NE OREGON

I love all of Oregon, from the coast to the desert, each place has a piece of my heart. You are viewing a part of Northeast Oregon, a place I come to shoot Winter skiing and snowboarding. A place I come to in the Spring, as pictured here, to experience the greenery, solitude and vastness. I visit in the Summer for backpacking into high mountain lakes and big mountains all on their own. I have yet to visit in the Fall and capture first snow and Fall color...I hope to this Fall.

I shot this photo a couple days ago (at the beginning of June 2024). I left Bend in the morning for the six hour drive to visit a friend who recently moved here. His name is Dave Wachs, a painter, lover of the outdoors and father to Lucas Wachs, a pro skier I have been working with since he was 12. I arrived to Dave’s tiny house cabin in hopes of shooting wildflowers on the prairie nearby, one of the largest in the United States. The flowers were beautiful, but sparse, so I recalibrated with ease, I would shoot the greenness that was blasting in every direction at Sunrise. I woke up at 4am with a clear sky forecast, however the clouds/fog were thick...I went back to bed and rode dirt bikes with Dave a little later in the day; my first time on a 450 and it was awesome!  I set the alarm clark again for 4am that night, woke up to clear skies and calm winds. This image was shot around 5:30am, sunrise is early this time of year and I love it...most everyone is sleeping and the world is calm.

I absolutely love this photo and it’s dynamic range, from snowy mountain tops, to a glassy lake, to moraine veins, the farmland, this pic has a lot of beauty going on!