Richard Howard

Richard Howard

Fire/Search&Rescue pilot
6198040839
heliricster@hotmail.com
If you know what a bellows camera is, then you have a pretty good idea how I got my start. It was a Semi Leotax that my dad had picked up in occupied Japan during WWII. In 1975 he lent it to me. The eastern flank of the Sierra's was my playground back then, and where a fascinating career in wildland firefighting would ensue. One that would branch out in a multitude of directions, like engine companies, hot shot crews, and search & rescue. It stretched across an incredible and vast landscape! What all began that year in the tiny town of Bishop has spanned 40 years since, and covered the greater portions of North America, Hawaii, and Mexico. In 2000 my chief pilot let me try out his new Nikon 990 digital camera. I immediately fell in love with it. My expensive SLR and lens at the time? Well, it was let go for little more than a song and a dance. The 990 was far more compatible to my nomadic and transient lifestyle of those days. After all, my lab was the field. No film? A laptop would ultimately suit me just fine! After 17 years of exclusive use contracts as a fire pilot with the U.S. Forest Service and Park Service I accepted a position as a fire pilot at Howard Forest with Cal Fire and found myself where I am today....in the beautiful wine country of Northern California. Today my travels take me abroad. Old European cultures and their wonderful architecture have awakened new passions of image capture. Perhaps you will find images to illuminate the gateways through the labyrinths of your own dreams. Seeds of hope lie buried deep in the fertile soil of all imaginations, awaiting only the simple magic of light to be awakened....to germinate and to grow. My latest endeavor? Composing the travel adventures of Rickey Buckets, with word and image, in a manner that will inspire a wide range of demographics. I would love nothing more than filling bored hearts with wanderlust, and pushing wanderlust hearts to travel! Traveling hearts have no cure but to travel. You will never know the world before stepping outside your little piece of it. Those worlds present an opportunity to see more clearly the one you are from, and to understand more comprehensively the planet we are all living on. Existence… It’s worthy of enrichments ‘opportunity’ ;)