Published: April 23, 2007 03:58 pm    PrintThis  

Photographer, world traveler finds beauty at home in Middleton

MIDDLETON — Pam Hartman has traveled to nearly every corner of the world. She’s been just feet away from polar bears in Manitoba. She’s spent a year backpacking through Australia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. She's been on about a dozen safaris.

"It's kind of been my life's ambition to get somewhere before McDonald's does," she said.

Despite stepping foot on every continent and in more than 100 countries, this Middleton resident can still find beauty in her backyard.

An avid photographer during the past three years, some of her work is being displayed at the Sol Bean Café on Route 114.

Some of the subjects hanging in the exhibit were found in her own garden, like a simple blue flower.

“It's about taking the time to look at the small things, really."

The 55-year-old makes her living as a travel agent in Beverly, but spends spare time exploring Middleton and working with the Stream Team, a nonprofit organization aimed at preserving the Ipswich River.

Some of her pictures, which won prizes in Stream Team photography contests this year and last, are featured on cards the organization is selling as a fundraiser. They can be purchased at Town Hall or The Art of Framing. So far, the cards have raised about $350.

Hartman is a native of Latrobe, Pa., a small town made famous by golf legend Arnold Palmer, television icon Mr. Rogers and Rolling Rock beer. After graduating from college, she was hired as a physical education teacher in Australia and thus her passion for world travel began.

While Down Under, she spent a year traveling through Australia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. The experience made her appreciate the little luxuries of American life.

“I lived on less than $5 a day,” she said. “And here we are with garage-door openers and living such a cushy life over here compared to Africa and most of Asia.”

Hartman has lived in Middleton for 13 years with her husband, but also has taken every opportunity to travel the globe in her 27 years as a travel agent.

"Unless people leave their corner of the world, they'll never know how many different lifestyles and cultures there are out there," she said.

Some of her favorite destinations include Patagonia, Tahiti, Tasmania, the Kimberly region of Australia, and Namibia, the African country now famous as the birthplace of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s son.

"My friends joke, 'You went there before Angelina did,' and they're absolutely right," Hartman said proudly.

No experience has yet topped her November trip to Churchill, Manitoba. When the Hudson River freezes over, polar bears inhabit the tundra. Brave vacationers are lodged in a train car nearby, so they get to observe the animals up close. Because of a warming climate in the region, the river has been melting a week or two earlier every year and the bears have come closer and closer to where people are, in search of berries and branches to eat.

"Each little cabin in the car had its own monitor-sized window, and you could look out and see the bears right there,” she said.

Of course, she had her camera, and some of the awe-inspiring photographs she shot of the polar bears are hanging at the Sol Bean Café.

Hartman loves taking chances and finding unusual subjects for her pictures. After a recent snowstorm, she got up at 5 in the morning to catch the tree limbs covered in clumps of powder before the snow and ice melted.

One of her favorite photographs is of a piece of ice with a twig through it, something she wouldn’t have found unless she leaned over a bridge to find out what was underneath.