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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!

The strawberry moon. That’s what they called this one. And that strawberry moon gifted me the opportunity of a lifetime.

But let’s start at the beginning.

About a year ago, I first met the founders and owners of Oakwood Gardens when I was assigned to photograph one of their cottages for Airbnb. When I drove onto that property, I did NOT expect to be greeted by a field of alpaca.

I have no idea how it happened, when it happened, and if it wasn’t for these images as proof, if it even ever happened at all. It seems like just yesterday I packed up all my stuff and migrated to Portland, Oregon. But apparently it was many many yesterdays ago. So just for documentary’s sake, here’s the evidence of my third consecutive Spring in the Pacific Northwest - some of my favorite images from the past few months here. Hope you dig’.

T'was a crisp winter's day in the mountains high above the city is where this tale hath begin...

For real though, it wasn't just crisp, it was frickin' freezing! I was up in Welches, Oregon, essentially the gateway from Portland to Mount Hood, to shoot a property for sale in the area for a client. She offered me run of the condo if I wanted to stay a few nights, and being as the mountain was covered in fresh snow from the day before, my camera would not allow me to say no.

So…

As a self-employed freelancer you spend most of your life looking for jobs, bidding for jobs, creating decks and proposals and quotes and presentations for jobs and, if you're lucky, about 15 to 20% of your time actually doing jobs.

Furthermore, more often than not, 80% of those jobs that you're actually doing are ones you don't even want to do but have to do to pay the bills.

But every now and then you get a gig that reminds you why you're doing what you're doing to begin with.

One of those gigs where you have to stop, slap and ask yourself "Am I seriously getting PAID for this!??"

Well, this was one of those gigs...

For all of you that know me, you know that there are few things more important to me than ensuring that not another generation goes by that doesn't connect to Mother Nature and understand her importance and role in every aspect of our lives, from clean air we breathe to the water we drink.

I will do everything in my power to ensure that not another single generation goes by downplaying the effects of climate change and the role we humans play in it.

And one of the things that I'm proudest of is getting involved with Ecology in Classrooms & Outdoors (ECO)…

I recently had the distinct pleasure of photographing the Society of American Foresters convention, this year held in Portland, Oregon, and I must say, it's quite refreshing to see how the face and core of the organization is adapting and evolving with the times and today's realities.

For one, while there was plenty of talk about forestry in the sense of the old paradigm - logging, clear-cutting, lumber and industry - there was an equal, if not even more pronounced presence bubbling just underneath the surface prepared to discuss things like climate change and sustainability…