cameraSteven Heaslip, a native of the small town of Canisteo, NY, has used a camera to tell stories for more than 30 years. Now, he’s being officially recognized as a master of his craft.

According to The Evening Tribune, Heaslip was named 2016 Master Photographer by the New England Society of News Editors for a versatile, long, and outstanding career in the field of photo journalism. There were approximately 41.44 million photographers in the U.S. in the spring of 2015 and Heaslip has consistently proved himself as one of the best.

“I got into it in ninth grade, and across the street (from the school) was the Preston House, where some of the old administrative offices were, and someone had built an old funky dark room there about a billion years ago,” Heaslip recalled. “It was a big thing as a freshman to leave school and go make prints and stuff.”

It was at this time he was taken under the wing of the Canisteo photography teacher John Babbitt. Heaslip can’t point to a defining moment when he realized photography was his calling, it was just sort of something he enjoyed doing and upon graduating school in 1976 could start to see a real future in it.

“My parents were grooming me to be a teacher, because that was the family business, but once I got into it with John it was exciting. We went to football games, and it was kind of a niche for me in school. Being on the front lines of stuff was pretty neat,” he said. “I just kind of evolved into it.”

Heaslip attended the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), which is where he met his wife, and while there found his way into an internship at the nearby photo-film juggernaut at the time: Kodak. He found his first full time photography job with the Hornell Evening Tribune.

“We would cover things up in Rochester, and had a pretty good coverage range,” he recalled. “It was a pretty gung-ho operation.”

Due in large part to his wife’s desire to return closer to home, the couple eventually moved to Cape Cod where Heaslip started working for the Cape Cod Times in 1985. Over 30 years later and he’s still there snapping some of the best shots of various subjects from the effects of environmental climate change to the local Kennedy family.

Perhaps the clearest picture of the kind of person Heaslip is behind the camera is evidenced through is managing of his most recent award. For starters, he didn’t prepare a victory speech as he was just happy/honored to be nominated. Pressed to reflect on the award Heaslip deflected instead.

“I’ve always been lucky to work with very cool, innovative editors who always respected when you did a good job,” he said. “I really can’t thank John Babbitt enough for his encouragement.”