Location: 19375 Magnolia Grove Square, Lansdowne, VA 20176
Join us for LPC Speaker Night on topic “Chasing Light” by Frank Lee Ruggles.
In 2007, while hiking in the George Washington National Forest, Frank Lee Ruggles’ cell phone unexpectedly rang. It was the National Park Service calling to tell him he had been accepted to the position as an official photographer for the National Park Service, a position once held by his photographic hero, Ansel Adams. It seemed fitting to him that he would be awarded his “dream job” while hiking on public lands. In the years following, Frank has visited and hiked more than 300 National Parks and Forests — a 3,600 day, 100,000 mile journey that has taken him to the most beautiful and wondrous places in the country.
A professional photographer since 1992, he’s done just about every type of photography a commercial shooter can do — fine art, architecture, portraiture, product photography, photo journalism, scientific photography, and even weddings. He was a photo services provider for several Federal Agencies in Washington DC, including the State Department, where he was the exclusive photographic printer for Secretary of State Colin Powell. He worked for the FBI, and the Treasury, Commerce, and Energy Departments, and did the custom hand-printing for the Smithsonian Institution. As a soldier, Federal contractor, and government employee, Frank has worked for the last five Presidential Administrations. Through the years however, his passion has always been photographing nature while hiking and camping. His position with the Park Service would afford him endless possibilities to explore and photograph the country. He finished his five-year tour with the National Park Service and is now showing his private works in gallery exhibitions across the country, touring in support of his new coffee table book Chasing Light — An Exploration of thre American Landscape. His latest civilian excursions have led him on a 79-mile solo hike through Death Valley National Park and a 36-mile hike through Olympic National Park. In his spare time, Frank has been appearing (as himself) in a few National Park movies and he is developing a TV series about photography. His production team just filmed the first episode a few weeks ago.
Frank lives in Richmond. Virginia with his wife, Lisa Crow Ruggles, and his Great Dane, Wilson.
