IMAGES BY SUSAN

The Helm a photograph by Susan D Stephenson

.... 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 image. I love that authenticity while at the same time, love to create a mood with the ingenious editing technologies available today. 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 what I see as a responsibility to share what few might never see.

My images...

PERFECT ANCHORAGE - a photograph by Susan D Stephenson

THE PRINCETON HALL

HISTORICAL MOTOR VESSEL

THE PRINCETON HALL,

RECOGNIZED, VISITED, AND BELOVED WHEREVER SHE GOES AS A LIVING ICON OF ALASKA'S INSIDE PASSAGE.

The Wheelhouse a photograph by Susan D Stephenson

Compass a photograph by Susan D Stephenson

Always, CAP'N RUDDY to me, that title seemed to flash 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, built for the Presbyterian Church at Sitka's Sheldon Jackson School for Native Students, was in service as a missionary vessel visiting the Tlingit Native communities along the Inside Passage. Bill and Kathy were her perfect owners 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,