I love the Pacific Northwest. I was not born here – I picked Oregon as the place I wanted to live while I was still in high school in Connecticut. After finishing college at UConn, I picked Portland off the map as my starting place because it’s where the I-84 freeway (then I-80N) ends. I left home for the first time (I had commuted to college from my parents house) to drive across the entire U.S. – 3000 miles of first-time adventures. I told my parents: “we’ll see how it goes since I’ve never been west of the Mississippi… I have no job waiting… and I don’t know anyone living there”!
As I drove into the Portland, OR for the first time, my soul knew it had come home – even though I had never been here. It is “my place” – the geography where I feel most “at home”. Nature at her finest – with beautiful scenery, wonderful vistas and hidden treasures to be found around every turn in the trail or bend of the river.
After more than 40 years here, I now live across the river in WA with a view across the Columbia River to Oregon. Mt. Hood sits squarely in my windshield when I drive home from work and that view can still take my breath away. I am still finding new places to explore and hike as well as returning to old favorites.
It has been my joy to commemorate the “sights of my life” by capturing what I see and preserving it in pictures that hopefully carry and convey the feelings of the moment. Every place I have hiked, every bloom that caught my eye, every mountain climbed, stream or river I’ve crossed, and every beach that reminds me that the ocean is so much bigger than myself or any problem I have at the moment.
My full catalog of Northwest Nature Photography work runs to over 50,000 digital photos and about as many film photos – including other states, national parks and assorted vacation adventures.
It is my mission to use photography to open people’s eyes to the natural beauty all around us – be it sky, land, water or plants, animals and insects. I am a photo purist. I do not digitally enhance or manipulate my photos beyond cropping as I believe that nature – just as it is – is glorious – with all it’s intricate and subtle beauty. What you see in my images is exactly what I recorded through my camera lens.
Thank you for your interest in my work! I hope you truly enjoy it!