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Arts & Entertainment

His First Love Is Nature Photography

Chatsworth photographic artist Dick Pearson's work can take your breath away.

Chatsworth photographer Dick Pearson began taking lots of family photos while raising his children, and then gravitated to nature and landscape photos during trips with the family. Getting this wealth of images of some of the world’s most beautiful places has taken him from the Mississippi to Pismo Beach, from Mexico to Canada.

As a teenager, Pearson was interested in photography, but could not afford to own a camera until he was 21, when he got married and the first of his three kids was born. That camera was a Canon PELLIX, the first movable-mirror 35mm camera.

“That was 50 years ago; that thing should be an antique by now,” Pearson says.

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Early professional shooting came when Pearson was a pit crew member on a NASCAR team in the late 1970s. One of his industrial real estate clients was NASCAR driver Bob Switzer, who was known in Chatsworth as the driver of Car 51 in the old Winston Cup Race.  Switzer hired Pearson to work in the pit.

“During the race there was nothing to do, so I got up on the wall and started shooting pictures,” Pearson recalls. He went on to shoot Indy cars, drag races, car shows and, most recently, the world’s fastest single-engine car, “Speed Demon” on its 400+ mph run at the Bonneville Speedway. 

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Moving to Chatsworth in 1976, Pearson became a commercial and industrial real estate broker. That gave him the opportunity to take photos of buildings, commercial properties and construction projects and equipment.

“I’ve worked for clients in several states and do a lot of consulting and manage my own properties,” he says. “I can pick and choose when I want to work. This gives me all the time I need to jump in the RV with my wife and take pictures.”

With his wife, Linda, along as his director and critic, he now travels the back roads and national scenic venues, ever looking for that image that will “take you away.” Over the last few years, Pearson has concentrated on this country’s national parks. One of his next trips will be in October to Oregon and Washington state.

Once he was satisfied with its quality, Pearson switched to digital photography. Now he shoots, edits and prints his own work, specializing in larger prints and panoramas. He also makes digital paintings from photos. Using his computer, he rearranges the pixels in a photo so that it looks like a painting, and then he prints it on canvas. He says, “People seem to really like them.”

Pearson has digital paintings in his current exhibit at the Chatworth Metrolink Depot Windows Art Display through the end of September.  In addition to local photography shows, his work can also be seen at the Chatsworth Chamber of Commerce, at Excel Travel in Chatsworth and at the Chatsworth Cleaners.

For private commissions for offices and lobbies, Pearson’s large inventory of local Chatsworth images/samples can be seen at www.Popsimages.com. He can be reached at 818-341-4699 or 818-700-1792.

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