Chas Glatzer, fellow adventurer in nature photography and someone I’ve been with on trips multiple times over the years, has passed after being involved a three-vehicle collision on Interstate 85 on Thursday, June 25th. While he was extracated from his car and flown by helicopter to the Spartanville Medical Center, he died early Sunday morning from his injuries.
Chas was the owner of shootthelight.com, and after a successful career in portrait and event photography, moved into wildlife photography only to became a world-reknowed nature photographer and eventually one of Canon’s Explorers of Light.
In addition to teaching workshops around the world (which I’ve recommended to a number of you over the years), you’ve almost certainly seen some of Chas’s photos, as they’ve appeared in a wide range of outdoor and photography magazines, including National Geographic.
Everyone who knew, worked with, or took a Chas workshop has a Chas Story. I’ll bet most people, like myself, have many. My favorite is when we in the Narita airport headed to the North Island in Japan and he had brought a huge photo backpack. Somehow he got it past the X-ray machine, which had a restriction plate to limit the size of what went through security. But a gate agent eventually saw the monster pack and came over with her “must fit through this hole” measuring device. Chas pretended not to understand what she wanted him to do and instead put the opening over his head and then slithered the bracket down his entire body to his feet, proving that he could fit in the airline’s overhead according to the airline’s restrictions. The dismayed gate agent was left speechless and had no idea what to do next, so simply picked up the bracket and walked back to her station.
The coldest I’ve ever been was sitting with Chas waiting for the owl with the longest wing span to come for a winter night feeding on the North Island. The only time I’ve ever wished I could slow down someone’s speaking so I could keep up was when Chas once rattled off about a dozen Photoshop tips in 10 seconds. He was a great person, a friend, a great photographer, an excellent instructor, and the world will miss him.
