Favorite Photographs of 2018

It was another fun year of taking photographs. Here are some of my favorites with the stories behind the shots.

I had fun with the kids at Loup Loup at the beginning of the year; on a sunny day the late afternoon sun creates some fun backlighting and I got Taka to make some hard turns.

Taka riding in the back of a snowcat with friends Jonah and Sabine. I love these moments of joy and excitement with kids outside.

I had a few trips to DC this spring as part of my job advocating for rivers and on one of those Taka took off from school for a week. We received a personal tour of the Capitol with a staffer from Senator Murray’s office. I love this image of Taka taking it all in.

This is one of Taka’s favorite photos bringing in the disk on the ultimate frisbee field. He started playing this spring and had some thrilling games that concluded with a win in the league championship match.

The slot canyons of the desert southwest have such beautiful organic forms. We went on a tour of Canyon X in Arizona which is the nearby cousin of Antelope Canyon and a little less crowded.

At Canyon de Chelly in Arizona we toured the ruins with a Navajo guide; this is my interpretation of the famous Ansel Adams photo of White House ruin in the desert southwest.

We spent a day in April at Fossil Creek Wild and Scenic River in Arizona. Taka jumped into the river at the base of this waterfall and swam downstream; he repeated it a dozen times. I was chest-deep in water with my camera to get this shot of a young boy enjoying a day playing in the water.

For years I have been trying to get on the North Fork Smith River, designated as a Wild and Scenic River in the final hours of Carter’s presidency. It was a beautiful day with the wild azaleas in bloom.

The only state I had never been too – Oklahoma – and the opening night of the U2 eXPERIENCE Tour seemed as good as reason as any to pay a visit. I was on the edge of the stage and got some great shots but I particularly like this moment of Bono belting out Pride, a song that has been with me for over 30 years.

Every year we head out to Clark Island for a sea kayaking trip to go shrimping in the San Juan Islands – an annual excursion we call Shrimp Fest. As we cook the shrimp, appetizer platters always appear and I love this explosion of color that emerges from dry bags on a beach in the islands.

Out for drinks with friends one evening – Joe Shaeffer’s birthday – the cocktail glass, outdoor gas fire place, and hand captured my imagination for a moment and I pulled out my iPhone to record it.

Gerd Serrasolses stroking to a second-place finish at the North Fork Championship on the North Fork Payette River (his brother Aniol took first). I shot nearly 100o images at this event but I really like the energy of this shot of Gerd consumed in a sea of white – which is pretty much what Jacob’s Ladder rapid on the North Fork Payette is.

We were at Kirkham Hot Spring on the South Fork Payette with the kids and their friends. As the sun began to set the jump rock the kids were enjoying was bathed in warm light as the other side of the river disappeared in shadow. The moment lasted for about 10 minutes and Taka was all too excited to jump as many times as he could as I captured the moment.

Joe Anderton invited me on his Middle Fork Salmon trip and it was a real pleasure to experience one of America’s great river trips during the 50th Anniversary of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. A couple times a day I would paddle ahead and climb up to a vantage point where I could capture the essence of the spectacular geology and scenery that characterize this trip.

For the past decade I have been working with a group of colleagues to pass legislation to protect the Rogue River and its major tributaries. While the river itself was one of the original 8 Wild and Scenic Rivers designated in 1968, only a 1/4 mile buffer on either side of the river is protected for the first part of the trip down to Mule Creek Canyon. Although our campaign is focused on the tributaries, we have surprisingly few photos; my friends Cyn and Paul were happy to oblige on a self-support kayak trip in July where I focused on people experiencing the tributaries. Wild places offer moments like these and I particularly love this shot of Cyn on Dulog Creek.

In July I had a chance to spend the morning with a group of kids I know at Sundance Kayak School; It’s been fun to watch Payton progress as a paddler and I got this shot by getting low to the water and shooting across the river with a 300mm lens as he was learning to surf.

Seattle has a love/hate relationship with the annual arrival of the Blue Angels. We decided to embrace the experience. At the speed the F/A-18 Hornets fly, they can be hard to capture. I was focused on the timing of lining up a shot with a 300 mm lens as the jets quickly flashed through the frame.

Shooting with a 14mm lens on a sunny August day on Lopez Island I was able to get this shot by stopping down the aperture and shooting with a fast shutter speed.

We left the wildfire smoke of Seattle in late August expecting beautiful weather in Hawaii. We were instead greeted by a hurricane. Upon landing we immediately headed to the beach and you could see massive cloud banks, the tendrils of the hurricane, moving in from the southeast. I got this shot of Taka during this transition before the sun disappeared for a week.

I think this shot speaks for itself – the park was closed as were most businesses on the island which just meant everyone who loves the ocean was out taking advantage of the surf.

The boys got into the action and I spent some time shooting them playing in the shore break. This low angle shot gives a sense of scale of the waves coming in and captures both boys playing in the water.

It seems I always have a need for good photo of dogs on the trail. For this hike around Lake Ann off the North Cascades Highway I got ahead of Chris and positioned myself low to the ground for this shot with the wide angle lens to capture a hiker out with his dog.

After a summer of trips and spending time around the house, it was time for Aki to go back to school. The kids were marginally cooperative with the obligatory first day of school shot but I love this moment that happened immediately after that as our dog Gunner started following Aki down the street. At this moment Aki turned around to tell Gunner he would be home later; Gunner stood and watched as Aki disappeared down the street and around the corner.

At American Whitewater’s Gauley River Festival on Saturday evening we had an impressive sunset. For a few minutes the sky turned orange and bathed the line of boats at the front gate in a warm glow.

Roland McNutt has been paddling California rivers for as long as anyone can remember. It was fun to get a run with him down the North Fork Feather and capture this shot of him crashing through Dump Truck Rapid.

For his birthday Aki requested a night out for Korean BBQ with the family. I love this moment of the kids taking charge.

At the River Management Society meeting this year I was able to get colleagues on the Clackamas Wild and Scenic River outside Portland, OR. Water levels were low but I was able to get this fun shot coming through one of the rapids.

Enjoying Washington’s Methow Valley in autumn, the simple color palette of aspen illuminated by low angle sunlight created a beautiful moment.

We have a group of friends who has been going out to La Push for two decades. This massive beach log has been in place for about 15 years and it makes a great back drop for a group shot. It can be a challenge posing a group but this crew knows the drill and it came together quickly and efficiently.

In Washington DC in December the Capitol glows pink for a few moments as the sun sets. I caught it out of the corner of my eye running between meetings one evening and came back the next to experience it the following evening.

My wife and I went down to the Showbox, Seattle’s iconic downtown music venue for nearly a century, to catch local artist Travis Thompson on the last night of his first tour. We went out to dinner and arrived after the doors had opened so ended up about six rows back. I was too far away for intimate close ups of the artist and considered giving up the spot for someplace in the back where I could capture a wide angle shot of the energy in the venue. I stayed put and during the encore confetti cannons shot red and white tissue paper into the air. As the crowd raised their fists for the last few bars of the final song for the night, I got a glimpse of Travis in profile as the confetti rained down.

Cameras: I mostly use a Nikon D200 but recently added a Nikon D700 full-frame camera. Since it’s not always practical to carry the DSLR, I nearly always have a Canon G7X with me. It’s a great point-and-shoot camera that has a manual mode to maintain exposure control, it’s great in low light, and it has a larger sensor than a smart phone.

If you enjoyed these images, here are my Favorite Photos from 2017.