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About

Jack and His Photography

Jack High Profile PhotoI’ve been taking photographs for about as long as I can remember. I believe my first camera was a Brownie Hawkeye that I acquired, or had access to, during the 1950s. Next was an Argus C3 35mm range finder camera that I bought and used while serving as a Forest Service Lookout in the summers of 1960, 1961 and 1962. Shot quite a few Kodacrome slides with that camera while manning Clear Lake Butte Lookout and the Mount Wilson lookout out of the Bear Springs Ranger District in the Mount Hood National Forest of Oregon. Later, in the mid 60s I added a Rolliflex twin-lens camera that shot 120 film.

Sometime during the late 60s or maybe early 70s, I added a Pentax Spotmatic single lens reflex. That camera served me well for many years and has been retired to my curio cabinet now for a couple of decades or more. The Spotmatic was followed by another Pentax; also a single lens reflex. It could handle multiple lenses so I added a Pentax wide angle and a telephoto lens. Had a lot of fun with that camera and it accompanied me on a lot of canoe trips in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Montana.

When the digital age dawned I bought a Nikon Coolpix 950 in the late 90s. I carried that baby on a couple of trips to Australia where it definitely proved its worth and let me take a lot of photos at a very low cost. Used it for several years taking photos all around Washington and into Alberta and British Columbia, Canada.

In 2005 I bought my first DSLR, which was a Nikon D50. The first big outing with that camera was a five-day canoe trip of the Bowren Lakes in British Columbia, Canada. The electronics in that poor camera did not stand up to five days of unrelenting rain though it was never exposed to direct contact with water. The humidity and continued dampness did it in. But I replaced it with another D50 that served me well until I eventually gave it to my granddaughter.

I replaced the D50 with a Nikon D200 in the fall of 2006 and a year later added a Nikon D300 and then a Nikon D800 in 2012.

I’ve never thought of myself as a professional photographer though just about every job I ever held required the use of a camera and my skills as a photojournalist. I guess the term photojournalist best describs my approach to photography.

During my working career most of my photography was related to articles I wrote for various corporate publications and therefore was a part of telling a story whether it was about an individual employee, a new product, or major corporate operation.

Today, I most enjoy combining photography with traveling throughout the northwest in the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming and the province of British Columbia, Canada.

Jack at St. Mary LakeMy favorite photography is shooting landscapes. But I also like shooting town scenes and candid photos of people I meet on my journeys.

Many, but not nearly all, of my photos are published on Internet properties that I built and maintain to provide travel information for vacationers, holiday travelers, business travelers and folks just wanting to get away for a weekend. In addition to his web site, my other Internet properties include gonorthwest.com, which is my main web site and functions much like a directory providing listings for various travel and hospitality businesses and associations like hotels, cabins, rafting and kayaking outfitters, whale watching tours, jet boat trips, convention and tourism bureaus and travel associations.

I also have a travel blog at gonorthwest.us, where I like to post comments about places I’ve been, people I’ve met and sites I enjoy. And then there is a photo blog at shotsandspots.com, where I like to provide readers with a bit of information about the shot as well as the spot where the photo was taken.

Not every day is a sunny day, neither figuratively or literally. As you know or might expect, weather in the Northwest is quite diverse as well as the topography which ranges from sandy beaches on the coast of the Pacific Ocean to plains, prairies and deserts and then to deep evergreen forests and soaring mountains. And in respect to weather, I take what I can get as I’m not always in the best spot to capture a beautiful sunrise or sunset or even the best light of early morning or late afternoon. I take what I can get and just enjoy being in the moment with whatever location in which I find myself. In many respect, all is beautiful.

But I also enjoy candid photos of people at their jobs whether the person is a barista at a coffee house, a waitress at a restaurant or a ranger or public information employee at a National Park.

I’ve also tried my hand at videography and have shot and produced a number of videos. One of my favorites is a video I did of Jet Boating in the Snake River of the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area. This was a project for Killgore Adventures in White Bird, Idaho. You can see the video at this link. Other videos are on my main website at gonorthwest.com and also on my two YouTube channels; my personal channel and my business channel.

That’s my story. Thank you for reading this far. I hope you enjoy the photographs you find at this site and will be encouraged to follow your own photography interests even farther.

Jack