Passion and dedication are two traits that Brewster Burns possesses.
Burns has been a teacher at OHCHS for 25 years. He has been head of the English department for the past 16, and he photographs school events, including sports and dances.
How does an individual who is the head of a department, a teacher, and a completely booked photographer manage to do all that is required of them in a day?
Says Burns, “[photography is] ..a full bore hobby. I contain it... barely.”
Burns, who has been taking photos for a total of 16 years, describes how this interest began.
“I remember when Scott Tiner was the tech guy here back in 1997 when the building first opened up. I remembered he had a digital camera, and I got to try it out for a weekend.” This was Burns first experience with such a high powered camera and his love for taking photographs has grown exponentially since that one weekend years ago.
When asked if there was one specific photograph that sparked this love, Burns turned around to his desk and retrieved a photo off the wall.
“This photo right here, it’s a photo I took the weekend I borrowed the camera, my first digital picture.” The photo is of his daughter on that weekend. Burns will take his photography to the next level this year. He is one of the three lucky teachers to receive an Aspirations Grant. The Aspiration Grants were given by the Oxford Hills Scholarship Foundation. According to SAD 17 superintendent Rick Colpitts it is meant to “provide seed money for teachers to motivate them for professional or personal growth.”
The Oxford Hills Scholarship Foundation hopes to give away close to $300,000 in scholarships this year to graduating seniors. The staff awards went to three teachers this past year. The number of applicants for scholarships next year and the scholarship funds ability to pay will determine how many recepients there will be in 2014, potentially translating into more or larger aspiration grants for teachers. Burns knew just what he would do with the grant. He used the money to purchase two professional grade camera lenses he had wanted to get. The two lenses, one being for portrait shots and the other for moving frames, exceeded the given amount of the $4,000 grant.
When asked about what qualities contribute to his being able to be a successful photographer, Burns replied, “I love to create, you have to love to create. My weakness isn’t my attention to detail. It’s my ability to focus. You never know where the shot is going be. You just never know.”
Burns explained that if he spots something, and he can envision a photograph of it, then he’s thinking like a photographer.
Another big part of his motivation has to do with where he falls on the Myers Briggs scale.
"I’m a strong ENFP (extrovert, intuitive, feeling, perceptive), which means I like things that are creative and open ended. Photography is kind of the perfect thing to create and make."
Though he is clearly passionate about taking photos, he declared that his ultimate goal is to follow a group of children from kindergarten to the end of their high school experience and record them with photos and interviews. Mr. Burns passion for this project is conspicuous, and he already feels committed to these students who he has yet to meet.
Brewster Burns has had a lot of interests in his life. Now it’s photography. "This is probably the longest I've been passionate about the same thing in my life,” he observed. “I'll keep doing it until the next shiny object comes up.”
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| Brewster Burns |
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