Feature Photographer Jim Copps

Flash forward to high school, when I started really getting interested in photography. I somehow knew even then that my shots were moments frozen in time and that I, my family and my friends would love to see these memories ten or twenty or even more years in the future. I always had a theory that if you don't take pictures, you might just as well have dreamed or imagined what you, your kin and your friends have done. So I took pictures to document my life and segued into other photographic realms, through high school, then college and during my working years – still always learning from each shot I took. I like passing along my vision of the world and noticing things that others often gloss over. I enjoy the macro-to-micro world and putting huge and tiny things into perspective. I still marvel at the beauty of a sunset and the amazing small world of insects and want to show others what I see. Photography now is a wide-open study and I'm a continuing student of its niches.

While in the Air Force, I was a photojournalist and editor of the base newspaper at a pilot training base. We had photo lab airmen, but I ended up taking many of the newspaper shots myself -- even hanging from a harness out the bay door of a twin-rotor rescue helicopter turned on its side, flying over the base to take aerial shots. Pretty scary!

When digital cameras came around, it was as if another world of photography opened up! No more did I have to spend money developing and printing every shot. I could now send them through the internet (MAGIC!) and only print the best. Plus editing them was more intriguing with more complete control, a lot faster and handier than cropping, dodging and burning in a chemical-filled darkroom. I moved up slowly, as I could afford it, from a 1.3-megapixel Olympus to my present 14-megapixel, 26-optical zoom Kodak. This all-in-one camera will probably be the last one I'll need.

Moving to Sun City in 2005, to help my ailing father cope with his increasing disabilities, I quickly joined the Sun City Photography Special Interest Group under the Visual Arts Club and have been learning more and enjoying the fellowship of like-minded and more advanced shooters. The field trips provided welcomed new subjects and themes and the camaraderie has been fantastic. We have a lot of laughs together while we're sharing experiences, skills and knowledge. Also, the club allowed me to begin framing and exhibiting my work, something I had done little of. I served as the club newsletter editor for two years, which taught me a lot and brought me back to my old journalism roots and working on the Exhibitions Committee helped me understand how to get my work out where it could be seen in more than just “Cyberia.” I learn more every day.

I want to thank all of the photographers in the club who have helped guide my growth in the science and art of creating images, and especially those who skillfully do that while entertaining me and others along the way with their good humor and friendliness.