SEQUIM — As a photographer, Ross Hamilton’s vision defines his work.
A damp forest. A driftwood beach. A mountain meadow.
Each a Hamilton subject, the models used for art.
The North Olympic Peninsula, focus of his most well-known photos, is where Hamilton made his name and a certain amount of fame.
With postcards and posters, a book and bookmarks, he shared the North Olympic Peninsula with the world through 30 years in the wild.
But the art has stopped.
At 61, Hamilton hasn’t taken a picture in four years.
His left eye, a victim of glaucoma, is blind. Vision in his right eye isn’t much better.
“It feels like I’ve been cut off at the knees,” Hamilton said Wednesday over lunch, peering through wire-rimmed glasses that do little to improve his sight.
“My love is the outdoors and getting to the outdoors. I cannot get there or enjoy it once I do.”
This story ends in the Olympics, but it begins in Yosemite National Park, where Hamilton fell in love with the camera and the picture.
—————
The rest of the story appears in Sunday’s Peninsula Daily News.
