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Two streams – photography and nature – run through Patsy Cicala Jr.’s life. The 63-year-old picked up a camera in prep school, basically on a dare, and came away with a lifelong passion for it. In the past few years he’s turned his attention to the natural beauty of the Delmarva peninsula, and capturing it in panoramic landscapes. Although new to photo contests, he’s placed in the first three he’s entered: Last summer’s Biggs Picture at Dover’s Biggs Museum of American Art, and this fall’s Prime Hook and Milton Arts Guild contests.
Cicala talked about his start behind the camera and shared what’s kept him shooting for more than 40 years.
Q How did you start in photography?
A I was going to Trinity Pawling Prep School and I was a sophomore, and my roommate was on the yearbook staff. Every day I would come in and he would have 12 or 14 rolls of film, 36 exposures, hanging across the window to dry. I asked what he shot and how come he had so many photos and he said he waited to get the right shot. You don’t wait too long, I said. He asked if I thought I could do better and gave me his camera and a few rolls of film.
I went out and shot the basketball game, I shot the wrestling match, and a dance that was that night, and I think I took 14 pictures. And all 14 were in the yearbook. So what I did, because I didn’t know any better, was I waited to crop the picture while shooting.
I really want to see the picture cropped before I shoot it. A lot of people don’t do that. I look at the foreground, I look at the background, I try to position things the way they look best, and if it doesn’t look right, I don’t shoot it.
Q Do you have a favorite subject to shoot?
A I wish I was better at taking sports photographs. I do have a couple published, but I don’t spend as much time at it.
I like vistas, I like things that have grand views, whether it be animals, people, boats. I have my degree in oceanography and limnology (study of freshwater) and I taught environmental science, so I’ve always been out in the woods with my classes, and I ran environmental camps. I’ve always enjoyed the outdoors.
Two streams – photography and nature – run through Patsy Cicala Jr.’s life. The 63-year-old picked up a camera in prep school, basically on a dare, and came away with a lifelong passion for it. In the past few years he’s turned his attention to the natural beauty of the Delmarva peninsula, and capturing it in panoramic landscapes. Although new to photo contests, he’s placed in the first three he’s entered: Last summer’s Biggs Picture at Dover’s Biggs Museum of American Art, and this fall’s Prime Hook and Milton Arts Guild contests.
Cicala talked about his start behind the camera and shared what’s kept him shooting for more than 40 years.
Q How did you start in photography?
A I was going to Trinity Pawling Prep School and I was a sophomore, and my roommate was on the yearbook staff. Every day I would come in and he would have 12 or 14 rolls of film, 36 exposures, hanging across the window to dry. I asked what he shot and how come he had so many photos and he said he waited to get the right shot. You don’t wait too long, I said. He asked if I thought I could do better and gave me his camera and a few rolls of film.
I went out and shot the basketball game, I shot the wrestling match, and a dance that was that night, and I think I took 14 pictures. And all 14 were in the yearbook. So what I did, because I didn’t know any better, was I waited to crop the picture while shooting.
I really want to see the picture cropped before I shoot it. A lot of people don’t do that. I look at the foreground, I look at the background, I try to position things the way they look best, and if it doesn’t look right, I don’t shoot it.
Q Do you have a favorite subject to shoot?
A I wish I was better at taking sports photographs. I do have a couple published, but I don’t spend as much time at it.
I like vistas, I like things that have grand views, whether it be animals, people, boats. I have my degree in oceanography and limnology (study of freshwater) and I taught environmental science, so I’ve always been out in the woods with my classes, and I ran environmental camps. I’ve always enjoyed the outdoors.
Q Is photography your only artistic outlet?
A I also draw. One day in college I woke up worried about what would happen if someone stole my camera so I thought I’d better learn how to paint. I went to a friend’s house and took some Dunkin’ Donuts and coffee and said, “I gotta borrow your paints because I’m afraid someone’s going to steal my camera!”
And my first painting wasn’t too bad.
Q Did you start as a professional photographer?
A I was a teacher for 31 years, but I’ve always done photography. My first published photography was in 1964 in a literary magazine. It was a portrait of a 67-year-old man who was a custodian and lived in the basement of a complex, and he was a real interesting character.
Q How did you get the photo that won the Prime Hook award?
A I wanted to capture a picture of all the snow geese on the bay, and so I was out there at about 5:15 a.m. and I was sneaking up behind the berm to get far enough out so I could get the whole 180 view, and while I was out there I spooked a red fox. It jumped over the berm, and all of a sudden he emptied out about half the bay, and it ended up going into the estuary. So I ran on top of the berm and clicked six pictures, so the picture that won starts off all the way to the west with the background of Fowler Beach, then the center part has the berm, then the right part has the Delaware Bay and the Prime Hook.
That’s why it’s called the “Essence of Delaware” — it has a little bit of everything.
Q What do you shoot with?
A Pentax, single lens, reflex digital. Yesterday I was shooting some of the Prime Hook geese out at the reserve and I never did this before but I did a 1 minute, 19 second movie. I followed them and there was a field right outside Prime Hook, and as I pulled up to the field they all started to land. I thought I was being attacked, but it really was cool.
Q You shoot panoramic photos. How big are they when printed out?
A Usually I go with a 36-inch-long print. With panoramic prints you’re losing the effect if you put them on a small piece of paper, so most of my prints have been at least 36 inches. About 11 by 36 is the format most of my stuff is in.
Q What’s your favorite season in which to shoot outdoors?
A I had some phenomenal shots down here during the snowstorm two years ago. To me they’re personal and unique. I went out to Cape Henlopen and have a morning shot of the sun rising, the red reflecting on the snow. Then in the background the dark, dark blue water and the lighthouse, and I caught the ferry. It’s a great shot. When I had it printed it’s six feet long. It encompasses everything. That, to me, is one of the most interesting shots.
But the most fun shots are in the fall. I have a pontoon boat and I go out and take a myriad on the Broadkill River.
Q So you shoot from the water, not only from land?
A Yeah. Once I was on my Sea-Doo and I got the pirate boat that goes out to the oil tankers as it was passing the outer Refuge light. Another time I went all the way around to the ocean and I got a photo of the people on the beach from the Sea-Doo.
Q Does being a nature photographer make you see nature in a different way?
A Absolutely. If you feel that you’re part of nature when you walk into the woods you’re not offending the woods, you become part of it. You can sit quietly, you can wait. I have some photos that I’ve waited for an hour and half, two hours. While you’re out there there are so many things that are going on. Just as interestingly, when I was on the Broadkill I must have gone up and down the river at least 100 times, but you never see it the same because the light is always different, and because it’s a tidal stream they’re always at different levels. So no matter how many times you pass something it always looks different.
