Greetings and welcome back to the show!
Last week, George H.W. Bush convinced David to jump into the freezing Atlantic Ocean. This week... we discover that becoming President of the United States didn't make him any less competitive. And trust me... that fish story still has another chapter, so be sure to stick around.
I am Tom Jacob and this is The Camera Café Show.
Today we pick up where we left off last week. George H.W. Bush is now President of the United States, and David steps into one of the most extraordinary jobs a photographer can have: Chief Official White House Photographer.
For the next four years, his camera follows history as it unfolds—from world leaders and international summits to quieter moments behind the scenes that few people ever got to witness. But David's journey doesn't end when he leaves the White House. From the Walt Disney Company to embracing the digital revolution with his iPhone, and eventually founding the Texas Photography Festival, this second chapter is just as much about reinvention as it is about history.
Of course... you came for the stories, and don't worry—we've got plenty of those too. There are moments that will make you smile, moments that are surprisingly emotional, and somewhere in between we'll also find ourselves at Texas barbecues and calling shotgun in fast Corvettes.
Grab yourself a coffee, and join me for Part Two of my conversation with the wonderful David Valdez.
Tom: When he became president, George Bush, 1988, something there around?
David: January '89 he was sworn in.
Tom: Ok, ‘89. What changed for you when he moved into the Oval Office? Did that day feel different for you, David?
David: Oh, yeah. Yeah. So first of all, when you're elected president, they call you president-elect, and there's several months before you're sworn in as President of the United States. election's in November, but you don't get sworn in until January. And so during that period of time they're hiring new staff I was there photographing all the people getting, offered jobs. And in my own mind, I was like am I gonna get offered the job as president's photographer?" And were saying, "Yeah, don't worry about it. You'll... It'll come." One night we were at, in Washington, DC, and we were at the National Geographic Society, and we were getting back in the motorcade, so he's still vice president, but he's president-elect. And we're going back to the vice president's house, and he asked me to ride in the limo with him. And he asked me offered me the job to be the president's photographer. And when you're one-on-one with the president or president-elect of the United States and you're having a one-on-one conversation, you only have one shot. So I thought maybe I sh-" I said I wouldn't mind being an ambassador somewhere." I figure you got a shot at it, you may as well ask. and of course, the Secret Service almost crashed the car 'cause they were laughing so hard. that was the kind of relationship that we had.
So I wound up becoming the president's photographer. And at that point, I was the only, the fifth person in the history of the United States to actually become president's photographer. one thing that I noticed traveling around the world, especially when we would do world summits with other world leaders, other countries had official photographers, b- but they weren't close to their principal I was to mine. And so th- they were always hesitant to do things. And so if I walked across a ballroom to go get a different angle, or six guys would follow me, Japan, France England and Germany. and so they would follow me. And so people would laugh at me say, "Oh, y- I'm like the Pied Piper." and so they started joking, calling me the Photographic Supreme Allied Commander US. and it was like, I wasn't telling those guys anything. It was just if I w- if I could do it, they could do it.
One time were going up to Camp David to meet with President Gorbachev and there was a rule at Camp David where the White House photographer could go and take photos un- unless there was something open to the media, and then the media photographers have limited access. But w- we get up to Camp David, and we're waiting for Gorbachev to arrive on the helicopter, and President Bush turns to me and says where's Yuri?" Who was Gorbachev's photographer. And they wouldn't let him in the gate. He was in a car outside the gate. so the president says to the base commander go get Yuri and let him in 'cause he can take photos here, too." And so that's how the president was. a few months later, we're in, in, in the Soviet Union, and we go to Gorbachev's personal house. And we pull up in the motorcade, and we get out and we notice that Yuri wasn't there. And President Bush said we can't have the meetings Yuri's here." And Yuri had never been to Gorbachev's house. And so they went and got Yuri, And he came out to the house and so it was it was fun. I know we had some conversations, about Yuri expressing interest in maybe defecting to the United States and it was like yeah, I don't know about that." But that was one of those things that just kinda came up privately and nothing ever came of it. But when the Soviet Union collapsed, Yuri was not in, in Moscow at the time, so he never made it back to Moscow. And years later I saw former President Gorbachev in Austin, Texas, his interpreter, who was actually the same guy who had been interpreter when he was president of the Soviet Union. And I asked about Yuri and Yuri had passed away years earlier and but, it was fun to have that camaraderie with someone from such a different country and background.
Tom: What does a typical day look like? The president's photographer, how is a typical day, David?
David: So I used to get three schedules. One was a a monthly schedule and on the monthly schedule you might see two or d- three-day trip somewhere in the United States or maybe a quick trip to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia or to London or Paris or something like that. And then you'd get a weekly schedule whi- which was a little tighter, and that would show maybe a cabinet meeting and meeting with some senators or congressmen political people. and then a daily schedule, which was literally minute by minute of everything that the president did, literally minute by minute, and I would photograph every line, on that. And it would usually start at 7:00 in the morning could go to 7:00, 8:00 at night s- or longer. And I always joke and say, when people ask me how long was your day?" And it was like it was no more than 15 hours a day, but it was only seven days a week." Because, on the weekends we'd go to Camp David or, go fly someplace, and it was... so you're always on, on vacation. When you went on vacation up to Kennebunkport, he's still the president. You're still the president's photographer. You're still out there doing doing other things.
Now, I had some staff people that worked for me. Susan Biddle Carol Powers, and Mike Sargent, w- were my key backup people and Carol Powers mostly photographed Barbara Bush, and Susan was really my number one backup. Mike quit early on to go head up photography for AFP, a press agency. So we had a lot of fun, together and without them I couldn't have done it because it's just physically it's too hard
Tom: And gear wise, let's insert a quick gear question, David, because I think your job must have come with the finest of all equipment. You could choose what camera brand you wanted or you brought your own cameras or how it went this?
David: When I worked for the vice president, kinda got the hand-me-downs from the presidential photographer. And so I was using Nikon FMs and they're film cameras and at th- that time they were pretty good cameras. When I became the president's photographer w- we switched to Nikon F5s and they were, at the time, the top-of-the-line cameras. Now Canon came to me and said they gave me a whole bunch of Canon gear and they said you're the president's photographer, here's this gear that you can and use it as the president's photographer." But a- at the time that wasn't the time to be learning a new camera system. So it literally sat on my desk for four years and at the end, we left and I took the gear with me and a month or two later, Canon's called and said we were thinking about you and wondering about that gear. We need to get that back." I said, "Fine." So I was, packed it up and I'm gonna take it down to Washington, D.C. And take it to the Canon office and turn it in.
While I was packing the gear, Nikon called and they said "We've been thinking about you. We were wondering if you needed any gear." I said funny you should say that." And so I went down to Canon, I dropped off the stuff, and then I went over a couple of doors down to the Nikon office, and they gave me a whole slew of Canon or Nikon gear. I've been a Nikon guy.
And then when we lost the re-election in '92 and I lost my job, it was like now what am I gonna do?" And I wound up heading up photography for the Walt Disney Company. So I get down there, and lo and behold, they're using Nikons. So off we go again for, another eight years or so using Nikons again. And then George W. was elected president, and I got asked to go back to work in his administration. And but I took a little break in there, and I was vice president of a company called Blue Pixel. And we got the contract from Nikon to write the Nikon the curriculum for the Nikon Digital School of Photography. And so Nikon gave us one of everything they had, so we could learn how to use all their Nikon gear. and so we had that and used that quite a bit. And actually, we had a team that, that taught for Nikon, the Nikon Digital School of Photography.
So to this day, I'm still a Nikon guy all these years later and but I do love my iPhone and I take a lot of pictures with my iPhone. I've actually a few years back Amtrak, which is the, national train system in the United States, called me up out of the clear blue sky and said, "Hey, we've been thinking, we're wondering if you wanna take photos of the Amtrak trains for us." And I said, "Sure." I said, what do you want?" And they said take the central part of the United States and ride the Amtrak trains and just take photos for us." And they gave me a kind of a shot list of recommended things to take pictures of. And so off I went with all my Nikon gear but one thing is when I photographed a person, I had to get them to sign a release, and it was always intimidating. But I realized that the finished product for Amtrak was Instagram, so it was gonna be that big, why am I taking all this gear?
Tom: Yeah, haha.
David: So I started taking some photos on my iPhone and sending them in, and they loved them and you could be more candid and spontaneous and when I would ask people if I could take their picture, they'd wanna do a selfie together and y- it was a lot more comfortable. So then I started just using my iPhone and it, it was great and I love it, and I've actually taught several iPhone classes and I'm actually ready to do another class here in the next two weeks or so. And it's a lot of fun. I've embraced AI. People get all squirrely about AI. But, when I worked at the White House, it was pure documentary photography. I went to the Walt Disney Company, it was if you can think of it, we can create it. and so it was really two different worlds and but I saw and also when I got to the Walt Disney Company, it was really the beginning of the early stages of Photoshop and it was N- nothing like it is today. But it was enough that we could really be creative with it. And now with AI and, and I'm not doing journalism anymore, it, it's like y- let's just have some fun with it
Tom: Of course.
David: I don't use it all the time, but do use it and I embrace it and I look back, people look at Ansel Adams and say, "Oh Ansel Adam i- is the premier photographer and shoots black and he has these beautiful black and white photos." But he had a zone system and he manipulated his chemistry and would dodge and burn, and he'd get in the dark room and rub his prints and, to bring out, Areas and dodge and burn. He was doing image manipulation. And, it, now you can do image manipulation Easier and it's if that pole is sticking out of somebody's head it's gone.
When I'm just having fun with photography and like this one class that I'm gonna be teaching I think most of the people who are gonna participate are small business owners, and so they're probably more interested in photography and, with product photography for catalogs and social media, an iPhone is a great tool and with AI I, you can, y- You have a cup of coffee, you can put the steam coming out of it or whatever and really em- I really embrace that stuff. and honestly, I'm an old guy but I always value learning more and listening to other people.
I think that's why, one of the reasons why I started the Texas Photography Festival, is to give back to the photography community and inspire other people. I never go around and say, "Oh, look at me, I was the president's photographer." It comes up but it's not what really identifies me. I think what I like to say is that, I've and helped younger folks in their careers and I've seen them become successful in their careers and, y- somebody opened a door for me and I try to open a door for somebody else and if learning AI is one of those things, have a go at it.
Tom: While you were talking about this digital now, David, before at the White House, when a roll of film is finished, you take it out of your camera, what happens to this roll after?
David: So we had little film envelopes and so you'd put the roll of film or two or three or four or five in the envelope and you would look at your daily schedule, and you would write a caption based on that what was written in the schedule. You always had the date and everybody's name. And so that envelope would go, to the White House Communications Agency photo lab. They would process the film. It was colored negative film Kodak Vericolor color negative film usually ASA 400. they would send back an eight by ten color proof sheet, you would order photos from that. then they would-- proof sheet would go back with the grease pencil markings on it, they would make the prints.
And then depending on, if they were the, for the political people, they'd just go to the political office. Or if it was for the president, and he wanted to sign one, you'd just go to the Oval Office. we'd decorate the White House with but then when we left the White House, I had exposed sixty-five thousand rolls of film, and all of that went to the US Archives, which are at each presidential library. So a presidential library is kinda divided into two sections. The archives part, which is run by the federal government, and then there's a foundation that runs the library and the exhibits and they do all the events. and but all of my photos are there in the library. And today, if you called up to the Bush Presidential Library at College Station, Texas, in Texas A&M University and asked for a photo of the five presidents together, would go in and look at the one that I circled all those years ago and order that and give you a digital file of that image. and so it's fun that, even all these years later, that they're still taking the photos that I edited, years ago.
Now, when all of that would come back from the photo lab, was a a librarian who typed all of that information into a database. And the US Archives in their Photo archive office, they had that database. And so you can go into the database and say President Bush meeting with Gorbachev," or anybody in the world that he met with and type it in and it would take you to those particular rolls of film. And then when we would travel on Air Force One and maybe do a multi-country stop the White House Communications Agency, which is a military operation they would send teams and when we would leave London and go to Madrid or go to Madrid and go to or something that local team would go back to Washington, DC. I could just leave my film from the Madrid stop or from the London stop with that team, and that would go back and then I could be on Air Force One flying to Paris on the phone with the photo lab in DC and saying he met with whoever and, they had a meeting in such and such a place." Order one of those and they'll make a big large, they used to call them jumbos, and hang it on the White House walls in the hallways.
And so when we would come back from a trip, there would be images of the trip hanging on the wall, in the White House and that was always fun see. I would take a photo and I would never know. I wouldn't know for weeks sometimes it was in focus or the anything. I think in those days you probably had to be a little sharper at your photography th- than these days, 'cause now, you can throw your digital camera up in the air and you're gonna get a decent image and and you can look at it immediately and say, "Oh, I need to do something different." It's like I didn't have that luxury 'cause I didn't, I couldn't see it till after it was, film was processed back in the United States.
Tom: Have a little drink, David, from your magnificent cup, haha. When it became clear in 1992, that President Bush wouldn't serve another term, what did you feel? How did President Bush feel at that moment?
David: He was an athlete and a very competitive guy and it hurt that he lost. And he used to always say in the campaign running against Bill Clinton character matters and he really felt that. he felt that maybe Bill Clinton didn't have the character to be President of the United States. And when he lost it, it really hurt. And I'll never forget that that night that he f- found out he lost and he had to call President-elect Clinton. We were in the Houstonian at the Houstonian Hotel, and there in Texas and room was full of people, and he told everybody get in the motorcade." We gotta go make a concession speech," but before, before he does that, needs to call President-elect Clinton and congratulate him. I stayed in the room with him, so it was just he and I together he picked up the call. I started to cry 'cause I was sad for him. I was Concerned that I had just lost my job too. and but I took a photo of him on the phone, and in the background on the television, on the television screen, it said, "Clinton wins."
He lost and then, on inauguration day when Bill Clinton was gonna be sworn in the tradition is that the new president-elect comes to the White House to meet, about ten o'clock in the morning with the current president and Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton and Gore, the vice president-elect, and his wife Tipper Gore, all came to the White House for a little coffee and get ready to go in the motorcade up to the Capitol. as we were getting in the motorcade on the Clinton side the Clinton staff, a whole bunch of them came, that weren't necessarily invited, but they all came anyway. There was a lot of people there. And that's typically not what happens. And as we were getting in the motorcade, they-- some of the people were yelling and saying good riddance. Go back to Texas where you belong." And it was like really rude to, the still president of the United States, but soon to be the former president of the United States. And it was like, wow that's not really, an appropriate way. And I think George Bush or, yeah, was thinking so much for character matters, if that's what his staff is gonna be like." and that was sad.
That day, that particular day, I went up and I was up on the stand with him, 'cause he was still president of the United States, and I photographed him standing there and Bill Clinton getting ready to be sworn in as president. And then once Bill Clinton was sworn in and said "I do," or I was unemployed at that moment, but I was still standing there, so I took a picture of President Clinton saying goodbye to former President Bush, and then we walked back through the Capitol and got on the helicopter, which now is... It was the same Marine... It was, used to be Marine One, but now because he's not president anymore, it was just a Marine helicopter. we got on it and flew back to Andrews Air Force Base, and while we were in the h-air, I got a picture of him looking out the window of the helicopter with the Capitol in the background. But then we get to Andrews, get on the What used to be Air Force One, it wasn't called Air Force One then and flew back to Houston and said our goodbyes there at the airport. And I, along with a handful of others, got back on plane and flew back to Andrews and got a military driver to take us back the White House that night. And I still had my White House cameras 'cause I'd been using them all day. So I had to turn in my cameras and I literally, as I walked out the door that night, I turned the light switches off and, I left.
The next morning, I actually had to do an interview on NBC about the last day and, Bryant Gumbel was the person who interviewed me that, that morning. And then it was a few months, before I wound up going to to head up photography for the Walt Disney Company. And th-this is funny, but the very event that I ever did for Disney was a National Teachers Award, and it was a big black tie dinner, and they had Disney entertainment and it was r-really a neat high-class event. And at the end of the evening, the people would walk out, and they'd walk into this room, and Mickey Mouse, dressed up in a tuxedo. And people would walk in, and they'd say, "Oh, I get my photo with Mickey Mouse." In my head I'm thinking, "Man, just a few months earlier when I would be here, people were walking in the room saying, 'Oh, I get my picture with the President of the United States.'" And so I was like, "Okay, yeah, off on a new adventure." But I guess I'm always gonna be a former White House presidential photographer people still have interest in it and all these years and it's fun. I don't talk about it much, but I, I go places e- to this day, go places and I'll see people over, off to the side pointing at me and you can... you know that they're saying, "Oh, he used to work for the President of the United States." And it's that's not all I've ever done in my life, but I guess that's what impresses people.
Tom: When, I think it was 2018, Barbara Bush, she passed away, and then a few months later, George Bush, he passed away. What's the first memory that came into your mind when you heared that George passed away, David?
David: When I worked for the Walt Disney Company, Disney bought ABC News. And I was working for the Walt Disney Company, ABC News put me under contract to talk about his life when he passed away. So from the time I signed that contract till he passed away was probably 10 or 15 years. Excuse me. once a year I would get a call from a intern at ABC News in New York City, and they would say I just check and make sure your contact information is still correct." So he passed away on a Friday night and I saw it on the news and I was, like, heartbroken. the next morning ABC News sent a to pick me up at my house and me down to the studios in Austin to go live. And when I heard, I really... That night I just went to bed The next morning I got up, got dressed, got in the car, and went down. So the first time I articulated anything was live on ABC News, and it, that's when it really hit me. And I started to cry, and I could see the zoom, the camera zooming in on my eyes. I was like, "Oh, man." So I, pulled it together and just started, talking about his life and that whole week s- every day I was doing a media interview because there, there was a funeral service up in Washington, DC and there was one in Houston that I went to.
It was just really, it was really hard because during the day I was having to do all these media interviews, and I was just getting exhausted and mentally exhausted. and finally, when it was all over and I was in my car and I was driving from Houston back to Georgetown, Texas, which is a two-hour drive, and about halfway in between is College Station, Texas, where he was actually be buried. And somebody from ABC News called me and said can I do live commentary of the burial?" And so I ha- I was like, "Oh, man." So I went to College Station. A friend of mine who's a lawyer there had an office, and I called him. I said I need a conference room, and I need a TV and a phone." And so they accommodated me, and I went in and had to talk about the burial, and it was like, oh, geez. Y- I this is just... Emotionally, it's just draining. And the Bush Foundation somewhere in there had asked me to photograph the funeral and I, I felt like I was a little too close to really do a good job.
Tom: Sure.
David: Plus I also had this contract thing that had been going on for years before they ever even asked me. So it's like I technically I really couldn't do it. and Eric Draper actually who was George W.'s photographer, wound up photographing
Tom: Yes
David: the funeral. And was happy that it was somebody I know that did it. And but yeah, I had to do all those interviews, and it was just like just draining emotionally it was just draining. But I have all these like behind the scenes stories. Just another part of history, I guess
Tom: Yes, David, because my original plan was to talk with you, and then to end, maybe have a chat about the backstories of some famous photographs you made. But I think the better plan is that we keep it for another time, because you have so many good stories, and we can fill another podcast episode. But to end our talk David, the one I want to hear, is that one time you had a little disagreement with President Bush over what officially counts as catching a fish?
David: So we used to go fishing all the time up in Kennebunkport. And even after he was out of office, we used to go down to the Florida Keys and he had a bonefishing tournament, and I was fortunate enough to get invited to go to that. But he went one summer 20-plus days without catching a fish. And on the, and in the United States, there was a newspaper called USA Today, and they started putting up on the banner, day five, no fish. Day six, day seven. And it was getting embarrassing. So day we're out off the coast of Kennebunkport there in his boat, Fidelity, and he catches a fish. he's bringing the fish in, and it's looking kinda funny. And it was a big blue fish and he finally gets the fish in the boat, and we noticed that the was in the fish's gills. And so it's like he didn't catch the fish swam by and got tangled in his hook. So the fish is in the boat, and he's telling me call the media. I got a fish." And I said no. Actually, you didn't catch a fish. You snagged it." And he said, "Look, President of the United States. This is my boat. Call the media." I did.
So then the very next day, I catch a fish, and it got, the fish got, the fish line got tangled on the fish's tail. as I'm bringing in the fish is coming in tail first, and I'm saying, "Oh, I caught a fish, I caught a fish." And he says, "No, you didn't." And it's wait a minute. So that was pretty funny.
But we had another time we were out fishing. Brian Mulroney, who was the Prime Minister of Canada, was gonna come for a visit and we were killing a few hours. And so he and I went out on his boat to go fishing. And when he got the call from the Secret Service that the Minister was about 15 minutes out, he's on the phone, and I'm over here, and I caught a fish. I'm reeling in this fish, and he's saying we gotta go, we gotta go." And I said I got a fish." And I'm reeling in the fish, and I'm reeling in the fish. He said, "No, we gotta go now." And I said let me get the fish in." So I finally get the fish in the boat, and we race off, and we had to run to the dock. And the Prime Minister's photographer has this great photo of me explaining to the Prime Minister the size of the fish that I caught. And the President said, "Oh, Mr. Prime Minister, I'm so sorry. It was Valdez's fault. He caught a fish." So there I am going like this. I was saying this, I got this big giant fish." And it was like, okay. So yeah we had a lot of fun with that kind of stuff
Tom: David, you touched already a few times on it, and we talked a little bit before we start recording, about the Texas Photo Festival. Just quick, what inspired you to found it, David, and what excites you the most about the next generation?
David: I'm an old retired guy and I'm always getting asked to work all the time, I think just because of my background. But I thought, I just thought about the idea of doing a festival, a photography festival and it was originally gon- it was originally the Georgetown Texas Photography Festival. And it started that way because I was having lunch with the mayor of Georgetown And his wife Mickey Ross. And I was talking to the mayor, and I said I got this idea for a photography festival, and I call it the Georgetown Texas Photography Festival." His wife, was the director of the Williamson Museum, which is the museum for our county in this Central Texas area. And she says, "Oh you can do the photography festival out of the museum." So I said, "Okay, great." so off we went it was really just me and Mickey and one or two others on her staff. And and we had a couple hundred people show up for our first one, and we thought, "Wow, that's great."
We started building the staff a little bit and and then I saw that I wasn't getting just people from Georgetown, but I was getting people from around the state of Texas. So I just decided I'm gonna change the name to the Texas Photography Festival. this past year, we had 1,400 photographers show up we're getting national sponsorship and Precision Camera, which is one of the largest camera stores in the state of Texas sponsors us, and a company called Art Direct Gallery in Cedar Park, Texas, and Westcott Lighting. Nikon been a sponsor and it's just been great.
But for me, it's giving back to the younger folks and inspiring young people and saying I was just like you at one point. I was young. I didn't know anything." y- for me, when I was 18 years old and I was like starting in photography, I was like really doing photography 'cause I was in the military doing it 18. But even as my mother showed, I was doing it even as a little kid. And I like the idea one of my committee members just today said we ought to start a scholarship program for young folks." I, yeah, that, that's not a bad idea. You gotta, dig up some money for that. But, y- it would be a fun thing to do. Y- we're off and running with it. Julie Copenhaver been the CEO the last several years and she's done an incredible job keeping me out of trouble and keeping it going and I really appreciate everything that she's done. and we'll see what the future brings, in terms of organization and how we grow.
I still do it under the umbrella of the Williamson Museum, and without the Williamson Museum, of this would happen. And we've got a we're gonna be moving, the museum into a historic building here in the next couple of months, and that's gonna give us a lot more space and i- I think it'll really highlight, the fun of the photography festival and what we can do there. And the museum does a lot of stuff with children, so we get involved with a lot of schools. L- let's just see where that goes. But, in my career I've helped a lot of young folks get their start in photography, and they've all gone on to be very successful.
And so I'm really proud of of those people that I've touched their lives and, gotten them involved in doing professional photography. And, maybe one or two out of all of these people will come along and get inspired by anything that I might touch and have a great career in photography. It's something that I'm just really proud of
Tom: When is the next one? Next year
David: Yeah, it's the third week in March every year in Georgetown,
Tom: So now you have time free to drive your Corvette, David?
David: Yeah, actually next weekend is the Corvette Invasion. It's the largest Corvette show in the state of Texas, and so I'll be down there with my C5 Corvette and I do their Instagram. It's the Corvette In- @CorvetteInvasion, and it's a lot of fun to do that. And w- we have people coming from 15 different states to the Corvette Invasion and so th- that's fun. And here in Georgetown, they have a little ad hoc Corvette show third Saturday of the month. And for years, I was the only guy that went down and took photos and now there's a gaggle of photographers that go all the time and takes s- take some pretty incredible photos. It's fun to see other photographers getting involved with taking pictures of cars so it's fun. It, I always enjoy getting in my Corvette and driving around and seeing the beautiful Texas Hill Country scenery and sometimes stopping to take a few pictures of bluebonnets or longhorns
Tom: So if I can make it next year to the festival, you will drive me around in your Corvette?
David: Oh, sure, sure. You gotta call shotgun.
Tom: Let's keep this in mind then
David: That's the term they use. When you wanna ride in somebody's car, you say, "I call shotgun." It goes back to the old stagecoach days. When there was the guy driving and then the guy sitting next to him with the shotgun. So you say, you wanna-- if you wanna ride in somebody's car, you say I call shotgun."
Tom: Very well. Let's keep in touch, David, because we can possibly make this happen. Thank you so much for spending time with me tonight. I didn't get to ask all the questions I had in my head because you have too many amazing stories, and I just let you talk. I think it's the interview, I talked way less than normal, but I think it was the best way to do it tonight. I wish you all the best for what is ahead, and I hope that our paths cross again. If I can make it in March, I would really like to catch up there in the photo festival. But until then, David, thanks again and have a nice evening still there!
David: Thank you so much. I really enjoyed sharing some stories and meeting you and we'll see you in Texas someday
Tom: Yeah. And you will have more amazing stories, I'm pretty sure.
David: Oh, yeah, plenty
Tom: By the way you brought out one book. When is coming out the next book?
David: So actually I got a book here somewhere. All these books here. But There's a guy writing a book about me right now, and I'm helping him write it, so I'm... Like the stories that I just told you, I'm actually down. and then there's a film producer who has approached me about producing a documentary film and we'll see if that comes around. Doing a film is a whole, financially a whole different ballgame. But I think we can raise the money to do that, and it'd be fun to do that. So we- we'll see coming year where that goes.
Tom: That sounds amazing, David, but there won't be enough time in your life to do all of this, I think
David: Yeah. I, yeah, I'm always thinking about, oh, what's next? I got something to do. I, I'm-- I just finished four years as the chairman of the Georgetown Arts and Culture Board a- this is funny. During President Bush's inaugural speech, he talked about people who volunteer around the country, and he called them a thousand points of light. and then he started a Points of Light Foundation, the Points of Light Foundation honors people who go out of their way to volunteer. And it's been going on for y- years now, decades, and just last year, they recognized me for all my volunteer work I volunteer my church. I'm one of the dishwashers. I volunteer at Habitat for Humanity. I volunteer at the Williamson Museum. I was on the, Arts and Culture Board. I volunteer with the USO military organization. So I do all of that. So I got awarded a, to be a Points of Light honoree, for my volunteer work. So in between all of this, I do that kind of stuff, so that's fun, too
Tom: It sounds amazing, your life, David. We will catch up another day. We will talk about all this. Already keep me a copy of your new book, that will be amazing. Have a nice day still. I talk to you soon, David.
David: All right. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it
Tom: I had a great time. I see you around. Bye
David: bye
And that's a wrap for my conversation with David Valdez.
Well... I think it's fair to say David has officially proved that a camera can take you absolutely anywhere. One day you're photographing the President of the United States... the next you're hanging out with Mickey Mouse... and before you know it, you're inspiring the next generation of photographers through the Texas Photography Festival. Now that's quite a journey.
A huge thank you to David for taking us along on that journey and for sharing so many wonderful stories from a truly remarkable career.
As always, you'll find everything we talked about today in the show notes, including links to David's work and the Texas Photography Festival.
If you enjoyed today's episode, I'd really appreciate it if you could Follow the show, leave a review, or simply tell another photography-loving friend about The Camera Café Show. It really does help more people discover these conversations.
Until next time, keep shooting and keep on moving your photography. I see you next week here for another wonderful conversation about photography and life... Adiós!
