Trees as we know them today stand tall in the currents of planetary history. Three hundred and fifty million years ago the first gymnosperms including pine, spruce, ginkgo and juniper evolved from the earlier ferns, horsetails and lycophytes, plants with vascular systems that moved water and nutrients from the soil up the stem to nourish plant growth.

The earliest of humans grasped the utility of a sturdy branch fashioned into a hunting or digging tool. Throughout human history trees have provided lifesaving shade, shelter from rain and fuel for warming fires. From avocados to coconuts, apples to oranges, walnuts to olives and cinnamon to nutmeg, humans have long relied on trees for life sustaining nourishment.

Trees have provided the inspiration and materials for all manner of tools from the early hunter’s wooden bow and arrow to dugout canoes, wooden kitchen spoons and the wooden 5,150 BCE Ljubljana Marshes Wheel, the earliest known wheel.

Trees inspire the hearts and minds of all manner of creatives. "The Two Trees" by William Butler Yeats weaves the essence of trees into the joyous and lilting emotions of love.

Human spiritual practice and mythology have long included trees as central elements including the Christian and Hebrew Trees of Life, where mythology twines relationships between God, existence and the human psyche.

When I enter the forest, there is always a feeling of awe and wonder. The feeling is one of being lifted out of one’s everyday existence and into a new realm where the soft light is warmed with golden rays of late day sun revealing the magic of wild rhododendrons in full bloom sprinkled among towering Redwoods.

The American west offers a rich and diverse cornucopia of stunning photographic opportunities. White water tumbles over slick rock, ancient trees touch clouds and mountain meadows fill with vibrant spring color filling the mind and heart with joy.

Western American barns follow a tradition reaching back thousands of years into the late Iron Age. The “Barnhouse” was common in medieval Europe. Livestock lived on the ground floor and families lived on the second floor. The rising warmth generated by livestock warmed the second floor family living quarters.

Barns lend humans a sense of shared historical community. Barns almost always share a strong connection with food. Be it winter’s hay in the loft or milk cows down below, barns are our connection with our shared never ending quest to ensure an abundant supply of food.

As Americans moved westward, they brought their barn building traditions with them. All across America, immigrants from Norway, Denmark, Holland, Germany, Scotland, Ireland, Spain and England shaped the face of American barns.

Today, as older barns fade away, new barns continue to rise. Historically made of wood and stone and today of bright colored metal, barns share the most elemental of missions, placing food on the table, endowing all of us with another glorious day on planet earth.

Spring in the maritime Pacific Northwest adds a rich brush stroke of vibrant color set against dramatic skies. Warm sun and cloud studded blue sky are quickly followed by silver gray clouds shedding light spring rain. After a long gray winter, rainbow fields of rich color invite us to walk amidst luxuriant color wrapped in freshly washed luminous light.

Rich, productive farmland carpets Washington State’s Skagit River delta yielding a cornucopia of grains, fresh fruit and vegetables. From May through October, farmers share their flavorful bounty at vibrant community farmer’s markets. Market day is a festive day celebrated with market music, freshly prepared market snacks and of course, tables overflowing with fresh, colorful produce. Farmers bring us nature’s freshness and market day creates joy in our hearts.

I often wonder why I am so attracted to farms and ranches. Perhaps it is the sense of comfort inherent in a broad field of amber grain, or the people I meet on the road. Food is elemental. The history of food is the history of life. My creative goal is to bring myself and my audience closer to the historical and contemporary relationships that connect farm to table.

Mexico in all its vibrant complexity is a cultural and visual marvel. In the late eighties, on a cold gray winter day, I flew out of Seattle on Mexicana Airlines, destination Mazatlán. Old town Mazatlán was pleasant enough. However, I was itchy to throw myself into the unknown.

The next day I left on a southbound bus with no plan. My Spanish was shaky and so was the bus. As we sped south dodging oncoming overloaded tomato trucks, often missing them by mere inches, my eyes were wide. The deep green palms flew by and the rest stop restaurant painted a bright canary yellow lifted my spirits high.

Hurtling south along Mexico 15, the glorious palette of magenta and violet bougainvillea climbing up bright white walls delighted my eye. I loved it all, a visual feast that lifts ones spirit and calls you to settle in for a while and come back another day.

A day photographing dahlias is a journey into the sensuality of color. Rich and flamboyant, dahlias dance before the eyes bringing joy and optimism to life.

The morning of August 21, 2017 broke cool and clear. From a hidden forest meadow, I discovered true awe as the moon's dark shadow began its slow, purposeful journey across the sun. Gradually, then more rapidly, the light fell into deep pastel dusk, the air chilled dramatically. For what seemed like an instant, wrapped in moon's dark shadow, the sun disappeared, revealing a perimeter bursting with coronal grandeur. It was truly extraordinary, a rare moment in time.

In the cool maritime Pacific Northwest, spring comes early. Daffodil shoots break February ground. March fields bloom yellow, vibrant and soft. April brings a rich tulip bloom carpeting vast fields in vibrant color. It really is extraordinary.

Throughout the arid western United States, Big Sagebrush, Artemisia tridentate, lends continuity and texture to arid landscapes that stretch from southern Canada’s Fraser River Valley south across the US border and on to the US Mexican border and beyond. In the east, Big Sagebrush dots the landscape from northwest Nebraska into the Great Basin lands and on to small niche habitats along southern California’s Pacific Coast. Sage provides food and sheltered habitat for the sage grouse, pronghorn antelope, pygmy rabbit and mule deer. Light cyan green in spring becoming pale in mid-summer and awash in dense yellow bloom in autumn, Big Sagebrush is nature’s dappled brush stroke on American‘s arid western steppe.

This portfolio interprets contemporary rural farming and ranching in north central Oregon. Here on the dry side of snow draped Cascade Range, where ranchers raise cattle and sheep, and farmers thrive growing grain, grapes, fruit and alfalfa . Here, the autumn light is crisp, lending sharp definition to form, creating a dramatic presence that defines this land.

Nothing in this world is static, everything created by nature is dynamic, changing, here today gone tomorrow. People are nature’s children and by extension, nature has a strong hand in everything humans bring to light. This portfolio explores the slow consumption of a once vibrant dairy farm where the presence of milk cows and the people who worked the farm lives on.

Northern State Hospital Dairy Barns, Sedro-Woolley, WA

Deep in tropical ravines, concrete monoliths from the golden age of sugar lie like sleeping giants, slowly being consumed by natures powerful instincts to recover what has been lost.

Carnival time is fun time, a time when kids can be kids and adults can be kids too. In a rapidly changing world, carnivals and classic carnival rides with a history reaching back thousands of years provide a familiar nexus of excitement and pleasure that brings memories and expectations to life.