Rick Cuzner always had a camera in his hand when he was a kid. If he was going on a ski trip or mountain biking ride, for example, he’d bring one along.
Cuzner got really into photography 20 years ago, after he became obsessed with finding a snowy owl. When Cuzner finally found one, he didn’t have his camera with him.
“That spurred me to get more camera gear and learn more,” Cuzner said.
Looking for owls and other birds in the woods has now become his winter hobby. In the summer, you can find Cuzner out boating and offshore fishing.
“I have taken photos of tuna, whales, and ocean sunfish,” he said.
In mid-July, Cuzner photographed a leatherback sea turtle off the coast of Marblehead.
Always with a camera in his car, Cuzner leaves for work in Gloucester early to beat traffic, and uses this time to stop at various places and look for photo opportunities of nature.
An engineer by trade, Cuzner describes himself as “wicked curious” – curious about how to best set up a photo, exposures, and researching how to best photograph water droplets and snowflakes.
Cuzner is self-taught and honed his skills by learning things from photography friends and watching YouTube.
“Using YouTube for learning has been super helpful,” he said.
When asked what is his favorite thing to share, Cuzner said he prides himself on finding things that people don’t know about throughout town to photograph.
“I go to Steer Swamp and see all kinds of nature,” he said, “I’ve photographed owls, foxes and a fisher cat recently.”
“People were amazed when I once found basking sharks 3 to 4 feet off Devereux Beach,” he added.
Cuzner said that he has been more serious about photography in the last 15 years and has started taking photos of the night sky and using a GoPro camera underwater.
He even recently caught the Northern Lights off Brown’s Island.
When asked what tips he could share with amateur or beginner photographers, Cuzner said they should always have a camera on them and constantly take pictures.
He said he might take as many as 500 photos in a morning outing and probably deletes 99% of them.
“You never know when you might get the right moment captured,” Cuzner said.
Cuzner has had a showing of his work at the Council on Aging in town, and said he enjoyed the discussion that came from it.
He has donated prints to fundraising causes in the past as well.
In the future, Cuzner said he would potentially have more talks about wildlife in town. He also said he would like to move more into underwater photography.
