Alpaca-preneur!? Married!? Wuh!? Did Not See THAT Coming...

5 years!? My oh my oh my...it's been too long. Waaaay too long since my last post. Because of that, please excuse any inconsistencies in sentence structure, punctuation, or, hell, even sense. Because, well, nothing from the past 5 years really makes any.

So where do I start? Well, in an effort to spend as little time as necessary on 'the-year-that-shall-not-be-named,' as I know everyone has their own harrowing story from that gotcha of a sun cycle, I'll try to fast forward through most of the dumpster-fire and just provide a few 'lowlights' (because there really weren't any 'highlights') while purposely, at best, skimming over the details, and then bringing it all back to present...sorta...

Let's take it back to that fateful January. Things were looking up! VERY up. New lady in my life, several travel photo jobs lined up for the year, health was in good shape. Let's do this!

But then...

In a QUICK Clif-notes 'nutshell', January began with my 83-year old father falling off a ladder while picking his prized pomegranates (as you do) and breaking his hip and wrist.

Luckily he is more active than I am, so he was making a good recovery, and even more luckily, he was released a week before the rehab center he was in got hit with an, at that time mostly unknown, virus.

Two weeks later, after returning to Portland, where I lived at the time, it continued with that, now completely known, virus shutting down 75% of my income stream of travel & event photography within a matter of 2 days.

Because I had been traveling quite a bit to that moment, and no one really knew what was going on, I immediately had to move out of my Portland living space due to sharing an HVAC with my dear friends who lived upstairs, who happened to be an senior couple who were already health compromised.

That then led to me moving in with aforementioned new interest...

...in a different state...

...in the middle of the plague...

…at a time I was still naive enough to think this was just going to last a couple of weeks…

As far as that situation is concerned, I’ll just say this - in case you were thinking about it, I implore you to NOT move in with a new interest in the middle of a pandemic.

Just...eh...don't.

After about 2 months, that arrangement…well…exploded spectacularly.

Which culminated in my having to vacate.

Immediately.

With no notice.

No choice.

And no home.

In the middle of the plague.

So there I was - living out of my car which carried my essential belongings, 1000 miles away in any direction from anyone I knew, unable to crash on anyone's couch or step into anyone's home as we were, at that time, in the dead heat of the 'thing' that, by the end of that year, had already claimed the lives of 3 of my own relatives and close family friends.

After going through July recuperating in my dear friends’ backyard yurt in Portland and throwing everything I still had of my belongings into a storage unit near there, I then drove down to San Diego and spent August crashing in a cousin's detached backyard casita. This allowed me to at least make the 1-hour drive to see my folks every other day, where we shared meals while sitting in their backyard too many feet away from each other, as, well it was impossible to navigate life without coming into contact with someone or something that could have been compromised.

After about 9 weeks of wandering, as summer was coming to a close, I felt like it was time to get back to Oregon and try to start some semblance of life again.

Since I couldn't go back to where I was living before, I started making some calls. I almost ended up moving in with friends, DPReview editor Dale Baskin and outdoor enthusiast and branding consultant Mona West, who originally gave me the final push I needed to make the move to the Pacific Northwest 8 years ago, but the room that was slated to be available fell through. That's when I ended up connecting with Amanda VandenBosch, our tour guide from the Peru trip that, perhaps not so ironically, is quite featured in the posts I last published on this blog...5 incredibly eventful years ago.

We didn't know each other that well, but on that Quechua Benefit Peru trip, we had a few bonding moments, so figured while it was a long-shot, might as well try. She owned Flying Dutchman Alpacas, an alpaca farm in Central Oregon just outside of Bend, and offered me and my cat Mia the room in the barn on her family farm as a home-base to help get back on my feet.

I jumped on it and immediately threw the few suitcases I had been living out of the past several months and Mia into the car and began the 13-hour journey back to the PNW.

Little did I know at the time that this would entirely change the course of my life.

What I thought would just be a few weeks, or months at best, well, turned into a full year living on the farm, which, in turn, turned into an incredibly immersive education of alpaca and farming and rural life and, perhaps most transformative, witnessing and having the opportunity to be part of a full lifecycle of this magical animal.

I spent days and weeks and hours working alongside Amanda as I learned everything and more.

I got to witness and help with breedings and births.

I got to witness and experience shearing.

I got to see when and how product is made from this incredible sustainable natural fiber that I was learning so much about.

I got to take hikes along the Deschutes River with Buck (RIP Buck!! You are missed every day!), the trusty farm dog and my loyal companion through that year (crucially, as we’ll see later, I wore alpaca socks on those hikes instead of my trusty merino wool socks)!

I got to run around the rivers and lakes and mountains and forests and deserts of Central Oregon through all four seasons with my camera.

I got to hang out in the pastures on a daily basis just marinating with the goofy calming creatures.

I got to learn and help in creating media assets from photographs to websites to videos to educational materials about everything alpaca - from a new judging program Amanda had created, to feeding and care protocols for Mazuri, one of the leading exotic animal feed brands.

I got to run audio and video for the annual alpaca conference she runs on her farm (yeah…that’s a thing!), allowing me the opportunity to meet and know and build relationships with the worlds top vets, breeders, scientists, and animal lovers. Heck, she ended up asking me to give a presentation about how to get better photographs of their animals for auctions, websites and marketing, which ended up being one of the most popular talks at the conference (which, weirdly, produced alpaca photography work that continues to this day...who knew that was even a thing!?)

It led to me building a friendship and mentorship with her adopted Peruvian daughter Xeina, who came from Casa Chapi, that children's home I visited and talked about back in the posts from Peru, who is now in her fourth year at McDaniels in Maryland, studying international business and applying her studies to help us with...well...

Here I am, 5 years later, co-owner with Amanda of Alpaca by Design, an alpaca product store in Sisters, a small quaint adorably charming old Western town in the foothills of the Cascades just 20 minutes from Bend, and co-founder of Alpaca Experiences, an agro-tourism company that runs Alpaca Picnics on her farm during tourist season (yes...picnics with alpacas), an idea that was born from having my coffee and breakfasts and lunches out in the alpaca pastures surrounding the barn during lockdown - an experience that was so incredibly meditative and relaxing - just sitting there amongst those adorably gentle goofy floofs and listening to them simultaneously grazing on the grass is enough to put you in a trance, that it felt selfish not to find a way to share it! We expected a few bookings here and there, but certainly did not expect it to turn into the beast that it has. We’ve been consistently hosting about 90-100 picnics each summer for the past 4 years, and seeing the smiles all the guests get as soon as the alpacas come running to their picnic tables never gets old!

With that, I’m not sure where these new avenues will take me, but I can confidently say, this city boy will never be living in a city again, and in his humility, will do what he can to focus on the ride instead of the destination.

Because we never truly know what that even is.

Yes, I was living in a tiny room in the corner of a barn with a makeshift kitchenette and bathroom during the year of isolation. But, in addition to the growing friendship with Amanda and her family, and a growing connection to the innumerable outdoor wonders of Central Oregon and the Cascades, I had a field of alpacas right outside my door, a couple of ridiculous miniature donkeys, Rocket & Wonder, that served as comedy relief and Zoom work-meeting guests (and alarm clocks), and a never ending parade of various creatures and critters from cats and dogs to horses and deer that would graze the pastures (and peek through my windows) as well.

Even more fortunate, I find myself 4 years into the best relationship I've ever been in with the most wonderful woman I've ever met. I knew her from long ago, but our lives drifted apart (as lives do). She has spent her life as a social worker, literally dedicated her life to helping everyone and everything else, and was working with an NGO in the West Bank, Palestine when COVID hit, which had her stuck in that war zone for almost two years before she could get out on a visa and back to the States. We were able to reconnect when she returned, I convinced her to join me on a Google StreetView job driving around Virginia for a week back in the winter of 2021, and we've been together ever since.

Now, in between her job as a social worker at St.Charles Health Center here in Central Oregon, I've managed to rope her into the alpaca world as well, helping us at the store and catering the alpaca picnics for a season with the tastiest of Mediterranean meals you'll ever have.

While the last couple of years have been particularly challenging with the constant fear and worry of our families overseas spread across the Middle East, we have managed to slowly, but surely, find some semblance of sanity in this challenging journey we call life.

And lo and behold, as of November 12 of 2025, we are now married, having eloped in the forest at Hoyt Arboretum in Portland, Oregon.

And to further bring things full circle, it was our dear friends Wendy & Raymond Mitchell who married us there on that deck…the same friends I lived downstairs from in Portland before all the madness started! The same friends who played an incredibly pivotal role in the healing and growth from the poo-poo of the year that shall not be named…

So, naturally (LOL), here I am, now living in Sisters, Oregon, an adorable small wild western town just outside of Bend at the foothills on the eastern side of the Cascades, in the happiest and healthiest relationship of my life, part-owner of an alpaca store, hosting alpaca picnics on an alpaca farm, launched our own line of alpaca products (click that link if you want the softest warmest coziest socks in the history of life…jus’ sayin…), and spending much of my time photographing alpacas and Ponderosa Pines and the landscapes of Central Oregon, as well as for clients including Deschutes Land Trust, Central Oregon Landwatch, and Explore Sisters, the official tourism commission of the town I live in.

Sure as heck didn't see that pandemic pivot coming!

While I started this post off saying there were no ‘highlights’ from that fateful crap-poo of a year, upon retrospect, I have proven myself to be completely wrong.

Sure, while I was going through it, it was pure torture. Unable to touch anyone, hold anyone, hug anyone, have any meaningful physical interactions with anyone. Enough tears to fill an ocean and new grey hairs to color a Portland sky. The country felt like it was a dumpster-fire of fuckery from all angles (remember fire tornadoes and murder hornets!?)!

But, for those paying attention instead of yelling non-sensicals at each other, what it did do was bring survival and humanity back to its essence - through some of the most challenging trials and tribulations my life, I was humbled to a point of vulnerability that perhaps I needed. For it was that vulnerability that reminded me that there is no shame in asking for help.

There is no shame in admitting that we rely on other people for our well-being.

There is no shame in accepting that not a single one of us can have a healthy existence on our own.

And there is no shame in revealing ourselves at our rawest.

For those that truly care about you - those that truly deserve space in your life - those are the ones that show up for you when you need them.

And those are the ones you show up for when they need you.

With no judgements.

No asks.

Just pure acceptance.

Love.

I have spent so much of my life not wanting to be a burden on anyone, so over the course of four decades, I’ve managed to perfect the role of ‘holding it in’ and rarely asking for help, but it was a phone call with a dear friend of mine in the middle of the shit-storm who asked me a simple question that turned that backwards thinking right-side up.

They asked me if what was happening to me was happening to them, would I feel burdened if they were to reach out?

And my answer was an incredibly easy, albeit teary-eyed, ‘absolutely not.’

I was able to connect with my parents, my friends, my brother, and even some pure strangers at the time, at levels deeper than I have ever connected with them before, bringing us closer together than ever. And for that I will forever be so grateful.

Now that we're a good 5 years removed, I hope that all of you have been able to seek out and hold onto the silver linings that a (hopefully) once-in-a-lifetime situation like that can afford us.

And most importantly, I hope all of you and your loved ones made it out of that complete caca period in full tact and in good health.

While I probably won’t be writing as much as I was before the pandemic, I do miss it, so now that I'm back in a place where motivation is finding space to turn into action again, I will be more present, at the very least with new images (that hasn’t stopped)!

In the meantime, here’s a small gallery of some of my favorite moments here in Central Oregon from the past 5 years.

Looking forward to hearing your stories and adventures from the past half-decade (WHAT!?? HOW!??)! Please please reach out or comment below and let me know how you're all doing. I sincerely and truly would love to hear from you.

And if you ever make it to Central Oregon, come join us for a meal in the alpaca pasture! I promise no matter what mood you're in, you'll walk away smiling and laughing! And God knows we can use more and more of that as each day passes...

Miss you! Love you! Stay you!