By Amber Jurgensen | Associate Editor
When wildlife photographer George Veazey set out one sunny summer day on a hike at Bell Creek, a wooded preserve southwest of Plant City, he was just wandering around to see what he could capture with his lens. The outdoorsman already had snapped images of vibrant sunsets, pairs of deer, a blue heron and a flittering butterfly for a calendar competition organized by the Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program of Hillsborough County.
But what he was about to find would top them all.
As he quietly made his way down the path, a 45-pound bobcat emerged from the foliage. The furry beast looked Veazey, who stood in awe, dead in the eyes.
“It was as if he said, ‘What are you doing here?’” Veazey says.
The cat continued to cross over the path and scooted into the underbrush on the other side. Veazey wasn’t going to let this perfect photo-op run away. He followed the animal into the forest.
“The fear I had wasn’t that I could be hurt by the bobcat,” Veazey said. “I had been a cop for 40 years. My fear was that I wasn’t going to get a shot.”
Snapping away with his Canon 5D, hoping to get the perfect shot, the bobcat turned to Veazey and gave him a fleeting moment of face time before continuing his trek through his territory.
Reviewing the photos on the way back to the preserve’s lodge, Veazey knew he got a rare shot for the calendar contest and couldn’t wait to show it to the preserve’s manager, Ross Dickerson, who Veazey later learned was also the point of contact for the contest.
“The wonderful thing about that photo is that bobcats aren’t out very often in the daytime,” Dickerson said.
“You can go an entire lifetime without seeing a bobcat in the wild, let alone walking through woods at noon,” Veazey says. “And when that stinker crossed my path, it was the crown and glory.”
Veazey submitted some of his photographs to the contest which had a total of 187 entries. They were displayed on Hillsborough County’s Facebook page, where fans could vote for their favorites from August through September. From those, the top 20% were evaluated by the county. Then the chosen photographs were put up in front of another review committee which picked the final 12.
Veazey had a whopping eight of his photographs chosen to be in the calendar, which will have 10,000 copies printed. His photograph of a couple silhouetted against an orange sunset was chosen as the cover.
“I think it’s his patience that sets him apart,” Dickerson said. “And most people in the calendar have that patience.”
The free calendars will be available by Christmas at all three of the ELAPP offices, but Veazey’s photographs are also on display at the Art Lounge Gallery in Historic Downtown Plant City. In January, Veazey will have an art exhibit at the Bruton Memorial Library.
A lifelong resident of Hillsborough County, Veazey was born in Tampa in 1946 and served as a Hillsborough County police officer for 35 years. His first duty assignment was in Plant City.
That’s why, when he thought about putting his work on display after retiring in 2006, he chose Plant City and the Art Lounge Gallery as the perfect venue.
“A vast majority of my life was here serving the people of Plant City,” Veazey says. “I’m an ol’ country boy. This is what I like and where I want to be.”
Veazey always has enjoyed photography. As a student as the University of South Florida, he was a yearbook staff photographer and has since worked in the fields of commercial and wedding photography. But it wasn’t until after his retirement that he took up wildlife photography.
“One of the reasons I enjoy photography is to take God’s splendor and share it, but also, if we just slow it down a little, you can see the beauty in life,” Veazey says.
Contact Amber Jurgensen at ajurgensen@plantcityobserver.com.
ART EXHIBIT
WHEN: January 2013
WHERE: Bruton Memorial Library, 302 W. McLendon St.
CALENDAR AVAILABILITY
Lake Frances Office
10225 Woodstock Road
Odessa, FL 33556
Bell Creek Office
10940 McMullen Road
Riverview, FL 33569
Cockroach Bay Office
3709 Gulf City Road
Ruskin, FL 33570