Bringing them back home to Missouri

Military cemetery at Higginsville.

Chillicothe morning in rain.

Goose at Poosey.

Tim Thompson.

Street outside Chillicothe after flooded.

Tim Thompson isn’t a professional photographer, but for a “half blind” guy, he takes some pretty interesting pictures.
“I have a lot of older people who can’t get outdoors,” he says. “So, I go out and get the sunrise, sunset, or something, so they can enjoy the walk.”
Tim’s photos are featured on his Facebook page and on Show Me Missouri and Nature, Landscapes, Portraits, Towns, Wildlife From All Over The World.
He likes to take landscape photos, bridges, trains, rivers … whatever catches his eye.
“I never know what I might be taking photos of until I get in the car and go,” he says. “Sometimes you just have to stop and get a view, so people can think why.”
Sometimes the photos are stark and natural, sometimes they are tweaked. Now and then he takes unexpected shots using crystals and mirrors. The crystals he’d seen used before by other photographers, but he came up with the mirrors himself.
“I’m always trying something different because I want to be different from the rest,” he says.
The Chillicothe native has lived in the nearby smaller towns of Dawn and Mooresville. He graduated in 1990 and moved all over the state. He’s been back in Chillicothe for the last decade. His family on his father’s side was involved with the log cabin in Jamesport City Park.
Tim might not strike you as the artistic sort. He looks a little gruff in bandana and biker beard. His Facebook profile picture is an armed Confederate soldier skull; and he definitely has his political views, which tend to the right with “southern pride.”
“I’m kind to anyone else until they put anyone else down because of what they have or what their home looks like or anything like that,” says Tim. “I will help anyone out as much as I can. Money’s not everything, but friends go a long way in my book.”
Tim is employed full-time and does landscaping as a second job so he can make a little extra money to help his grandson. And, yes, his grandson, Half Pint, age one, is a favorite subject for his photos.
His wife, Tammy, works at Missouri Star Quilt in Hamilton. She too likes photography, but mostly only takes pictures while on vacations.
Tim’s photographs show an eye for perspective and the use of light and shade, though he has had no formal training.
“I started about five years ago with my cell phone,” he says. “The last couple of years, I’ve been using my wife’s old Sanyo camera unit, until I can buy a better camera.”
He says he doesn’t work for pay, just for other people’s enjoyment.
“I have a Washington lady who has family here,” Tim says. “She gets lonely for her family. My photos bring her back home with them.”