
Related Friends

Mosier, Oregon 2017
Arlene Burns
Photographer/Kayaker: Mosier Mayor, Oregon
I live in a small town on the Columbia River in Oregon far removed from my past life in Chicago and the East-Coast. The current mayor of Mosier, Oregon was someone I had briefly met several years ago at a party.
When I built a house not far from hers, she befriended me on Facebook and socialized more and more when we discovered our mutual interests in photography and connections with National Geographic magazine.
She invited me to stay at her home to cat-sit while she traveled the world in the winter months of 2008. As I worked in her office one day, I noticed a photograph of a young Arlene Burns that was eerily familiar. It was a 8.5×11 print made on Kodak RC paper and it had a black border that looked very much part of my signature 40 years ago. I studied it. There was a familiarity in the picture, never thinking that it could be mine and then put it out of my mind.
Years go by as our neighborly lives intertwine into good friendship. It was she who introduced me to Walter Ordway who was visiting her and ended up being kicked out because of his irritating dog. Walter and his loud dog came and stayed in my tepee. It was during those 10 days that he spent with me, the countless stories he told me of his travels that inspired my first attempt in writing a movie script.

One day in the summer of 2009, we ran into each other in San Francisco and she hitched a ride back to Oregon with me. During the long drive, we shared some of our life stories and somehow the name Penny NickeI got mentioned. She was a Young Life intern working in High-Schools south of Chicago and befriended me. She, John White and John Howard were all recent graduates of Wheaton College who I had a connection. A year later, I ended up attending this same school. As it turned out, Penny Nickel started teaching at a college in North Carolina where Arlene attended. It was Penny Nickel, said Arlene who encouraged her to pursue her passion in kayaking.
That little nudge transformed Arlene’s life. She would go on to became a world-class kayaker, traveled the globe as a river guide, became a devout naturalist and photographed for companies like Patagonia. Her charisma and expertise with a paddle also landed her as Meryl Streep’s stand-in in the movie The River Wild
Thrilled by our newly discovered connection, we Googled and sadly found her obituary dated one year earlier.
The kicker with all this was that we had actually met in a Wilderness Camp called Honey Rock 45 years ago when Arlene drove a group of students from her Montreat-Anderson College. That picture with the black border, gone missing since she renovated her home, could have been mine after all.
It is a small world!

2010’s DECADES
GRATITUDE: A decade beyond expectation. I learned to live in the moment instead of capturing the moment. . . simply, being present to welcome the moment.

1980’s DECADE
INDULGING DEFIANCE: Photography gave me wings but also a sense of boundless creativity. This was a decade of independence, anti-establishment. It was a decade that avoided entrapment, both stylistic and accomplishment,. an era of exploration and renaissance.

JORDANIAN FORK
NEW WORK: Enter to see photo: This is a work in progress page. SUBSCRIBE for the latest stories, blogs and (if I’ve taken pictures of you in the last 50 years) don’t miss friendship updates. Thank You!

MACAQUE WARRIOR
NEW WORK: I felt I had an appointment with a moment. So I went up the mountain in the rain. Half-frozen I came down with nothing to justify the morning soak. Then out of the woods, this monkey came and sat in front of me…

Bernadette Murray
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
A future blog about Bernedette Murraywill be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 2012.

Charlie Qin
STUDENT
Future blog page about Charlie Qin will be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 2014.

Jackie Kennedy Onassis
Welcome to my future blog page about Jackie Kennedy Onassis. Enter to see photos. Circa 1973

Robert Pledge
PHOTO AGENT
Future blog page about Robert Pledge the founder of Contact Photo Agency will be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 1984.

Larry Hatteberg
TV ANCHOR
A future blog about Larry Hatteberg will be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 1980.

Gary Gorman
EVENT ORGANIZER
A future blog about Gary Gorman will be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 1989.

Dasher
FILMMAKER
Welcome to the future blog page about the amazing Charles Dasher. Enter to see pictures. Since 1992

EM Marie
MODEL/DANCER
A future blog about EM Mariewill be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 2018.

Claire Griffin
CONCERT MANAGER
A future blog about Claire Griffin will be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 1998.

Gary Gorman
EVENT ORGANIZER
A future blog about Gary Gorman will be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 1989.

Bill Clinton
FORMER PRESIDENT
A future blog about Bill Clinton will be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 1979.

Thomas Hsueh
TED TURNER OF TAIWAN
A future blog about Ted Hsueh will be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 1980.

- 541-380-0907
- sacredridgejc@gmail.com
- P.O. Box 994 Mosier, Oregon 97040
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