This month, I’d like to introduce you to Oliver Morton, better known as Pete. Pete joined SSCC in November. Although Pete does not recall when he first became fascinated with photography, he does remember his first camera and the experiences he enjoyed with it very fondly. Pete was in 9th grade and was living in Taiwan. He was an army brat. He recalls that his best friend at the time was a young man named Chen Lung. Chen spoke very little English and Pete spoke about the same amount of Mandarin. Carrying English/Mandarin dictionaries with them became their best way of communicating. But, this did not deter their friendship. Chen was eager to share the beauty of his country and wanted Pete to experience it all. Pete would capture all that he saw with his camera and still treasures the memories of their trips together through the mountains and into the cities of Taiwan.
Since his father was in the army, Pete’s family moved a great deal during his childhood. He got to experience life in Japan, Germany and Taiwan as well as numerous locations in the USA.
Pete worked at NIH for 48 years working with computing technologies and NIH grants. Although mostly retired now, he is still doing a bit of consulting with them. Currently he is working on a project that has him very excited. Pete is researching cognitive computing technologies in an attempt to identify genomic anomalies that relate to Alzheimer’s Disease. Hopefully, with Pete’s help, there will be significant breakthroughs in the diagnosis and treatment of this terrible disease in the next few years.
Pete is fascinated with every aspect of photography. Today, with his Canon 5D Mark IV in hand, he shoots anything that triggers an emotional response in him. That ranges from candid portraits to beautiful landscapes and a variety of other subjects. In 2014, Pete and his wife were fortunate to be able enjoy a wonderful river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest. They really appreciated being able to wander through the many beautiful towns and villages that border the Rhine, Main and Danube Rivers without the hassles of repacking and figuring out how to get to the next town. I hope Pete will share many photos from that trip with SSCC.
As Pete neared retirement he did a web search on camera clubs in the area. He found SSCC in that search. He was happy to find everyone warm and welcoming and was very impressed with the mix of skill levels and the appreciation that members had for the photographs that were brought in to share.
Pete has been using Photoshop for a long time, but feels there is a lot more he can learn about this full featured processing product. He is especially interested in learning how to enhance the feelings created by his pictures.
Hopefully we will see Pete on some of our upcoming field trips and other club activities. Please take a few minutes to introduce yourself to him. I think he has a lot to offer SSCC as a member and a friend of photography.