The new year is here. And with it, for many, comes the annual question posed so beautifully by poet Mary Oliver: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

• My husband, Steve and I sold our home in Beaverton, bought a house in Bandon and now live there full time again.
• We put our motel on the market. Our managers retired so we are back working the motel full time until it sells. (Well, Steve is. Most of my time is dedicated to photography). Thankfully, our managers continue to provide coverage two days a week and for trips that we take. Needless to say, after 22 years, we are eager to sell our business and have more freedom. No complaints. Over time our little inn has been very good to us.
• We took a wonderful three week trip to Japan with lots of family members that was an unforgettably joyous adventure.
• We had so much fun that we took another family trip during 2024-25 for Christmas and the new year holiday to San Miguel de Allenede, Mexico.
• Steve and I then spent yet another month last October in San Miguel de Allende,  to visit some more with our son that lives in Mexico.
• This last Christmas we had another large family gathering. Part of the time was spent in our Bandon home and the rest was spent taking a road trip to the Redwoods where we stayed in a very cool water front cabin.
• For me personally, I spent a good deal of my energy over the last 18 months self-publishing an art book. This book is a visual story of my love for the ocean. It will be published and on the market within the first few months of 2025. More about that very soon!

A personal goal for the year:

It’s important for me to call to mind and heart, on a daily basis, the reality that life is an ephemeral treasure to be savored and honored. I’d like to get better at this in 2025. I know that nurturing this fundamental awareness with a sense of gratitude and an attitude of kindness allows me to live fullheartedly.

When I tune in and pay attention, this consciousness is like a north star always at the ready to illuminate my path of a life well lived.

Another way to frame this is that I’d like to make a mindful effort to be present, each day, every moment that I possibly can. For me, this entails less careless scrolling on social media, less telelvision and more dialing in to my surroundings or to those that I am with at any given time.

Luckily, I feel that being attentive is easiest for me when I’m out shooting in nature. Consequently, this means I need to be on the beach more with my camera. Oh darn. 🙂

These last 18 months have been full;  My husband and I are living in a lovely new home and I’ve experienced the satisfaction of working on a personal and professional goal that will come to fruition soon. Having said that, I do feel like I was in a rush a good deal of the time. This often caused me to feel stressed. Recognizing this, leads me to understand that my goal is an important one on more than one level.

All said and done, regardless of the rushing and stressing, there’s been so much memorable fun and love experienced with family and friends.  It truly has been an amazing year!

Seventh decade?

Bring it on!

All of the images here were taken during a few shoots that I thoroughly enjoyed during  the last two months of 2024 and the first month of 2025. I had fun focusing on our luscious king tides recently as well as all other delights along shore that I find so compelling.

My husband gave me a new 100-500 mm lens last October for my birthday. My intent was/is to do more bird photography. However, so far what I’ve used it for is shooting sea stacks at king tides. It’s extremely handy to have a long lens when the tide is so high that you can’t get on the shore. If you have a long lens it’s just a matter of finding a high and dry spot. And during these king tides it’s a lot safer too. A cool thing about shooting at 400 or 500 mm is that it creates a compressed perspective which can add mystery and drama to your composition.

As you can see, I’m exploring black and white more as well.  The form and texture of these rocks lend themselves very well to monochromatic processing as it can increase the drama and mystery of a scene even further, especially when they’re surrounded by water.

I’ll end here with a humble request.

One of my photography goals this year is to write more blog posts and to grow my website audience.  This will help me be less dependant on social media for communicating with you and others that are interested in seeing my photography and keeping in touch with what I’m doing.

With that in mind, I would be so happy, if you haven’t already, to have you sign up for my blog posts. You can do so on my home page. Here is the link:

Susan’s Home Page

Thank you ahead of time and I promise not to spam you with emails!

I really do appreciate the time you spend here, and for all of your support and encouraging words over the last year and more. Each kindness encourages and propells me forward!

For us all, here’s to experiencing many moments of wildness in this new year!

With great gratitude,

Susan