Michael Williams is a Phoenix based photographer and native Arizonan.
He has spent his life growing up and living in the southwestern United States. Michael was born in, a then small Arizona city, just feet away from Route 66 and the Santa Fe mainline. Part of his younger years were spent in San Diego, but his family moved back to the Phoenix area in the early 70's. Throughout his youth his family was always around trains and railroads due in great part to his father, who grew up in the shadow of Taylor Yard in Los Angeles CA. as the son of a conductor, Michael's grandfather, who worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad running Daylight passenger trains out of LAUPT. A career that spanned 43 years.
Michael's photography ambitions started in earnest in high school where he had the opportunity to learn how to shoot, develop, print black and white and color film as part of his schools yearbook staff . The fundamental skills of photography were used to shoot a variety of subjects including trains in the subsequent years. Admittedly, those skills were to eventually be directed in a different direction when he and his brother Paul started there own video production company in the mid 1980's.
While producing mostly corporate videos at the start, both he and his brother had eyes on a career in the fire service. As luck would have it, an opportunity presented itself to merge the two. A presentation was made to the Phoenix Fire Department to produce video for training ,safety and public relations purposes. From that moment forward Michael's life along with his brothers changed forever. Michael was shortly hired as a firefighter and his brother hired as the first full time videographer for the Phoenix Fire Department in 1987.
During the late 80's and early 90's Michael and his brother produced and retailed a series of videos covering railroads in the southwest, mainly the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific, but time was in short supply those days to move beyond the 12 part series.
For the next 32 years, Michael spent his time in two simultaneous jobs, one as a career firefighter and one producing, shooting and editing video for the department. The Phoenix Fire Department at the time was seen as one of the most progressive fire service organizations in the world. The department's dedication to innovation and excellence over time afforded Michael the opportunity to expand his knowledge and skills base into producing broadcast quality graphics and animations to support department productions.
With the advent of two jobs, and life itself, the one aspect that fell by the wayside was his still photography. But, life has a way of evening things out. In 2012, his wife gave him a new digital camera ahead of a train trip he was taking and it rekindled his passion for still photography, but this time shooting through a different type of lens. Gone were the film days and the days of shooting for video.
Today Michael's feet are firmly planted in the digital still photography world. albeit the urge still exists to shoot and even edit video, but only one more thing at a time.
Retired life now affords Michael more opportunities to ply his photography and imagery skills. He loves to be outdoors and trackside somewhere, challenging himself and his equipment in the great southwest.
Creatively bringing his photographic vision to life,
capturing railroad moments and light.
Michaels additional online presence
Flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127879248@N08/
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKqlFyM148_WXeJbJQa1BQw