November Program: “Expanding Your Creative Vision”

Creativity. It’s the element of photography that makes the difference between a good image and a great one. Photographer Walter P. Calahan will take on this complex and essential topic at the Nov. 5 VPS meeting with his multi-media presentation, “Mastering the Box – Expanding Your Creative Vision.” The purpose of his lecture is to teach others how to creatively find solutions to complex situations.

Walt maintains that the cameras and lenses that fascinate so many photographers are merely tools, and “a tool without the human spirit guiding it is pretty much worthless.” He believes photographers should be able to take excellent pictures using a simple pinhole camera. “You don't need the latest and greatest gadget or lens,” he said. “All you need to do is think.”

Walt has been an independent photographer since 1987. Before that, he was photo editor for USA Today and staff photographer for the Courier News of central New Jersey and the Billings Gazette, Billings, Mont. His photographic career has taken him from the lava tube caves in Idaho to the surgical clinics for Afghan refugees in Pashawar, Pakistan and the tumult of the Romanian revolution. Walt is based in Westminster, Md. but said his studio “travels with me to light any environment.”

His photographs have appeared in many publications, including the Smithsonian, The New York Times Magazine, Sports Illustrated and Car and Driver. Among his other clients are the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, American Express, The Nature Conservancy and the Washington Performing Arts Society. He teaches “Introduction to Photography” for the Art Department of McDaniel College in Westminster.

Walt’s photographs may be viewed on his website, www.walterpcalahan.com