Meet Richard (Ric) Westman

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Sed ut perspiciatis unde.

We recently connected with Richard (Ric) Westman and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Richard (Ric), thanks for joining us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

I didn’t really get into photography until I was in my late fifties.
I had the good fortune to do a lot of traveling around the world and was lucky enough to see a lot of beautiful sights and people, but it never dawned on me to record my travels thru photography. It wasn’t until I was working in Australia that realized I may never get back to Australia again and I needed to capture the beautiful and unusual things
I was seeing. I soon realized that I knew very little about taking GOOD photographs, which is much different from just taking pictures.

Richard (Ric), before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have always had a deep interest in photography and one point was even considering going to film school in New York . But my personal life was a mess. My mother spend all her time working to help support our family while my dad drank . I did at one point buy a decent camera and some special filters for taking landscape photos, but ended up losing all my camera equipment on a train ride from Chicago to Champaign, IL. after that I just gave up photography. It was the late 60s early 70s the time of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. I got plenty of rock/roll and sex but stayed away from the drugs (scared me). After 2 failed marriages I finally found the woman I was always mean to marry and she turned my life around. I am a self teacher, I learn by trial and error. Having taught myself computer database programming, web design and now photography. The early days of film photography were costly having film developed only to find out the picture were crap but I didn’t let that keep me from getting better using each bad photo as a lesson in what not to do. As a result I have had my work featured in a number of on line and printed magazines and had the good fortune to sell a number of photos.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Some of the biggest tools needed to be a successful wildlife photographer is an understanding of nature, the environment and patience. Things like wind direction, weather conditions, timing and the willingness, no a commitment to stay the course to get the results you want. I have spent many a hour standing in below freezing weather to capture a bald eagle grabbing a fish, hours taking hundreds of photos to get just the right photo of a dying osprey breaking the surface of the water. Getting to a special spot long before the sunrises listening to the frozen lake talk to me while I wait for the sun to paint the sky and water. Telling myself I’m not as crazy as everyone thinks I am.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

The thing that drives me is knowledge that each photo I take is special, its a photo depiction of something no one else has captured yet and once I haven’t taken it no one else will be able to duplicate it

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Meet Richard (Ric) Westman

Meet Richard (Ric) Westman

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Hi Richard (Ric), thanks for joining us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

Richard (Ric), before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

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