Thor's Well or Gateway to the Underworld. This is a powerful almost mystical place on the Oregon Coast. I tried to convey that feeling here.

Yes I make my living photographing people.  I shoot Weddings, Portraits, Travel, Events, and Concerts wherever people are doing the things that they love doing and are important to them. I shoot in studio and on location. I spent many years in the fashion photography business which gave me the love and understanding of shooting in the studio and in the great outdoors as well.  I love the people, the clothes, and the things that are important to them and I love working to make photographic images that hopefully they will love and cherish for a lifetime. 

A photo of my son Jake as young Harry Dresden. Jake is a good sport and helps out with my weird ideas. He kind of liked this one it fits him.

Recently I had the privilege of running into someone I had photographed probably close to thirty years ago. When she introduced me to her daughter she said “he took the black and white photo of me that is in my room.”  I was very pleased when her daughter said that it was her favorite photograph of her mom however I was astounded that her mom still had the photo around.  It just makes me want to work harder to create those images.

A firefighter in Mt. Angel Oregon, really nothing more needs to be said here

So what does this have to do with a day at the beach?  Well nothing at all beyond that I just love photography and just lately in my career I have discovered the joy of getting out and photographing this wonderful creation in which we find ourselves living.

The Bonneville Salt Flats. This is another wonderful place with a mystical feeling about it and again I tried to convey that feeling here.

While in seminary, (yes I attended and graduated from seminary) our theology professor Dr. Stan Johnson made a statement. “The reason we do theology is so that it may bring us to worship.” That statement has stuck with me the many long years since he spoke them to a group of eager young students.

Just outside Green River Wyoming heading toward Flaming Gorge Utah. I have always loved the road and road photos also invoke the mystical, the possible and the excitement of what is around the bend, at least in me.

It strikes me that the reason I do photography is the same. It brings me to worship and maybe others as well.  I photograph God’s creation and for me people are every bit as much a part of it as are the animals, insets, rocks, trees, rivers and well, the whole universe.

To me nothing shows the beauty and wonder of the human spirit like the arts. When ever I listen to these wonderful artists my spirit soars and I feel free much in the same way as when I spend time with one of my wife's paintings or sit on my raft on a beautiful river for God is the greatest artist of all.

I am a follower of Jesus Christ, it is however with ecclesiastical methods, actions and attitudes that obscure His teachings that I have little sympathy. I am also truly sorry that I feel a need to make that distinction.  I have many close friends who are followers of other religions and of no religion.   Three of my very close friends are Atheists (Not these three close friends above).  I have watched them out on the river as we were rafting and have seen this wonderful world touch them as it does me. One is a good rafting buddy and the other two are a wonderful young couple, she is a Scientist and he is in our Special Forces, all are quality people.  I talked at length about this on the river with my very close friend as we took our rafts down the Deschutes one November weekend. It was a perfect time.  We agreed that gratitude was an essential feeling that one must have when looking at this world in which we live.  My gratitude is toward a creator God, his toward the wonderful place in which we found ourselves, but there was gratitude.

The place where I feel most at home on this earth is on the river. My blood pressure drops and my muscles relax as the tension of daily life just falls away.

So if in some small way my photography can nudge people in the direction of gratitude or worship I feel that I have been a success.  To me a day at the beach is a metaphor for the grateful and good life.

Standing in such a spot one can feel the grandeur of creation.  The young people in the photo as well as the rest of us were just overwhelmed by the sheer immensity and beauty of the place, a true work of art.

With all the negative stuff in the world and it gets overwhelming at times I just want to highlight the beautiful, the Nobel, courageous and sublime. That is all I am after when I head out on a day off to explore and share this wonderful world which we find ourselves sharing.

I just like this place, drive by it a lot and on this day with the fog and bare tree reflecting on the pond the image reflected my feeling of it.

So the photos in this little post may have nothing more in common than they somehow in my mind fit into that list of those subjects that I want to highlight. They are a few of the photos that I kind of like and may not even be my best but make me feel something or I have a kind of connection to in other ways. I hope they do something for you as well.

To me the image of this precious little girl shouts of being in the moment. No worries, thoughts, or self-consciousness, just pure action and joy of the now.

My only regret is that my skill and artistry is no where close to being of the quality that I can effectively share the beauty and grandeur of this creation in which we live.

What more that lightning speaks of the beauty and power of this wonderful world in which we live and move?

If you have stuck with me this far I thank you very much it is nice when ones work is appreciated enough to read to the end.

Heceta Head Lighthouse south of Yachats Oregon.

Well, a day at the beach probably ought to start and end at the beach.