Viewer Keith Vaught chooses to Share His Life with the snap of shutter.
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In 2003, Keith Vaught visited Antelope Island as a tourist, a visitor. Soon after, he bought his first digital camera.
“I always liked pictures, but didn’t have the money for it, Keith says. “Now technology has made it available to someone like me, you can get a camera for two or three hundred dollars and you can get out and share it. That’s fascinating to me.”
His point-and-shoot camera is nothing fancy, but the pictures Keith produces, are something to look at.
“I came out here and started hiking; I was amazed initially just with the lake and the mountains at the island,” he recalled. “I would take picture of the sunset, I would take pictures of wildlife, the mountains, the lakes it was all fascinating to me.”
“I probably came out here 200 times the first year, just every other day.”
A fellow photographer first encouraged Keith to share his photos with KSL; they used the first one.
Keith says seeing his work published for the first time, hooked him. He continues to send pictures and is often surprised at what is used, and what is not.
“The first time someone mentioned it they said, ‘are you that Keith Vaught?,'” he remembers. “I asked ‘What Keith Vaught?’ Oh, KSL – yes, that was me.”
Antelope Island quickly became Keith’s favorite canvas.
“This is my little paradise here. It’s my solitude. It’s peace to me,” Keith explains. “There are things that if you are in town you don’t feel. There is a rush and a sense of being enclosed. You come out here and your soul opens up to the landscape.” i think this is the ideal office…”
While pictures are Keith’s passion, words are his profession.
By day, Keith is a Spanish teacher at Lone Peak High School.
But he says he’ll trade his classroom for his camera, any day.
And as a day at antelope island becomes part of the 10:00 news, later that night it’s a trade enjoyed by many.
“I’m just happy to contribute and to share.
There is satisfaction in sharing,” Keith explains. “It gives you a sense that you want to do more.”
“Eventually, you share the best of what you have.”
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To view more of Keith’s photos, visit www.flickr.com/photos/hiker56.
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