IMAGES BY SUSAN STEPHENSON

PERFECT ANCHORAGE - a photograph by Susan D Stephenson

The Helm a photograph by Susan D Stephenson

My images are simple products that show what my lens captured. If the moon would look great over that mountain but wasn't up yet, it won't be in my images. I love the authenticity of the elements and at the same time, love to create a mood with the ingenious technologies designed by very smart brownies. I love to capture motion, the rise of a step, a flash of anger, flights of laughter, or the movement of an element, a balloon, a clown, or a marching band. My images might be one frame frozen from my footage, a bear on a beach, birds on the wing, or wind and water pounding the deck of the Princeton Hall, the vessel on which I sailed the Inside Passage for many years. My work records my blessings and now, a purpose, for they contain what blessings so many will never see. Thank you for your visit! Susan

THE PRINCETON HALL

The Wheelhouse a photograph by Susan D Stephenson

Always, CAP'N RUDDY to me, that name seemed to dash a smile across that wonderful Irishman's cheeks. He and Kathy Ruddy were two of the most generous custodial owners of the PRINCETON HALL imaginable. Always willing to provide a lift to a village for a youth group, host a dinner, or sail to their frequent destination, Taku Harbor. The Princeton Hall was conscripted by the US Navy as a patrol boat immediately after the bombs fell on Pearl Harbor. I had the privilege of sitting with Cyril George and Roy Baily, two of her boat builders. Roy described the time he attached his chewing gum to her keel. The Princeton Hall, an iconic figure in Southeast Alaska's history, was built for the Presbyterian Church at Sitka's Sheldon Jackson School for Native Students, to minister to the Native communities along the Inside Passage. Bill and Kathy were the perfect owners of her for many years. They loved her history and shared her willingly and graciously all the years she was in their care. It is hard to imagine which will be missed more, the Ruddys, or their wonderful care and sharing of their treasure,

THE MOTOR VESSEL, LARGER THAN LIFE, THE, HISTORICAL PRINCETON HALL,

SHE IS RECOGNIZED, VISITED, AND BELOVED WHEREVER

SHE GOES AS LIVING ALASKAN HISTORY.