Hello, My name is Skip Williams. I have been a photographer since I fell in love with the craft in the early 1970s. I bought my first Olympus OM-1 at 14 and never looked back. I shot high school yearbook black-and-white during those years with the camera. At college at Furman University, I was a sports and event photographer and worked a part time job for the university professional Blake Praytor. I was the guy who went to all the football, soccer, tennis, basketball, baseball, and inter mural sports and took both newspaper and yearbook photos. I was the main darkroom weenie at the time, sometimes doing as many as 20-30 rolls in a busy week, sometimes all day or all night in the darkroom, developing and printing. So I learned the craft of photography the on-the-job training way. No classes, No formal instruction. Just lots of black and white, Kodachrome, and High Speed Ektachrome rolls run through my trusty OM1, 2, and 4. Hundreds and hundreds of rolls.
I tried the professional photojournalism route after college, working for a local newspaper but quickly found out it was no place to earn a living. The one friend I had who was an aspiring professional was always poor. So I decided that this route was not for me and moved on to a non photographic job for the rest of my days. I shot film exclusively with Olympus OM equipment (no AF!) until I purchased a digital Canon G2 in around 2001. I moved up to an Olympus E-1, E-3, then through the M43 cameras today to two E-M5’s one Infrared, and a newer E-M1 Mk2. I also use various film cameras from a Minox 8x11mm spy camera, 1/2 frame Olympus & Canon Demi, various 35mm SLRs and Rangefinders, Medium Format Rolleiflex and 3D printed Cameradactyl cameras sporting Mamiya Press lenses, and pinhole cameras from Holga and Chroma.camera. I also have a thing for panoramic cameras, currently with a 6×12 3D camera, a Horizon 202, a borrowed Widelux, and a Noblex 135U.
I don’t shoot many people photos, as I just don’t have the time to find and nurture such relationships. I don’t shoot many formal landscapes, as they don’t really interest me that much. I also don’t shoot many pretty flowers, as I’ve done this so long I have thousands of flower photos that I never see. As you can see from my current work, it is a very eclectic mixture of digital and film photos, mostly concentrating on form, shadow, light, small details, or just fun. I like the experimental nature of pinhole and panorama. I have found a nice interest recently in digital Infrared, usually 720nm.
I live in Westfield, NJ for the past 35 years with my wife of the same length and work in industries that support pharmaceutical commercialization. We have two grown daughters. Our only dog died at 15 a few years ago, RIP Puzzle.
I’ll have a contact page up soon (if it isn’t already). Contract me if you want to converse on a topic, purchase or license one of my images, or just want to say something, hopefully positive.
