Although landscapes in your area/surrounding area have lovely colours, which medium do you prefer to use in your images, Colour or BW? Lately I have been honing my skills in BW developing in Aperture, but I think it must be hard to decide for your landscapes as some of the colours are just so amazing.

[René]

I am not really a sports person, but I love watching the New Zealand All Blacks play rugby.... do you have a favourite sport or team?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rulZOE8bDa8&feature=related

When they do the Haka, the hairs on my neck stand up!

[Fox Paw]

I'm glad to see this interview.

I'd like to know what you do and think about when you're composing a picture.

[Craig]

Love the text and of course the images in this post.

Much Love!!!!

[Terri]

A Busy Day at the Jackrabbit Ranch
http://aeve.com/1tpf/1/tbp/jr-ranch.jpg

Everything about this shot was good for me. The shot itself came out great with a minimum of processing.

My wife and I were returning home from 4 days in Utah where we visited Zion and a few historic locations in Nevada and Arizona. Coming out of Las Vegas we watched a rainstorm pounding a dry lake in the distance. It was beautiful. I had to get off the freeway. I asked my wife if I could take a shortcut across the Mojave National Preserve to see if we could catch some weather--It'd only add 2-3 hours. No problem with her.

The light was good, but nothing much to shoot. I pulled over in Cima, a little ghost town in the preserve. My wife was exhausted and fell asleep sitting in the Jeep. After about 10 minutes of me shooting a truck pulled up next to her. I was maybe 200 yards away and sort of behind a building. It's no big deal, a lot of times folks will stop when someone is parked out there aways to see if they're stranded and need help. The guy in the truck stayed there for a couple minutes though. I thought they may be talking. Then I noticed our window was up. The truck just sat there. I folded up and walked around into the truck's view. He held up his hands like, "is everything ok?" I gave the thumbs up. He drove off. I think he may have thought she was dead. Probably he was thinking then that how dedicated I was that I'd stop to take photos in the good light, then take my dead wife into the hospital in Barstow 120 miles away. After all, ... She can sleep without flinching though. It can be eerie.

Anyway, I went back to shooting. The ranch shot was the first shot out of Jeep and I could have left after 10 minutes. I printed it out 24x36 and had it matted and framed. Showed it in the local museum for a month then gave it to my niece for a wedding present. It's hanging front and center in their living room. Her and her husband tell me they love it, but what I think is cool, is that her friends have told me they that they are proud of it and love showing it off.

-

I've never shot large format. Working with computers since the mid-70s, and buying my first PC in 85, digital, when it finally came around was more convenient to me. I did some medium format stuff in high school and have a couple 35mm through the years, but being a pencil landscape freak, I always thought photography was cheating.Great story!! :D Always fun to get the heart and soul behind people's favorite works, you know? :)


...being a pencil landscape freak, I always thought photography was cheating.
:lol: Love it. Thanks for these great replies.

[Terri]

I think it means "Left Field":biglaugh::biglaugh::biglaugh::irked: Very funny!


Rene, LF = large format photography (as you probably already got from Walter's reply), like MF = medium format. I should have typed it out but I'm lazy. :mrgreen:

[René]

Walter, whats the ideal way to spend your Sundays?

[Walter]

Although landscapes in your area/surrounding area have lovely colours, which medium do you prefer to use in your images, Colour or BW? Lately I have been honing my skills in BW developing in Aperture, but I think it must be hard to decide for your landscapes as some of the colours are just so amazing.


I prefer color. In the early mornings and late afternoons some amazing things happen, and I love working with the colors I see. Sometimes though, during the brighter parts of the day, bw helps where I can keep going and do some tripped out things that just don't have the effect in color. I think I'd still be doing all color all he time if it weren't for a comment a little brother of mine made a few years ago. I tried his suggestion and it worked out quite nicely. Now, that guy is/was a heck of a film photographer (bw only)!

-

[Walter]

I am not really a sports person, but I love watching the New Zealand All Blacks play rugby.... do you have a favourite sport or team?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rulZOE8bDa8&feature=related

When they do the Haka, the hairs on my neck stand up!

That's some video. I have a cousin (actually my grandfather's cousin) who is in the baseball hall of fame. An old guy named Bob Feller. When I was a kid, I'd get quite into it, but, I'm not too sports coordinated and that bone in my head dissolved in my early teens. Occasionally I watch a ball game. I usually go for whoever is winning at the moment. My alliances can change several times during a game. We have a local minor league team we'd go watch a dozen games a year maybe. Not since I really got into photography though.

-

[Walter]

I'm glad to see this interview.

I'd like to know what you do and think about when you're composing a picture.

Anymore, since I have a pretty good idea what the terrain is, I spend quite a bit of time visualizing what I want to shoot before I get there. When I'm new to an area, I just wander and explore. Basically, I try to find things I like, look for some foreground interest and lines, curves, shapes that attract me. I try to figure out what it is about a particular scene that I find attractive, and see if there's anything I wouldn't want in there. I guess the main question is, is why would I (or anyone) want that on the wall? I haven't been out to specifically shoot for myself in months. It's a hard question to answer right now. I'm planning a 3-5 day trip early next month. I'll pay more attention to what I'm thinking then.

[Walter]

Love the text and of course the images in this post.

Much Love!!!!

:thumbup:

[Walter]

Walter, whats the ideal way to spend your Sundays?

Not like I did today.

Usually, when my business was thriving, I'd work Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays and take the rest of the week off. The yard's gotten to be quite neglected over the last few years, and with no work going, it's all about yard work.

To relax, I like to write little bits.

-

[Walter]

Love the girl on the bicycle shot.....

It's a bit strange, but I think I knew her Mom back in the 70s.

-

[PhotoJet]

Good Morning, Walter!
First, I have to say that I enjoyed all your different avatars; they took me on a quick ride down 'memory lane'. ;)
I really enjoy your photos and just wanted to let you know. You've shown me a side to the desert I never would have thought existed. Thanks. :)

[sleepingdragon]

Walter whats your biggest challenge as a photographer?

Love your people shots, hope to see more.

[Antarctican]

(Another voice here saying how much I enjoy your changing avatars, and you used to list funny locations too, like Hoop/LA etc. It always made me chuckle).

And another voice also saying that I like your people shots, and hope you post some more.

How did the exhibit go, the one at the Park where you had to narrow it down to about 25 pics or so?

What types of things do you write? Stories? Articles? Poetry?

You obviously have a love for the desert, and it shows in your photographs. But maybe there are other types of landscapes you'd like to photograph. So, if you could go on an all-expenses paid photo trip to anywhere in the world, where would you go?

[Walter]

Good Morning, Walter!
First, I have to say that I enjoyed all your different avatars; they took me on a quick ride down 'memory lane'. ;)
I really enjoy your photos and just wanted to let you know. You've shown me a side to the desert I never would have thought existed. Thanks. :)

I love switching the avatars around. Today's is Pepino, from the Real McCoys (http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cine/tony-martinez.htm). One of my favorites is Troy Donahue wearing a bright red hooded sweater holding a cup of hot chocolate. It's hilarious.

I've been quite taken by the desert. I used to think there was nothing out there--Sensory deprivation. But for a lot of nothing, the more I look, the more I see. None of it seems to make sense, but it all ties together so wonderfully well; geology, plants, animals, and it is all laid bare for study. Initially, I wanted to build an interactive model. To show the highlights. Ghost towns, mines, natural features and the rest. I figured it would take about 2-3 years. Fourteen years later I've at least another 14 to go. There's just more and more and more.

http://digital-desert.com & http://mojavedesert.net

-

[Walter]

Walter whats your biggest challenge as a photographer?

Love your people shots, hope to see more.

Right now, getting to the location. I live on the southwestern edge of the Mojave, and most of the locations I want to get to are anywhere from 150-250 miles away. #*&%*&^ gas.

As far as the actual photography goes though, focusing in low light/twilight. It takes forever. I can almost get it by feel anymore. I just keep rolling the ring forward and back finding where the shot goes the most out, then get a feel for the proportion of where the subject is in relation to the foreground. One would think I'd carry a flashlight???- but oh no.

[Walter]

(Another voice here saying how much I enjoy your changing avatars, and you used to list funny locations too, like Hoop/LA etc. It always made me chuckle).

And another voice also saying that I like your people shots, and hope you post some more.

How did the exhibit go, the one at the Park where you had to narrow it down to about 25 pics or so?

What types of things do you write? Stories? Articles? Poetry?

You obviously have a love for the desert, and it shows in your photographs. But maybe there are other types of landscapes you'd like to photograph. So, if you could go on an all-expenses paid photo trip to anywhere in the world, where would you go?

Favorite places I've pretended to be from- Eat, Maine (Eat Me), Bendov, Oregon (Bedov Or), & as you mentioned, Hoop, Louisiana (Hoop La). I had a bunch written down at one time. Wish I could remember them all.

The exhibit- It was great for me personally. I liked that the park service said that my work reflected what the locals, the people that lived and worked out there saw and that I shared that with visitors, and a few of my friends and some of my family made it out to look. Most of all, my two oldest grandkids got to see it. Financially it was a bust. I lost probably $1,000 on the deal, but have Christmas gifts for years to come :) They asked me to come back, and I would if I had the money to put up another.

I thought a bit about that earlier. I hope I wasn't rude when I said "mountains." Thinking about it though, probably Morroco if I had to go outside the US. In the US, I'd really like to spend a year in the Southwest. New Mexico, western Texas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and Arizona. But that's still not much of a stretch.

[PhotoJet]

That's some video. I have a cousin (actually my grandfather's cousin) who is in the baseball hall of fame. An old guy named Bob Feller. When I was a kid, I'd get quite into it, but, I'm not too sports coordinated and that bone in my head dissolved in my early teens. Occasionally I watch a ball game. I usually go for whoever is winning at the moment. My alliances can change several times during a game. We have a local minor league team we'd go watch a dozen games a year maybe. Not since I really got into photography though.

-

Oh! I told my husband (a big time baseball fan) about your "Bob Feller" connection. He was one of my husband's favorites! :)

[Fox Paw]

I recall Bob Feller.

Walter, if you ever get to Arizona, several people here would be happy to share some photographic outings with you.

[Walter]

...
What types of things do you write? Stories? Articles? Poetry?
...

I got in the middle of things during my last response...

Some of the stuff I write in forums (or at least used to) ends up here:

http://desertgazette.com

I like writing about things that went on in the 1800s and early 1900s the most though. I like to take true stories and tell them without regard to proven fact (fictionalize them, insert dialogue). Like some guy telling them rather than a documentation or true historical account.

-

[Walter]

Oh! I told my husband (a big time baseball fan) about your "Bob Feller" connection. He was one of my husband's favorites! :)

I met him once. Standing in line waiting to meet him one of the girls helping him came right out and asked if I were related. She said there were some very striking simularities. He looked just like one of my uncles when he (Bob) was younger. My oldest little brother has the athletic gift. He probably could have played pro ball, but went after a career in aeronautics.

-

[Walter]

I recall Bob Feller.

Walter, if you ever get to Arizona, several people here would be happy to share some photographic outings with you.

Maybe someday.

-

[René]

If you could fly anywhere in the world to shoot a location, where would it be and why?

[Walter]

If you could fly anywhere in the world to shoot a location, where would it be and why?

I'll stick with Morroco. It's still desert but exotic to me. I like the architecture. I've seen some very cool looking patterns in the buildings.

Second- the Isle of Man. From the shots I've seen of there, it looks to be a very strange place.

Third, but probably the most likely, because the little woman would insist on "input" and have to come along--Italy. I'd have to get more into the country though than the big cities and just being set free at the airport. I like the quiet stuff, the country and villages.

-

[PhotoJet]

Ok... my FAVORITE show... Tom Terrific & his dog, Mighty Manfred! :lol:

You'd love where we were in Italy... off in a villa in the middle of vineyards. Free to roam wherever we wanted. Better learn some Italian, though, cause out in the "sticks" no one speaks much English... except for "Bye bye!" hahaha :lol: We were treated wonderfully, though!

You can come visit us! If you come in the winter, it pretty much looks like the desert... except really white. ;)

[Walter]

Ok... my FAVORITE show... Tom Terrific & his dog, Mighty Manfred! :lol:

You'd love where we were in Italy... off in a villa in the middle of vineyards. Free to roam wherever we wanted. Better learn some Italian, though, cause out in the "sticks" no one speaks much English... except for "Bye bye!" hahaha :lol: We were treated wonderfully, though!

You can come visit us! If you come in the winter, it pretty much looks like the desert... except really white. ;)

Didn't Manfred used to sleep on his back after having a bisquit and floating in the air? Or was that another wonder dog?

Someday I might. I'd like to take the wife to Iowa and show her some of the places I lived when I was young.

-

[Antarctican]

If you could 'do it all over again', what would would be your dream job?

What kind of music do you like?

What traits do you admire in people?

[Walter]

If you could 'do it all over again', what would would be your dream job?

What kind of music do you like?

What traits do you admire in people?

Do over?- -- Pretty much the same thing but without the self-hatred, loathing, and totally out of control drug use in my teens and twenties. To date, it's been interesting, and I got into some really cool technical careers. In the last year it looks like things are going to become very challenging. I'm doing my dream job, but the harder I try, the less financially rewarding it has become. Weird.

I remember when I was 12, maybe 13 years old. My family went on a picnic to the mountains near where we live (the other side of the mountains near where I live today). I hiked off into the rocky forest aways and near a stream. Sitting on a boulder well worn with grinding holes made by the local Indians, I looked around and thought how really beautiful everything really was. I remember thinking how perfect it would be just to spend all my time in the wild taking pictures (I thought it was cheating, but if I could get away with it,...). I had no idea how I could make a living doing it though.

Forty years later my little fantasy came back on me and hit me like a ton of bricks. I'd forgotten all about it. Once I realized that's what I wanted, I've been obsessed. I'll make a living at this though. I -will- figure out a way. This is my dream job- the landscapes, the internet, map making, writing, history and research, bits of system design and planning, travel and camping... I can't think of anything I have ever, or would love more. It paid pretty good up until not too long ago. It ain't over. I have to have faith that everything is for the better.

er, ... I like a lot of rock music from the 70s, 80s and 90s. Joplin, Hendrix, Santana, Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, David Bowie, B52s, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, etc. I used to play steel-string acoustic guitar. I played for maybe 20 years. I gave my last one to my grandson when he needed it more than me.

Admirable traits; intelligence, humor. I don't have a big social life. I found out there's no study groups for being a loner, and I do enjoy running my own game. I'm the oldest of 8 kids and my Dad was the oldest of 10. My brothers and sisters and I all get along. I've a couple nephews, tons of nieces, countless cousins, and they all have kids, and I love just about all of them and enjoy holidays when I can be with them. My wife is from a large family also. They're quite cool. I've liked forums as far as virtual online friends, and I've been quite surprised I enjoy taking my desert field trips and classes and hanging out with people when we stick to something narrow we have in common. But everybody's politics suck.

-

[René]

Walter had you been to Morocco before? It's a place I would love to visit.... my god, a photographers dream with all those colours and combinations of Africian, European and Arab cultures. If you have been, can you post pix?

[Walter]

Walter had you been to Morocco before? It's a place I would love to visit.... my god, a photographers dream with all those colours and combinations of Africian, European and Arab cultures. If you have been, can you post pix?

I'm afraid not. I've only been out of the U.S. once, to Germany for a year or so while I was in the army. The world is very big and I am very small, so I've remained pretty much provincial and played in my own backyard.

-

[Chiller]

REally diggin this interview Walter. Great to get to know you more. :mrgreenpeace:

[Fox Paw]

"But everybody's politics suck."

Not mine. Everyone else's, yeah. :)

[Walter]

REally diggin this interview Walter. Great to get to know you more. :mrgreenpeace:

Thanks- it's kind of fun.

"But everybody's politics suck."

Not mine. Everyone else's, yeah. :)

I stand corrected- I'll rephrase; Everybody's politics but mine suck.

Thanks!

-

[René]

Walter, one last question before we start picking Fox Paw's brains, if you could go back through history and photograph an event without injury or being able to change the event/history, what would it be and why? Also, thanks for the interview.

[Walter]

Walter, one last question before we start picking Fox Paw's brains, if you could go back through history and photograph an event without injury or being able to change the event/history, what would it be and why? Also, thanks for the interview.

Easy- there was a volcanic erruption 10-20 million years ago or so between what is now Death Valley and Yosemite. In one super-massive explosion it kicked up a molten mass about 250 square miles in area about 5 miles thick, splattering and running over several valleys and forming mountain ranges --poom- It would have been crazy no matter from what angle. Large format only.

:)

Thank you!

-

[René]

So what your saying is, W I D E A N G L E L E N S !

[Walter]

:)

yep.

-