Please recap your past involvement with the club and say how you became interested in it and its activities. What aspect of the club have you enjoyed or benefited from the most? When I joined the club it was just in the formative stage. This was before there was a constitution and people were just starting to get organized. It was around April 1997. I stumbled across this at a photo seminar by Jim & Barbara Gerlach. There was a sign up sheet for the club there. I thought it was already well established, not knowing any better since I was new to Arkansas. But when I went to my first meeting, it was clear they were just fledgling. I was OK with that though. It wasn’t too long thereafter that we had meetings and field trips and then a constitution. I was the F-Stop newsletter editor in 1998, after Tim Boone who was the first AOPC President and newsletter editor. I probably could have done more than a year, but people told me that if I did, I’d be doing it forever, so I stopped after a year since forever seemed like a long time to me back then. Later on in 2003 I became co-librarian with my wife Karen. Then in 2006 or thereabouts, I became the club treasurer. Did that for around 6 or 7 years. When my wife was diagnosed with cancer in late 2014, I laid low for a while for obvious reasons. In 2019 I volunteered to be Vice-President and did that for two years. Last year I was the AOPC President although it was a difficult time, due to COVID. As far as enjoyment goes, hard to say which ones I’ve benefited from the most. In the end, I think it was just the fellowship of the members and having a similar interest in photography.
When and why did you first become interested in photography? I became interested in photography as a child. I’m not sure why exactly. Just was something I gravitated to. There were a lot of old cameras laying around. Some were point and shoot cameras, some were twin-lens reflex cameras. In 1976, I was given a Polaroid camera as a gift. It was the first camera that I remember owning. Maybe I liked the idea of trying to recreate what you see into an image. Hard for me to say now. Anyway, I’ve been using cameras regularly ever since.
What areas of photography especially interest you? Why? I tend to like nature photography, birds and flowers. Just the colors and the detail. But I’m not averse to other subjects as well whether it be architecture, scenics, people, etc. Guess I’d rather not limit myself too much.
Which areas of Arkansas do you especially like to photograph? In Arkansas, I tend to stay closer to home. Whether it is Petit Jean or Pinnacle Mountain State Parks or the Little Rock Zoo. Once in a while, I will travel elsewhere such as Garvan Gardens or Lake DeGray. Also used to go to Ponca, but it has been awhile.
What other interests do you have outside of photography? Some of my other interests include jazz music, I used to play saxophone when I was young, but now I’m pretty much resigned to listening. Also like gardening to an extent and walking when I can get some in. Sometimes I’ve gone to the parks just to walk not take photos. It can be quite relaxing.
some of RON’s photos
