Memorial to Fred Parsons

Douglas Sherman

Douglas Sherman

Staff
I am saddened to tell you that former Focal World member Fred Parsons passed away yesterday. He was a close friend of mine who lived in New England and had a condo in Sedona during the winter months. I met him when I was working in Tom Narwid's American Landscape Gallery in Jerome, AZ. We became friends and photographed together often, both here in the western U S and back in New England. He would often send Tom and me images he had taken for us to critique. Of course, no matter how good they were, we would send back bogus comments about bad composition, poor lighting, wrong time of the year, etc just to jerk him around. This was all in good fun and he knew it, so we all had a good laugh. This image of a red barn below was one he sent to us. It was good enough to be published as you might guess. Check out his gallery of published images. https://pbase.com/fredparsons/root

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New Hampshire Gallery

Unfortunately, Fred set up his gallery on pbase so that no one could copy his images. So here are some thumbnail images of some of my favorite photographs of his work. To see these images in a larger size, here is the URL for all of his galleries at pbase. https://pbase.com/fredparsons/root I think you will enjoy perusing his galleries. You will probably have to cut and paste this url and then look through the specific gallery.

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New Hampshire Gallery

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New Hampshire Gallery

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New Hampshire Gallery

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Cape Cod Gallery

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Sedona Gallery

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Recent Images Gallery


Fred was one of the original photographic members of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen. He took a lot of abuse about photography being a non artform but held to his perspective and eventually made his point with his excellent work.

While photographing petroglyphs with Tom in Red Tank Draw near Sedona, Fred slipped and fell off of a cliff to the streambed floor ten feet below. He survived with few injuries.

He really loved his family. He would regale me with stories about his wife Nan (she was an airline stewardess five years older than he was) and an accomplished painter, and about his children and grandchildren each time we went on a photographic trip. That would keep me awake on the long trips back home.

He was a great friend and photographer. I will miss him.

Please feel free to add any comments to this thread.
 
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JimFox

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
So sorry to hear that Doug! I only knew him briefly from here, but he was quite the photographer for sure!

He will be missed, but it's great to know that he has children and grandchildren to pass on memories of himself.

Thank you for the links to his Pbase galleries, I will spend a bit of time perusing them.
 
BlackRockArt

BlackRockArt

Staff
Douglas Sherman said:
I am saddened to tell you that former Focal World member Fred Parsons passed away yesterday. He was a close friend of mine who lived in New England and had a condo in Sedona during the winter months. I met him when I was working in Tom Narwid's American Landscape Gallery in Jerome, AZ. We became friends and photographed together often, both here in the western U S and back in New England. He would often send Tom and me images he had taken for us to critique. Of course, no matter how good they were, we would send back bogus comments about bad composition, poor lighting, wrong time of the year, etc just to jerk him around. This was all in good fun and he knew it, so we all had a good laugh. This image of a red barn below was one he sent to us. It was good enough to be published as you might guess. Check out his gallery of published images. https://pbase.com/fredparsons/root

View attachment 47402
New Hampshire Gallery

Unfortunately, Fred set up his gallery on pbase so that no one could copy his images. So here are some thumbnail images of some of my favorite photographs of his work. To see these images in a larger size, here is the URL for all of his galleries at pbase. https://pbase.com/fredparsons/root I think you will enjoy perusing his galleries. You will probably have to cut and paste this url and then look through the specific gallery.

View attachment 47403
New Hampshire Gallery

View attachment 47404
New Hampshire Gallery

View attachment 47405
New Hampshire Gallery

View attachment 47406
Cape Cod Gallery

View attachment 47407
Sedona Gallery

View attachment 47409
Recent Images Gallery


Fred was one of the original photographic members of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen. He took a lot of abuse about photography being a non artform but held to his perspective and eventually made his point with his excellent work.

While photographing petroglyphs with Tom in Red Tank Draw near Sedona, Fred slipped and fell off of a cliff to the streambed floor ten feet below. He survived with few injuries.

He really loved his family. He would regale me with stories about his wife Nan (she was an airline stewardess five years older than he was) and her paintings and about his children and grandchildren each time we went on a photographic trip. That would keep me awake on the long trips back home.

He was a great friend and photographer. I will miss him.

Please feel free to add any comments to this thread.
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Doug, this is very sad news. I went over Fred's photos, fabulous, his work have that Bierstadt look.

R.I.P.

Oliver
 
Douglas Sherman

Douglas Sherman

Staff
Ben Egbert said:
Very sorry for your Loss and indeed a loss for all of us. Thanks for posting this and I will visit his gallery and spend some time there.
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Thank you, Ben.
JimFox said:
So sorry to hear that Doug! I only knew him briefly from here, but he was quite the photographer for sure!

He will be missed, but it's great to know that he has children and grandchildren to pass on memories of himself.

Thank you for the links to his Pbase galleries, I will spend a bit of time perusing them.
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Thank you so much, Jim.
 
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Guy Schmickle

Guy Schmickle

Well-Known Member
I'm really saddened to learn of Fred's passing. Doug and Fred were two of the first photographers I befriended when moving to Sedona and we all shared such a wealth of information among one another. I'll always remember back in 2010 when a few of us started to get together once a month to share images and stories at a mutual friend's house. We would always poke fun at one another and one of the things we would needle Fred about was his constant use of iso 400 or higher on some of the exceptional landscapes he would show to us. He never gave us a good reason why he did so...but eventually we named our gatherings the ISO 100 meeting just to needle him a bit more. He took it well and dished out as much as he took! I miss those days, and I'll miss Fred as well.
 
MonikaC

MonikaC

Well-Known Member
I'm sorry to hear of Fred's passing. Thanks for posting a url to his gallery. I'll look at them when I have more time. This has been a rough year for you, Doug.
 
JimFox

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
Guy Schmickle said:
I'm really saddened to learn of Fred's passing. Doug and Fred were two of the first photographers I befriended when moving to Sedona and we all shared such a wealth of information among one another. I'll always remember back in 2010 when a few of us started to get together once a month to share images and stories at a mutual friend's house. We would always poke fun at one another and one of the things we would needle Fred about was his constant use of iso 400 or higher on some of the exceptional landscapes he would show to us. He never gave us a good reason why he did so...but eventually we named our gatherings the ISO 100 meeting just to needle him a bit more. He took it well and dished out as much as he took! I miss those days, and I'll miss Fred as well.
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Oh man Guy..... ISO 400 is my main ISO.... at least I am in good company then. I think I will change FocalWorlds name to be ISO400.... :)
 
Douglas Sherman

Douglas Sherman

Staff
Guy Schmickle said:
I'm really saddened to learn of Fred's passing. Doug and Fred were two of the first photographers I befriended when moving to Sedona and we all shared such a wealth of information among one another. I'll always remember back in 2010 when a few of us started to get together once a month to share images and stories at a mutual friend's house. We would always poke fun at one another and one of the things we would needle Fred about was his constant use of iso 400 or higher on some of the exceptional landscapes he would show to us. He never gave us a good reason why he did so...but eventually we named our gatherings the ISO 100 meeting just to needle him a bit more. He took it well and dished out as much as he took! I miss those days, and I'll miss Fred as well.
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Thanks for those memories, Guy. Those were indeed fun times. Each of us became better photographers as a result. I remember well when Fred introduced us to Ted Grussing. He took us up in his motorized glider to take aerial images on a windy day. When I saw that crazy move he made when he took off with you, I thought there is no way I am going up today. When you came back looking a bit green that sealed the deal.

Thanks again for sharing those comments, Guy.
 
Amy Earl

Amy Earl

Well-Known Member
I'm sorry for your loss, Doug. He sounds like a fun guy to be around and after seeing his New Hampshire gallery, clearly an artist. I was intrigued to find out where in NH he was from. From his captions I learned he lived in Grafton not far from Sunapee. I grew up a half hour from there. In fact his name sounds somewhat familiar, I'll have to see if my parents knew of him. His well-composed, colorful scenes are a beautiful homage to places I either know or that are so familiar looking - stone walls, sugar houses, covered bridges and fall foliage.

Thank you for sharing his story and work!
 
Douglas Sherman

Douglas Sherman

Staff
Amy Earl said:
I'm sorry for your loss, Doug. He sounds like a fun guy to be around and after seeing his New Hampshire gallery, clearly an artist. I was intrigued to find out where in NH he was from. From his captions I learned he lived in Grafton not far from Sunapee. I grew up a half hour from there. In fact his name sounds somewhat familiar, I'll have to see if my parents knew of him. His well-composed, colorful scenes are a beautiful homage to places I either know or that are so familiar looking - stone walls, sugar houses, covered bridges and fall foliage.

Thank you for sharing his story and work!
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Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Amy. His main home was in MA and his Grantham, NH home was a very nice cottage on a local pond.
 
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