Outside Adventure to the Max: Walter Iooss Jr.

And so for a time, it looked as if all the adventures were coming to an end, but that was not to be.---C. S. Lewis

It's that time of year again when I look back on some of my best images of the last year. Like always, it's difficult to narrow it down to just a dozen. I have so many favorites, involving an anecdote or recollection behind each image captured while at the river or lake. From those fast times on the Lower American River to the slow-motion days at Sly Park each photo has its own story. So Yes it's hard to pick just a handful of pictures that stand out above the others.

A bent rack

"Someone once said that wherever I am is the perfect picture," long-time famed sports photographer Walter Iooss Jr told WPB Magazine, "I didn’t like the way it sounded but I believe that. It’s not that I’m positive of it deep down inside, it’s that I have to believe it. When you make that decision – ‘This is the place to go’ – you’ve got to live with it. There’s no alternative.”

As a young photojournalist, I followed the career of Iooss, the undisputed maestro of sports photography, boasting an exceptional career that spans over four decades. His iconic photographs of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, the memorable “catch” by Dwight Clark during the 1982 NFC Championship Game, and dazzling portraits of basketball superstar Michael Jordan have been showcased in Sports Illustrated where he has over 300 covers to his credit.

Eppies Great Race training

“Photography is not a job. It’s a way of life,” he told WPB Magazine, “I live it, think it, and feel it. It’s just in my DNA. I’ve always felt the moment."

I feel the same way. I just love taking pictures of special ripples in time and telling stories. For most of my life, I worked as a photojournalist in both print and broadcast media in a daily grind of trying to provide storytelling images or video to the folks reading the paper or watching their local TV news. At the end of every year, I would usually gather up my best of the best pictures or TV clips and send them off to an array of contests and judgings.

50+ plus paddle with Current Adventures

I won a few awards but never lost. As Iooss has said, the real joy of photography is in the discovery and magic of the moments like shots of Current Adventures' John Weed providing protection while shadowing a young paddler through his first rapid, an anniversary kiss on the water and an Eppies racing smile.
There is one of a lone paddler in the smokey veil of a wildfire and another of my wife Debbie paddling past the remnants of a past fire. There is fun on a glow paddle with Bayside Adventure Sports but also the slog of a portage back up river.

The Lower American River

“Passion, curiosity, excellence, the drive to always want to do it well,” he said Iooss, “You have to reinvent yourself. You can’t stay in one spot.”
So as 2018 draws to a close, I look back at some of my favorite moments I had kayaking with this past year.

You can follow us on Facebook and on Instagram