by Linda Eberle
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Richard Clark, left, accepts $100 from Wayne Knuckles, White County News interim publisher, for his photograph of colorful leaves. Clark’s photo was chosen for the cover of the fall 2022 edition of The Mountain Traveler. LINDA ERBELE/White County News
Richard Clark of Cleveland won The Mountain Traveler cover contest with his brilliant close-up photo of fall leaves.
Clark is the owner of Strawbridge Studios, a school photography business. He has been taking school pictures of students around North Georgia since 1981. He and his wife Leslie have six children between them, and he said all but the youngest are out and on their own. Leslie is the director of the Chestatee Regional Library System, and they live off Alt. 75 in Cleveland.
Clark said he doesn’t usually enter contests or even sell his work, because his business keeps him so busy.
“My nature photography is a fun distraction from work-related photography,” he said. “Nature photography is kind of a stress reliever from the business of school photography.”
He tries to post a nature picture on Facebook every day.
“I started out just doing it occasionally and people began to ask me for them, so now I feel guilty if I don’t,” he said.
The Mountain Traveler, a full-color regional visitor and travel guide for Northeast Georgia, is published each summer and fall by Community Newspapers, Inc. It is a combined effort of the region’s newspapers — The Northeast Georgian, The White County News, The Clayton Tribune, The Dahlonega Nugget and The Toccoa Record. The magazine, on newsstands now, brings readers features and special stories of life in Northeast Georgia.