On January 30, 2025, I was photographing in the Molalla River State Park near the small town of Canby, Oregon. I was looking primarily for birds and maybe a composition or two that included the nearby Willamette River. Unfortunately, my day was rather busy, and I got to the park a little later than I had hoped, and so my time there was cut short, as closing time approached. 

I didn't want to get caught behind closed gates, so I drove to just outside the park's entrance. I happened to notice the eastern sky was beginning to turn pink and magenta, and Mount Hood was also beginning to blush. So, I thought it might be a good idea to try to get a picture of the mountain in the background with, hopefully, the Canby Ferry crossing the Willamette River in the foreground.

After about 20 minutes waiting for the ferry to be in just the right location and several tries, the result was this:

(You can find it in this gallery: https://www.45thphoto.com/portland)

Two weeks later, after I had published it here on this web site, and on InstaGram and FaceBook, I received a call from the Transportation Operations Manager for Clackamas County Transportation & Development Department. They are the folks responsible for operating and maintaining the Canby Ferry.  It seems they had moved into a new facility and wanted to get a print of this image to fill an empty space on a wall in a stairwell, where lots of people will see it. And they needed it to be big, at least 48 inches by 48 inches.

Flash forward six weeks to March 26th, and here we are delivering the print:

Delivering my work to customers who truly value the time and effort I invest fills me with deep gratitude and satisfaction, especially knowing that many will see and appreciate it daily. This feeling inspires me to continually refine my skills and artistry, driving me to create images that will resonate with future clients.
 

29 Places In America You Need To VisitIf you live in the U.S., you don’t need a passport to see some of the glories of creation.

I originally posted this on March 12, 2014. Back then, I had visited only six of these 29 locations.

Now, eleven years later, my tally is up to 16. That leaves me only 13 more to go.

How about you? How many have you gone to?

Click the picture to read the article.

I am certainly not a war photographer like Don McCullin and others, but early on, I realized my landscapes and portraits and street photography needed to be infused with whatever emotion the scene was evoking in me that induced me to snap the shot to begin with. The conscious intentionality of a photograph must come through to the viewer in order to separate it from a mere snapshot. I don't always succeed, and when I do, of course, it's to a lesser or greater degree than I would like.  Hopefully, over the years I have been getting better at capturing that spark in my images.