SPS Member: 2000 to present
Elected to Hall of Fame in 2022
Steve Goldstein, a 27-year member of the Springfield Photographic Society, got his start with photography in 1980 when he traveled to Europe and recorded his experiences with a Kodak Instamatic.
Steve, along with Guenther Schubert, is joining the club’s Hall of Fame in our Class of 2022.
“I never really had an interest in photography until I started international travel,” he said. “Once I started taking pictures of beautiful places, I got hooked on (photography).” He began going abroad in 1980 and continued every year thereafter.
After purchasing a single lens reflex camera in 1984, he recorded many more travels, from Europe to India, China, Australia, New Zealand, Nepal, Bali and Hawaii, among others. Steve describes himself as primarily a landscape photographer although in recent years he has branched out to include wildlife and bird images. Birding, he said, is very challenging and requires a lot of practice.
In 1989, a friend persuaded him to join the Westfield Camera Club. He said he had no clue as to what a good photo was when he joined. “It was a real awakening for me,” he said. Steve joined SPS in 1995 and continued to learn more about his hobby. He had been traveling out west every fall until Covid hit. Now he limits his travel to autumn visits to Maine and Vermont.
For many years, Steve attended the NECCC summer conference. He said he was saddened to learn that this year’s 75th gathering at the University of Massachusetts will be the last.
A self-described nature lover, Steve has affiliations with the Sierra Club, the National Audubon Society, the World Wildlife Fund and Nature Conservancy. Steve grew up in the East Forest Park section of Springfield, attended Classical High School and earned a degree in business at Curry College.
Along with Harry Ahern and Jim Theres, Steve was one of the last members to exhibit images in the slide format. The light and clarity that Steve and his cohorts were able to achieve in that unedited medium was simply amazing.
A story by Kevin Fay … “ One night Steve was doing a presentation and put up a slide of St. Mary Lake in Glacier National Park. It is a very popular spot and I had seen images from that very location many times over the years. However, this image by Steve Goldstein was the best one I had ever seen. What impressed me even more was when he explained that he got on location about an hour before the sun came up and started shooting until 15 minutes after sunrise, ‘when all the good light was gone’. That was a great revelation for me and all of the budding landscape photographers in the audience.”
Steve is known for his spectacular landscape images and, equally so, for the efforts he has made to get them. Staying on location, no matter the conditions, and striking out early in the day have been key ingredients to his success. They remain lessons that we all can benefit from today and in the years to come.
Click the image below to see Steve Goldstein’s gallery.
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