In Remembrance

Today I found out that my cousin Herbert passed away due to short bout with pancreatic cancer. He was just diagnosed recently and it was a shock because he was only in his 40’s. He is someone that I’ve always had great respect for and had a profound impact on my life more than anyone will ever know. He was my travel companion for several road trips and taught me a lot about photography early on. The first time I had ever seen sunrise alpenglow was on the face of Mount Rushmore which was a big surprise to me because all I knew that morning was that Herbert wanted to break down camp at Custer State Park and leave when the stars were still out.

Photo of Mount Rushmore, Black Hills, South Dakota


On a trip to San Francisco several months later, he brought along a copy of Outdoor Photographer magazine to read and on it was a cover picture of Torres del Paine by Galen Rowell. I had never seen a photo like that before so Herbert explained to me who Galen Rowell was. Look at my photos for a minute and it’s obvious what kind of influence that discovery had on my photography.

Herbert was a soft-spoken man, but one of the nicest people I’ve ever known. His knowledge of many subjects was very impressive. I called him periodically to ask photography-related questions and there was nothing that he didn’t know. In fact, earlier this summer I asked him if he would be willing to be my 2nd shooter and handle the portraiture for a potential beach wedding gig later this year. He sounded excited, though ultimately the job fell through. When my family visited him at the hospital last month, I was touched that he asked me about my recent California Coast photography trip. Secretly I hoped that he’d get well and be able to do another trip with me in the future.

All the words in the world can’t really express what I want to say, but I would like to say, “Thank you, Herbert.”