Meet A Parkie

John Williams

Long Island Regional Photographer

What does a day for you look like?

“I don’t know that I have an average day. One of the reasons I enjoy this [job] so much is that… I really don’t know where I’m going to go, what I’m going to do and when the day is going to end. It goes back to my news days. I never knew what was going to happen throughout my shift. It’s exciting. It’s the serendipity of the whole position- of the whole lifestyle. A typical day I’ll come in [and] go through the previous days’ pictures...figure out where the pictures are going to go. On days when I have a shoot, I get the equipment ready, generally, the night before.

Prior to your time at parks, what was your experience?

“Photography is a second career for me. My first career was broadcasting. I was on the radio for many years. That’s where my news experience comes from. I was working at a local station with an old timer- a guy I had listen to since I was a kid. Jack Spector was as a Disc jockey for WMCA. I am working with Jack and I said, ‘hey Jack, do you have any advice for someone like me?’ I certainly wasn’t a newbie at that time, but I wanted to pick his brain. So, he looks at me in the eye and says ‘learn something else, radio isn’t forever’ so I learned photography. I was given a camera as a Christmas present the year or two before, so I said let me figure out how to use this. I ended up hanging out with a buddy of mine who I didn’t know was a photographer and I said, ‘I’m about to buy some camera equipment’ and he says ‘oh really! I’m a professional photographer’ and the timing was perfect. So that was how I got into professional photography.”

How has it been working for New York State Parks?

“In May it’ll be 19 years. The technicalities of working at parks is kind of secondary. I just come in and love doing my job. I come in and have as much fun as I possibly can. That can be shooting pictures, editing pictures, planning the shoot...covering stuff that people don’t see, [like] how many people can say they have been inside the Jones Beach water tower? I [also] love history! New York State Parks has a rich history. I grew up on Long Island and going [to parks]. I remember how it is at least during my lifetime, and I learn about the history before my lifetime. I go around the parks and notice bits and pieces of the ancient history still there. I get excited. I am really enthusiastic about that.

What are some fun facts about you?

“I’ve gotten to shoot the governor a few times, but as a former newsperson, we deal with celebrities and politicians all the time so that really isn’t as exciting as it would be to someone who hasn’t done that before. I get to meet the park patrons who love to tell me stories of the parks. People will come up to me and see me taking pictures. That will prompt them [to] come and tell me their story. We still have a number of old timers as active lifeguards. These guys are in their 70s, 80s, and occasionally, I’ll run into somebody on the board walk who is no longer a lifeguard but used to be back in the 1950s.”