Living on the Peninsula, Summer 2011 by Sequim Gazette

SUMMER 2011

PENINSULA PERSPECTIVES Pg.10

Captured moments The fine art of Ernst-Ulrich Schafer

Pg.18

Capturing precious memories on camera

Pg.24

An eye for the beautiful

Pg.30

Through Lazelleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lens A bridge to nature

Pg.31

The qualities of light

Pg.34

Raptor Rapture Northwest Raptor and Wildlife Center

Pg. 40

The Alaska Connection

LIVING ON THE Pg. PENINSULA | SUMMER Cam | JUNE 2011 43 Critter

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You’d travel far and wide to treat your cancer. But you don’t need to. With Olympic Medical Cancer Center, you get a top cancer treatment center close to home. In fact, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, which includes Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, UW Medicine and Seattle Children’s, has selected Olympic Medical Cancer Center as a network member. And that means that you have access to their expertise and leading-edge therapies. So you can look far and wide for the right place for cancer treatment, or you can find it in your own backyard. To learn more, call (360) 683-9895 or visit olympicmedical.org.

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LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2011

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LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2011

27 31

DEPARTMENTS Recreation 8 Summer Oh My, Ozette

& Entertainment 38 Arts A-1 Hour Photo

Gardening 15 Good A Perfect Symbiosis

50 Events Calendar

Living End 52 The Photography’s Passion of Purpose

Food & Spirits Fat Smitty’s - a peninsula landmark for burgers

& Soul 26 Heart Go outside in the sun

& Then 54 Now Photographic journal

SPOTLIGHT 10 Captured moments The fine art of Ernst-Ulrich Schafer

precious 18 Capturing memories on camera

The Gift: The magic of photography

Lazelle’s lens 27 AThrough bridge to nature

31 The qualities of light 34 Raptor Rapture Northwest Raptor and Wildlife Center

40 The Alaska Connection

24 An eye for the beautiful 43 Critter Cam LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2011

On the cover: Twin sea stacks dominate the skyline at Rialto Beach. Photo by Ross Hamilton

Contributors

Patricia Morrison Coate is the award-winning editor of Living on the Peninsula magazine. She has been a journalist since 1989 and earned degrees in Spanish from Eastern Michigan University and Indiana University. Coate joined the Sequim Gazette in 2004 as its special sections editor and can be reached at patc@sequimgazette.com.

Chris Cook is the editor and publisher of the Forks Forum and a resident of Forks. He is the author of “The Kauai Movie Book” and other regional bestsellers in Hawaii. His book “Twilight Territory: A Fan’s Guide to Forks and LaPush” was published in May 2009. Cook is a graduate of the University of Hawaii.

Elizabeth Kelly

has lived on the Olympic Peninsula nearly a dozen years. She has worked for three newspapers as reporter and freelance writer. She also wrote as a technical writer. She has traveled to all seven continents and continues to be curious about the world around her.

Jerry Kraft is a playwright, poet and theater critic. He reviews Seattle theater productions for SeattleActor.com and the national theater website AisleSay.com. In addition to his writing and photography, he teaches memoir writing at the YMCA in Port Angeles where he lives with his wife, Bridgett Bell Kraft, and their daughters McKenna and Luxie.

Karen Frank

Viviann Kuehl has been a landowner and resident of Quilcene since 1982, although her family ties go back to homesteading in Jefferson County in 1905. She has written about the Quilcene community and Jefferson County over the past 20 years.

Beverly Hoffman writes a gardening column for the Sequim Gazette that appears once a month. She is an enthusiastic longtime gardener. She can be reached via e-mail at columnists@ sequim gazette.com.

Kelly McKillip has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Marylhurst College in Oregon, and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Hayward State University in California. She works as a nurse at Olympic Medical Center and volunteers at The Dungeness Valley Health and Wellness Clinic.

received her master’s degree in transforming spirituality from Seattle University. She is a writer and spiritual director in Port Townsend. Reach her at karenanddana1@q.com or www.yourlifeassacredstory.org.

Ashley Miller is a former Sequim Gazette reporter and now is a freelance writer with a journalism degree from Washington State University. She’s a stay-at-home mother of two energetic young boys. Contact her at ashley.lavon@ gmail.com.

Leif Nesheim was an awardwinning reporter and hiking columnist with the Sequim Gazette from 2003-2006. He has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of WisconsinMadison and is a reporter at the Aberdeen Daily World. James Robinson joined the Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader as a reporter and photographer in January 2010.Originally from Olympia, he graduated from the University of New Mexico in 2001 with a degree in Middle Eastern studies and journalism. After 20 years in the food and wine business, journalism became his second career, yet food, wine andfly-fishing remain at the forefront of his interests. In January 2011, he and the Leader launched a quarterly food magazine called Coastal Cuisine, a publication dedicated to the Olympic Peninsula’s culinary culture.

Design:

Cathy Clark earned a bachelor’s P.O. Box 1750, Sequim, WA 98382 360-683-3311 Patricia Morrison Coate: patc@sequimgazette.com

226 Adams St., Port Townsend, WA 98368 360-385-2900 Fred Obee: fobee@ptleader.com

degree in art from Calvin College, which led to a career in advertising design. She has been an award-winning graphic designer for the Sequim Gazette since 2004. She enjoys traveling and reading history in her free time. Clark can be reached at cclark@sequimgazette.com.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2011

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Summer RECREATION Ocean waves crash into rocks near Wedding Rocks on the Ozette Loop trail.

Oh my, Ozette

Cape Alava’s ocean view Story and photos by Leif Nesheim

Cape Alava, Ozette Loop How long: 3.3 miles to Cape Alava; 9.3 mile loop. How hard: Moderate. How to get there: Take U.S. Highway 101 west to Sappho, turn north on Highway 113 to Highway 112. Take Highway 112 past Clallam Bay and Sekiu. Turn left on Hoko-Ozette Road. Road ends at the Ozette Ranger Station. Trailhead is at the station. Other information: Camping reservations and a backcountry permit are needed to camp at Sand Point or Camp Alava. Make reservations by calling the Olympic National Park Wilderness Center, 3002 Mount Angeles Road in Port Angeles behind the Visitor Center, at 452-0300.

here is something magical about watching the sun’s golden orb melt into the endless vista of the Pacific Ocean. Slowly the horizon fills with honey orange that spreads across the glowing sea. The warm afterglow lingers long after the sun has hidden below the world’s rim and one by one the stars’ white pinpricks flicker to life in the deepening dark as twilight’s blue is replaced by velvety black. I’d backpacked to the westernmost point in the lower 48 states with a pair of visiting friends and we built a small driftwood fire that smoked and flickered on the beach to warm our evening reverie as the sun rested its weary head beneath the ocean waves. The 3.3-mile hike to the campground at Cape Alava sounds easy: a short jaunt on a boardwalk to the ocean shore. The stroll along the beach to the pictograms at Wedding Rocks to the south sounds equally soothing. Don’t be fooled. The boardwalk can be treacherous in spots. It is quite slick when wet and the beach is an ankle-bending jumble of rock and gravel. The trail starts at the Ozette Ranger Station with a bridge crossing the tranquil, tannin-stained water of the Ozette River. The slow-flowing waterway looks like a river of brown tea. The path soon splits in the woods, one branch heading west toward Cape Alava, the other southwest to Sand Point. Each trail forms one leg of a triangle loop hike, with a 2.9-mile stretch of beach forming the third leg. My camping companions — Jeremy, a longtime friend from Wisconsin, and his friend Anne, who now lives near Portland, Ore., — and I planned to hike just the leg to Cape Alava with a slight excursion to see the pictograms. We hoped to meet up with friends of mine who were hiking the

The boardwalk of the Ozette Loop trail wends its way through a forest of young Sitka spruce and cedar amid a lush undergrowth of fern, skunk cabbage and other greenery. Careful, those boards can be slick when wet and boards are sometimes missing.

loop. We arrived late for the trailhead rendezvous so expected to meet them headed the other way somewhere along the trail. The path traverses an up-and-down path through young spruce and hemlock packed tight with ferns and other greenery. Partway through the hike, the trail enters a clearing, once the site for homesteader Lars Ahlstrom. Remnants of his cabin lie to the north near a rest area bordering the bright clearing and gnarled fruit trees stand mute testament to the pioneer past. After the prairie, the boardwalk plunges into the dark heart of a lovely forest of Sitka spruce and fern. The sound of ocean surf and the fresh whiff of ocean air soon spurs weary legs to a scenic overview of the rocky coast: the many weather-beaten rock formations and the several tree-capped islands near the shore draw the eye’s attention. The nearest to shore of these — Tskawahyah Island — is a hilly, tree-covered hump that is connected to shore at low tide but is part of the Ozette Indian Reservation and should not be trespassed upon. Larger Ozette Island loomed straight ahead and the Bodelteh

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Above: Centuries-old pictograms adorn the rocky stones of Wedding Rocks. At right: The evening sun melts into the Pacific behind the Bodelteh Islands.

Islands to the north must have provided a haul-out for sea lions as their barking calls echoed over the gentle swell of the surf. We soon picked a campsite among the twisted spruce and shoulder-tall grass just north of the trail. Our tents pitched, we traded our heavy packs in favor of light daypacks with our lunch and cameras for the one-mile trek south to Wedding Rocks and the hoped-for rendezvous with Dave and Elbert. Although we met many denizens of the ocean tidepools — tiny purple shore crabs, mussels and barnacles, black snails and ochre sea stars — we did not meet Dave and Elbert. Apparently they passed the trailhead while we were in the campground. After a strenuous beach hike, hopping tidepools and avoiding shifting rocks, we made it to Wedding Rocks — named after a pictogram depicting a man and a woman with a sexual symbol of a bisected circle. Though there are many dozens of carved pictograms, I have found just a few. The carvings are estimated to be some 300 to 500 years old: one depicts a two-masted sailing schooner and the style is identical to 500-year-old art found at a Makah village site excavated just north of Cape Alava. Ozette Village was excavated for 11 years beginning in the late 1960s; the artifacts are stored and displayed at the Makah Cultural and Resource Center in Neah Bay. The site had been occupied for some 2,000 years until it was abandoned in 1913. (We didn’t go there, but it was neat to read about.) Instead we dallied and napped in a breezy glen beneath the boughs of spruce behind the large rock at Wedding Rocks. Had we continued south, the going would have pursued its laborious way across wave-tossed stone past a headland to Sand Point, where stately spires jut out of the sea. A circular sign just past the point marks the trailhead back to the ranger station. The beach here, true to the name, is quite a bit sandier and the campsites are located just off the beach among the trees. The return boardwalk has many steps both up and down but is less up-and-down than the first leg as it wends its way through spruce and several old cedars and an understory of brushy, many-hued greens. While Jeremy napped and Anne explored the rocky tide pools, I donned sandals and explored the haunts of the tidal creatures, overturning stones and marveling at small crabs as they scurried about. Eventually, we all headed back to our camp and whiled away the afternoon watching tranquil deer that nibbled grasses or napped just a short distance away. As evening progressed, we built a fire from driftwood gathered on our return from Wedding Rocks and roasted brats. As the sun set, we watched the silhouette of a raccoon as it toddled along the water’s edge and cracked mussels on the rocks. We slept soundly and left the next morning long after the sun had risen.

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Captured Moments

The fine art of Ernst-Ulrich Schafer Story By Jerry Kraft Photos by Ernst-Ulrich Schafer

rnst Fine Art Photography has set the standard for professional studio portraiture since it opened in 2003. Voted Best Photographer on the Peninsula for the past two years, Ernst-Ulrich Schafer brings the highest standards of technical excellence to images that capture the unique personality in those faces. He also has shot thousands of photographs of the places, relationships and events that make life on the Olympic Peninsula so distinctive. Surprisingly, when Schafer began his photography it was not with the intention of taking pictures of people at all, but of doing fine-art black and white images.

“I started out doing artsy-fartsy black and white,” he says with his frequent grin and a little laugh. “I met a photographer in Portland named Shedrich Williames. I was about 25 years old and he was a master black and white photographer. He inspired me to be an artist. It had never really occurred to me that you could be an artist with a camera, but in the course of the next 25 years I figured out what he was talking about. All I did was black and white photography on my own personal projects with a wet darkroom and all that. Fine art photography. It’s really only been the last eight years that I’ve been doing portraiture.”

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2011

The subjects of that fine art photography varied widely. “When I started taking classes at Clark College in Vancouver my instructor made us go out and look at something. Not just one time, but again and again. Something would change each time. The weather, the lighting, the angle, our way of seeing it. Our first project was the I-5 bridge. I went to New York City in 1986 to photograph the Statue of Liberty on her 100th birthday. I really enjoy photographing historical events, whether they’re big important things or just little, local events. While I was in school I started documenting the Clark County Fair and the Multnomah County Fair. When I first moved to Port Angeles in 1989 it was during fair time, so that was where I went.” Schafer has photographed at the Clallam County Fair every year since. It is one of his many personal projects, along with the Fourth of July, New Year’s Eve, the Irrigation Festival, high school dances, graduations, parades, Veterans Day and many other local events. “Probably the thing that unifies all my personal projects is that they are about Americana, about how this little town exemplifies that. What is more Americana than a county fair?” Certainly part of that attraction is that there is so much going on visually at a fair. “Different things at all different times of day,” he says, “The lighting and the action and people interacting with each other in so many ways. I just started thinking, hey, somebody needs to be photographing all these kids with their chickens and horses and all this activity. And I set up a little table and sold a ton of 5 by 7’s and that was really where portraiture as a business started for me.” Schafer clearly loves living in this visually exciting part of the world. He finds his subjects, and his projects, everywhere he goes. “A lot of times, I don’t really go out with something in mind. The thing that defines a photographer is really the eye. It sure isn’t the camera. I love to study the history of photography and the work of great photographers.” That is a key component of Schafer’s visual intelligence and his technical sophistication. “There’s a big difference between taking a picture and making one,” he says. In the age of digital photography people are taking more pictures than ever. My own teenage daughter has about 6,000 pictures of herself at arm’s-length, taken with her phone camera. But ask her to select the best three or four and she would be completely lost. Knowing what separates a good photograph from all the others is central to defining the art of photography. Some who would argue that digital photography and Photoshop are less artistic than film photography and the darkroom are confusing the image with the technology. “I think digital has been a blessing and a curse,” Schafer says. “It’s been a blessing because people simply have more pictures, more snapshots of the people and events in their lives and that’s so important in saving our personal histories and memories. It’s been a curse because people are willing to settle for much lower quality images.” The photographer is both an artist and a craftsman. The technology is where the craftsmanship comes in. “Photography has always been about technology,” Schafer says. “Ansel Adams did magnificent landscape photography, but his real genius was in the darkroom. I think if he was working today he would be shooting digital and doing his ‘darkroom’ work on the computer. It wouldn’t change the quality of the final image he produced.” “Sometimes I pick a project from subjects other photographers have found, things like tables and chairs, bicycles, local towns. I love walking around Port Townsend and seeing it through my camera. Since I’m on the ferry quite often, I’ve done a whole series of pictures on the ferry. Again, it changes so much depending on the weather and the water, how crowded or empty of passengers it is, the time of day or time of year, the lighting. Cartier-Bresson talked about photography

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2011

being about capturing “the decisive moment” and that’s what changes when you photograph the same subject at many different times.” In the end, though, Schafer says, “For me, portraiture is more exciting than all the personal work, all the personal projects I do. I always try to watch people so I have some idea of what they do, how they are and how I can capture that in a photograph. Then I’ll tell people, don’t move, don’t change anything, and I’ll shoot that moment.” As he was saying this to me, he was taking my picture, the shutter snap as casual as our conversation. He was not “taking my picture” — he was “making a picture,” a portrait, not a snapshot. Ernst-Ulrich Schafer is an amazing artist who is compiling a vast and invaluable archive of the faces, places and events of the Olympic Peninsula and of the lives of those who live here.

The portrait of Jerry Kraft which Schafer took during the interview.

Ernst-Ulrich Schafer gets a kick out of photographing the Sequim Irrigation Festival. Photo by Patricia Morrison Coate

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GOOD Gardening

Gabriel uses the freshest local products for his menu items.

A Perfect Symbiosis: Relationships and Food Story by Beverly Hoffman • Photos by David Godfrey

ven though Alder Wood Bistro is listed in the phone book as a restaurant, it is really a co-op where owners Gabriel and Jessica Schuenemann work with more than 45 local purveyors to supply their kitchen. They live their value of reducing the carbon footprint as much as possible on their immediate environment. It is also their way of civic duty: voting with each dollar they spend. Six years ago Gabriel and Jessica followed his parents to Sequim. Later Jessica’s parents moved here and together they work cooperatively as a family to run the restaurant. Gabriel’s mother and father, Suzi and Jim, planted the courtyard garden where Chef Gabriel can choose fresh herbs each day. Jessica’s parents, Nettie Eldredge and Alan Salamy, help with the books and maintain their website. Both sets of parents help raise Ethan, a go-100-miles-an-hour toddler.

An experimental beginning Gabriel was influenced by the rich bounty of farmers markets in northern California, and specifically by Alice Waters, the pioneer of a culinary philosophy that maintains that cooking should be based on the finest and freshest ingredients that are produced locally and sustainably. Ethan, Jessica and Gabriel Schuenemann

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2011

GOOD Gardening In her h iconic cookbook, kb k “The Art off Simple l Food,” she sets up the premise that when one uses the freshest food, it can be cooked quite simply. It has no need of sauces to cover any inadequacies. Gabriel continues to appreciate the graciousness of being welcomed into Sequim. John Richerts, of Richerts Granite, fabricated a welcome present of a slab of granite for their counter, a slab so polished that you can see a mirror image in it. Pete Blevin, of Blitz Masonry, offered his time and expertise in helping set corners for their brick oven. Cedar Creek Forge designed and gifted them with tools for their Alan Scott-designed brick oven that heats up to 1,000 degrees, where they bake pizzas, cedar-planked local fish, mussels and local vegetables, and even breads on their down days. The Schuenemanns appreciated the time local people spent with them, as well as the simple act of making eye contact while shopping, driving or walking.

Working together with local purveyors When Jessica and Gabriel arrived in Sequim, they began building relationships before setting up a restaurant. Gabriel worked with University of Washington Extension agent Curt Beus, who encouraged his dream as well as giving him a registry of local farmers. He began calling them one by one. Not only is Gabriel an accomplished chef but he knows how to listen. He learned about our gentle maritime climate and which crops fared well in it. Slowly his list of possible suppliers grew. Rather than having a food service truck deliver a load full of frozen or processed food after having been driven across miles and miles, various local purveyors deliver their goods at the peak of the season. The Schuenemanns buy their greens from Fairaview Farms, which they dress ever so lightly; saffron from Phocas Farms; and pungent and woody herbs and greens from Headwater Vineyard. Johnston’s Farm supplies lots of potatoes and vegetables,

The wood-fired oven that Gabriel built stands ready for his signature pizzas.

which Gabriel roasts and caramelizes to a golden crisp. Alder Wood buys oysters from the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, who tumble the Stasteelum Kul oysters so they’re more oval and rounded than most flat oysters. Fishmongers from Wild West in Port Angeles and Key City in Port Townsend offer daily catches, often roasted on a cedar-plank slab. Wild West also forages for mushrooms, including black truffles. Black Sheep Farm and Canyon Creek Farms supply meat from Heritage Tamworth hogs, a breed brought to the U.S. from England, which yields lean bacon to sizzle atop Gabriel’s pizza and flavorful filling for his homemade chorizo sausage. Gabriel has a playful relationship with Scott Chichester, of Nash’s Organic Produce, a continued and steady supplier. Sometimes he’ll bring in a new vegetable or new product and challenge Gabriel to make at least

three items. So, together, they’ve laughed as they’ve tested out goose eggs, raab (budding tips of overwintered brassia, like kale), and scarlet runner beans. Both men, a farmer and chef, love the mental challenge of innovation and continually experiment with new ideas. Ninety percent of Alder Wood’s food items are organic, even grains and sugars. All the meat used is free-range and free from hormones and antibiotics. Endangered fish never is on the menu. Corks are drawn from wines mostly from Washington. They serve a local beer brewed by Tom Martin’s Fathoms & League Hop Yard Brewery, a success of two businesses working together.

Educating themselves and the community Jessica and Gabriel continue to focus on education —

Alder Wood Bistro Open Tuesday-Saturday for lunch 11 a.m.-3 p.m.; dinner 5-9 p.m. Seasonal outside garden dining in an edibles-only gardenscape. Tuesday night is Tapas (Spanish-style small plates.) Wednesday is Tasting Flight, a sampling and comparison of wines. A few times a year the bistro does special wine or beer dinners. To receive the Bistro Bites e-mail newsletter, contact info@alderwoodbistro.com. For more information, visit www.alderwoodbistro.com or call 360-683-4321.

Meat that has a blend of spices as a rub is ready to be braised.

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Gabriel readies a crème brulee with three layers of burnt sugar, a labor-intensive process, but one which gives the brulees a thick crackle.

their own and the community’s. On their menus, which they change and print daily, icons for each choice are noted with an “S” (from Sequim), “L” (local, within 100 miles) or “R” (regionally produced in Washington, Oregon or British Columbia.) They also indicate some of their purveyors by name: Clark’s Farm grass-fed beef, Mt. Townsend Creamery’s alder-smoked jack cheese, Lazy J’s Ozette potatoes and Nash Huber’s pork. Their education centers on reducing their footprint on the land. They are studying about solar panels they could utilize for hot water heaters. They work hard to compost, turning their scraps into compost and then needing only a single trash can for the entire restaurant’s refuse. Both Gabriel and Jessica continue to build relationships, as they work with customers and farmers to provide a pleasurable table where people take time to enjoy being together. They have decorated their restaurant with works by local artists. Try to peek into the men’s restroom and see the exquisite polished concrete sink by Todd Croutch of Croutch Concrete and the artwork by Susan Gansert Shaw. From their philosophies of treasuring the earth as well as its people, the Schuenemanns are stewards of their restaurant. Gabriel’s muse, Alice Waters, believed that good cooking is less about recipes and techniques and much more about gathering good ingredients. Our area has a number of fine farmers markets, which is a good method for each of us to use our five senses and gather those good ingredients. At the markets, take time to ask questions and to develop relationships about a very precious commodity: food.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2011

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A just-married couple makes a wish for the future.

A groom and his best men pose for a photo.

Capturing precious memories on camera

Sequim mother of six turns lifelong passion into successful career Story by Ashley Miller • Photographs by Beth Barrett

a picture is worth a thousand words then the walls of Beth Barrett’s two-story Sequim-Dungeness home have a lot to say. Lined with photographs of her six children, the upstairs family room and hallways leading guests through the house tell the story of a mother’s unconditional love for her children. The faces in each of the pictures are a reflection of Barrett herself: blonde hair, fair skin, dimples and a smile that can warm a person’s heart on even the coldest day of the year. Pictures of her twins learning to stand and walk, her eldest son cradled in his mother’s arms, her little girl enjoying an outdoor bubble bath — Barrett captures the moments she never wants to forget and frames them for safekeeping.

Making a career out of a childhood passion Barrett developed her enthusiasm for photography as a young girl, learning how to use a camera from her father, who was a talented photographer.

As a child, Barrett followed her younger sisters around the house taking pictures of them and later trying to sell the photographs to her parents. As an adult, she continues taking pictures for both her business, Morning Star Photography, and pleasure, though her technique has changed considerably over the years. Some days, taking photographs feels more like “work” than others. Like anybody, there are times when she drags her feet and groans about having to leave the house, Barrett admitted. But then, something truly magical happens. “Once I get out there, I start to feel like a human again and I love it,” she said. “I never go out on a job and don’t have fun.” In an economy where photography is a luxury and not a necessity, she’s grateful to all of her customers and strives always to put her best foot forward, Barrett said. Morning Star Photography offers baby, maternity, high school senior portrait, wedding, sport, school event and family photos. Barrett goes out into the field on photo shoots and welcomes customers into her home studio.

Her favorite subject to photograph: babies, babies and more babies. Though Barrett never charges a sitting fee, she usually requires a minimum purchase deposit that is applied toward the total amount due. That deposit is waived for children 1 month and younger.

Structure and routine With half a dozen children between the ages of 16 years and 15 months old, it would be understandable if Barrett were frazzled or distracted. But she’s not at all. Instead, she’s the picture of perfect tranquility. “When people ask me how I balance my personal life and work I just tell them the truth,” she joked. “I don’t eat, sleep or shower. In fact, I’m a vampire.” The trick, Barrett continued on a more serious note, actually is in maintaining structure. “Unless I absolutely have to, I don’t break away from routine,” she said. “I can’t.” When life gets hectic, Barrett loves it the most. She simply steps back, takes a look around the room and

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2011

Sequim photographer Beth Barrett’s (top left, with 6-year-old son Nova) favorite subjects to photograph are babies. She offers complimentary newborn photographs of children 1 month and younger, waiving her usual minimum purchase deposit fee.

thing … Honoring a life that ended too early … It makes the child real to the parents because then they have a picture and can say, ‘That was my baby.’” counts her blessings: All one, two, three, four, five and six of them. “I love my life,” she said. “I have so much and I feel lucky because I chose this life and it’s the one I wanted.”

Life outside of ‘work’ In her spare time — of course any fellow mother knows there’s no such thing — Barrett coaches soccer and volunteers at her children’s schools. Most of her photography work, aside from the photo shoots, is completed at night when the house is quiet. As area coordinator for the nonprofit organization Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, Barrett volunteers her service to parents and families suffering the loss of a baby by taking professional remembrance photos. Families overcome by grief and pain from the loss of a child might not immediately think to photograph the child, Barrett said. But as time heals, the gentle and beautiful gift from Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep becomes an important part of the healing process and a treasured heirloom. Barrett has photographed stillborn and premature infants as well as older babies who died from SIDS. “It’s a really great service and is about so much more than taking pictures of dead babies,” Barrett said. “It’s a beautiful

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2011

What the future has in store With each day that passes, Barrett knows she needs to make some important decisions about the business. Should she expand and take on more clients? Should she narrow her focus and specialize in just one area of photography? Each question deserves an answer but for now the busy mother is content to keep things just the way they are. “I like doing newborn photos for a family and then their family pictures over the years and then their children’s senior pictures someday,” she said. “It’s fun to grow with a family.” Just recently, Barrett took wedding photos for a young woman she shot senior pictures of just a few years ago. “I’m hoping to get a call some day in the future to take newborn pictures for them,” she said with a contagious smile. Barrett is active in the community, so it’s likely you’ll see her at Little League games, family reunions, weddings or at the park shooting photos. Don’t be afraid to walk up and say “Hello” – just don’t block the lens! For more information, go online to www.morningstarphotography.net or “friend” the business on Facebook.

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Fat Smitty’s – a peninsula landmark for burgers Story and photos by James Robinson

own U.S. Highway 101 near its junction with state Route 20 lies Fat Smitty’s — home of the Fat Smitty Burger and the nexus of all things beefy-good on the Olympic Peninsula. With two thick patties, three layers of bun, bacon, cheese, lettuce, onion and a special sauce, the triple-decker Fat Smitty stacks up at nearly 6 inches thick. This heavy-weight burger weighs in at about a pound and when served with fries ($9.50), makes for a formidable meal. Add a milkshake and you’re driving the heart attack highway — but oh, it’s so worth it. “We use Minder Meats out of Bremerton,” said Fat Smitty’s owner and cook, Casey Carson. “It’s a special grind that they’ve been doing for us for years.” Since 1983 to be exact. That’s when Carl “Fat Smitty” Schmidt introduced the burger to the Discovery Bay area and the Olympic Peninsula. Schmidt ran the peninsula’s iconic burger institution until last year, when he chose to retire, turning operations over to Carson, 40, and Carson’s wife, Kim, in July. “Smitty and Micky (Schmidt’s wife) have been lifetime friends,” Carson said. “The art on the walls, my mother

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Fat Smitty’s is an eclectic roadside attraction, often plastered with populist political slogans, candidate signs and American flags. Photos by James Robinson

painted,” he said, adding that his father and Schmidt served in the Marine Corps together. “We were married here,” said Kim Carson. “A justice of the peace came in one night after closing. Smitty and Micky were witnesses.” Carson said he worked as a cook for Schmidt “off and on” for the past 24 years – between stints in the Marine Corps and the Washington State Patrol — and when Schmidt decided to retire in 2010, Carson realized he’d been groomed to take the helm. “This is where I learned to cook, but I also did a lot of mess duty in the Marine Corps,” Carson said. “That’s probably where I learned to chop vegetables.” Based on the taste of the burger, Schmidt clearly left

Fat Smitty’s in capable hands. Yet people still ask about Smitty, Carson said. “One of the big questions is if Smitty is still alive,” Carson said. “His health is fine, but after 40 years of flipping burgers, he’s enjoying retirement.” Despite his retirement, Schmidt’s presence still resonates throughout the place — from the recipe for the Smitty burger to the hallway filled with Marine Corps memorabilia, to the dollar bills tacked to the walls and ceiling, to the three colossal outdoor statues of a fat cook in a baseball cap and apron, a burger and Pepsi bottle. “This is an original ’50s restaurant,” Carson said. “This is the original bar and the original bar stools. We

have clam chowder, but it’s not Ivar’s. People come here primarily for the burger. It’s been Fat Smitty’s since 1983. It’s worked for years and we’re not changing it.” Getting there: Located on U.S. Highway 101 near its intersection with state Route 20, Fat Smitty’s sits just 34 miles from downtown Port Angeles, 14 miles from downtown Port Townsend, 85 miles from Olympia and about an hour from Bainbridge Island and the Bremerton/Silverdale area. Look for the mammoth carvings of the fat cook, the triple-decker burger and the brown Pepsi bottle on the west side of Highway 101. The restaurant is open from 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m. every day. Fat Smitty’s takes cash only, but patrons will find an ATM on site.

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Accidents are part of the magic of photography By Viviann Kuehl

The 22 22

Gift

There’s a scene in a movie I saw once, now long forgotten, so riveting it’s etched into in my memory. It really sums up my true life experience. A young you woman who has been working in the darkroom and longing for a chance to be a real photographer finally gets her chance. She is to go out and shoot a ccouple of newsworthy prisoners as they are transferred somewhere. At the th site there’s a crowd of news photographers gathered around the bus transporting transpo the prisoners. The young woman at first has trouble finding them. A small person, she is at the back of the crowd, valiantly jumping and getting jostled out of the way as she tries to get her shot. Finally she manages to squeeze sque to the front right before the bus pulls away, and just as she is about to aim her camera into the door in a last desperate attempt, she falls to the ground. groun For a brief second, she and the prisoners stare at each other, then the bus bu pulls away. This was in the film days, so back in the darkroom the results appear. She and her h boss go through the small images on the contact sheet, and one by one they th see a crowd hiding the bus, the backs of people, a manhole cover, blurry blurr people, the top of the bus and sky, all the most terrible shots, but then the last l one, taken almost unaware, is a dramatic shot of the two prisoners framed fram in the door of the bus, with serious and concerned faces in focus. It’s the t perfect expression of the situation. It’s a miracle. It’s a gift. That’s pretty much how my early career in photography unfolded. I’ve learned more, but I’ve realized something. It’s always a gift. lear My most recognized photo, of a young woman being handcuffed, won top prize in the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association news photo ph contest. The young woman is near tears as the cop carefully takes her he hands to put the cuffs on. It was a big meth drug bust and I was out when it first went down (this (t was before cell phones). Reporters were with the police as they broke b into the lab and found a shotgun under a couch, and got photos, as a I later discovered, but it still was going on when I heard about it, and at a the time I was determined not to be left out. I heard they still were arresting a a few stragglers and I drove off to see what I could find. It didn’t take me long to locate a nest of cop cars and cops, and sure enough, they had pulled over a couple young men. It was a public street, so I had access, and I saw what they were doing, but my photos were too far away, unfocused, without faces or lacking interest. I was ready to give up when I realized there was one more person being arrested. The cop was a gentle man I knew as a neighbor. He was slow and careful, and that brought out the emotion on the young woman’s face. I shot away. Back in the darkroom, the film was developed, out of my sight. I asked the darkroom guy how my good shots turned out. He said t I cut off their heads. I was bummed. He was kidding. w to the WNPA awards ceremony, along with most of the reporters. That year I went ld me to wear something nice. What they didn’t tell me was to be prepared They told for an award, but I was hopeful. The regular awards were announced and I wasn’t among them. I began to whisper with my neighbor and then suddenly I was being poked. They were calling my name. I had won the top award for outstanding news photography. I walked to the front, stunned, to receive my award plaque with the photo, a gift for me to take home. Years later, I have taken lots more photos, and more often good ones, and I’ve learned that moment when you connect with the scene is always a gift.

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An Eye for the Beautiful Story by Elizabeth Kelly • Photos by Marty McMillin

here others might see a commonplace world, photographer Marty McMillin of Sequim sees an opportunity for another stunning picture. She has what Ansel Adams called, “… an eye for the beautiful.” She looks for impact — color, drama, object, even a portion of an object is enough, she said, “your eye adds the rest to the photo.” After the impact of what she sees, composition and lighting are important, with lighting taking priority, she explained. McMillin said she has been interested in photography “since high school.” When she entered a photo contest as a 20-year-old, one of the judges in the contest told her, “You have an eye — you need to pursue it.” “That opened the door to me,” she said. A native of St. Louis, Mo., McMillin graduated from the University of Kansas at Lawrence where she majored in fine art and design. When she and her husband, Dick, moved to Sequim in 1991, she continued her love for photography by publishing postcards and rack cards featuring scenes of lavender flowers and farms. The first time they had postcards printed, they ordered 3,000 cards. “We hoped we wouldn’t have to paper our bedroom with them,” Dick joked. But to their delight, the postcards sold handily. As an independent photographer, and not associated with the lavender festival program, McMillin has created postcards celebrating the beauty of the lavender fields which are sold at many of the farms. “I try to take pictures that don’t label a particular farm,” McMillin said, so the generic postcards can be sold anywhere. She also makes note cards, magnets and gift enclosures. These items also are available at Frick Drug and Pondicherri West in Sequim. As a member of the Photographic Society of America, McMillin has judged both national and international competitions. She also has taught groups of Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts the fundamentals of photography “to instill good habits.” One such basic rule is to use a tripod. “A tripod is essential, if you can carry one,” she said. “If you use a tripod for one year, it will become as dear to you as your toothbrush,” she added. If you can’t carry a tripod with you, McMillin suggests standing like a tripod, with your legs apart, your elbows pressed in at your sides and holding your breath when you snap the picture — “Literally, hold your breath, to minimize movement,” she stressed. Past president of both the St. Louis Camera Club and the Olympic Peaks Camera Club in Sequim, McMillin has had her images featured in several product catalogs. Her work includes scenic, still life, abstract, nature, glassware and jewelry. Her lavender photos have been featured in AAA Northwest Travel magazine and in the August 2006 issue of Seattle Metro Magazine. She has provided photographs used on several websites, such as Oliver’s Lavender Farm (www.oliverslavender.com). McMillin’s photos have been in three exhibits at the Gallery at the Fifth (500 W. Hendrickson Road in Sequim). One of these exhibits also featured photos taken by her husband even though he claims, “Marty is the

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2011

Marty McMillin shows one of her micro photos using white syrup on glass. Photo by Elizabeth Kelly

Images by Marty Marty McMillin P.O. Box 3955 Sequim, WA 98362 mcnwife@olypen.com

photographer in the family.” At her first show at the Gallery at the Fifth, she sold every photo she had on exhibit, McMillin said. An avowed “purist” for most of her life, McMillin said she finally gave in, “broke through the glass walls” and went digital. She now uses a Nikon 8008 with a variety of lenses. Her current passion is with micro-photography for “tight detail.” She said she is just getting into abstract photography and has done some fascinating pho-

tos using colored paper and white corn syrup on glass. The multi-prism effect is akin to diamonds on rainbows. Her future holds more travel for photographic opportunities. Last year, she and her husband traveled to the Provence area of France, where they visited many lavender farms. This spring they went to the Netherlands and they plan to travel to Colorado this year, then “New England in the fall for the colors,” she beamed.

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HEART Soul

Go outside in the sun (while it ’s there) By Karen Frank

For three days, I struggled with my iMac. I was utterly vanquished. When I wrote new messages to friends, there was no Send button to push. I tried to get help through the Apple system, which asked for my password which, of course, I had forgotten and lost. Then when I answered the security question to regain my password, Apple refused to believe that I knew the name of the town where I grew up. After that, I was not allowed even to try to reset my password for eight hours. My Microsoft Word program flashed open for three seconds at a time, while I desperately grabbed at it with the cursor so that I could use it to open the attachments that I received with my e-mails. My reflexes got a workout, but I never caught it. The iPhoto program refused to read the CDs that I had created to hold my own photographs, so my computer desktop remained strewn with folders. I couldn’t risk deleting my trip to Denali or the North Cascades. I called one computer company in town for help. Help was available from them at $90 per hour. I said that I would think about it and hung up. Now you notice that I didn’t give up easily. I’m persistent, dogged, determined, whatever you want to call it — one of my virtues is perseverance. Yet persistence won’t help when I’m only persisting in failing. In 12-step programs, people talk about the futility of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If I keep drinking and doing drugs, my relationships are going to be a mess. It’s like running into a brick wall: The brick wall is not going to give way. Instead, I’m going to bust my head open. In a way, that’s what I’d been doing, driving myself to master technical feats that are not my strong point. Battering my poor mind and spirit on a computer screen, I did not enjoy trying to solve the problems. Trying the same methods repeatedly, I got the same non-results. I felt depressed, irritable and inclined to take a sledge hammer to the machine. Wouldn’t that be fun some time? Taking one of those newfangled super-techno objects and smashing it to smithereens? Feeling that way and continuing to struggle along is not very useful, nor life-giving. Then, at some point late on a Tuesday afternoon, I gave up. You know what, I told myself, it doesn’t really matter. Go outside and enjoy the sun while it’s there. My spiritual director told me she had one basic point to

make with people. Look for what’s life-giving, she tells them. Find what brings you that deep gladness and do that. We may be competent at many things (who knows, I may even learn how to navigate my iMac systems), but that doesn’t mean we should spend time doing things that we don’t love.

Dive deeper

If you have to work to support yourself and your family, then you do what you have to do. But, during your free time or when you’re choosing a career or when you’re retired, dive deeper. Don’t skate along the surface of your life. Try a submarine and search for the lost treasure. When I was in my late 20s, I worked for Head Start. As an administrative assistant, I wrote proposals for grant funding. I brought in a lot of grant money. The director at the time asked me to come along with her as her assistant when she moved to New York City to head up the program there. She told me I had the potential to rise in the bureaucracy. Friends encouraged me to seize the opportunity. But I hated administration. I was good at it, but I didn’t like it. It was just a job and I certainly didn’t want to go to New York nor become a hotshot bureaucrat. Unsure of exactly what I wanted, it might have seemed like the right thing for me to go to New York and be successful. Instead, I fumbled around for years. I love nature. I love reading (probably my favorite job would have been as a reader). I love learning and photography and spirituality. My deepest joy is to connect with the Divine Mystery which dwells inside of me and which I dwell inside. As the Sufi mystic Rumi said, “Let the beauty we love be what we do; there are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” In other words, there are people who possess gifts that we don’t have, like the man I finally called to come help me straighten out my iMac. He spent two hours with me, confident, supportive, clearly enjoying his work. Relieved and relaxed, I found the Send button and learned how to transform Pages documents to Word attachments and vice versa. We worship not only in our churches, but in our lives. The reverence we show for life includes the reverence we exhibit for our own lives. If you are a unique and irreplaceable note in the Great Song of Being, would you take your note out and diminish that song? When I try to be someone else, I clash with myself and rub against the grain of the world. My voice mutters harsh complaints, rather than humming along in tune. When I am being most inimitably Karen, that does not mean

that I’ve ascended into a saintly state. When I do what I love, there’s no automatic money trailing along behind the joy. But compensation arrives in many forms. What there is today — I’m sitting outside in the sun. I feel the warmth healing my heart. The birds sing or chirp or squawk from the evergreens. A black-headed grosbeak is so horrified by my presence near the bird feeder that it shrieks and I nearly choke on my sandwich. I try to pretend to be a big grey rock, but I can’t resist peeking and it flees as if I had the evil eye. Basking in the sun break, I am self-full and brimming over, channeling whatever bit of spirit my antennae pick up. When you have the chance, find your deep place and sink into it. Be full of yourself despite what your mother told you. You are a child of the Great Mystery, a clue to what it means to be living in the sacred, kneeling on holy ground. It doesn’t matter how you connect, but the pathway is always through love. Karen Frank has a master’s in transforming spirituality from Seattle University. She is a writer and spiritual director in Port Townsend. If you want to contact her, feel free to e-mail karenanddana1@q.com.

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Through Lazelle’s lens: A bridge to nature Story by Patricia Morrison Coate • Photos by Keith Lazelle, Lazelle Nature Photography

“There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect.” — G. K. Chesterton “To any artist, worthy of the name, all in nature is beautiful, because his eyes, fearlessly accepting all exterior truth, read there, as in an open book, all the inner truth.” — Auguste Rodin LIVING JUNE 2011 LIVING ON ON THE THEPENINSULA PENINSULA| | SUMMER SUMMER | JUNE

Heart and truth, core and essence — these are the foremost principles fine art photographer Keith Lazelle seeks in nature and toils at translating into images. Growing up on a 100-acre farm near Olympia, he was, to paraphrase John Lennon and Paul McCartney, one of “Mother Nature’s sons,” absorbing and appreciating all his rural environment had to offer. “I was steeped, from a very small age, in being outdoors and I fell in love with the Olympic Peninsula on family trips to Sol Duc and Kalaloch. It was the first place I wanted to go after college,” Lazelle said. “I wanted to play around on the Olympic Peninsula.” A literature major, after college Lazelle took a job that would mold the course of his life, professionally and personally. He hired on with the Forest Service out of Forks in 1980 and on the crew met a petite, effervescent and confident

Georgian named Jane Hall, who shared his love of the backcountry. Hall recalled, “When I first met Keith, he was practically a hermit, living in a one-room cabin on the banks of the Sol Duc River … the walls lined with books of poetry and philosophy.” Their first date was a backpacking trip on which Hall brought her single lens reflex film camera. Not to be left

out, with his first paycheck Lazelle bought his own 35 mm and the pair started taking backpacking pictures

Lazelle Nature Photography Jane Hall, artist agent PO Box 192 Quilcene, WA 98376 360-765-3697 E-mail: lazelle@waypt.com Website: www.keithlazelle.com

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for fun to share with family and friends. Snapshots soon gave way to more artistic endeavors, both behind the lens and in the darkroom, born out of Lazelle’s frustration to accurately capture and reproduce the nuances of nature in his photographs. “My way of seeing things had its roots in college when I had a professor who’d spent nine years in Japan and talked about Oriental versus Western European esthetics,” Lazelle explained. “From that introduction, I was fascinated by Japanese esthetics and I picked his brains on it. With Japanese esthetics, compositions are simpler, there’s a different focus on balance — asymmetry versus symmetry. As an artist, you simplify something down to its essential core and that appeals to me because it’s different and based on nature.” It was another artist’s book of photographic translations of Japanese Zen poet Matsuo Basho’s haiku from the 18th century that led him into fine art photography, Lazelle said. With three years of hard physical labor behind them in the Forest Service and in their late 20s, the couple realized it wasn’t a career path they could follow forever, “so we quite naively decided to start a nature photography business,” Lazelle said. “We were looking for a lifestyle where we could be outside and that was adventure-filled. A close-to-nature lifestyle and one where we would be able to work together,” Hall added. “We believed we had the personali-

ties to pull it off and we gave ourselves a 10-year goal. If we weren’t making a living with the business then, we’d fall back on our college degrees.” In conversations at their remote cabin, with its clapboard milled from fir on their 20 acres above Dabob Bay near Quilcene, it is clear that these two have been equal partners, body and soul, probably from the moment their eyes met. They emanate an aura of belief in each other as talented individuals and together as Lazelle Nature Photography. Though Lazelle knew he had an artistic eye, he nonetheless returned to college to study photography as a discipline and in 1985 had a mentor in Pat O’Hara, an award-winning and long-published wilderness and environmental photographer from Port Angeles. Hall supported the couple as a social worker and acted as Lazelle’s agent. “We got a portfolio together in 1987-1988 and started getting some things published and made some fine art prints in a rented darkroom in Seattle,” Lazelle said. “We had the idea of a calendar that we’d talked about for five years and produced one in 1991. The concept, I think, was a way to publish things I really liked — a journal of backpacking. I wanted the calendar to do a lot of the legwork Jane had been doing for two years.” Their instincts were on target and they got their first big break as Lazelle Nature Photography in 1992 when retailer Eddie Bauer selected them to design and produce its first-ever calendars for 1993 and 1994. “Eddie Bauer was a full-time project for two years, producing engagement and full-size calendars. After that we knew we could do anything,” Jane said, radiating her customary confidence. “We would give calendars to our clients, who would want to buy prints and so word spreads,” Lazelle said. “Calendars are our most important marketing tool.” Today they send out about 3,000 of their calendars worldwide annually. On the day of this interview, Federal Express had just delivered a dozen proofs from the printer for the 2012 Journal of Seasons calendar and Lazelle and Hall’s contagious excitement to compare them to the originals

LIVING LIVING ON ON THE THEPENINSULA PENINSULA| | SUMMER SUMMER| | JUNE JUNE 2011 2011

made it feel like Christmas. To the casual observer, the images appeared much the same, but to Lazelle’s refined eye, there were subtle differences between them. “They need more yellow, more light — light is very important to images,” he said, pointing from proof to original. “I did a lot of work massaging (the variables) to get the color to come back to what I captured with my camera.” He refuses to accept any deviation from that state of perfection in the proofs and the printer will hear about it. A large measure of his artistry is in manipulating the features of a graphics editing program on his computer. There’s a great grin on his face as he talks technical, his enthusiasm cascading out in a rush of graphic design and digital photography terms as he explains how he produces such compelling prints. Masters and mock-ups, dodging and burning, saturation, exposure and contrast, temperature and tint, sharpening, RGB to CMYK. “I can easily be distracted for a couple of hours and not realize it,” he admitted — and Lazelle has the equipment for it — two computers, one with a 27-inch monitor, a slide scanner and a 24-inch, eight-color printer. Each of Lazelle’s images is available as a Giclée print, in formats ranging from small to large, and he does all of his own printing using state-of-the-art digital tools. In addition to having his works in the hands of many private collectors, Lazelle has a strong corporate following with hundreds of clients, including banks, medical centers, investment and insurance companies, tribal centers, airlines, utilities, retailers and the state ferries. The Tacoma Art Museum and the Burke Museum of Natural History, in partnership with the Nature Conservancy of Washington, have exhibited his photographs. For the past decade, Lazelle has been the latter’s primary photographer, traveling all over the state to photograph the conservancy’s lands. Many of these appeared in the book, “Preserving Washington Wildlands.” In 2007, at the behest of the Hoh Tribe, Lazelle photographed 60 miles of the Hoh River, from its headwaters at Mount Olympus to the ocean, through all four seasons. This photo essay, with narratives by West End residents, resulted in the publication of “Fast Moving Water” in 2010. A collection of 24 prints from the book are on exhibit at Peninsula College in Forks. Another item on his resumé was Lazelle’s stunning cover photograph of Mount Steel for the first issue of Living on the Peninsula in March 2005. Most recently Lazelle and Hall have been working on “a very big project for us,” a commission from the Tulalip Tribe of eight to 10 images of the Skykomish Watershed, from its headwaters in the Cascade Mountains to Tulalip Bay, enlarged to individual mural sizes as large as 45 feet by 14 feet. They will be installed in the Hibulb Cultural Center & Museum scheduled to open in August in Tulalip.

An eye for esthetics

As Lazelle sits, forearms resting easily on the long matting table in the couple’s airy upstairs gallery, the

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inevitable request comes: Tell me about your “eye.” He pauses and then his hands and arms begin combing the air for the language he needs. “Like with any art, it really is hard to put those things into words because it usually involves a feeling. When I look at an image, there’s a general mood or feeling. The Japanese don’t have an English translation for it but ‘atmosphere’ comes the closest; a certain aura around an image gives you that feeling.” When an artist composes a painting, he starts with a blank canvas, adding and subtracting from an image, Lazelle explained. “With a photo, I point my camera at something pretty cluttered and in the process what I see is to simplify it. I don’t want anything in the frame that’s distracting. I want the viewer’s eye to go through that image like a jazz song without interruptions.” Professional photographers and good amateurs do have one thing in common; they recognize and celebrate an image’s “awe moment.” Sometimes it’s serendipity; more often it’s try, try and try again — in the field, in the darkroom or at the computer. In his workshops, Lazelle

imparts his knowledge on four photographic fundamentals: light; color and tonal contrast; composition, which encompasses lines, shapes, movement and perspective; and gesture, the decisive moment of clicking the shutter and the why of that moment. “But there’s more to it when I’m taking a picture — it’s one more step beyond,” Lazelle said, grasping at words in the air. “It’s trying to get something more out of your reach. Those moments are like a growth thing. You want your eye to keep getting better — and the eye has grown, but it’s not been in a straight line, more like a circular loop. The hardest thing for any artist is to talk about your esthetics but I do want to communicate these things to my students.” “I think Keith foremost is a naturalist because he wants to know everything about all wildlife. On our daily walks, he’s always getting me to pay attention, listening and watching,” Hall said. Lazelle echoed his wife, “We do talk about my camera being a bridge to nature — the possibilities are infinite.”

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The qualities of

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Profile of photographer and light theorist Randall Tomaras

“So This Is Heaven” – Cline Spit offers the best place in Washington for sunsets. Why? Because it is in the rain shadow and the surrounding clouds make the sunset.

Photographer Randall Tomaras finds endless photographic possibilities all around the Olympic Peninsula. Photo by Kelly McKillip

Story by Kelly McKillip • Photos by Randall Tomaras When Randall Tomaras’ high school counselor asked him what he would like to do with his life, he said he wanted to wrestle and to learn how the brain works. Divergent as these two rejoinders would seem, the former defines the entry point of Tomaras’ career and the latter, the culmination of more than 40 years experience as a professional photographer.

Adjusting the focus The sport of wrestling took center stage in Tomaras’ adolescent life. He brought home the state championship during his junior year of high school and as a senior found himself tutoring the new freshman wrestling coach who had no experience in the sport. That coach also happened to be the photography teacher. Under the circumstances, Tomaras concluded that camera classes would be easy to cut, so he signed on and spent class time in the gym working to make his ideal weight for that year’s competition. Although he understood the boy’s passion, the teacher nonetheless advised his student that he would have to produce some photos to receive a passing grade and helped him out with a few private lessons. During those one-on-one sessions, something clicked, sending Tomaras in the direction that would become his life’s work. A full wrestling scholarship afforded him a ticket into California Polytechnic State University where he majored in printing, now called visual communications, with a specialty in photography. Eventually, the physical sport took a toll on his knee and he had to quit wrestling, but he continued his photography studies at Western Washington University.

The aperture opens After college, Tomaras spent a couple of years teaching photography, yearbook production and snapping lots of school activity pictures. When considering his next career step, he learned

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2011

“Sequim Bible Tree” – This tree just to the right of the Sequim Bible Church always seems to provide a photogenic opportunity at sunset.

“Springtime for Grosso” – The grosso lavender at Angel Lavender Farm makes a nice foreground for the old barn near the Sequim Airport.

“Smelting in Technicolor” – There is a reason people go out to Cline Spit to smelt.

that 99 percent of professional photographers quit before five years because they couldn’t make a living selling their prints. Not taking photographs was unacceptable, so he invented a way to keep doing what he loved by offering his services for projects and taking photographs as part of the package. Those projects have taken him to more than 30 countries and employment as varied as commissioned sales, public relations, fundraiser, designer, marketer, foreign and domestic political advisor, tour guide, researcher and writer. One of his favorite endeavors was signing on as public relations director for the Amateur Athletic Union where he took great promotional shots of wrestlers and other athletes in competition. A life-changing project was creating the organization Best USA Photographers and taking 40 of the members on a 28-day photo safari to China. Tomaras says he makes a point of turning obstacles into opportunities such as the time in 1986 when he needed a website designed but found the cost exorbitant. He learned how to create his own site using the brand new rollover technique to accent graphics. His web address became one of the better photographic sites on the Internet. Since photography is a labor of love for Tomaras, putting in 16-hour days never has been a burden. He enjoyed his various careers immensely and worked with fascinating people from all strata including two U.S. presidents, the prime minister of Vietnam, plus the Soviet president and Russian leader during their debates over the 500-day “Reality Floats” – The waters at John Wayne Marina reform plan. were so still that it was hard to tell what was a reWorking in so many arenas over the years, he noticed the flection and what wasn’t until the motor of the boat Achilles heel for organizations and individuals often was the disturbed the waters.

inability to communicate effectively. More than a common language, which Tomaras frequently does not share with his clients, the power of well-composed photographic images had been an essential element in his arsenal to communicate, negotiate, motivate and bring people together to achieve goals. He wondered why. The question brought him back to his high school interest in how the brain works.

The light revealed Tomaras began reading extensively and talking to scientists involved in brain research. He learned that for most of us, at least 80 percent of learning is visual. The brain stores images in fragments then pieces them together again once a person or object is seen or recalled. This process allows mixing and matching which is why humans are able to reason and be creative. Light is the critical element in all visual media. Tomaras did not fully appreciate this fact until he began taking studio portraits where he had to control the light himself. When photons, the invisible, elementary units of light, hit a subject, three things can happen. The photons can be absorbed, transmitted through or reflected. Reflected light is the only type visible to the human eye. Tomaras’ theoretical construct is that the qualities of light which include brightness, color, contrast, direction, distance, size, movement and temperature are the building blocks or cells of intelligence. These eight qualities create the elements of art that form principles which create the emotions and feelings that move people to take action. This is why a marvelous image has such power to inspire and motivate, to create joy or sadness,

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2011

spur a revolution or promote peace.

In the frame Teaching photographers how to create great pictures and all artists how to recognize and control the qualities of light are courses Tomaras has offered through Peninsula College in the past. Recent budget cuts are curtailing community classes, but Tomaras continues to offer private lessons and hopes to continue his curriculum in a different venue. During his travels, Tomaras has had more opportunities than most to photograph wonderful and exotic images. Yet he insists that there is beauty all around and he has found endless photographic possibilities in his own backyard. His advice to students who want to spend their lives behind a camera is to find a professional photographer they admire and apprentice to that person for a year. To see and learn more about Tomaras’ work, get tips on photography, read student reviews, be informed of upcoming classes and camera safaris or purchase photographs, visit www.randalltomaras.com/ or phone 360-461-2202. To check out other great photographers and learn more about light research, visit bestUSAphotographers.com Randall Tomaras and his wife, Sherry, live in Sequim.

“Swamp Light” – The sun broke through the trees in March to light up this skunk cabbage.

“Let Me Hold You Rose” – A close-up of the base of a rose shows contrasting colors hugging each other.

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Raptor Rapture Northwest Raptor & Wildlife Center a labor of love for Jaye Moore Story by Kelly McKillip

The legacy begins Saint, hero and legend are descriptors used frequently in any discussion about Northwest Raptor & Wildlife Center director Jaye Moore. Growing up in the remote Clallam BaySekiu area, Moore says there wasn’t a lot to do, so she turned her attention to the needs of the wildlife around her. Forbearing parents allowed their daughter to bring home animals to nurse back to health and soon she found herself washing oiled birds and performing other basic tasks as a volunteer at the local raptor center. Those early acts of concern and care for wildlife were the seeds that developed into a quietly phenomenal 30-year record of achievement in rescuing and rehabilitating thousands of birds and animals ranging from baby hummingbirds to elk and restoring the local bald eagle and falcon populations. Becoming a competent wildlife rehabilitator is a long process that is not for the faint of heart. The work is dangerous, dirty and demanding. There also are specific steps required by law. Moore apprenticed with a licensed mentor then passed written tests for a Washington State Wildlife Rehabilitator permit as well as a U.S. Migratory Bird permit.

Establishing in Sequim The Northwest Raptor & Wildlife Center is located on Moore’s family property in Sequim. The center had to be built to specifications and pass muster appropriate to each kind of animal cared for. Moore’s on-call hours have been 24/7 in all kinds of weather covering more than 4,000 square miles. She has been doing this work for nearly three decades without monetary compensation while raising her own two children with her husband, Gary, who Moore says has been 290 percent behind her all the way. Working in concert with Moore are the local officers of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the veterinarians and staff of Greywolf Veterinary Hospital in Sequim. Moore says she can not speak highly enough of the individuals in these organizations who provide critical support to her work.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife is responsible for enforcement and investigations involving wildlife. Officers also help Moore by picking up animals and birds when she is unavailable to travel to the West End. “I love Jaye — she’s the best and truly committed,” says Fish and Wildlife Sgt. Phil Henry when asked for a comment about Moore. “She fills a void. I could not do my job adequately without her. Not all are as competent as Jaye. She will do everything she can to save an animal but is also realistic when she needs to be. She has done this work for well over 20 years on her own dime.” Henry encourages the public to support her efforts. Drs. Mike Tyler, Jennifer Tavares, Maya Bewig and the staff of Greywolf Veterinary Hospital have met Moore at their facility at all hours of the day and night to render medical aid to injured animals and birds without cost to the center. “Jaye is a wealth of knowledge,” says Tavares. “She is fun and kind and I enjoy working with her. I call her for input on how well animals can be rehabilitated because she is grounded and has realistic goals. I can’t believe how much she and her family have been able to do with just a small group of volunteers. It’s exciting to have wildlife come in. I always learn

Jaye Moore, director of the Northwest Raptor & Wildlife Center, has spent 30 years rescuing and rehabilitating thousands of birds and animals on the Olympic Peninsula. Photo by Dee Renee Ericks.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2011

something new.” Last winter, Moore brought an eagle to Greywolf that had been shot in the wing. After Tavares removed the bullet, the bird recuperated in a special outbuilding at the hospital that had been built by center volunteers. The eagle has returned to Moore’s care for rehabilitation and there is every hope that the bird will be released back into the wild. The Department of Fish and Wildlife still is investigating the incident. There have been some great volunteers helping out at the center over the years, but most eventually move on. The work is far too gritty and unappealing for most people. Community awareness and support had, for a long time, been very limited. Two years ago, all of that changed.

The Randazzo Effect Matthew and Melissa Randazzo were new to Sequim and out on a walk when they encountered Moore rescuing an eagle near Lotzgesell Road. Astounded and deeply moved by this petite woman’s expertise at handling such a formidable creature, they subsequently sought her out. When they learned how much she accomplished on so little, they took it upon themselves not only to volunteer but to become her champions. Matthew took up the role as public relations director and Melissa became event and volunteer coordinator and fundraiser. Moore, who has never had time nor interest for this sort of activity, says with appreciation that the couple has brought the center to a whole new level. Thanks to Matthew Randazzo, there are frequent articles in the press these days for center rescues and activities. Wildlife releases also are well-covered by the media and usually open to the public. Melissa Randazzo organizes appearances of bird ambassadors at local events such as Earth Day and the Dungeness Crab and Seafood Festival. The Moores, with the center’s dedicated volunteers, frequently spend all day at these venues, rain or shine, with the rehabilitated bird celebrities perched on gloved hands. The public has a rare chance to see wild birds up close, learn about their histories and the work the center is doing. Mesmerized onlookers and filled donation jars attest to the appeal of these events. School road shows are another

activity the center uses to educate children about the importance of wildlife.

Feathered foster children The goal for all the wildlife at the center is that they will be treated for injuries, rehabilitated, learn how to survive in their habitat if needed, and then released. For animals with debilitating injuries or inability to survive on their own, they will stay on as permanent residents, often becoming ambassador birds for the center. Each resident at the center costs about $1,000 annually to maintain. Animals appropriate for release generally are not named but those that stay or possess special personalities are given their own handles. Although she cares for all types of wildlife, Moore seems to have a special affinity for raptors and quips that she has raised two human and three avian children in Sequim. Her first bird adoption occurred during the days of the loggerversus-spotted-owl controversy. She had hoped that moving from Clallam Bay to Sequim she would find a different mentality and fewer owls nailed to trees by those who took out frustrations with their fellow humans on these creatures. Unfortunately, her first call in Sequim was from a woman who saw something dangling from a tree. Moore responded, climbed the tree and found a live barred owl that had been mummified in string and hung by its bullet-riddled wing. She took the owl off the branch, wrapped it in her coat and clambered back down. Despite three surgeries the wing could not be saved, but the owl named, Miracle, survived and became her pet for 15 years. Ironically, none of the mutilated birds she encountered during those days were spotted owls. The second winged child was Nelson, a golden eagle that had been hit by a car in Utah and could no longer fly. Moore says that being younger and more stubborn, she was determined to glove train the creature which possessed a 7-plus-foot wingspan and talons that easily could crush her arm. The effort took many, many months but Nelson rewarded Moore as a beloved pet for 25 years. Another of her charges, dubbed Freddie the Freeloader, was a bald eagle that had flown into an electrical fence after picking up a duck. Moore felt more than her usual empathy for the bird as she also was shocked during the rescue

Left: Gaspar, a peregrine falcon, was found on the West End with a badly damaged wing that had to be partially amputated. The bird, shown here being gloved trained by Melissa Randazzo, is now an ambassador bird for the center. Photo courtesy Melissa Randazzo At right: Matthew Randazzo releases a barred owl that had been rehabilitated at the center after being struck by a car. Photo by Dee Renee Ericks

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2011

Jaye Moore says goodbye to a rehabilitated male barred owl released in Port Townsend last April. Photo by David Gluckman

A rescued bald eagle tests his wings at the Northwest Raptor & Wildlife Center. Photo by Melissa Randazzo

and suffered pain in every joint of her body. She hand-fed Freddie until he was rehabilitated. A few weeks after the bird returned to the wild, Moore felt a tap on her head when she was outside working. She looked up and there was Freddie. The eagle had found a mate and would come by daily to dine and dash on the chickens that people throw over the fence. One sad day, Moore received a call about a wounded eagle. It was Freddie. He had succumbed in a territorial fight. Although Freddie had never brought his mate, she started to come and perch on Freddie’s branch, initially

screaming, but eventually bringing her new partner along. Moore discovered the pair nesting near the Dungeness River this spring.

Looking toward the future Moore is gearing up for the busy season. Late spring and summer are when many baby animals, including fawns, juvenile eagles and baby owls come into the center. Last year six fawns were rehabilitated and released. There will be lots for the volunteers to do, including the youngest, 14-year-old Shannon Gordon, who says she

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likes taking care of all the animals, although the birds are her favorite. In addition to the care and feeding of the animals, enclosures have to be maintained and expanded. Donations of lumber and chain link fencing always are welcome as is monetary support. But please, no towels or blankets at this time. They have about a five-year supply stockpiled already. Moore very much hopes that the legacy spurred by her dedication to the wildlife of the Olympic Peninsula will continue. Ongoing community support is necessary to make that hope a reality.

To learn more about the Northwest Raptor & Wildlife Center or make donations, visit on the web at www.nwraptorcenter.com/ To see more photos of center residents, releases and other activities, visit Facebook.com/NWRaptorCenter. The Northwest Raptor & Wildlife Center is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. For wildlife emergencies call 360-681-2283. Left to right. Jaye Moore, Gary Moore, Shannon Gordon, Melissa Randazzo and Matthew Randazzo with their feathered ambassadors at the 2011 Earth Day celebration at Wild Birds Unlimited in Sequim. Photo by Kelly McKillip

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A one-of-a-kind camera shop that still develops film Story and Photos by Viviann Kuehl Christal Ericksen always has loved photography. Times have changed, and so have photographic techniques, but not her involvement with photography. This year she celebrated 18 years of owning her own shop, A-1 Hour Photo, and wants to keep at it as long as she can. She loves making pictures for people, talking to people, being her own boss, and, of course, photography is her art. The walls of her shop show off large color prints of her work, featuring shots taken on her travels around the world. She has come a long way. When Ericksen was 14 or 15 she got her first camera, a Kodak Instamatic, and became very frustrated at not being able to capture a tulip in close-up the way she saw it. She went on to become a painter and eventually realized that she always was trying to make a photo with paint. In 1977, she got her first SLR camera and discovered that she could take the pictures she’d always envisioned. “I was in heaven,” she recalled. That year, she got her first job in photography, at Reddigs Studio in Port Townsend. Using her painter’s skills, she began coloring 8-inch by 10-inch graduation photos with oils. She learned on the job, adding more photography skills and responsibility each year. Reddigs became Sandra Seton Photography, then sold again and when Ericksen got an option to buy the business, she took it. “I was fortunate enough that things just fell into place and it’s just been a lot of fun,” recalled Ericksen. In the early days, A-1 Hour Photo was one of several film processing outlets, competing with drug and grocery stores. “The only way I could compete with that is quality and service, and that’s still the most important thing,” said Ericksen. She stuck her neck out to buy a $75,000 developing machine, which now would cost around $200,000. The ability to do custom printing was worth it, said Ericksen. People who complain about the price don’t understand what it costs to provide services, believes Ericksen. She strives to give people good value and quality.

Most of Ericksen’s customers have been coming to her for many years. She knows where they live, their pets, when they get new babies, go on vacation. “Photography is the art of seeing,” said Ericksen. “You have to see it to really make a photo of it.” For instance, once after a late night flight she was in Omaha, Neb., on a layover. It was a gray March day and she went out to stretch her legs. She found a leafless park strewn with garbage. “It was just a gloomy thing,” she recalled, “but then I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye. It was a squirrel on the tree trunk and soon I was sneaking up on an adorable little squirrel.” The resulting photo is now in her collection, a shiny-eyed, furry brown squirrel perfectly poised on rough gray bark, a study in textures with no hint of the dismal surroundings. “I know there’s a picture here. I just have to find it and it’s fun!” These days A-1 Hour Photo is the only film-processing source in Port Townsend, for black and white as well as color. Ericksen also sells film, digital memory cards, cameras and accessories. She does passport photos and provides full digital service. She can make prints and enlargements from floppy discs, negatives, slides and digitally. Photo quality still is better with film, notes Erickson, especially for big enlargements. She uses real photo paper, Kodak’s best, not “photo quality” paper. She also sells her own photo cards, documenting her travels in more than 80 countries with art prints. “There’s just a little bit of everything here,” explained Ericksen. With the proliferation of digital cameras, people are less inclined to look carefully, said Ericksen. “Photography used to be an art and it’s going away from that. It’s a different medium than it used to be. I guess I’m becoming a dinosaur,” reflected Ericksen. It’s not too late to enjoy Ericksen’s art at A-1 Hour Photo and to hear her stories of the pictures she loves.

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The Story and photos by Elizabeth Kelly It’s a simple question. What is the connection between Washington’s Olympic Peninsula and the state of Alaska? The answers aren’t quite so simple; in fact, there are as many answers are there are points of view and the number of people here in this area who have lived in Alaska makes it hard to single out just a few. To Port Angeles resident Ray Gelotte, for instance, the peninsula seemed like “a good place to retire.”

The land of opportunity Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Gelotte moved to Alaska in 1947 as part of the Veterans Alaska Co-op, and with his friend and partner, Steve Homer, he owned and operated a ferry service between Haines, Juneau and Skagway, beginning what is now the Alaska Marine Highway. He said they bought the converted U.S. Navy surplus LCT landing craft in San Francisco. “We were the major link between Haines and the ALCAN Highway,” Gelotte said. He was the engineer on the MV Chilkoot, which carried up to “14 cars if one of them was a jeep,” and Homer was the steersman. “It took us three years to go broke,” Gelotte said. Complying with many rules and regulations imposed by the U.S. Coast Guard was difficult for the ferry business, he explained. “We had to have 14 lifeboat seats and jackets on each side of the ferry,” in order to be in compliance, he said. It also was difficult to find adequate personnel because they were required to be licensed seamen, he added. They finally found an older sailor from Sweden to help them out. “His papers listed him as Master in Sail but he wasn’t allowed to work as a navigator or steersman,” Gelotte said. “We had to hire him as an able seaman.” After three years in the ferry business, they sold the company to the Territory of Alaska, which was able to get the regulations changed and the waters reclassified as “inland waters.” That made a tremendous difference in operations, Gelotte said. But Alaska already was in Gelotte’s blood and he stayed there for another 35 years. He and his wife, Doreen, lived in Juneau, where they raised four children, all of whom graduated from Juneau-Douglas High School. He vividly remembers all the “whistles and sirens blowing” when Alaska became a state in 1959. Another fond memory of his is having family snow picnics. “First you shovel the snow off the picnic table, then you build a roaring fire,” he said smiling. “In the 1980s we knew retirement was coming up and for four or five years we were looking for a place,” Gelotte concluded. “It was my first ride up Hurricane Ridge that convinced me to retire in Port Angeles. I found out that the older you get,

the longer and colder the winters are.“ He said it was a good move and added, “I felt I’d done my share of pioneering.”

A new frontier for courageous women For Patti Dunlap and Karla Strutzel of Sequim, who lived in Alaska for 22 years and 13 years respectively, the Alaska/ Olympic Peninsula connection has a lot more to do with people and lifestyle than geography. “I like the independent attitude and activities of the Alaska people,” Strutzel said. “When they (Alaskans) say they are going to do something (such as climbing Denali), they do it.” She said three of the people on staff at her school were in the first all-female group to climb Mount McKinley, known as Denali, meaning “The High One.” Having been born and raised in Texas, Dunlap said she was in high school when Alaska became a state and became interested then in going there. She went on to earn a master’s degree in special education, and as a single mother of two teaching in San Antonio she decided to apply for a teaching position in Alaska. “My mother had just died and she had always wanted to see Alaska,” she said. “One day during school hours I received a call from Nome. They asked if I thought I could teach the native people. At the time my class in San Antonio was half African American and half Hispanic,” she explained. So they decided she was qualified and offered her a job. In 1974, Dunlap and her daughters, ages 7 and 8, moved to Nome, a city with a population of 3,000 people at the time. She remembers “polar bears being killed on the Bering Sea ice a half mile beyond Front Street.” After three years in Nome, she moved her family to Anchorage and continued to live and teach there until 1996. A native Washingtonian, Strutzel was working in Tacoma in 1983 as a speech-language pathologist when she heard of professional opportunities in Alaska and applied. She was offered a job as one of the 40 speech-language pathologists in Anchorage, which is referred to by Alaskans as “downtown Alaska,” she smiled. She worked there for 13 years. When Dunlap and Strutzel met in Anchorage, they decided to invest some of the money they had saved in property. Having lived on the Olympic Peninsula, Strutzel suggested looking here. They saw a connection with the mountains, the saltwater, the outgoing people and the outdoor lifestyle, and they bought property in Sequim. Eventually they built a house on the property and moved here.

before moving first to Seattle and then to Forks. Canning is from Lincoln, Neb., and in the summer between his junior and senior year of high school his father, a Southern Baptist minister, was transferred to a church in Anchorage. Canning graduated from high school in Anchorage in 1962 and worked one year in Kodiak and then one year on tiny Shemya Island in the Aleutians. Eventually, he took a maintenance job at Kalaloch Lodge on the coast of the Olympic Peninsula in 1973, “and I’ve been here ever since,” Canning said. “Ross was working for the Queets/Clearwater school district when we met,” Gardner said. “It was on the Fourth of July,” Canning recalled.

A land of men — 50 to 1 Anna Barrigan grew up in Seattle and attended (then) Washington State College (now University) where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy in 1950. “I needed a job, but nothing was available in Seattle,” Barrigan said, so she contacted a private employment agency. Her future boss from Fairbanks, Alaska, was in Seattle on a buying trip at that same time and interviewed her. After he offered her a job at his pharmacy, Barrigan packed a suitcase and flew from Boeing Field on a Pan Am passenger plane nonstop to Fairbanks. “My boss said if I stayed six months, I wouldn’t have to pay him back for my plane fare.” She arrived in Alaska on Oct. 1, 1950, and began her 22-year stint at his pharmacy in Fairbanks at the age of 21. “It was a good job,” Barrigan recalled, “and a professional pharmacy.” Fairbanks was a small town in those days, she said, but “there was lots of military personnel.” The pharmacy also supplied drugs to the Alaska Native Health Service for use in the villages, many of which were reached only by plane or dog teams. “Snow machines came later,” she said. Barrigan remembers there being two kinds of eggs to buy

Making a difference

Ross Canning and Margaret Gardner both had lived in Alaska before they met and married on the Olympic Peninsula. Born in Santa Monica, Calif., Gardner had just completed her master’s degree in New Mexico when she filled out an application with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She went on to take a teaching job in Los Angeles and was working there when she got the call from the bureau to teach a class of second-, third- and fourth-graders — 14 students in all — in the small village of Kotlik, Alaska. She lived in the village for two years Left: Ray Gelotte lived in Alaska 38 years. Right: Sisters and Olympic Peninsula residents Ann Wood and Elsa Johnson were born in Juneau, Alaska.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2011

in Alaska in those days — boat eggs and air eggs, with air eggs being the freshest. “We used the boat eggs (eggs shipped to Alaska by boat) for baking and kept the air eggs (eggs flown in by plane) for our breakfasts,” she said smiling. The ratio of men to women was probably 50-1, Barrigan surmised. While working in Alaska, she married and had two children. One rule they had at the time that she didn’t like was that if you lived less than one mile from a school, the children had to walk to school. “In the winter that meant they left home in the dark and returned back home in the dark,” she said. “They were all taught Arctic survival methods,” she added. In 1973 Barrigan moved back to Seattle and then eventually took a pharmacist job in Kelso. When her sister moved to Port Angeles, she came for a visit and decided to move to the peninsula. “Our family had taken a trip to the Olympic Peninsula in 1939,” she recalled. “I liked the people in Alaska — they are close knit and friendly,” she said. She sees the people of the peninsula to be similar.

They call it home For peninsula residents and sisters Ann Wood and Elsa Johnson, the story takes on a different look. Both were born in Juneau in the mid1930s. “We lived on a hill above Gastineau

Channel,” Johnson said, and 45 years later she and her husband sailed back into that channel. The house they grew up in still is there. Sailing into the channel was a nostalgic moment for her. Wood has fond childhood memories of sledding for hours down Gold Hill in the winter. “No one ever worried about where we were or came to check on us,” she recalled. “I remember strapping on Dad’s wooden skis and skiing in Evergreen Bowl,” Johnson reminisced. In the summer they went swimming. “The outdoor public swimming pool was unheated and we never knew we were cold,” Wood said. Their father, William Burr Johnson, was from Oregon and was working in construction in Alaska when he met their mother, Elsie, who had been born in Norway and moved to Juneau as a young girl. The family left Alaska in 1950 and eventually moved to Albuquerque, N.M. When Wood met her husband, Doug Wood, she learned that he had been born in Port Angeles and his mother still lived in Sequim. When they moved here in 1976,, Ann Wood never had been here before. But there was a familiarity miliarity with the landscape, she said. “I’m sure it was because it reminded me of Juneau,” she said, “and being near the water ater and the mountains was so important. I thought I was going ing to die in the New Mexico heat.” Living in San Diego and teaching at a Montessori ori school, Johnson met her husband, Rod, while running at Mission Bay. “He was a sailor,” she said, and when theyy later

moved to Port Angeles they brought their sailboat with them. They spent many hours on their boat, both of them playing recorders as they sailed the northern waters. Another connection with the Olympic Peninsula and Alaska comes from the grandfather of Wood and Johnson, George Baggen, who founded Samson Tug and Barge Company in Alaska. One of the company’s original boats, the Lillian S., now is moored in Port Angeles. Both sisters agreed that the people in Alaska and the people of the Olympic Peninsula have similar traits. “We are both isolated and cut off,” Johnson mused. Looking back over these various stories, it appears that jobs and adventure are what take people to Alaska: retirement to a place with similar geography and lifestyles is a typical reason to settle on the Olympic Peninsula. “You can always find another Alaskan here,” Wood laughed, g “and that is so much fun!”

Anna Barrigan, left, worked as a pharmacist in Fairbanks for 22 years. Right: Margaret Gardner and Ross Canning each lived in remote parts of Alaska before meeting and marrying on the Olympic Peninsula.

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cRitteR cam Story by Chris Cook • Photos by Chris Cook and Dan Anderson

Dan Anderson stands next to one of his pole-mounted trail cameras. A watertight housing protects the inner workings of the digital wildlife camera. Anderson adds a camouflage duct tape covered section of a plastic milk jug as a protective roof over his cameras.

linking bobcats, standing bears, grazing Roosevelt elk, unusual spotted deer, all acting naturally in the wild are among the subjects captured by Dan Anderson of Forks on photo memory cards he places in a set of eight trail cameras. Anderson displays his best unposed wildlife photos on the walls of the waiting room of West End Motors, which is located just north of the Calawah Bridge in Forks along U.S. Highway 101. The combination wrecking yard, vehicle service garage, and tire and wheel shop makes up a goodsized parcel of a land section known as Andersonville, after Dan’s family. While discussing the ins and outs of trail photography with Anderson at the shop, his sons, who work alongside their dad as well as spending months building and fine tuning the family’s entries in the annual Forks Fourth of July demo derby, call out, “Call them ‘critter cams.’” To capture the image of a “critter” in the wild, a light sensor picks up movement in the trail camera. Anderson sets his to take three images followed by a 60-second break. Brush and hanging branches need to be cleared away from in front of the camera for a breeze blowing the vegetation will set off the camera. The sensor reads movement out about 45 feet. Tiny digital photo cards record the photos and long-life batteries provide the power. The cameras themselves are enclosed in what looks like an electric meter box. You open up a door that is part of the protective shell to make adjustments, Anderson handmakes small shields to go above the camera by clipping a rounded section of a gallon plastic jug and covering the piece with camouflage duct tape.

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Trail camera photography goes back to the early 1900s, when photographers used trip lines to capture images of animals in the wild. The beauty of trail camera images is the natural state the wild animals appear in, unaware that humans are capturing their movements. Anderson’s interest in photography comes in part from his father, who collected West End photos and shot some himself. He posts his wildlife and select shots from his dad’s historical West End collection, along with other vintage prints, in the waiting area of West End Motors. Some of the photos came to his father, Art Anderson, through a second-hand shop once located in the small building adjacent to the West End Motors office/garage, which is today the company’s RV supply shop. The shop was noted for its sign that stated: “We buy junk and sell antiques,” and for its landmark eight-foot-tall fiberglass kangaroo. The first photos of Dan as a baby also have a story attached to them. He is noted in Forks lore as the “Forks Fire baby.” The massive Forks fire burned forest lands from east to west in the Calawah River valley aiming directly at downtown Forks the morning of Sept. 20, 1951. Early that morning his dad Art recognized the

Dan Anderson checks the digital read-out on one of his network of seven trail cameras. The workings of the trail camera are housed inside a watertight plastic case.

43 43

Dan Anderson’s trail camera captures two young bears frolicking in a pile of wood slash in July 2010.

A black bear, unaware of a nearby trail camera, stands up on an elk trail south of Forks in April 2010.

A Roosevelt elk bull and cow pair graze along an elk trail in the forest near the Bogachiel River Valley south of Forks in November 2009, captured by Dan Anderson’s trail camera “Grumpy 3.”

44 44

seriousness of the situation and rushed his wife, Pat, then pregnant with Dan, to the Quillayute River Coast Guard Station. Pat went into labor and was airlifted aboard a Coast Guard helicopter from the former Navy airfield in the Quillayute Prairie to the Coast Guard station at Ediz Hook in Port Angeles, and Dan was born in Port Angeles due to the fire evacuation. The move over the past decade from film to digital photography by professionals and amateurs has brought down the cost and complexity of trail camera photography. Anderson cited the Cabela’s hunting and fishing superstores as his source. A search on Amazon.com shows a wide selection of moderately priced trail cameras, ranging from $60 to $200. More sophisticated trail cameras can run over $500. Options include remote notification when a camera goes off, a handy gauge for hunters; choice of a regular flash or a non-lite LED flash and adding a digital video camera to the setup. His trail cameras are hung on trees and poles and dot the 200 acres his family’s hunting club leases through forest land owner Rayonier’s Recreational License Unit program. The section of land is located about 10 miles south of Forks and three miles down a gravel-bed logging road. There are more than a dozen Rayonier land sections leased to hunting clubs in this area, located on both sides of Highway 101. “It’s not far out of town, you can run out there and check it,” Anderson said of his trail photography hobby that focuses on the leased land parcel, which in addition to hunting provides camping and hiking. Foresters and loggers know the rural forested area as Dead Dog Flats after a now-abandoned shake and shingle mill and small village of homes once located along Highway 101, where dogs were frequently were hit by vehicles speeding along the busy highway. Over the past year or so Anderson has learned through experience where the best clearings and wildlife trails are for getting good wildlife photos using his trail cameras. “You kind of find a spot where you might see deer or elk tracks, wherever there’s a lot of traffic,” he said. Fresh Roosevelt elk tracks, left by one of the three herds that traverse the land, are easily spotted near some of the cameras. Anderson carries his set of photo memory cards in a tiny waterproof Pelican case and has names like Little Unit and Bear Road for each of his seven camera blinds. To check a camera, he opens its weatherproof box and looks at a small rectangular screen that shows in black LED numbers how many photos have been taken since the last check and how much life is left in the battery. He then pops out the photo memory card and places it in a small handheld digital camera he carries into the forest. Scanning the photos, taken with 5-megapixel camera, is like opening a pack of baseball cards, with hopes high for a great photo to light up the screen. The photos that show up are striking for their realism and naturalness. You see animals at ease rather than on the alert after sensing a human presence. Rayonier officials like what they see in the photos and use several to promote their hunting lands program at the big sportsmen’s shows held each year in Puyallup and Portland.

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Below left: Trail camera photography enthusiast Dan Anderson of Forks uses a pocket-size digital camera in the field to check a wildlife photo of a bobcat taken by one of his movement-triggered cameras. Above left: A bobcat triggers trail camera “Grumpy 8” in an early morning photo taken in January. Above right: A spotted deer, an unusual site in the forest, stands alert and in focus late in the morning in November 2010 for trail camera “Grumpy 7.”

Anderson dries out the cameras for a few weeks in winter and otherwise enjoys checking the cameras during all weather conditions. Unusual images turn up. Recent photos include images of fishers introduced in the Elwha River area dozens of miles away by Olympic National Park, another of pickers who hold Rayonier permits packing salal and cedar boughs. Of course, the big question for Anderson is: “Any photos of Sasquatch staring into your trail camera?” He answers: “No. Not yet anyway.”

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Events CALENDAR EC

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Port Angeles

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June 18 • Dungeness Historic Homes Tour – 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Guided tours of several historic structures, plus points of interest, in and around Dungeness. Refreshments at Dungeness Schoolhouse. Transportation not provided. Advance tickets available at MAC Exhibit Center, 175 W. Cedar St., Sequim. 360-683-8110 or www.macsequim.org. • Eighth Rakers Car Show & Cacklefest at Memorial Athletic Field in Port Townsend. All day show with close to 250 vintage and classic vehicles. Sponsored by Rakers Car Club, rakerscarclub.com.

June 21-July 17 • “The Garden of Monsters,” by Mara Lathrop, produced by Key City Public Theatre, 360-385-7396, keycitypublictheatre.org. Key City Playhouse, 419 Washington St., Port Townsend. Call for times and prices.

June 22-26 • Port Townsend Chamber Music Festival with the Calder Quartet. Sponsored by Centrum. 360-385-3102 or www. centrum.org.

June 22-Sept. 7 • Concert on the Pier series, 6 p.m. every Wednesday, City Pier, Port Angeles. 360452-2363 ext. 11 or www.portangeles.org.

June 25 • Quilcene High School 100th Alumni Reunion. Brunch 11 a.m.-2 p.m., open to the community, donation suggested; school event starts at 5 p.m.; $15 dinner and meeting. Contact Veda Wilson, 360765-3363, for details and dinner tickets. • 18th Rat Island Regatta, human-powered boat race from Fort Worden. Sponsored by Sound Rowers, 360-385-0457, soundrowers.org.

June 25-Sept. 4 • Olympic Music Festival, 2 p.m. at Concert Barn, 7360 Center Road, Quilcene. Classical music every Saturday and Sunday, no pets allowed. www.olympicmusicfestival.org, info@olympicmusicfestival.org or call 206-527-8839 for tickets and reserved seating.

July 2-Aug. 6 • Free Fridays at the Fort concerts, noon, on outside patio at Fort Worden State Park Commons. Sponsored by Centrum, centrum.org.

June 26-Aug. 28 • Port Townsend Summer Band concerts, 3 p.m. last Sunday of the month, Chetzemoka Park and other venues, ptsummerband.org.

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July 16

• Centrum American Fiddle Tunes concert at McCurdy Pavilion, 1:30 p.m. Fort Worden State Park near Port Townsend. 800-773-3608 or info@centrum.org. • Forks Old-Fashioned Fourth of July, various locations in Forks. Contact info@ forkswa.com. • Fourth of July Community Celebration, 3-11 p.m., City Pier, Port Angeles. Grand parade on Lincoln Street to First Street from 5:30-6:30 p.m., fireworks display at dusk (around 10 p.m.) • Fourth at the Fort Celebration and Fireworks Show at Fort Worden State Park, including Port Townsend Summer Band concert at 8 p.m. and fireworks. • Quilcene Fireworks Display at Herb Beck Marina, portofpt.com.

• Airport Daze & Fly-In, at Jefferson County International Airport, four miles southwest of Port Townsend, 360-3852323, portofpt.com.

July 7-19 “The Housekeeper,” produced by Olympic Theatre Arts, Sequim. Contact www. olympictheatrearts.org or 360-683-7326 for schedule and prices.

July 9 • Festival of American Fiddle Tunes public dance at Fort Worden State Park. Sponsored by Centrum, centrum.org/ fiddle.

July 9-10 • Clallam Bay & Sekiu Fun Days, 10 a.m. in Clallam Bay/Sekiu. Fireworks on Saturday night. chamber@sekiu.com or www.sekiu.com; • Hadlock Days in downtown Port Hadlock, with lawnmower races, vendors, parade and car show, 360-821-9347, hadlockdays.com.

July 15-17 • Sequim Lavender Festival, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. various locations in and around Sequim. Self-guided farm tours, downtown street fair and food court, art tours, music, custom car show. www.lavenderfestival. com. Produced by the Sequim Lavender Growers Association. • Sequim Lavender Farm Faire, 10 a.m.7 p.m. Farm tours via shuttle buses, 10 a.m. Lavender in the Park (Carrie Blake Park) with crafts, music, family activities, evening concerts, food and beverages until 9 p.m. www.sequimlavenderfarms. org. Produced by the Sequim Lavender Farmers Association. • Sunbonnet Sue Quilt Show, 10 a.m. at Sequim Middle School gym. 360-6832072, www.sunbonnetsuequiltclub.org/.

July 16-17 • Quileute Days, 10 a.m. in LaPush. Tribal festival with parade, canoe races, bone games, arts and crafts, softball tourney and fireworks on First Beach. Contact info@forkswa.com.

July 19 • Tribal Paddle Journey overnights at Fort Worden State Park.

July 22-24 • Arts in Action, Friday 2-8 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.-8 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m.-5 p.m., City Pier, Port Angeles. Professional sand sculptors, artists, merchants and vendors. Street dance Saturday night. 360-417-0501.

July 24-31 • Centrum’s Jazz Port Townsend concerts, Fort Worden State Park and downtown Port Townsend. 800-733-3608, 360-3855320 or visit www.centrum.org.

July 29-31 • Port Ludlow Festival by the Bay, 9 a.m.8 p.m., with activities, including arts and crafts, music and food. Most events off Oak Bay Road near the Port Ludlow Marina and resort. www.plvc.org.

July 31 • North Olympic Land Trust’s StreamFest, noon at Ennis Arbor Farm, Port Angeles. Fun activities for all ages, Free admission. Salmon cookout fundraiser. Contact 360-457-5415 or www.northolympiclandtrust.org.

July 31-Aug. 7 • Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival performances at McCurdy Pavilion and local clubs. Sponsored by Centrum, 360385-3102, ext. 110; centrum.org/blues.

Aug. 6 • Joyce Daze Wild Blackberry Festival, Joyce. 7 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Pancake breakfast, homemade blackberry pies, parade, children’s activities, arts and crafts, salmon bake, 40 vendors’ booths, pie baking contest, live entertainment. www.joycewa. com or 360-928-2428.

Aug. 5-21 • “Macbeth,” a Shakespeare in the Park production by Key City Public Theatre

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2011

at Chetzemoka Park, 360-385-7396, keycitypublictheatre.org. Performances at 6 p.m. Friday-Sunday. Admission charged.

Aug. 5-26 • Dog Days Race, 6 p.m. on Fridays. Sponsored by Port Townsend Sailing Association, ptsail.org.

Aug. 7-29 • Art Port Townsend Juried Art Show, sponsored by Northwind Arts Alliance and Port Townsend Arts Commission, 360-437-9579, artporttownsend.org.

Aug. 12-14 • Jefferson County Fair, 10 a.m. at fairgrounds in Port Townsend. 360-3851013, www.jeffcofairgrounds.com.

Aug. 13 Museum Field Day – 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Annual Museum & Arts Center handson-history free event. Features historic logging equipment, logging demonstrations, and music. DeWitt Center, 544 N. Sequim Ave., Sequim. 360-683-8110 or www.macsequim.org.

Aug. 13-14

a.m., downtown Port Angeles. Guided walking tours of historical downtown Port Angeles. Register in the atrium of The Landing Mall for tours. 360-460-1001 or donperry10@yahoo.com. • Sequim All-Schools Reunion. First day activities include assembly at Sequim High School, golf tournament, dinner at 7 Cedars Casino. Aug. 14 activities include Sequim Pioneer Picnic at Macleay School at noon and Dungeness Schoolhouse open house. Registration due Aug. 1. 360-6832585 or tozzer@olypen.com.

Aug. 18-21 • Clallam County Fair, fairgrounds in Port Angeles. 360-417-2551 or www. clallamcountyfair.com.

Aug. 20-21 • Art Port Townsend Artist Studio Tour, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Art studios open to the public on free, self-guided tour. Sponsored by Northwind Arts Alliance, 360379-0859, artporttownsend.org.

Aug. 26-28 • Makah Days, 10 a.m. Neah Bay. Canoe races and bone games, children’s races, royalty, salmon bake, traditional dancing,

Sin ce

• Port Angeles Heritage Weekend, 10

talent show and fireworks.

Aug. 27 • 22nd Annual Kiwanis Classic Car Show at Memorial Field in downtown Port Townsend, sponsored by Port Townsend Kiwanis Club, 360-385-0706.

Sept. 3-4 • Green River Mountain Men Rendezvous. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Open and free to public. Slab Camp Road, 0.6 mile past Lost Mountain Road, Sequim. Re-enactment of 1800s fur trappers’ gathering. Features historical-style campsites, period-dressed re-enactors, historical skills and lore seminars. 260-384-9496 or www.greenrivermm.org.

Sept. 3 Olympic Art Festival. 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Olympic Art Gallery, Washington Street and U.S. Highway 101 in Quilcene. More than a dozen artists on hand showing and demonstrating their crafts.

Sept. 9-11 • 35th Wooden Boat Festival, 9 a.m. at Point Hudson in Port Townsend. An internationally acclaimed annual celebration of wooden boats, craftsmanship

Events CALENDAR EC and cultural heritage. Authentic activities and demonstrations for all ages. 360-3443436, festival@woodenboat.org or www. woodenboat.org.

Sept. 10-11 • Stephenie Meyer Days, in honor of the Twilight series author. Forks. www. forkswa.com.

Sept. 17 • Quilcene Community Fair, Parade & Classic Car Show, all day at Quilcene School District on U.S. Highway 101. 360-765-3361.

Sept. 17-18 • Antler Show at Quilcene High School gym. Trophy antlers, taxidermy specimens, guest speakers, displays, Boone and Crockett scoring; 360-765-0688 or 360-765-4810, quilceneantlershow.org. • Farm Tour & Harvest Celebration, sponsored by WSU Jefferson County Extension, 360-379-5610, ext. 200, jefferson.wsu.edu.

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The Housekeeper June 24th-July 17th Visit our website for dates & times. 414 N Se Sequ Sequim qquuim A Ave, ve, Sequ ve SSequim, equuim, im, WA WA 98382 9983 8382 • 3 8382 83 360-683-7326 60-683-7326

Photo: Erwin & Peggy Bauer

www.olympictheatrearts.org

COME SEE US!

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(360) 683-4295 www.olygamefarm.com LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2011

THE Living END

Photography’s Passion of Purpose Essay and photo by Ross Hamilton

he old adage “A picture is worth a thousand words” gives comfort to camera-wielding enthusiasts. It promises non-English majors a way to say a lot without writing anything down. Photography can speak any language and cross any cultural boundary. Years ago a German visitor came into the Eagle Ranger Station in the Sol Duc Valley and demanded to know “Vhere is dat?” pointing to a picture of Sol Duc Falls. The photograph had brought him to America three times looking for that lovely spot! The Olympic Peninsula inspires many with its natural beauty. There are few places that can claim to be its equal. Within minutes of finding native cactus in the arid Dungeness Valley, one can stroll a beach, wander a forest or climb a mountain. No wonder it’s a photographer‘s dream. I grew up hearing stories about this fabled land. Childhood was spent amid the fantasy land of Hollywood and Disneyland. Beauty was something created on movie sets and at amusement parks. The real world was out there somewhere far away. Photographers like Ansel Adams, Joseph and David Munch and Ray Atkeson caught this young boy’s interest. He dreamed of places where wind made music in the pines, where salt air carried the call of gulls and mountain solitudes took the place of city hubbub. Family vacations brought brief encounters with this world, but to live among such splendor was unimaginable. I well remember the excitement I felt when the dream did come true. Anticipation grew as I drove north through lush Northwest forests, past Hood Canal and brief glimpses of the rugged snow-capped Olympics. At the first sight of the Dungeness Valley I knew I had come home. Soon I would begin a lifelong quest of photographic discovery. In a few years opportunities to tell what I found began with the giving of slide presentations and gallery exhibits. Eventually photographs began appearing in magazines, books and on paint cans. My beloved Olympic Peninsula was being recognized. What does it take to do justice to such grandeur? Technical skill and a critical eye are certainly important. Digital technology has simplified the technical somewhat. The syntax of composition, design and the skillful use of light bring meaning and eloquence to the effort. But patience born from passion is essential. I always felt photographing nature was like fishing; the big ones often got away. When I was photographing Mount Olympus from the High Divide years ago, a little black bear climbed up out of the valley below, waded out

into the middle of the pond in the foreground of the picture and sat down. Alas, I was still setting up and I missed the shot. Then there was the time I hiked 13 miles up the Quinault to photograph Enchanted Valley. The waterfalls were at their best. But after a day of shooting I discovered to my horror, there was no film in the holders. Years later I retraced my steps, this time with film, only to have the shutter fail. Fifty miles of trail and six days of effort made little to show for it! So, what makes photographers keep trying? Passion. It’s been said, no stove, however fine, can be hotter than the fire inside. It’s passion that gets photographers up at 3 a.m. to meet the sun on Hurricane Ridge. It’s passion that causes them to shoulder a pack and hike days into the wilderness. And it’s passion that often makes them late for supper. Then there is the passion of purpose. Every true artist is driven by purpose. It could be to create a pretty picture or deliver an important message. Beauty is sufficient. But beauty that tells a bigger story has substance. Photographers with deep passions often have strong purposes. These may require much personal sacrifice and discom-

fort. A cameraman working for Walt Disney told me once, “Remember, behind every frozen moose is a frozen photographer.” Every great photograph is born from a passionate investment in time, energy and equipment. Photography permits us to savor and share exquisite moments. There is no shortage of these on the Olympic Peninsula. One need only be there. Photographers need only be there and be ready. One never knows when such efforts will yield a picture worth at least a thousand words. Ross Hamilton arrived in the Dungeness Valley 42 years ago, fresh from the UCLA Graduate School of Business. After 25 years in retail management, he launched out on his own with peninsula postcards, posters, wall calendars and a coffee table book. Vision loss now keeps him from continuing to take pictures, but his efforts to champion the Olympic Peninsula and its wilderness jewel, Olympic National Park, continue unabated. To catch his spirit and the scope of his work, visit his website, www.rosshamiltonphotography.com.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2011

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