Hello. My name is Jim Payne. I am a retired classroom teacher. After 40 years of teaching in junior high and high school, I turned my attention to photography, a hobby that began when I was in high school. It was there a family friend let me use his 4×5 view camera and his darkroom. Then, as an education/journalism student at North Texas State University, I worked as a photographer/photo lab assistant for the university’s newspaper and yearbook. I also worked for the Denton Record -Chronicle, the local newspaper, as a reporter/photographer. I sold my first picture to the Associated Press while I was in Denton. I was hooked. I loved photography.
However, instead of becoming a photo-journalist, I became a teacher. I taught journalism/photography, English, Industrial Technology classes, one of which was Computer Applications.
After retiring, I began to pursue photography again, this time as a wannabe nature photographer. I took nature photography classes and workshops from some well-known nature photographers – Joe McDonald, Bryan Peterson, Larry Ditto, and Ruth Hoyt. In addition, I read books authored by Arthur Morris, Steve Perry, Art Wolfe, John Shaw, Alan Murphy, John and Barbara Gerlach, and others. I became active in the Victoria Photography Club where I continued to learn from some really good amateur photographers – Jim Feig, Mark Oberle, Ted Goris, Mary Gail Moody, Richard Korczynski, just to name a few. Along my photography journey, I expanded my study to include portrait, landscape, and flower photography.
Even though I retired from teaching in the public schools, I have continued to teach. I taught photography to junior high students at Trinity Episcopal School. I now teach photography to adults at the Victoria Art League.
