I retire. Gary Walts says farewell to the Post-Standard & Syracuse.com

Well, after almost 32 years I have decide to retire from The Post-Standard newspaper and their web site Syracuse.com.  In recent years the company has changed their business model and in the course of it has been going through a series of changes. Recently the company offered an incentive for employees with 25+ years of service to retire. The offer was custom tailored to my situation, so, I accepted. A month earlier it was the furthest thing from my mind. I am very busy. I love music and the guitar. I teach guitar and like to play gigs. My first love is photography so I will continue to do that, photographing what I choose as opposed to fulfilling assignments. I am also a land lord with a couple of rental properties. I live in an old house and welcome the time to finish up a number of projects and improvements to it. Here is a link to some of the photos I've made over the years for the company. It is a mere fraction of the number of subjects and situations I have covered.

Myself and some fellow Post-Standard photographers. Left to right are Dennis Nett, Ellen Black, Steve Cannerrelli, myself (Gary Walts) ad Mike Greenlar.  Ellen, Stev, and I accepted a buy out offer from the company. Photo was snapped on the roof top of ouroffces at 220 South Warren St., Syracuse, NY

State Trooper at the New York State Fair

This is a photo I snapped a couple of hours ago at the New York State Fair. I was there to shoot a video of night scenes at the fair for the Post-Standard newspaper.I had to do it in a four hour shift and get it uploaded on the web by 11:00, so I didn't have the luxury of wandering about making interesting, artsy still shots.

The Post-Standard Reduces Their Daily Publication

Today the Post-Standard announced they will reduce daily publication to three days a week for home delivery, and a smaller edition on the off days for news stand sales. There will be jobs lost as a result of this. Read more at www.syracuse.com> I have a lot to say about this but don't have the time to devote to it. It's all horse shit. I have worked there for 26 years. I saw the writing on the wall a few years ago. Hence, I remortgaged my house and eventuall nbought three rental properties. Three years and eight months ago my job hours were cut to 20 a week. So I have had all of that time to re-establish myself as a wedding photographer, guitarist, and guitar teacher. I have aggresively been paying down debt. I have been telling my collegues at the Post for some time that they should be laying down similar plans. Well, I don't want to be one of those that loses a job, but it will not as terrible as it could have been. Good luck to all of you out there.