Mt. Lebanon resident displays photo collection
Since his retirement as an educator and baseball manager at Mt. Lebanon High School, Ed McCloskey has traveled the world in search of big game. He has hunted down crocodile, zebra, hippo, Big Horn sheep, mountain goats, bald eagles and cheetah. Not with a weapon, but with his trusty Nikon D60 camera.
Those wildlife images are featured through Nov. 4 at the South Hills Jewish Community Center, located on Kane Boulevard in Scott Township. Along with a collection of landscapes, the display will make an encore appearance in early spring of 2018 at the Mt. Lebanon Public Library.
During his career as an amateur photographer, McCloskey has visited 41 of the 51 national parks in America. He has trekked to every continent except for Antarctica, which is on his “To-Go” list along with India because wants to “shoot” tigers.
“A friend of mine said he saw 23 of them when he was there,” McCloskey said. “I would love to get them on film.”
In his animal portfolio are black, brown and grizzly bears as well as the polar bears from Churchill, Canada. There’s wildlife from Kenya and Zimbabwe to fowl and pachyderm from South Park to the Pittsburgh Zoo. But, the piece de resistance is an award-winning picture of a pelican soaring over lava rocks in the Galapagos Islands.
While McCloskey says that all he wants is “to get a good picture” to succeed in that mission requires patience and planning.
“Photography is so much fun but it takes more than luck,” he said. “You need to learn about the animals so you can tell where and when to locate them. You need patience to capture them.
“Shooting (photos) in the wilderness is harder than hunting. You need the right angles, the right light,” he added.
An idea also helps. McCloskey says he gets an inkling of what he might want to photograph by visiting gift shops upon his arrival at his latest location.
“I get ideas of what might be there by going to the places where they sell the postcards. But,” he added, “I’m always looking for the unusual photograph.”
While he gained his interest in nature photography from his deceased brother, Dick, who owned a camera, McCloskey did not immerse himself totally into his hobby until after he retired from teaching and coaching in 1998. He was on top of the world having just guided the Blue Devils to a state title in baseball. McCloskey also managed two WPIAL championship clubs, one in 1993 as manager and one as assistant coach to his son, Patt, in 2006.
“I always liked nature but I only was able to get more into photography once I finished teaching and coaching,” he said.
McCloskey is never removed from managing. He continues to coach at Mt. Lebanon as an assistant to his son, with whom he shares a special bond. The two took a trip through the Rocky Mountains in 1987. They drove from Mt. Lebanon through Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Glacier and Banff national parks as well as the Canadian Rockies.
After his next adventure through the Peruvian Amazon, McCloskey hopes to replicate that trip with his son. “I’d like to take that trip again,” he said wistfully.