‘The Temple of the Sun’

That’s where she told us we were standing as she explained that everyone gets it wrong when they call it the Incan Empire.

For it was not an empire at all.

Empire suggests violent conquest and bloody battles and walls and impenetrable fortresses.

But here, apparently, the doors were always open. There were no closed gates or barriers to entry into the Incan communities. It was open to anyone and everyone. Until Spanish rule, she explained, the Inca civilization grew through peaceful assimilation. In fact, the Inca Trail itself was designed to connect all parts of the Incan territory, stretching from Columbia all the way down to Bolivia.

Therefore, rather than empire, she posited Incan Civilization.

This is not a photography post, but it's much more important than any post I may have posted.

I’d like to introduce you to Luz Emilia Haddad, one of the most wonderful, beautiful, resilient, empathetic, nurturing souls on the planet, who has had a special place in my heart since I was a baby.

She’s the aunt you call aunt who’s not really an aunt, but is your aunt.

This is her story.

And I won’t sugarcoat it, this is a story about child abuse.

Following two full days of exploring the region’s most revered breeders and pastures, and being educated by, and about, the various co-ops being organized and popping up to help command a fairer price for their hard-earned efforts in this region, who produce amongst the finest alpaca in the world, we headed down towards the infamous Andean basecamp city of Cusco for one of our final couple nights as a group.

There was one stop in between that we’ll…eh…sorta gloss over strictly for documentary’s sake that involved a big black nondescript duffel-bag being thrown into the back of the van by someone who couldn’t get far enough from us fast enough after doing so…

As we sat in our various hiding positions amongst the rocks in that outcropping, after about an hour or so, the corners of our eyes began catching modest spatterings of vicuna galloping by us.

Then those modest spatterings turned into groups that ran by and around us.

After just a few more minutes, those groups turned into waves of herds of thousands of vicuna running by, around, through, over and past us...

Yep, it's been a year.

Kinda feels like it's been 40.

And I know most of you feel the same.

So all I want to do is look at some purty pictures.

Will you look at some purty pictures with me?

Because despite this cosmic loop of psychotica we’ve found ourselves flailing through, there have been some beautiful moments as well.

Here are a few choice captures from the past few months, some from California, some from Portland, and most from the areas surrounding where I've chosen to currently call home (at least until 2020 strikes again).

Bend, Oregon.

Ommmmm…

As soon as I jumped out of the van to photograph a rare wild vicuna on the side of the road (if you don’t know what that is, ohhhh boy you’re quite in for it in Part 3…), my whole world started spinning and my head felt like it connected with a Pacquiao uppercut, and for the better part of the following 72 hours, I could have swore on an Incan Sol that my temples were sliced open and squashed in a salt-dusted vice.

One of the first things they recommend, and conveniently stocked, at a small convenience store in a dirt parking lot on the side of the road, was coca tea. Yes, you are correct - a tea made from coca leaves. I figured when in Peru...

And, well…

I had just boarded my connecting flight from Orlando to Lima, Peru and settled into my seat when I remembered my headphones were still in my bag in the overhead compartment.

So I went to open the bin and immediately, all of the contents from another persons's unsecured and unzipped bag fell out and directly onto the woman's head sitting right underneath the bin

So now the whole back of the plane was staring right at me.

And I don’t speak Spanish.

And none of them spoke English.

I suppose that's one way to start this thing!

Or, perhaps, I can start from the beginning...

For visualization purposes, imagine literally standing outside your bedroom door with your morning coffee to be greeted by (and get to feed) alpaca on one side, and then looking in the other direction and getting a glimpse of the magical sunrise light that was peeking on various parts of the garden grounds between the myriad of cloud patterns through this Portland-area spring.

If there was ever a time to invite the healing powers of nature into your heart, mind, soul, and self-quarantine quarters, this be it!!

First and foremost I trust and hope that all of you and those close to you are safe, healthy, and finding new ways to keep your spirits up and your minds in tact.

There’s no way around it: these are WEEEEIIIIRRRRDDDD times. And while it may seem like our hands (and sanity) are tied, one thing we CAN do, is use this opportunity to slow down, simplify and reassess our priorities for a post-COVID world.

One of those priorities can be paying better attention to taking care of our health, both mental and physical. And one of the best ways to do that is to spend more time appreciating, embracing and taking care of Mother Earth.

Click the post below for the rest of the words, some free gifts, an announcement, and an opportunity to help those on the front lines of COVID19…

We couldn’t help but notice the variety of customized covid ‘closed’ signs posted on the businesses around town. While it may not be anything terribly profound, special or exciting, it was something that ended up being more interesting and telling with each passing doorway and, well, seemed like a good excuse to both get out of the house for a walk as well as occupy several hours. Ultimately, the result ended up being:

Signs of the Times - a collection of images of the personalized ‘closed for covid’ signs posted on the businesses around town.

From the sweet to the frank, the creative to the dry, and the mundane to the marvelous, each sign has a personality of its own, much like the folks behind them.

Click below to read more and see all the signs…

It was mid-March and I flew into Sacramento. I was scheduled to work and visit my girlfriend in Nevada City, California, just outside Tahoe. The plan was to be there until March 18th, get some work done, have some fun, and then fly back to Portland, but, well, as we all know now, things started to get weird around then.

Really weird…

It was a recent late afternoon when Portland finally saw a short respite in the seemingly endless rain and the glorious sun drenched our part of the Earth for a few lovely moments, reminding us why we endure all that water falling from the sky for so many weeks of the year. Spring had barely just begun to sprung and this afternoon proved to be pure magic in the forest near my home.

When I first arrived…

This is going to be a short one. In fact, I won’t even go past these few intro sentences, as there’s not much introduction that a sunset at Joshua Tree National Park really needs. I just happened to be in Southern California at my folks house getting a few personal matters in order, and my girlfriend decided to come down and help, so on Valentine’s Day weekend, we figured we’d take a little break and head out to Palm Springs for a few days, one of which we spent at Joshua Tree…

Ok, so this wasn’t planned. And by this, I don’t just mean these images or even this trip to Smith Rock State Park in Oregon, but when life hands you ice and snow, you make, eh…slushies?!

I know I’m a little late on this one, being as how these images were taken over Thanksgiving of 2019, but, well, my procrastinatin’ booty figured I couldn’t post this before my Peru trip posts, because, well, it’s sorta connected. What Peru posts am I talking about? Precisely!!! They’re coming…I promise…I promise…DAMNIT I PROMISE!! But as a kick in the gotcha to motivate me to finish those buggers, since there’s been a few adventures since that don’t warrant as many words as the Peruvian saga, figured I may as well share a few of those images before they’re no longer relevant!

Anyhow,…

So I've started to build quite a pleasant relationship with Mike & Julie Safley, the founders of Oakwood Gardens, after first being assigned to photograph one of their cottages for Airbnb more than year ago. I've written about it before, so I won't get too deep into it here, but for the full alpaca-fueled story, check out this post.

In any case, one of the things they've been hiring me for has been to photograph the spectacular garden that lives on their property - 7 acres of ever-changing landscapes, scenes, plants, and animals that demonstrate the beauty, fragility and resilience of our natural planet.

When I got the call early December that they wanted their garden photographed in the winter, my initial reaction was 'huh!??'

I don’t have much to say here…perhaps because there isn’t much to say. This one is purely show and tell. This series of images was from a recent morning here in Portland, Oregon. I woke up, saw the fog, grabbed my camera, and ran up the street to Hoyt Arboretum in my pajamas. What was meant to be a quick picture or two ended up being 3 hours of wandering through the forest fog.

And these were the results…

“Have the train go back one more car-length.”
“See that S-Curve over there? Wait for me to get around that lake and then get it to start around that bend and behind those trees.”
“Oh, and give me smoke. Lots of smoke. With color.”
“Aaaaaand why not - blow the whistles.”

It’s not everyday you get to direct a historic Union Pacific steam engine (or two) to do what you want it to do up and down a stretch of authentic narrow-gauge rail in Gold Rush country, but, well, this wasn’t an every day…

It’s that season again!

Summer is over, and the Chambers of Commerce and destination marketing organizations of America are no longer questioning their life choices after dealing with the annual throngs of sun-searching tourists escaping their own monotony by crazily descending upon various regions to patronize their businesses and attractions. They’ve had a slight chance to recuperate, shore up their 2020 budgets, and complete their efforts to capture media assets to help promote their respective locales to next year’s crop of escapees.

And this is where I come in.

So this is pretty darn rad! The non-profit I work with, Ecology in Classrooms & Outdoors (ECO), just had our 3rd annual Garden Party and it was our most successful yet, "with donors stepping up to create 23 new scholarships for hands-on ecology lessons, after school programs, field trips, and outdoor summer camp!"

We also…

ae Lakes Loop - We came, we saw, we didn't conquer! Kinda...

Ok, we needn't get into the finer details, but the one silver lining of our failed attempt to backpack the entirety of the Rae Lakes Loop in Kings Canyon National Park was that we got to spend the week in Yosemite National Park's Tuolumne Meadows instead - a rare case when the consolation prize turned into the Grand Prize!