Windham graduate Bill Fugate acknowledged that he was a late bloomer when it came to photography, pursuing this venture late in life. The Garrettsville native may have started late but has enjoyed success from behind the camera becoming an award-winning freelance action photographer.
“I really enjoy it,” the 1973 Windham graduate told The Weekly Villager on Jan. 29. “I still do. I don’t have to wait to get the photos back now but when I can get a good picture of somebody, it makes me want to do it more. I always want to get a better shot. I always strive for that.”
Fugate has operated as a freelance photographer for over 20 years, with most of his action shots being of high school sports and his photos have been frequently used by The Geauga Maple Leaf. Throughout Fugate’s work as a freelance photographer, he has earned several awards from the Ohio News Media Association, as two of his photos have won first place and another one earned second place.
Fugate’s full-time job is that of a maintenance worker at Hiram College but when he is not on the clock, he is either shooting high school athletic events or taking nature photography shots, having developed an interest in that specific area over the last several years.
According to him, he picked up a polaroid camera when he was a child and started taking photos of the flowers his mother planted. Fugate said that it served as a strong bonding moment between him and his mother.
“That is what I got interested in and I was also interested in the development of it, so I was used to black and white developing years later,” he added.
Fugate said that his mother hung the pictures he took of her flowers around the house, and he dabbled with photography throughout his life but never considered it much more than a hobby. Fugate credited his wife for giving him the push he needed to seriously explore a career in photography.
“I was working in an appliance store in Garrettsville at Russell’s Appliance, and I was not really happy with the job I was doing so she pushed me a little bit to pursue the photography more because she knew that was my passion,” he noted.
Fugate said that he was also inspired to learn more about the technical aspects of photography including lighting because of the things he saw when he and his wife took their son to Sears to have his picture taken.
“It always interested me,” Fugate said. “How do they get in this light and everything, why does it look so good in a studio? That got me interested in learning about studio lighting that was more technical. Stuff other than that I learned just by picking up a camera and pushing a button.”
He took a mail-order course from the New York School of Photography and learned about the different fields of photography that existed including news photography, corporate photography, and sports photography.
Fugate put his newfound knowledge to practice when he started photographing his son’s athletic events at Berkshire High School and also took team photos of Berkshire’s recreational youth league teams alongside his wife, who studied photography at Hiram College.
Fugate said was discovered by the Maple Leaf when he photographed a boys’ basketball game against Chagrin Falls in 2004 and was contracted as a freelancer by the local paper but was soon utilized as their primary option in only two years.
For 22 years, Fugate’s work in sports photography has netted him several ONMA awards with The Geauga County Maple Leaf but he has also shot several local events, such as the bathtub race in the Maple Festival in Chardon and earned an ONMA Award.
Over the course of his photography career, as much as Fugate has enjoyed seeing his work displayed in the local publication, he has also cherished capturing several moments of his son’s athletic career.
“It was a lot of fun, I also started taking photos not just of him, but he was a lineman and I got pictures of him and all of the other kids that were on his team,” he said.
Fugate said that although he is nearing retirement from his full-time job, he will stay involved in photography as he continues his passion for shooting high school athletic events throughout Geauga County and is growing his interest in wildlife photography, which has rejuvenated him even as he grows older.
“It keeps me on my toes and keeps me busy. It is a job, but it is not like that because I enjoy that,” he added.
