Searching for hidden, tasty treasures.

Coast Guard Station Tillamook Bay

The word "peaceful" comes to mind.

This dock is next to Coast Guard Station Tillamook Bay in Garibaldi, Oregon.

This seagull was such a good poser...also the star of the photos below.

"The Poser", arriving for the photo shoot.

His eyes are amazing.

Paying very close attention.

This piece of driftwood caught my eye immediately. It reminded me of a catfish skeleton, left on the plate of a hungry restaurant patron. While photographing this piece of driftwood (one shot before this) it almost crushed me when it was violently picked up by a sneaker wave and dumped back down where it sits in this photo. Notice the sand burm it created when it came to rest. Close call, Whew!

This piece of driftwood just happened to have a certain golden glimmer from the sun. It was also pointing straight towards the sea lions on the other side of the channel. 

I shot this photo at Manzanita Beach on the Oregon, Coast. I chose black and white because of the amazing storm clouds and dramatic textures of the wood grain and sand. It was freezing cold, 40 knot winds and raining, but worth every second, I'm grateful for this shot.

This piece was amazing! I captured this image at a place called Hug Pointe, just south of Cannon Beach. Can you see the werewolf? Or maybe you see something different. It speaks for itself. If I had a chain saw and a truck it might be in my apartment right now, haha.

I captured this sunset from the wind turbine fields in Adams Oregon. The intense red color is caused by fires that were burning at the time all around that part of Oregon.

This is another shot I captured in Adams, Oregon. This was the first time I had ever been so close to these gigantic marvels.

I captured this photo in Adams, Oregon as well. The two turbines in the center of the photograph appeared to almost touch and were rotating in almost perfect sync. Like a couple holding hands.

I captured this shot in the turbine fields just above the city in Idaho Falls, Idaho. The sun that night was creating the most amazing beams of light through the clouds. The subtle almost surreal colors and variation in the colors of the landscape caught my attention for sure.

I shot this image on my way to Wenatchee, Washington. The size of these turbines is hard to estimate or realize because there is nothing recognizable and/or large enough around them to give their size perspective. The wind turbines are huge, but the rolling hills are immense.

I shot this photo on the Washington side of the Columbia Gorge during my recent trip to Wenatchee, Washington. I loved that the turbines were all in a row on the ridge of this amazing green, rolling hill.

I captured this shot in Lincoln City, Oregon right out in front of Chinook Winds Casino. The waves were just crashing into this lava outcrop and exploding into the air. Awesome!

Sea foam blowing down the beach and drifting like the snow in Denver. I captured this shot on Manzanita Beach. It was freezing cold and raining. I was there for about an hour and couldn't feel my hands when I got back in my car.

I captured this wave crashing into a sand bank that had built up during the day. Got down on my stomach and shot straight across the sand. The first thing I thought when I got the photo off my camera was, "It looks like little water people dancing".

I learned a valuable lesson on this day and I remind myself often, just because the weather is not good, doesn't mean there's not a photo waiting to be made. Siletz Bay, Oregon

Another fun, stop action shot of the waves splashing against the sand. Siletz Bay.

Everyone who has been to Multnomah Falls on the Columbia River Gorge, here in Oregon, probably has a similar shot. I was fortunate to be there when the leaves were changing.

I love the colors in this shot and the long exposure on the falls. 

I took this shot around midnight one evening when I got home from work. I didn't have my tripod so I set the camera on top of my car and used an intervalometer in "B" mode to open the shutter. ("B" mode allows me to hold the shutter open manually.) On my first attempt I left the shutter open a little too long. When I reviewed the resulting image I could tell I was dialed in for a nice shot if I could get the exposure right. I put the camera back up on my car, aimed it back at the spot and held the shutter open for 17 seconds with my Canon 24-105mm f4L lens at f4. Although this isn't a lens I would recommend or normally use for this type of shot, I was very happy once I developed it.

I captured this shot at Riverfront Park in Salem, Oregon late one evening in 2016. It was a cool crisp night. This is a view of the bridge into West Salem from Downtown across the great Williamette River. I used a neutral density filter to allow for a super long exposure of almost a minute so I could capture the lights from the cars going across the on-ramp onto the bridge. The longer exposure also turned the moving river into a glassy mirror. I love the reflections of the lights and the golden colors in this image.

This is The Denver City and County Building in Civic Center Park in downtown Denver, Colorado, a few days before Christmas. At set intervals throughout the night a musical light show happens and the lights on the building dance and blink and turn a million different colors. It is beautiful and fun to be there. This image was picked up by CBS Denver and used in a weather story, it was awesome!

I love to photograph the moon. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and the whole "space race" of the 1960's. Our moon is the brightest light in the sky at night, always reminding me that the sun is still burning bright, on the other side of the planet.

I captured this shot one cool morning while I was out shooting the sunrise. After the sun broke the horizon and I had my shots, I noticed this half moon through the trees, shining so bright I just had to get a shot of it. Nothing like shooting an awesome sunrise, then getting a bonus moon.

A brief reprieve from the smoke from fires.

I captured this photo on my way home from work one day. As I came down the last hill before my house, I saw this amazing tree being silhouetted by an insane sunset and had to stop. Since then I have taken many different photos of this tree. I entered this photo in the "2016 Tree City USA photo contest" sponsored by the City of Salem Public Works Department, and I won. 

I love this tree. As my idol Bob Ross would say, "this tree lives alone right over here...at the edge of this road, and he needs a friend". He does live alone, but he stands proud, strong and tall, and he greets me every single day. "It's your world". Ankeny Wildlife Refuge.

This tree is the same tree as the first one in this gallery. I captured this shot on my way to town from home, and from the opposite side of the tree. The sky was so amazing, I just had to pull over. Again, the silhouette against such a beautiful sky is something I love.

I captured this shot of a cherry grove in Dallas, Oregon one cloudy afternoon in April. I chose to shoot it black and white because it was already going to be basically colorless. I like the results, especially the blossoms and the clouds. I wanted to emphasize the weather, and the feeling of quiet I felt while I took it.

Sometimes it not about the trees, as much as it is what they help to create, just by being there. I captured this shot in Silverton, Oregon in the Winter of 2016.

This was a very special tree to me. I took many photos of this tree. It sadly was taken down last year due to some safety issues and because of a planned visitors center at The Ankeny Wildlife Refuge in Jefferson, Oregon. It was adored by all who knew of it and will be missed. 

As the sun came up on Aug 21, 2017 it was clear that we were in for a perfect and beautiful day here in Salem, Oregon. Perfect conditions to view and photograph the eclipse. We were right smack in the middle of the path of totality and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The excitement grew among my friends and I as we watched and waited for the first sign of the moon stepping onto the stage. "It's starting", I yelled to my friends as I saw the first sign of the moon crossing the sun's path. Wow!

As the moon quickly crawled in front of the sun and across my viewfinder, it started to hit me, this was a pretty big deal. A big deal to be witness to such an amazing natural event, and a big deal because the Earth is the only planet in our solar system from which a solar eclipse can be seen. The reason for this phenomenon is that the moon, although 400 times smaller than our sun, is also 400 times closer to the earth than the sun, and therefore appears to be the exact same size when viewed from the earth.

Mere seconds before Totality, it was getting cold, my heart was racing, my friends were oohing and ahhing, it was about that time - all the reading, all the information racing through my mind..."ok, take off the filter, adjust the exposure, check focus, don't forget to look up, see it with your own eyes, take it in, don't screw it up, keep shooting", I was saying to myself as the last sliver of the sun grew thinner. "Here it comes!"...

...as the moon fully eclipsed the sun, I pulled off my filter, and continued shooting, but at that very moment, I looked up and gasped at the same exact time as the hundreds of people in the neighborhood who were all experiencing the same thing at the same time. It was so beautiful, to see, but beautiful to hear also. For a brief second, it felt like we were all part of something so much bigger than ourselves, grander than our individual gripes, political views or anything else that may divide us at any other time. It was an unbelievable moment I won't ever forget, as long as I live...it was truly spiritual for me.

As the sun and moon finished their artful dance and went their separate ways, the sun pierced through the top of the moon and I captured this beautiful shot. Known as "Bailey's Bead", or "The Diamond Ring", this is one of the shots we photographers hope to get for obvious reasons. Astronomers like this shot because it tells them information about the surface of the moon based on its shape. 

One of the awesome things I discovered after the eclipse, when I finally got the photos off my camera, was that I captured these solar flares. These flares can only be seen while the eclipse is in Totality. Solar flares occur all the time on our star, they send radiation and fire into space millions of miles. Solar flares cause satellite and communication problems here on earth - among other things, but wow, how beautiful to see them like this.

This image is a composite of 11 photographs I shot during the entire eclipse...beginning to end. I want people to feel this image, see it up close, see the sunspots, and feel what I felt that morning and although they are nice to see online, they don't compare to a framed print...so, I am selling just 25 of these in two different sizes - 12"x18" and 24"x36". There are 20 left as of this posting. Please contact me to purchase this limited signed and numbered print while they last.

Many people, including myself (until recently) don't realize the Sun actually appears white in space. The sun puts out colors across the entire spectrum and therefore to the human eye it appears white. However the earths atmosphere filters out the green and blues and therefore we see the sun as red, or orange from down here on earth. To make this image appear more "familiar", I adjusted the tones of the corona to more of what most of us expect to see. Interesting tidbit...the color the sun produces most...is in the green spectrum. Imagine a green sun...hmmmm

A fun tribute for the Red, White and Blue!

These clouds look like smoke and fire, not surprising since the ash from nearby fires has covered my car. 

During the recent eclipse, I had to cover my lens to protect my cameras sensor from the light of the sun. This photo needed no filter, as the smoke blocks much of the light from the sun. It also causes the sun to appear bright neon pink or red, which is beautiful, while eery at the same time.

This shot of the moon was difficult to expose correctly. Because of the smoke from the fires, the normal settings for a full moon were out the window. The beautiful red/orange hue is completely unedited.

Another example of a perfectly filtered shot of our star, with no filter on the camera. You can even see the clearly defined sunsposts which, without a filter, normally cannot be seen.

Simply our sun.

My friend Joy called me and woke me up at 7am and said, "grab your camera and get your butt outside, the sun is insane". So...I did.

Again...𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌Thank You, Joy

On the way into Salem, before I got to the end of my driveway, this was the view out my windshield. Stop the car, open the trunk, grab the camera...shoot. Beautiful, but again...a bit surreal.

I chose this high contrast black and white edit to evoke the feeling I get when I imagine standing here on May 18th, 1980.

I shot this with a 70-200mm at 200mm to get closer to the top. I chose black and white to emphasize the textures of the snow and rock and ash.

This is a shot from a trail that is marked with signs asking visitors to not wander off the trails. They state, “grows by the inch, dies by the foot”. A play on words, to remind people how slow the process of regrowth is and how trampling around can hurt the process.

Everywhere you look, there are reminders of just how violent the 1980 eruption was. Huge trees were literally snapped at their trunks like twigs and carried away. What power it was.

The landslide created by the 1980 eruption, which involved the entire side of the mountain, was one of the largest known in recorded history. The Crater is 2 miles across.

When I’m out with my camera, I often offer to take photos of people who are traveling together. You know, that dilemma of how to get a shot of ALL of us? Well, this nice group of people were taking turns taking photos of their group…each photo missing the current photographer…I walked over and offered to take one with ALL of them. They were happy to have me take their photo. They were visiting Mt. St. Helen’s on a trip from Poland. We spoke the common language of photography and I hope they like the photo…I love it!

To była przyjemność poznać was wszystkich. Mam nadzieję, że podobała ci się wizyta w Mount Saint Helens.😊