Eric Tilson
Eric Tilson
During the last 27 years, what began as a hobby for Eric evolved into a passion. From the smallest droplets of dew to majestic birds in flight, he continues to be fascinated by the infinite visual perspectives offered by nature. With each click of the shutter, he attempts to record a unique exchange between light, color and movement that will never again present itself in the same proportions.
Soon after graduating from high school, Eric’s parents bought him his first Canon SLR camera with a 70-300mm zoom lens. After using that duo to photograph family trips over the next few years in England and across the American Southwest, Eric was hooked.
Eric studied at The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH, for 9 years, earning Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees in Spanish with a focus on Latin American Literature and Culture. He then worked toward a PhD for 3 years. For four years during graduate school, he served as a Spanish instructor at Ohio State. In the final year of his PhD program, he met his wife, who also happens to be from Ohio, while studying in Paraguay. After seeing her interact with her students on a trip to Costa Rica, Eric decided to take a leave of absence from the PhD program to pursue a career as a high school Spanish teacher. That leave of absence has now lasted 19 wonderful years. During his studies, Eric had the opportunity to participate in 5 study abroad programs, four as a student, and one as a Resident Director. He spent two quarters in Mexico, a quarter in Ecuador and more than 5 weeks in Paraguay. He has also traveled and photographed extensively in the Galápagos Islands, Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, the Quebec province of Canada and across the United States.
Soon after Eric moved to Northeast Ohio in 2005, he began exploring the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and the Medina County Parks. Constantly amazed by the species of birds, plants and mammals that he had never noticed when he was young, he began carrying a camera with him on frequent hikes. Many thousands of photographs later, his thrill in encountering animals in their natural habitats has not subsided. Eric has honed his photography skills on hikes most days over the last 15 summers, and is continuously amazed by watching animals interact in their natural environment. Over the last 5 years, he has developed a particular interest in macro photography, landscapes and nightscape photography.
Though Eric’s main focus has been on nature photography, he also enjoys shooting portraits, sports, architecture, and basically anything that jumps in front of his camera. He has photographed weddings, community events, sports teams, and a variety of senior and family portraits.
Eric’s photos were featured in three, month-long shows in an art gallery, a brewery and a pub in 2020, 2021 and 2022. His photograph of a great blue heron was featured in the United Way Leadership Book for Summit and Medina Counties in 2022. His spiderweb photograph was featured in the Artshare Dare charity event for 2020, and several of his photos were featured in the yearly calendar for the First Federal Saving and Loan in 2023. His photograph of a bold jumping spider won a FinerWorks print award from the Digital Photo Academy in June, 2024.
Eric looks forward to using the teaching skills that he has developed over the last 23 years of teaching Spanish to help him transmit everything that he has learned about photography.
