Aspen and Porphyry Peak. Photographed from near O’Haver Lake, Colorado. September 30, 1986. Canon F-1. Kodachrome 64 slide film. 80-200mm zoom lens.
40 years ago today my life changed.
Prior to August 1984 I was a happy snap shooter. I loved taking pictures but I was still just an occasional snap shooter. And then some low life scum kicked in our back door and stole my camera. It had all of our recent August vacation photos still in the camera. That was what made me mad. It had a photo of our daughter with her first brown trout on the line, caught in a Colorado stream. It had a photo of our three children in the 2nd story jail in the famous Jackson Hotel in Poncha Springs Colorado. Susan B. Anthony, Alexander Graham Bell, Rudyard Kipling, Horace and Baby Doe Tabor, and other famous guests had all stayed there. All my vacation photos of the inside and outside of the hotel were gone.
When I took the insurance money and bought a new camera, the salesman, Mike Baroli, took me under his wing. Every single time I went to the camera store to pick up a roll of processed slide film, he grabbed the box of slides, took it back to his light table and he critiqued the photos. He sorted them into a small stack of 4 or 5 keepers and a stack of 30 or so throwaways. He recommended the best photo books. He told me which photo magazines to subscribe to. He sent me to the best photo workshops. He turned me from a snap shooter into a better photographer. Between August 1984 and September 1986, thanks to Mike’s help, my photography skills were growing. Every once in a while I created a really nice image.
Sunday evening, September 28, I was preaching in Espanola New Mexico at the end of a long weekend of ministry in Northern New Mexico. I did not have to be back at work until October 1 for a church service in Lawton Oklahoma. I had two free days. So September 29 I drove across Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado, taking pictures along the way.
Dew Covered Aspen Leaves. O’Haver Lake, Colorado. September 30, 1986
On the morning of September 30, I was at O’Haver Lake, taking more pictures. I had a wonderful time. O’Haver Lake is a special place. When I was growing up our family camped there several times every year, and as I adult, my wife and I took our three children to camp at O’Haver Lake.
The “X” marks the approximate camera location for the photo of Porphyry Peak.
I climbed a hillside a little above O’Haver Lake, set up my tripod and created the image of aspen framed by evergreens with Porphyry Peak off in the distance. Sitting there on that hillside, something happened to me. Something clicked (photo pun intended).
I said to myself, “I think I could be good at this. I want to be really good at this. I want to be a photographer!” Not as a job. I loved my “day job”. My day job was more than a job, it was a calling. But in my spare time, I wanted to become the best photographer I could be for my own sense of artistic satisfaction. Something inside of me yearned to create images. Eye catching images. Memorable images. Beautiful images. I wanted to do whatever it would take. That morning, on a hillside above O’Haver Lake, a vision was born. I decided to become a photographer.