SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — July 28 is the final day of work at NewsChannel 9 for talented photojournalist Mark Folsom.

In his 40-year career, Mark has seen a lot. And worked with many great people in Syracuse broadcast history. 

The way I became a photojournalist was I was inspired by my father.  He worked at NewsChannel 9 since 1962. 

And I always thought that was very interesting. He’d come home at night and say ‘oh, we went here, we did this, I met this person, you know, and we were all over the place.’  and I thought ‘that’s pretty cool.’ 

Mark Folsom, retiring from NewsChannel 9 after 40 years

Since he arrived in 1982, Mark Folsom has seen a lot of changes. 

When I started out, we used three-quarter inch tape. I used an RCA camera.  It was like 75 pounds of equipment. A recorder, a tripod, batteries, and a big camera and a light. 

Now, we have non-linear editing where we can put a scene in. Well, we’ll put it here, we’ll put it here.  We want to shorten it, we want to lengthen it.  So, the versatility now is incredible. 

Mark Folsom

Mark quickly earned a reputation as one of the best.. The guy reporters asked to work with… Fought over, really. And he taught us all there was a lot more to the job than just picking up a camera. 

When I go out, yes, I’m a cameraman.  And some people go ‘Is there a reporter or anybody?’ I go, I’m a photojournalist. I’m going to tell your story.  I’m going to ask you questions. You’re going to tell me what you’re all about, and I’m going to try to capture the best images that I can to describe you. 

Mark Folsom

He had a knack for finding great stories, and great characters to tell them.  Like an Adirondack boat maker, he met with Rick Gary. 

We’re doing the interview ,’karl, how long’s it take to build a guide boat?’ he’s got his pipe, thinks for a minute. ‘about 400 coffee breaks.’ and you’re just like ‘wow.  How do you calculate that one?  Ok. 

Mark Folsom

In retirement, Mark says he won’t miss the deadlines. But he has plenty of great stories to keep in mind.  

Mark wants to leave with these words: “Every night, I had a chance to revisit Central New York and have another chance to tell another story and do a great job every night and try to outdo myself – so that’s what I was really I’m happy with and proud of. 

I want to thank everybody for making this possible and helping us out.  It’s been a great achievement.  Thank you.”