David Chick Named Staff Photographer
The Maine Brew Bus has added an important position to the team, naming David Chick of Portland as the company’s first Staff Photographer.
David Chick of Portland will take on the role of shadowing tours and taking pictures to showcase our tour operations staff, our guests, and also our partners.
For David, photography has been a passion that was very separate from his vocation.
For 32 years, he has faithfully served the Portland School Department as a custodian.
Photo by David Chick
Think back to your days in school, and the unsung heroes that helped to keep your facility running smoothly. That’s what he has been doing for over three decades.
The weekday alarm would awaken David at 4:30 am. He would head to his assigned school—Riverton Elementary—to handle all of the details that a 500-student K-5 school would bring that day.
Primarily a school custodian makes sure that a school is clean and safe. They work both inside the building and outside of it doing tasks that make the school look nice and operate smoothly.
School break in the summer? Not for David. He would be in the mostly empty school handling all of the details to get the classrooms and common spaces ready for the next wave of students to arrive.
Storm days? Occasionally, but the sidewalks and pathways do not shovel themselves. David would be there to make sure the students could safely get to school whenever it reopened.
This is not a glamorous job, yet David happily did whatever work was needed at Riverton.
Photo by David Chick
He is a quiet and humble man who will be surprised that this much has been said about him. I know this well as he is my brother-in-law, married for 27 years to my sister Mary.
As of today he has worked his last day on the job and has officially retired from that daily grind. We all commend him for his exemplary service in this role!
We are going to let him enjoy just a few days of not working, and then he will report to help us to tell our story.
More than ever, great photography helps to promote our business. We receive requests all the time for high-resolution images of our guests on a tour. Sometimes we have some great pictures on hand, but often we struggle to have just the right images to share.
Photo by David Chick
As a company, we are very photogenic. Bright green buses certainly help. But then there are guests from all over the world—probably on vacation or at least a quick getaway—having fun with friends, family, and co-workers.
Our guides and drivers do a great job of capturing many of the special moments during our tours. Many of these images are shared through our social media channels, on our website, and other sites that all help to promote our tours.
But it is very important for us to have another angle on the tours. And this is why we have hired our first ever Staff Photographer.
David has always had an interest in photography. It started when he was very young, as his father worked as a professional photographer.
Photo by David Chick
By bringing his camera and equipment to many fields and arenas through the years, he would often be able to capture a special moment during a sporting event for many grandchildren and other family members. Great senior photos, perfect graduation pictures, and stunning outdoor shots are all in his “photo portfolio”.
Now we will use his skills behind the camera to help us and to also provide pictures to some of our private tour groups. I mean, wouldn’t you like to have a photographer follow you and your group as you celebrate a birthday, upcoming wedding, or company team outing on the bus?
Photo by David Chick
So look for David and his camera out on our tours very soon. Make sure to welcome him to our team, and feel free to thank him for his service by offering him a fine local beer.
Don Littlefield is the General Manager of The Maine Brew Bus. Twitter: @BeerinME