Locations

Here in the Pacific Northwest, winter held on deep into spring. When the weather changed, it did so quickly - from 40 degree daytime highs to 88. This has finally triggered the wildflowers and flowers found at various farms.

I purchased a season pass to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival in Oregon. Sunrise is always my favorite time to be outside, so I went for a few sunrises. If you are interested in going next year, I recommend this time of day. The sun rises over or near Mount Hood, depending on the month the flower bloom is peaking. Find an area near the parking lot, further east you walk, you will lose sight of Mount Hood.

I approach the creation of my images from two general starting points - do I want tonal contrast, or balance? Below is an image where I tried to balance the purple/blue tulips wit…

Our World’s oceans need us to walk to the edge of land and dip our toes in salty water, if only to share one beloved, yet desperate message with us - “we are important!”

Sunrise over Jetty Lagoon, Oregon

Look ahead at the tides and wind and plan your paddle to see the sand dollar beds in Netarts Bay. They are awesome!

The Eccentric Sand Dollar (Dendraster excentricus) is an echinoderm, like sea stars and sea urchins. They typically enjoy warmer waters with higher salinity, but the slow moving, shallow bay with few rivers feeding it, allows for a dense bed of live sand dollars in the Eel Grass beds on the western side of the bay. Typically, the skeleton, or "test", of a sand dollar is found washed up on the beach. A prized possession if you find one intact. At the Netarts beds, there are thousands of living species, colored black or purple.

I visit the sand dollar beds a couple of times per year and typically find clear water to snorkel and photograph. They are found approximately 1000 feet from shore, in 4-5 feet of water…

Going 'home' is so vital right now, we all want to be among the people we love. All of us, every human on earth has had to change plans and alter our lives due to COVID. Weddings have been cancelled or missed, graduations were altered and visits to family were cancelled. My wife, Abby, and I are no exception

, which is hard because we really missed our families.

In August we decided to take a road trip and visit our families in Michigan and North Carolina. Abby and I have been taking COVID very seriously so it was a hard decision to drive across the country. We plotted and planned our route so that we never went inside of a building - no convenience stores, no grocery stores, no restaurants and no rest areas. In Michigan we stayed with my Mother and in North Carolina we stayed with Abb…