Preserving the moment: Local photographers capture daily wonders of life in the Valley

By SVR Staff

The first-place winners in the Valley Record’s annual reader photo contest, Danny Raphael in both People and Animals, and Tom Meagher in Scenic, had dramatically different approaches to their contest photos, yet in talking about their work, they share a lot in common.

Digital is absolutely the way to go, they agree, because of the changing nature of the light they are trying to capture.

“To be able to shoot with available light is amazing,” said Raphael, a longtime North Bend resident who has been making photographs of Mount Si, the area elk, his church, and his family for the past several decades. “If I see something, I’ll just stop and I’ll shoot it.”

Meagher, whose winning photograph was captured, not by a traditional DSLR, but by a high-resolution webcam owned by the city of North Bend, says the same thing. “Every shot is pretty much framed the same but the light changes… Any time I see an interesting picture that’s there, I just take a picture.”

For Meagher, that’s typing a command into a computer. For Raphael, who always carries his camera with him, it could be as simple as pressing a button, or it could mean a wet adventure in finding the angle to shoot from.

“I think the secret to my success, if you can call it that, is not being afraid to take pictures and being willing to find an interesting angle,” Raphael said. “You get more interesting pictures if you try to find a different perspective…. living here, it’s so beautiful, it’s truly a privilege to be able to do that.”

Meagher, who is responsible for operations and troubleshooting on the city’s webcam, said the camera was initially set up about eight years ago, in response to some city businesses’ concerns that people didn’t come to North Bend when they heard that I-90 was closed.

The city’s economic development commission, he explained, worked on the project as a means of showing people online that the freeway was still open through downtown North Bend.

Also, Meagher said, “We just wanted to portray how beautiful this area is….Even if one family moved to North Bend because they saw that picture, it would pay for itself.”

While he was, like Raphael, thrilled to hear that the photo he entered had won, he also admitted that he felt a little guilty about it. “I am not a photographer. So much effort goes into taking a photo and I kind of feel like this was cheating.”

Following the North Bend webcam in the Scenic category were Mount Si freshman Cody Barber’s fog-wrapped railroad trestle in second place and “Norma’s Sunset” in third. Diane Kalvelage, who submitted the photo, wrote that it was “taken the evening my husband’s mother, Norma passed away.”

Raphael’s elk battle photo claimed the top spot in the Animals category, which had numerous excellent entries. Tami Barber’s comical calf photo claimed second place, followed by Jane Bower’s very scenic horse portrait. We also awarded two honorable mentions in this very competitive category, to Cody Barber’s hummingbird, and Alana Hall’s Bald Eagle.

The mother and son duo of Tami and Cody Barber claimed the number two spots in both the Animal and Scenic categories. Tami passed her love of photography down to her son who now thinks of photography as a passion.

Tami Barber said she first started after taking a photography class in college with her husband. Since then, she takes her camera everywhere she goes, hoping for great photo opportunities to present themselves. Her picture of the calf licking the camera was taken during a morning walk at Tollgate Farm Park.

“That particular photo was shot off my phone, typically I shoot with a Nikon camera,” she said. “It was just one of those one in a million shots that happened with the phone, and it worked.”

Cody Barber was raised with a camera in his hands, he said. As a freshman at Mount Si High School, he is taking the photography class as well as taking pictures as a hobby while on hikes around the Valley. Like his mother, he usually shoots with a Nikon D90, but only had his phone with him on the day he took his winning photo.

“I was out hiking in the exit 38 area on the Iron Horse area. I had an architecture assignment and decided that I should go take pictures for it,” he said. “The fog happened to be rolling in as I was taking pictures on my phone.”

Cody is also responsible for one of the honorable mentions chosen in the Animals category. His picture of the humming bird mid-flight was captured with the help of a mono-pod and a lot of patience.

“It’s also a challenge to get those pictures because you need high shutter speed,” he said. “I had my camera on mono-pod aimed at the feeder with all the settings. I would sit there and snap and snap and snap, and ended up with that.”

Kids’ photos won the day in the People category. An unusual black-and-white portrait of Raphael’s son, Nathaniel, now 19, from when he was in middle school, claimed the first prize in the category, and Gary Fancher’s photo of his sons, Nate and Drew, taking a hiking break tied for second with Sierra Gohlke’s striking silhouette of a young girl.

Fancher said he was able to combine his love of nature photography with a family hike. He was able to capture his sons looking out over the Middle Fork Valley as they searched for their home.

“Landscape nature has been my passion. I started when I was when I was 10 years old, and went on a trip with my uncle to Yellowstone, that’s when I fell in love with nature photography,” he said. “The best images evoke emotion and when you look up at our peaks and the clouds among them, they hit an emotional chord with me.”

Contest winners can send email to editor@valleyrecord.com for prize information.