A conversation with Greg Wise
Powell photographer volunteers time to capture images, preserve moments
Powell High School students often see the photographer Greg Wise wandering around sporting events and taking pictures.
“I don’t do it for money,” Mr.Wise said. “I don’t do it for anything other than I enjoy being there. I enjoy the games, I enjoy the kids. I enjoy interacting with everybody in the whole gym.”
Mr.Wise, a completely self-taught photographer, has been interested in photography for a long time. His interest sparked when he got his first digital camera in 1999 and took off in 2004.
“It was a .6 megapixel,” Mr. Wise said. “The film, rather than these SD cards now,
was an actual floppy disk.”
Mr. Wise started out shooting pictures of his kids in their sports and gradually decided to shoot other things in addition. When his kids graduated from high school, he continued taking pictures at the request of many people.
“I do basically basketball and volleyball. I do football,” Mr. Wise said. “I still do a little bit of soccer.”
Mr. Wise also started taking pictures at Northwest College volleyball and basketball games in addition to PHS events.
“When I’m shooting the sports activities, at a basketball game for example, I make sure I shoot the cheerleaders, I shoot the band members, I shoot the student body.” Mr. Wise said. “The cheerleaders are just as much athletes as the team players. The band members, they spend hours and hours practicing their craft and entertaining us, and the students body, well, they’re entertaining too.”
Picking a favorite target to aim his camera at wasn’t hard.
“I love it all,” Mr. Wise says. “But my number one thing is night photography. Shooting the Milky Way, the Northern Lights or just getting the right foreground in front of you and shooting the stars.”
He has multiple facebook photography accounts, including wyomingnightskies and wonderfulwyoming where he posts pictures. On these pages other people can view his pictures and also post their own.
Mr. Wise’s work is appreciated by many Powell students and citizens.
“I really appreciate what he does for our sports in high school,” junior Jaya Smith said. “It’s always nice he captures these because otherwise I wouldn’t have as great of photos as he gets.”
Mr. Wise only has one big tip for growing photographers.
“Just get out there and do it.“ Mr. Wise says. “Just shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot.”
Pia Trottrr • Jan 25, 2018 at 11:03 pm
Great article Kayla about a great guy who makes us parents proud of you kids !!
Laura Buher • Jan 25, 2018 at 11:15 am
Greg does a wonderful service to the Powell Community. What memories he creates in photos for these student/athletes! They will treasure all your wonderful pictures as time goes on. Great photographer!
Denise Schuler RN • Jan 24, 2018 at 11:50 am
He rocks the most!!!!