New from Far North Press, my father's WWII diary on Kindle. This is the memoir he and I produced about 10 years ago. It's a transcription of the diary he kept when he enlisted in the US Army and was sent overseas to take part in the Invasion of Normandy.

I think it's a great, thoughtful read (but I'm biased). He has a remarkably good way of describing the people, places, and events he witnessed. The book is about 140 pages, large type, with photographs of him during the time period, and also photos he took during his service.

There's a photo talked about among my Facebook friends that has reminded people of the best photograph I ever took. The image that's being talked about is this one of a little frog peering from the mouth of a fish that's just gulped it up. Photographer Angus James took it while fishing and saw the little frog when he pulled the hook out of the fish's mouth. Very cool photo.

My shot below is the image people are comparing it to. Shot for the Anchorage Daily News it is the final image in my book "Snap Decisions: My Thirty Years as an Alaska Newspaper Photographer. You can buy the book here (I can personalize it), or from Amazon.

In the book, here's what I said about the image. "The coolest thing about this photo is that it is what photographers call an “original image”— one that no photographer has ever taken before. You can go a whole career in photography and never get one. To make a photo like this so late in my career left me feeling my years of hard work had finally paid off."

This is what my photo looked like when it was published in Sports Illustrated in 2004.

I got back to fishing charters this summer and am working exclusively for the Tutka Bay Lodge, a high-end destination that's on the backside of the lagoon where we have our cabin. I spend nights at the cabin and then start my charters at 8am.

It's a great clientele and I've known the owners for years, having slept a few times under their ping pong table at their other remote lodge, Winterlake Lodge.

I don't usually stack fish on the dock when I'm done, but last Thursday was a truly memorable fishing day, and the Paul kids (Jake, Caroline and Taylor) had a great time pulling up this mixed bag.

That's a 70-lb halibut in the front row, a couple of silver salmon in the middle sharing space with a yelloweye rockfish (red snapper) and the big surprise of the day, a lingcod. The ling was not caught on a hook. We were pulling up a pink salmon when the ling latched on to it with it's terrible teeth and wouldn't let go. We got it to the side of the boat and into the net.Thursday was the first day of lingcod season and at 40-inches long, it was a legal keeper.
I never know what the day will look like when I head out fishing. It can turn in a minute from a desperate hunt for fish, to the sea of plenty. That's one of the things I like about fishing: it's all possibility.