Tom Watson: A Picture Perfect Alaskan

After a forty year career as a photographer, Tom Watson is not about to put his camera down.  Instead, he picked up an Alaskan Camper and is ready to capture new landscapes.













Owning a truck camper is a unique and powerful way to tell the world, “We’re not done having fun”.  Where big motorhomes and towables are often the tell tale signs of a quiet retirement, truck camper owners crave adventure, exploration, and active outdoor recreation.  Let’s just say there’s a reason why truck campers don’t come with plastic campground flamingos.  We don’t need no stinking pink flamingos.  We need adventure.

Tom Watson is nowhere near ready quit his career and rest in a campground.  Oh no.  Tom has his eyes set on traveling, photography, and enjoying his time with his children and grandchildren who live 2,000 miles apart.  The answer to all these wants and desires?  A truck camper of course.

TCM: Why did you decide to get a truck camper?

Tom: In 1975 we bought a Volkswagon Westfalia.  It was equipped with a small water tank, no toilet, no shower, and no stove.  We took delivery at the factory and toured Europe and North Africa for four months.  We drove to the coast line of France visiting all the invasion beaches, then inland to Pamplona, Spain where we ran with the bulls.  We resumed our travels down the coast of Portugal and Spain and crossed into Morrocco at Tangier.  For the next month we drove the gravel roads of Morrocco dined with Berbers in their black camel hair tents, attended a Morroccan wedding and generally experienced the hospitality of the desert.  At our furthest point South, we found a truck park surrounded by razor wire with an armed guard.  At this point, we reassessed our idea of boondocking for a safe night behind the wire.  Three decades later, we still have our enthusiasm for vehicle supported travel.  Seeing the third world up close shaped our World view.  
 
We are now free to travel again as we did before we had children.  After having a Westfalia, reading Truck Camper Magazine, and Expedition Portal, we knew we wanted a truck camper with four wheel drive and a cassette toilet.  Everything you carry or use in the camper has to be dealt with as a weight, mobility, or resupply issue.  Our interest is in a vehicle with enough water and supplies for five day trips.  Everything considered, a truck camper makes the most sense.
 
The second reason we wanted a truck camper is that we have one son in Utah and one in Saratoga, New York.  With grandchildren now in the picture, we knew that we were going to travel back and forth between our two sons.  The camper would be our Grandparent Mobility Vehicle (GMV).  The distance between the two is 2,000 miles, so we need something to be comfortable in after driving three or four days at a time.

The third reason we wanted a truck camper is for good fuel mileage.  Our 1994 Ford 7.3 D truck and 1994 Alaskan truck camper has more than met our fuel economy expectations.  We’re getting an average of thirteen to fourteen miles per gallon and the truck performs beautifully.  The rig is as easy to drive as any car with better visibility.

And finally, my other use for our Alaskan camper is photography.  I have been working as a freelance photographer for four decades and I’m not about to quit.  The large format digital tools that I am now working with are much more engaging than the film environment.  I use the camper as my location vehicle.  Being able to sleep in the vehicle in order to capture an early sunrise exposure is a huge time and money savings. 

TCM: Grandparent Mobility Vehicle!  That’s a great expression.

Tom: In the near future, we are going to sell our home in New York and have an in-law apartment with each son.  The first such in-law apartment is in the works as we speak.  

Our sons had the benefit of their grandparents living with us when they were young.  At one time, we were wealthy enough to buy the house next door and have my wife’s parents live next to us.  We found that it really influenced the character of our children.  They are courteous and kind and didn’t sit in front of the television or play video games.  They were engaged with people.  

Using that as a model, this is what we want to do with our grandchildren.  We want to be involved in their lives and go on as many family trips as we can.  Both of our boys have challenging jobs and we would like to smooth the stresses of daily life for them when we can.  Our first grandchild is six months old now and we look forward to experiencing the outdoors with her.
 
TCM: That’s amazing.  Your granddaughter is very lucky.  What made you decide on an Alaskan Camper?

Tom: I was reading the On Location section of Truck Camper Magazine and looking at the Expedition Portal site.  Both websites published articles on Carl Isner’s Alaskan camper.  His rig made sense to me, so I started to seriously look for an Alaskan camper and found a one on the Alaskan website.  

The truck and camper were in Seattle so I had my brother take a look at it for me.  My brother has owned a few RVs and knows a lot more about them than I do.  I said to him, “If the camper looks good, you have my authority to buy it”.  He did.  The truck and camper stayed in my brother’s driveway for about four months until I could fly to Seattle and pick it up.























TCM: When you finally saw your camper for the first time, were you glad your brother bought it?

Tom: Yes, it was in really good shape for a 1994 Alaskan Camper.  Anyone familiar with the interior of a sailboat will feel at home in the woody interior of an Alaskan Camper.  We spent about a week with my brother checking that all of the camper systems worked, installing a 12V outlet and stocking it for our trip from Seattle to New York.  My brother and I worked a little and laughed a lot.

We drove to the Alaskan factory where Rick Bremgartner and Bryan Wheat looked it over for about two hours.  In the end, all they had to do was re-seal the front vent.  Rick also showed me how to make adjustments as the camper top is being raised to prevent the camper from getting hung up.  He told me to watch the window as the roof raises in relation to the countertop.  Everything has worked perfectly and the camper is fifteen years old!  Everytime I have any questions either Bryan or Rick have been very helpful.  I would not hesitate to recommend an Alaskan camper to anyone.

TCM: You mentioned earlier that one of the reasons you bought an Alaskan Camper is for the cassette toilet.  What do you like about having a cassette toilet?

Tom: I’m not going to buy another RV without a cassette toilet in it.  Our main reason is that we like to get out in the cold weather to produce dramatic photographs.  I want the ability to dump into a pit toilet at the tops of mountain passes.  The dump stations close up when it snows.  With the cassette toilets, your winter trips are not limited by having to find a dump station.  It would also be helpful if Thetford developed a gray water cassette.

In the Curt Preston article, you talked about humidity build up.  With the Alaskan, because it’s gasketed around the edges, there is plenty of airflow.  Even at twenty degrees there is very little condensation, keeping us warm and happy.  Our cold weather nights in the Alaskan are just wonderful.  We have sleeping bags and cold weather gear, so even if the heat didn’t work we would be comfortable.

TCM: Where did you go after you left the Alaskan factory?

Tom: From Chehalis, Washington, we went on to our son's home in Draper, Utah and spent two weeks.  Then we drove south to a state park outside of St. George called Snow Canyon.  For your readers, Snow Canyon should be on their to-do list.  It’s one of the prettiest places we’ve ever been to.  There are only thirty-six sites, so it can be hard to get into.

After Snow Canyon, we drove to the south gate of Zion and then visited a young lady in Flagstaff, Arizona who does research in Antarctica.  From there we drove all the way home in three days; 700 miles a day.  In a big vehicle, traveling like that will make you very tired.  For us in our truck camper, it was relaxing and low anxiety driving.

TCM: Tell us about your career in photography.

Tom: My photography career has now spanned forty-two years.  In the eighties, I was one of the top annual report photographers.  It was an amazing time!  I’ve always used the large format as one of my equipment sets.  As the annual report business changed, I went into architectural photography.  I enjoy working with architects.  They are both artists and technicians.  If their designs are daring, they risk 100 years of embarrassment or, better yet, an architectural triumph.

I just got the equipment together to do large landscape prints.  My digital equipment is a 144 megapixel camera, which far surpasses film.  I can make 40" x 60" prints at will.  For the foreseeable future, I’ll do large prints, mounted and framed.  

We met Ansel and Virginia Adams the first year we were married.  I remember how intense he was about his work, yet relaxed with Sue and I.  That is where I am now.  I have not lost the enthusiasm with which I started my career, however the angst of commercial work has dropped away. 

If you look at betterlight.com, there’s a section on the lower right hand tool bar called featured photographers where you can see more on my methods.

















TCM: Anything else that you would like to share?

Tom: We came back from the Sahara trip and decided to live a life suitable for a small planet.  In 1982, we built a super insulated, passive solar house.  Our walls are one foot thick with a R value of 50.  We have a heat bill about one-quarter of what others have.  In my opinion, the global warming theory is unproven.  However, drilling for oil is a difficult and dangerous enterprise and it is incumbent on each of us to use this natural resource carefully.  Truck campers are environmentally justified because they enable economical travel.