Schmidt sees the Monadnock Region through a lens of beauty, wildlife photography

Nov. 26—WESTMORELAND — Most mornings, typically about five days a week, Richard Schmidt heads out dressed in camouflage, with a foldable chair slung over his shoulder and a Canon camera with a 600mm lens in his hands. Then, he waits.

"I'll go out two hours at a shot, then either move or go home," said Schmidt, 76, whose wildlife photography has become a primary hobby since he and his wife, Beverly, retired to Westmoreland in 2006.

"People often ask me, 'Boy, you must have a lot of patience,' " he said. "And ... I really don't see it that way, because I love being there. It takes more patience to watch TV. ... Even when I get nothing, it's still a successful time."

For nearly eight years, Schmidt has regularly submitted photos to The Sentinel. In 2017, an image he captured of a fawn exploring a vibrant flower bed won the "Hello Hub!" photo contest, as voted by Sentinel Facebook followers.

"I looked out my kitchen window!" he told The Sentinel at the time. "The sun was bright! ... My wife gets credit for the flowers."

Every once in a while, Schmidt still gets photos of creatures that wander into his yard in Westmoreland, but he prefers to get down closer to the Connecticut River, which he says has the greatest wildlife diversity. He takes all his photos in Cheshire County, he added.

Schmidt, a retired engineer and energy consultant, said the publication of dozens of subsequent photos has given his photography more purpose, motivating him to stay active and always seek new and better shots.

"So The Sentinel's actually helped me a lot in just encouraging me to get out," he said.

But Schmidt's wildlife photography — mostly birds, with an occasional mammal such as deer or a bobcat or river otter — is just his latest pursuit in a life spent primarily outdoors.

"I grew up a real country boy in New York state, Continental Village," he said. "My father was a real outdoorsman, and gee, I remember following him hunting when I must have been 8 or 10. But he dragged me along, so I've always been very involved with the outdoors. I've done most everything you can do outdoors — fishing, hunting, climbing, camping, canoeing, kayaking, skiing."

Schmidt's father, Hans, was born in Germany, and reached military age after Adolf Hitler came to power. He emigrated in 1936, though, following his heart to the United States.

"He was a lucky man because — this is a story — he lived a poor farm life in northern Germany, and along comes this young lady visiting from America," Schmidt said. "And by golly, they fell in love, and she brought him back."

That woman was Richard's mother, Martha, an American of German heritage. Her father had died young, so her mother would take her family back to Germany for a year or so at a time.

"It was like she had one foot in America, one foot in Germany, because of her family," he said.

Schmidt's parents were in their early 20s when they married and moved to New York, eventually settling in the small Continental Village, about 55 miles up the Hudson River from New York City.

"I grew up there, went to school, but spent a lot of time in the woods," Schmidt said.

In high school, he excelled in math and science, "so it was kind of like my road was paved," Schmidt said of his decision to pursue a degree in chemical engineering.

He started his career in the plastics industry in Springfield, Mass., where he met Beverly, a 12th-grade English teacher from northeast Ohio. Around the time they married, Schmidt got the itch to go back to school for a master's degree in nuclear engineering, which he earned in 1972.

From there, the young couple moved to Middletown, Conn., and had two sons, Eric and Jeff. Schmidt began working for what is now called Eversource, and eventually his career in the energy industry took the family to Michigan for about four years.

"But I was a little restless," he said. "It was a lot of flat land. It didn't have all this beautiful country. So, I was satisfied, but a friend called me from Eversource, again, and said, 'Hey, we've got a position for you.' So I came back for the same company for another 25 years [in Berlin, Conn.]."

He held a variety of roles with the company, ranging from a test supervisor looking for failures and cracks in pipes and other equipment to chairman of a nuclear review board overseeing operations at a power plant. No matter how busy he was with work, though, Schmidt always made time to enjoy his family and hobbies.

"I did work a fair amount, but I'll tell you, I always was determined to separate my work life from my life life," he said.

One simple trick helped him keep his priorities straight. Before leaving work for the day, Schmidt said, he would make a list of everything he needed to do when he got to the office at 7 a.m. the next morning.

"That would clear my head," he said. "I could run off fishing or hiking or whatever I wanted to do, because I knew it's waiting for me, so I could hit the ground running."

While living in Connecticut later in his career, Schmidt and his wife got a camp in Charlestown, which they sold after retiring and moving to Westmoreland full-time.

"But that's what kind of brought us here," he said. "What brought us to New Hampshire is the outdoors."

In retirement, Schmidt has continued to use his professional expertise, particularly in energy systems. As a member of the Westmoreland Conservation Commission, he helped with renovations to the town hall, modifying the heating system to make it more efficient. He did similar work for Stonewall Farm in Keene.

He also shares his knowledge with friends and neighbors, like Bill Vermouth, who lives a few houses from Schmidt, just over the town line in Spofford. They first met about 12 years ago, exchanging friendly waves as they passed each other in the neighborhood. Then, in 2013, Vermouth's house was destroyed in a fire.

"He was instrumental in helping out with some of the energy aspects of the house rebuild," like insulation and heating, Vermouth said. "... At the time, it was a good decision to buy somewhere else and not rebuild, but because of the outpouring of the neighborhood, and the kindness, we decided to rebuild on our land."

Since then, the two men have met up about every other week to chat about shared interests such as U.S. energy policy.

"Richard has guided me through physics 101 for different aspects of energy, and has been very generous in his background knowledge with electrical grids and different types of power plants and fuel," Vermouth said.

Schmidt's outlook and expertise also blends into his photography, his friend added.

"I see his background in science and physics and his attention to detail in figuring out physics and all sorts of matters as being applied to his nature photography," Vermouth said. "By that, I would mean he researches his subjects, birds often, and their patterns and habits, and he'll use that information to figure out the best, interesting shots of his subjects."

For Schmidt, though, the view of the Monadnock Region through his lens is about something simpler, and more profound.

"I think, just beauty everywhere," he said, with a smile.

Jack Rooney can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1404, or jrooney@keenesentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @RooneyReports.