Dave Scherer has always been shy.
“Maybe that’s why I hid behind a camera for all my life,” he explained.
Scherer’s experience with photography began in his teenage years, when he became friendly with the manager of a family-owned camera store in his native Williamsburg—the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y.
Now, he is a resident of Williamsburg, Va., and his work is on display at the Williamsburg Regional Library in a photography show through the end of December.
Scherer started calling the Historic Triangle home in 1992, when he visited Ford’s Colony on a whim and knew immediately that he wanted to stay.
“I said, ‘this is it.’”
The photography show features images of Colonial Williamsburg and assorted sights around the area, as well as others from his earlier residence in New York and a vacation to England. Scherer’s favorite pieces are an up-close shot of a spider weaving a geometric web and one of the World Trade Center taken from across the water in Jersey City.
“They cover quite a period of my life,” Scherer said of the photos that line the walls.
Also on display are a few cameras that the photographer has collected over the years, and his high school yearbook. Scherer took photos for the book, dated 1948, and his signature is visible on the copy of the centerfold that is presented alongside it.
“It’s not the same as a playboy centerfold,” he joked.
Scherer has no formal photography training, but his first job was working at a camera store. He went on to have a career in electrical engineering design.
He said that he doesn’t have one “thing” that he likes to capture, but has found much that grabs his eye in the colonial area. Scherer doesn’t leave the house without his camera.
One photo, titled “Williamsburg Rear Ends,” shows a group of local geese taking a trek away from the camera lens.
All the photos in the show are for sale, ranging from $120 to $350 for the images printed on canvas. They can be viewed for free in the lobby outside the Library Theatre.
