Month: September 2026
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Beginner
I’ve been a photographer for more than thirty years, which sounds considerably more impressive if you don’t see some of the photographs from the beginning. Everybody starts somewhere. Apparently I started slightly out of focus.
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Nerd
I own tiny computers, amateur radio equipment, cameras and enough cables to last several lifetimes. Somewhere along the way I realized being a nerd isn’t really about technology. It’s about curiosity.
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Awkward
I’ve spent a significant portion of my life not knowing what to do with my arms. At six foot seven, there is a lot of me to organize. Somewhere along the way, though, I started realizing that awkward doesn’t always need fixing.
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Goofy
I have a personal connection to this word. Goofy is part of the persona I think I needed to develop to let people know that the behemoth standing before them, metaphorically, of course, wasn’t dangerous. Not necessarily the traditional Disney version of Goofy everyone knows. I probably felt a little more like Mr. Bean. Although,…
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Pause
I am not particularly good at doing nothing. Even when I’m sitting still, there’s a pretty good chance some part of my brain has wandered off and started a project without consulting the rest of me. A pause in a conversation before answering. Sitting in the car for another minute because you’re enjoying the company.…
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Texture
Photographers love texture. Peeling paint on an old building. Wrinkles on a face. Weathered wood. Rust on an old truck. The hair on a horse when the light hits it from the side. Give me an old barn that’s been neglected for fifty years and I’ll probably photograph the hell out of it. Give me…
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Ordinary
I wish I had more photographs of Tuesdays. That’s probably a strange thing for a photographer to say. I’ve spent more than thirty years taking pictures of things people decided were important enough to remember. Weddings, events, portraits, horses, celebrations and all those moments when somebody thinks, We should get a picture of this. But…
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Wandering
A path from A to B, planned, scheduled and typically known. That’s the way I navigated through most of my life. I’m old enough to remember navigating before we had those handy little devices telling us exactly where to turn. Back then we had the foldable kind of navigation that you kept stuffed in the…
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Relief
Yesterday I felt like crap. Nothing particularly dramatic. My stomach wasn’t happy, my body was clearly fighting something, and I spent a good portion of the day wondering whether whatever had decided to take up residence inside me was planning on staying. Today I woke up feeling better. Not perfect. Just better. There is something…
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Unexpected
Very little about my life has gone according to plan. This is particularly annoying because I really fucking like plans. Today, for example, I woke up with a sour stomach. I had plans to go out with my girl, and my body was telling me that something was going on with my digestive system and…
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Expansion
At 6’7″, I have a complicated relationship with space. Airplane seats don’t have enough of it. Cars occasionally don’t have enough of it. Hotel beds definitely don’t have enough of it. I have spent a surprising amount of my life trying to fold myself into spaces apparently designed for significantly smaller humans. So maybe it’s…
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Reciprocal
I am terrible at letting people do things for me. Buy me dinner and there is a reasonably good chance I’m already mentally calculating when I can buy the next one. Help me with something and I’ll start looking for a way to return the favor before you’ve even finished helping. Give me something for…
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Homes
I grew up in Seattle. If someone asks me where I’m from, Seattle is still usually the answer. I know those streets. I remember places that aren’t there anymore. There are parts of that city that will probably always feel familiar to me. But I’ve lived in Eugene since 1996. At some point, without anyone…
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Delight
Yesterday I spent a lot of time thinking about whether I’m enough. Today, as I was on my way into work, I watched someone playing with their dog at a park and saw the dog lose its mind over that ball. I’m beginning to think that dog may have this whole happiness thing figured out…
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Enough
I don’t think I’ve ever taken a perfect photograph. I’ve taken some damn good ones. I’ve taken photographs I’m proud of. I’ve even taken photographs other people apparently thought were worth paying money for. But perfect? Nope. Give me enough time with one of my own images and I’ll find something wrong with it. The…
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Belonging
Being 6’7″, I’ve spent most of my adult life not fitting into shit. Airplane seats. Cars. Hotel beds. Clothing racks. Doorways occasionally become an unexpected adventure. At six-foot-seven, “one size fits all” has always felt a little fucking optimistic. Physically not fitting somewhere is pretty easy to recognize. The other kind takes longer. I’ve been…
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Wonder
Somewhere along the way, humanity spent billions of dollars launching satellites into space so I could use them to find a Tupperware container hidden behind a tree. Think about that for a minute. There are machines traveling thousands of miles per hour above my head, communicating with a computer I’m carrying in my pocket, calculating…
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Savor
I eat too fast. I always have. Put a plate of food in front of me and apparently I’m concerned someone is going to take it away. When I was younger, my father, God rest his soul, used to tell me not to wash my food down. He’d watch me take a bite and immediately…
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Fragility
When I was a wee lad, my mother told us not to roughhouse in the front room because we might break the figurines she had purchased for decoration. She had said it before, probably many times, but that didn’t stop my brother and me from throwing pillows around the room with wild abandon. Eventually we…
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Ridiculous
I own several Raspberry Pis. For those unfamiliar with them, a Raspberry Pi is a tiny computer originally designed to help people learn about computers. I apparently interpreted this as a challenge to see how many completely unnecessary things I could make one do. I have spent hours configuring a $70 computer to perform a…