Commentary: Telling Maryland's story through photographs

Middleton Evans was 9 years old when he got his first camera, a Kodak Instamatic. Three years later, his father gave him a more expensive and sophisticated SLR camera. Thus began a love affair with photography that has become a love affair with the state of Maryland.Almost 30 years later, the books of Middleton Evans grace coffee tables all across Maryland. In addition, they are often given as gifts to visitors who take them to their homes in other states and even other countries on the far side of the world.

Evans has seen a lot of changes in the technology of photography since he took his first picture more than 30 years ago.I love digital photography, he says. When I first started publishing my pictures, all of the focusing was done through a hit or miss process. Today, I can use auto-focusing which makes it less challenging.However, Evans admits that the magic of digital photography and computer editing has raised a new issue for photographers.

Photography is art, and it's really all about integrity, he explains. When you change a photograph without full disclosure, it's misleading. It's no better than when the Soviets would re-publish a picture where a general or a politician had disappeared; they were trying to change history. When you take a photograph, you're telling the viewer that this is real, that nothing has been changed. It's okay to alter a photograph for artistic purposes, and digital photography has certainly given us that ability, but you must fully disclose that fact.

Evans graduated from McDonogh School in Owings Mills and then went on to become an economics major at Duke University.I never thought that photography would become my life, but I did love it, and I served as the photography editor for the Duke yearbook.When Evans graduated from Duke, he came to realize very quickly that creating art through the lens of a camera was his passion and his true unique ability. In the early years, he photographed everything: weddings, sporting events and architecture; but his true passion quickly became wildlife.There is a dignity about wild animals, no matter how small and insignificant they may seem.Evans took some of his early wildlife pictures at game farms, where for a fee he could spend the entire day photographing all types of wildlife in all types of environments.

If you wanted to photograph a cougar standing on a rock, the managers of the game park would arrange that, Evans recalls.While the photographs were stunning and he developed an appreciation for the majesty of wildlife, Evans felt, in a way, that he was cheating his readers. The magic was in catching a wild animal in the freedom of the wilderness.I wanted to publish books of my photography, he says. I knew I could write well, and to that I owe a tremendous debt to the English teachers at McDonogh, who helped me to develop that skill. This was so important to me because I realized there was more to a book of pictures than just the images themselves. Every picture has a story if it was real.Thus began Middleton Evans' deep love for the swamps, rivers, forests, beaches and people of the state of Maryland.

Evans will tell you that when he began his career as a photographer, he knew nothing about what he calls the real Maryland. He began by exploring the state from one end to the other: from St. Mary's City and Assateague Island all the way out to the wilds of Allegany County.As he hiked, he carried his camera equipment, which could weigh as much as 20 pounds. He began to develop a deep appreciation for the majesty of the flora and fauna around him, and he began to hone his craft. Eventually, he began focusing on wild animals, and especially birds. He realized that photographing these creatures required careful observation, patience, patience and more patience.Animals have a special rhythm to their movements. If you're going to observe and photograph them, you have to calm your energy field - that's the only way I can explain it - because animals can read your excitement or tension instantly.

Evans published his first book two years after he graduated from Duke in 1986. The title was Maryland in Focus. Since then, he has published many other books, most of which are instantly recognizable by their distinctive and beautiful covers. However, each book now takes about five years to produce.

I realize now that I am a storyteller, Evans says. A good part of each book is the story that is behind each photograph I include.Currently, Evans is working on a book about North American waterbirds, to which he has dedicated the past seven years of his life. After that, a book about the wildlife of Patterson Park will follow.You wouldn't believe it, but almost a third of the more than 300 species of Maryland birds have been identified in this park, he says. One of them is a Great Horned Owl, which is rarely seen.

There is a huge difference between being a bird watcher and being a bird photographer, Evans explains. A bird watcher observes and makes notes. A bird photographer begins a courtship with the subject that can last several hours or even several days.Evans had always wanted to photograph this owl, but finding it was like the proverbial needle in the haystack.He could be in any one of the 550 trees in the park, Evans says, and he could be 20 feet up or 120 feet up. To make it harder, owls hunt at night.One day, Evans sensed that this would be the day he would find his Great Horned Owl. He began slowly walking around the park. Suddenly, he heard a ruckus from a group of crows nearby.

Owls are raptors, he says, and crows hate raptors.Suddenly, the owl appeared before him, sitting on the end of a branch. Evans began to creep forward, getting his camera ready. Please don't fly, he breathed. The owl sat still, gazing at him with his huge yellow eyes.The owl let me photograph him, says Evans. That's the only way I can explain it. The wild creatures determine if you will be allowed to photograph them.

He let me photograph him in five different trees, and I was able to take 150 different pictures of him, Evans remembers.The next year, a Red-tailed Hawk decided it was his turn to walk the park. Evans courted him for several days until one morning, he was able to take over 100 pictures as the raptor flew, preened, posed haughtily, and even played with a stick on the ground.

Neil R.G. Young, the president of Young & Co., a financial planning firm in Lutherville, writes a weekly column for The Daily Record called Eye on the Entrepreneur. The companies about which he writes may be clients. The opinions expressed are Mr. Young's. He can be reached at 410-494-7766.

HOW TO FIND HIM

Until now, Evans has marketed his art through bookstores and direct order. In October, he entered the world of Internet marketing through his beautiful new Web site, www.ravenwoodpress.com, which is the name of his printing company.Knowing that most people won't recognize this name, he has also used www.middletonevans.com to point to his online catalogue. If you browse through it, people around Maryland and around the world can enjoy the works of this talented Maryland artist.

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