Don Wisdom’s passion for the California Delta shows itself in the photographs he takes and his determination to help everyone he sees. 

Wisdom spent his formative years on a farm at Ryer Island, where his father worked for a large agricultural outfit.  His connection to the land runs deep, then; and shows itself with every shutter’s click.

He says he’s never been without a camera but he bought his first real one, a Canon AE1, while stationed in Germany late in the Vietnam War.  He acknowledges his luck at not getting deployed to the front lines with a quiet nod.  Though his pictures of the German country side got stolen in an Oakland burglary, he certainly recorded his time there.  On returning to California, he kept shooting, and kept saving pictures, until eventually it occurred to him that his stuff could sell.

He and wife Robin moved to the Lodi area some years ago when Wisdom’s parents needed help.  By then, Wisdom had spent decades pursuing a successful career in the farm chemical industry.  Now he works for a nursery, never far from the Delta soil.  Five years ago, Wisdom took some of his work to a Lodi gallery and asked what she would give him for it.  The sum startled him but he sold the lot, and thus began his new incarnation as a professional photographer.

Outside the coffee shop in Rio Vista, Wisdom’s wife Robin sits talking with her daughter on the phone while Wisdom tells his story.  Invited into the shop, Robin shakes her head.  “This is his time,” she explains.  “This is for him.”  The smile that they exchange tells the story of their connection.  That same quiet sense of rightness tinges Wisdom’s voice as he talks about the Facebook group, Delta News, which he and Robin started a year or so ago.  “I want every Delta business to succeed,” he says.  “I thought this group would give businesses a chance to talk about themselves.  It’s turned out to be more about pictures of the Delta, but that’s okay.”  Indeed — every one of the fifty-four hundred members waits for each photo posted by Wisdom or one of the other talented Delta News group members.  The beauty of the place unfolds with every scroll.

Wisdom takes his camera everywhere, and readily offers to photograph restaurants and stores throughout the Delta.  He’ll put the pictures on Facebook or let the business owners use them for promotion.  He donates his time and effort.  He has no ulterior motive; he just wants to help. Those businesses thrive in the summer but struggle when the weather cools.  Wisdom cannot stand the thought that anything here would die.  He loves this place.

He also loves its rivers — the noble Sacramento, the sleepy San Joaquin, the mischievous Mokelumne.  He speaks in hushed tones about the many gorgeous birds: about the majesty of their flight, about the moment just before they rise into the air.   He talks about prowling the countryside taking pictures of nature.  He says that people ask him why there are no people in his photographs.  He shakes his head a little ruefully.  It is the land which fascinates him, all land, all of nature even, and the California Delta countryside most of all.

If Wisdom could take pictures full-time and earn a living, he would.  But not because he considers himself an artist, a notion which Wisdom dismisses.   Wisdom falls silent.  Then he describes taking a photo of a Sandhill crane and discovering that it wore a band.  He researched the band’s color-coding and found out that the bird had come from Alaska.  “Just think of that,” he marveled.  “It came all the way from Alaska, and it was headed back.”  He shakes his head.  “This is my life,” he says.  “This is what I see.  I just want others to see it too.”

Before we part company, I assure him that we do, and gladly, through his eyes.

Editor’s Note:  Don Wisdom will join Demi Stewart in a two-person show of their Delta photography at the Marina on the second Saturday of September, 14 Sepember 2019, Noon to 4:00 p.m.  Please join us!