Mike Phillips

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As a youngster during the early 1950s, Mike enjoyed taking pictures with a small Kodak Brownie black and white film camera in Harrisville, New Hampshire. But it wasn’t until 30 years later in 1982 when he bought a Canon color film camera from neighbor and Athol firefighter Matteo Guiffre that he started taking photos of fires and motor vehicle accidents.

Along the way, when firefighter David Boyer asked then Athol Fire Chief Brian Martin if he was interested in having Mike be the department’s fire photographer, Martin replied, "I need someone more to fight fires." Mike then joined the Athol Fire Department and was a firefighter first and a photographer second.

Some of his fire photos were published in the newspapers, First Responder and New England Fire and Rescue, and the nationally distributed magazine, Fire House.

In 1998, Mike started his own Web site (www.athol.net/photos) where people could enjoy photographs of the area’s events he attended.

Mike expanded his photographic talents by adding weddings to his repertoire.

In February 2000, while taking photos of the George Washington Hatchet Hunt, which is put on annually by the Athol Fire Department and Athol Area YMCA, Mike met Greenfield Recorder photographer Peter MacDonald. He asked Peter if the Recorder would be interested in hiring a freelance photographer to cover the Athol-Orange area.

To this point, Mike was self-taught in photography and had no formal training. The Recorder interviewed Mike, checked out his Web site photos http://www.athol.net/photos and hired him part-time. The job included taking photos for the Recorder’s special North Quabbin publication, Quabbin Valley Voices.

"Recorder editor George Forcier is the one who taught me how to take pictures," according to Mike. "George is a people person and he taught me how to take pictures that include people, that tell the story all by themselves and how important it is to always get names to include in the cutline."

Mike fell in love with photographing wildlife while on a trip to the hills of West Virginia. All week long, he was told to keep an eye out for the pileated woodpecker that lived in the woods where he was staying. He could hear it, but no woodpecker appeared. One hour before heading back to Massachusetts, a male pileated woodpecker visited the feeder outside the chalet.

"I couldn’t believe what I was seeing," Mike said. "I wasn’t really ready with a camera so I only got a few photos. But I was hooked.

When he got back home to Orange, bird feeders went up in his backyard. He spent whatever time he could photographing birds. He canoed into the Orange Wildlife Management Area to photograph primarily blue herons.

In 2006, Mike displayed his wildlife photographs for the first time at the 2-day Garlic and Arts Festival in Orange. His first wildlife DVD with accompanying book came out later that same year.

Find additional photos with price information at www.athol.net/photos, or by calling Michael D. Phillips at (978) 821-6642.

Orange, MA

Phone: (978) 821-6642
Email: photog46@verizon.net
Web: www.mikesphotos77.com/mywebs/