In 1994 I was invited to give a program on my Black and White photography at the Professional Photographers of America National Convention in Denver, CO.  I was fortunate to know Xenophon A. Beake from Massachusetts who was a high ranking member of the Commercial / Industrial Division of the PPofA.  Giving a program at the National Convention is a prestigious honor and while public speaking is not something I covent, it was an opportunity I should not pass up. 

   With my oldest son just home from his freshman year in college and my daughter beginning her freshman year in college a few months away, each were holding down important summer jobs.  My youngest son Scott, was a rising sophomore in high school and a talented baseball player participating in a regional summer baseball league.  Nevertheless, Scott and I found a window of time over the July 4th weekend where he could accompany me on a 5 day get away for some camping and the occasional B&W image. 

   Not far outside of Denver I see this stream and rock wall seen in the feature image.  I knew it had potential and decided to stop and make an image. Flowing water is not an easy thing to capture, this particular exposure and shutter speed combination worked quite nicely. I’m on the side of the road, cut off jeans, old T-shirt and not looking very scholarly to anyone. I had the 5×7 Deardorff wooden camera out composing the image on the ground glass.  Around the corner comes a fancy white convertible and must have seen me and the old Deardorff by the stream.  The car abruptly pulls off the road, turns out to be a 40 something photographer from Michigan.  He’s nicely dressed and heads over to see the old fashion type camera that I’m using, black cloth over my head and large single sheets of film.  My youngest son Scott is close by as the fellow comes over and starts chatting me up while I’m working to get my shot, he inquires, Black and White ??   I love Black and White he goes on.  I’m not too interested in talking to him so I go about getting my shot completed.  He moves over closer to my son Scott and begins talking with him.  I don’t care for him talking with my young son while I’m under a dark cloth so I stop and move over to them.  He starts telling me he’s in town for the “big convention”, tells me he’s a successful commercial photographer back in Michigan, got all this fancy equipment, on and on about having a successful studio in the Commercial & Industrial field of photography, how I should get involved with some of the programs at the Convention to advance my skills and craft !

   With that, I’d had enough of him talking down to me in front of my son and I say, yes I’m in town for the Big Convention as well !  I extent my hand and say, I’m Steve Sherman you should come to my program, it’s all about Black and White and we can chat further about my philosophy and style.   Kind of a stunned look comes across his face, he says, “oh yea I read about you, your program is one of the ones that carries an admission charge” over the usual free convention programming for PPofA members. Finally he tells me, this is his first PP of A convention and he’s not going to any of the programs that carry a surcharge.  I never saw white convertible guy again ! 

   I took some satisfaction with my son near-by as I dropped a nice one-liner on fancy equipment photographer, as it turned out, it would not be the best one-liner of the trip.

   The highlight of the trip for Scott on several levels was a rafting trip down the Royal Gorge of the Arkansas River.  I’m barely in my early 40’s, why wouldn’t we opt for a smaller raft for a bit more adventure, besides the guide said we’d better navigate the rocky characteristics of the lower gorge. The trip would start out easy with Class III rapids but would progress to an almost non-stop series of rapids ranging from Class IV – V.   The accompanying map offers some idea of the latter half of the trip as you move from left to right.   

   There would be only 4 clients and a guide in the raft.  The guide was a young athletic girl guiding rafting trips during the summer while on break from college.  The guide went through a whole series of commands that would become important as we moved down river to where the more violent rapids happen.  There was a younger husband and wife that would make up the four paying clients in our raft.  We started out the adventure sitting beside our traveling partner.  The guide said it was very important that we keep the very bottom buckle of the life vest cinched tight.  She explained that if someone went over board she would need to get to them and quickly get her hands under the life vest at the shoulders and pull them out to safety. 

   We soon left on our 3 hour adventure, Gilligan’s Island got nothing on our little trip down the Arkansas River !!  Starting out in smaller and less frequent rapids gave each of us time to practice our paddling based on our guide’s commands. Not surprisingly there were skilled photographers positioned along the shoreline to record the adventure, as we would learn at the most appropriate vantage points. 

  We stopped for a snack and drink before heading off to what is commonly referred to as the “boiling water” on the Arkansas River. The guide said she was going to redistribute the weight in the raft in preparation to enter the more aggressive rapids.  With that the guide moved Scott behind me and sitting beside the husband whose wife was now sitting in the front of the raft to my left.  From this point on we would be wearing helmets for protection on the chance anyone “went into the rocky rapids”.  The guide explained that getting through some of the upcoming rapids required quick and responsive paddling to guide the raft through some tight areas with rocks jutting out on both sides.  The guide had mentioned earlier in the adventure that Sunshine Falls would be where the real test would come, (Sunshine Falls video below).  There are actual molded rubber “foot holds” in the floor of the raft, kind of like a boot on a water ski, you force your foot into those foot holds with upward pressure as an added measure to prevent being thrown out of the raft. 

   In a flash and a splash we enter Sunshine Falls, Scott’s helmet is barely visible on the right-side rear just under the arm of the other man in the following photo.  As the raft abruptly drops in one section I break a cardinal rule and try to catch a glimpse of my son instead of listening for important commands from our guide. Now into the boiling rapids the river drops again and in an instant the raft hits a large rock just below the surface. The raft abruptly lurches back to the left. With that direction change, I was ejected out of the raft into the churning water, as was the woman who was sitting aside of me. In the accompanying photo my helmet and arm are closest to the raft while the woman’s lifejacket and helmet are to my left. I wasn’t under the water for long before our 100 lb. guide just as she had previously explained grabbed my lifejacket at the shoulders and pull this 200+ lb man back into the raft in a flash. Next she grabbed our lone female passenger and whisked her safely back in the raft. By now other rafts were careening by but not without the guides checking to see if everyone on our raft was OK.  There wasn’t a lot of time to process what had happened as we still had plenty of rapids to contend with.  The rest of the trip down river went as planned without mishap. Now 25 years later I’m very happy to have the pictures to relive an exhilarating trip down the Arkansas River. 

   As I think back to the photographers platform from which these photos were taken, there was a steep steel cable tram of at least 60 ft. down into this gorge.  The photographer’s concrete platform was no bigger than 4 ft. sq.  The camera must have been an early digital model as the photographs were ready for purchase when we arrived at the gift shop. That said, there likely was no auto-focus feature on those early cameras and looking at the shallow depth of field with a longish lens, this photographer definitely had their act together for our little “out of raft” experience !!

   Most likely the ultimate highlight of the day for my son Scott happened in the gift shop. While I was waiting to purchase the 3-pak of photographs.  Scott found a T-Shirt that said, “I survived Sunshine Falls”.  Scott wandered over to me and said he was buying the T-Shirt and in typical sarcastic Sherman humor said, “too bad you can’t wear this shirt Dad” !!    Below is a YouTube video of a large raft going through Sunshine Falls. 

   As we continue in these unprecedented times, please remain safe and healthy !!