Marcia Walters hopes her inspiring wildlife photography honors public lands and conservation
Marcia Walters, owner of Why Worry Photography, moved to San Juan Island in 2012 from Half Moon Bay, California. A major reason for moving here, she told CNL2 TV: the island’s natural beauty, and our National Park.
Marcia always felt like an artist, from her earliest memories — even throughout her 37 year-career in nursing. She was a cardiothoracic surgery nurse at Stanford, but her love of drawing emerged there, too. Earning the appreciation of surgeons and patients alike, Marcia made pre-op sketches for patients, helping them understand what the surgeons would be doing in the operating room.
Her love of photography took hold in in 2009, and she eventually found her way to photographing birds and wildlife. But it wasn’t until 2020 that she got really serious about photography. Like so many artists, she simply found the right class…the right teacher.
She saved up to buy a top-of-the-line Sony A1 mirrorless camera and a 400mm f/2.8 Sony lens, and she now is making images that would make Sony proud.
For a stunning photo of an owl in flight, she set the shutter to 1/3200th of a second, which froze time in the late-afternoon light — as seen through the magnificent glass of a world-class lens. There is a brilliance to Marcia’s photos that is arresting. Great equipment is a must, but the main ingredient is simply patience — a level of patience lacking in most photographers.
Currently, much of her work takes place at the American Camp Prairie. During the Spring, she routinely spends four to six hours a day there, and another three or four hours in the evening in post-production.
Her patient, quiet observation (from the minimum 75-foot distance) teaches her much about the behavior of foxes, owls, and the other animals on the prairie. Her curiosity is triggered, which drives her to read about the animals.
Marcia enjoys answering questions of visting photographers. She notes that some try to get close too close to the foxes, in attempts to get images with a cell phones. “If you stay still,” she advises, “they will stay still, too, because they are curious, too.”
Her passion for wildlife photography has her traveling across the West. She treks to the Rockies to document moose and caribou.
Marcia hopes her work brings attention and support to public lands and conservation.
You can purchase her work on her website. And you can meet her Marcia, who will be one of 66 artists from 23 studios scheduled in the 2024 San Juan Island Artists’ Studio Tour, June 1st and 2nd.
This CNL2 TV interview is 15-3/4 minutes in duration.
Visit the website for Marcia’s Why Worry Photography here.
(https://whyworryphotography.smugmug.com/)