Tulsa-area photographer wins Canon photo contest
BY MICHAEL SMITH World Scene Writer
Thursday, December 06, 2012
12/06/12 at 3:34 AM
It was the fog that drew Richard Waters out early to Lake Bixhoma last November south of Bixby, armed with his camera. Sitting on a cement picnic table, he began shooting sunrise photos using his wide-angle lens.
He switched to a zoom lens as he viewed something coming closer, emerging from the fog.
"I realized that it was a couple of guys in a boat fishing, and I started taking photos," the Broken Arrow man said. "I liked the different depths in the photos, like that of the men and then of the trees deeper behind them. I liked the silhouette look of the image, too."
Several other people who know quality images liked Waters' photograph as well. On Wednesday, his submission was named one of the winners in the Canon Project Imaginat10n contest, which will see the winning photos inspire short films created by celebrities in multiple fields.
Among actors Eva Longoria and Jamie Foxx and others, Waters' photo - titled "Gone Fishin" - was selected by James Murphy, founder of the band LCD Soundsystem, who will now be supervised by Oscar-winning director Ron Howard in making a short film with a storyline based on 10 storytelling tenets inspired by the winning photos.
In this case, Waters' picture was chosen by Murphy in the "relationship" category and will join nine other winners' photos in a variety of categories such as setting, character and mood to influence how Murphy forms his film's narrative.
Waters, 63, operates a bulk-mailing service but has also made his photography - largely focused on landscapes and floral images - work as something more than a hobby.
Waters has won photo contests at Tulsa Garden Center, and two years ago he won a national photo contest sponsored by USA Today. He can be found selling his photos at area events like Art in the Square at Utica Square each year.
Now he will see a short film inspired in part by his photography go into production in the coming months. Waters will also be invited to the Canon Project Imaginat10n Film Festival next year to see it premiere on the big screen.
"It's been like waiting on pins and needles the last two months that I've known there was a chance of being selected," Waters said, "and it's been worth the wait."
The winning entries can be viewed online at tulsaworld.com/canoncontest
Broken Arrow's Chris Wehner was announced last year as a winner in Hollywood filmmaker Ron Howard's contest to use photographs to inspire a short film.
Wehner's spooky image of a Memorial Park Cemetery gate on 51st Street, under a menacing, pre-storm sky - titled "Yea, Though I Walk" - helped to inspire the movie "When You Find Me," a 25-minute short film directed by Howard's daughter, actress Bryce Dallas Howard.
Original Print Headline: Photographer earns contest prize
Michael Smith 918-581-8479
michael.smith@tulsaworld.com
Associated Images:
Richard Waters' photo of two fishermen on Lake Bixhoma was named one of the winners in the Canon Project Imaginat10n contest. Courtesy
Waters
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