Where the Light First Found Me

I recently returned to the Olympic Peninsula for a weeklong visit — the place where my journey with photography began over 40 years ago. After receiving a brand-new Canon AE-1, I enrolled in classes at a local community college. We lived just south of Seattle then, so driving or taking the ferry out to the Peninsula was easy, especially in those days.

Surrounded by moss-draped trees and shifting coastal light, I felt the same gentle pull that first drew me to the camera. Life was simpler — just the two of us and our two rescue dogs, who often came along on photo outings. Port Townsend, the Dungeness Spit, and Port Angeles were favorite destinations, full of wild edges and atmospheric skies.

This landscape shaped how I see — not just through a lens, but through memory, emotion, and light. Long before I discovered black and white infrared, these forests and the waters of the Puget Sound taught me to notice stillness, subtlety, and the language of the land. Returning now, I see it differently, yet somehow the same: timeless, and full of quiet presence. A homecoming to where it all began.

I still have that Canon AE-1 and its 50mm lens. It sits quietly in my office, a reminder of where my creative path began — and of the light that first called to me.