Dr. Richard Lane (cont.)
Dr. Lane bought his first camera, an old Canon AE-1 programmable, in the mid-1980s. His first few rolls of film were taken while on a mission trip to Mexico and they were anything less than perfect.

"I think I only got one roll of film to come out of the several that I took during that trip," recalled Dr. Lane. "It wasn't long after that when I enrolled in a Central Texas College photography class that was taught by Jackie Maxcey. From there, I began to take the camera off of automatic and really learn how to compose pictures."

Since those first pictures, he has taken hundreds, if not thousands of rolls of film. His favorite subjects are wildlife and landscapes, but he doesn't overlook opportunities to take unique photos of anything that catches his eye.

"I have this philosophy about photography that I got from a daily devotional one day," said Dr. Lane. "The paragraph told about studying a particular flower in complete detail and appreciating it for what and where it is, and that is the way I look at taking photographs. What I love about photography is that each photo I take is unique. No one will ever be at that same place and be able to capture that exact same photo.

"One of my favorite photos was taken while I was on a mission in Bolivia. A man had walked some 30 miles almost in bare feet to come get his eyes checked. I took a picture just of his feet because of the uniqueness of that moment in time and the story that it told."

As an optometrist, Dr. Lane has participated in 10 different missions to Mexico, Guatemala and Bolivia. He volunteers his time and professional expertise to spend several days with other medical professionals seeing hundreds of patients in poverty-stricken areas of the country. Whenever he travels, his photography equipment always goes with him. "We work a lot while we are there, but when the work is over, I love to take photographs," he commented.

Over the years since first picking up a camera, his passion and quest for knowledge about photo composition has taken him to several classes and workshops across the country. He has learned tips and tricks from some of the most widely known professional photographers in the world and has even entered contests against them.

"Most of what I have learned has come from trial and error and shooting lots and lots of film," said Dr. Lane. "One thing I did learn is that I needed to pick one area or region to shoot and stick with it. For that reason, I try to focus on McCulloch County and the vast history that it has. The only thing I regret is not having photographed many of the old structures throughout the county that are no longer there."

Over the past few years while he and his wife, Nancy, have been building and working on their home, he has taken a small leave of absence from his trips around the county photographing flowers and landscapes. The drouth in recent has not provided much of a wildflower crop in recent years, but that is looking to change this year.

There is a "hallway of fame" in the Lane household that has prints of Dr. Lane's published photographs. A visit to his office also exhibits his special talents.

The abilities and talents he possesses he claims comes from one place­God.