Vance Van Meter
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Vance Van Meter
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ABOUT ME
I am an engineer and currently work for a food manufacturer in Southeast Ohio. I live there with my wife. Our children are grown and so we have the house to ourselves. I'm a very simple man who appreciates the simpler things in life.
I was born in Norfolk, Virginia where both of my parents were stationed in the Navy. We moved around a bit until we finally settled down in West Virginia, where my Dad grew up. From the mountains, we moved to the corn fields of Northwest Iowa, where my Mom grew up. I lived there until I graduated High School in 1977 when I enlisted in the Navy.
From the mountains to the cornfields. That's a lesson in perspective.
I’ve been blessed to have a life that has allowed me go to places near and far away, where I’ve had the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people, see many beautiful places and witness some historic events and some that were not so historic but still important to me. Photography means so many different things to different people, but it is clear that it means something to all people. Unlike when I was a boy, everyone has a camera today. Almost everywhere you go you’ll see someone with a cell phone taking pictures.
It wasn’t a camera that began my love of photography. It was a photo album. As a little boy, I remember my Grandparents bringing out the albums. They were filled with photos. I would ask. Who is that? Where was this taken? What were you doing? We would laugh and have a great time as they would tell all of the details and stories behind the photos. I was intrigued and amazed by how much information that they could share about the images. How could they get all of that from a picture? It wasn’t until I saw a tear stream down my grandpa’s cheek, while looking at a photo of his parents on the family farm, that I realized the power that an image could have. As a little boy, I didn’t understand that but I knew, from that moment, that I wanted to learn how to make photographs.
I got my first camera when I was 8 years old. A little Brownie Hawkeye. You had to look down through the top and it had the flashbulb attachment that would blind you. I took pictures of everything. As excited as I was about it, I eventually lost interest in photography. My pictures weren’t very good. They would be out of focus, too close, too far or not framed properly. They definitely didn’t have the same impact as the photos in the albums.
I would finally learn those lessons when they hired a new art teacher while in High School. Now, we had great teachers at Cedar Valley but Robert Sondag had a little different approach than any art teacher before. He taught art but he also taught photography. We still had the paintings. But now, we could learn to create art with a camera. We learned all about the camera, film, light, composition, depth of field, how to pose subjects and how to develop. He was only at our school for that one year, but he made a great impact on my life. I would have to say that, had it not been for him, I probably would have never picked up a camera again.
Thank you, Mr. Sondag. I haven’t put the camera down since.
Finally, I believe this about photography. Shooting a photograph is a once in a lifetime opportunity to capture the image of a person, place, event, or occasion. From my years of shooting, I have negatives and film prints of places, people, events and occasions that no longer exist and/or will never happen again.
When you press that button, an image is recorded forever. The conditions in that photo such as, subject, lighting, color, atmosphere, etc. will never repeat in that very same way ever again. And you, had the opportunity to memorialize it forever. People, years from now, can look at that image and feel the same way that you did when you took it.
Photography is so rewarding. Whether you do it professionally, as a hobby or leisurely just go out and take pictures. It's a great way to unwind and relax.