IrwinFoto

A gallery of photos by Mike Irwin

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  • Survivor

    Survivor | Bridgeport, WA | 2012

    A few years ago wildfire scorched much of Dyer Hill, a place I never knew existed until it was burning. Driving later through the area, where charred trees still smoked, I noticed a half dozen old homesteads untouched by the flames. Back in the 1930s and ‘40s, owners had built their homes where springs fed green grass and ledges blocked gusty winds. Each was an island of safety amid tinder-dry fuels — bunch grass, sage and bitterbrush. These farmers knew the land and wisely used its aspects to shape a hard existence into a productive life.

  • Basalt Cliff

    Basalt Cliff | Electric City, WA | 2013

    Around 5 million years ago, heated basalt oozed repeatedly through cracks in the Columbia Basin’s surface. The flows spread and cooled, forming a vast, rolling volcanic plain. The basalt hardened into six-sided columns that continue even now to tumble, crumble and shed pieces. Highway 155 between Coulee City and Grand Coulee displays stunning basalt cuts and cliffs — vivid reminders of our state’s fiery past.

  • Soup

    Soup | East Wenatchee, WA | 2012

    TV’s angry chefs, agents of stress and struggle, often ignore the great cooks’ key ingredient: Love. Take soup, for instance. Love your chicken stock, vegetables, spices and meats. Chop, stir and simmer with respect and presence. Deeply appreciate the magical mix of flavors and aromas. Be grateful to serve a bowl to family and friends. Love them with food chock-full of care and spirit. TV rarely gets that right.

  • Hush

    Hush | Lake Wenatchee, WA | 2012

    Wind whistles, rivers rush, footsteps fall with a stomp or scrape. Movement in nature rarely happens without producing sound. Yet we can stand deep in a forest and witness trillions of snowflakes, hundreds of tons of frozen water, succumb to gravity with barely a whisper — no, make that utter silence. An environment completely and quietly in motion, in fact undergoing radical change, has to be one of the world’s greatest and most peaceful spectacles.

  • Winter Trailer

    Winter Trailer | Twisp, WA | 2013

    William died a few years ago, but his trailer stands resolute through the seasons. It looks small from the crest of a nearby hill — too tiny to house such a big-hearted guy — and mice and birds have likely moved in. But William’s presence lingers even as Nature slowly reclaims the site. We remember him on every walk past his place.

  • White Shed

    White Shed | Moses Lake, WA | 2013

    Poplars bring straight-up relief to the Columbia Basin’s recumbent landscape. Thousands of the limber trees have been planted as windbreaks, but Basin travelers most appreciate them as skybreaks — foreground high rises against a backdrop of billowing clouds.

  • Tough Guy

    Tough Guy | Okanogan, WA | 2012

    When I was 10, we had a rogue rooster who for weeks dive-bombed us from a pine tree every time we stepped outside. Each morning before school we’d make a mad dash to the car to avoid his sharp claws and lightning-fast beak. One day, Dad shot him with a bow and arrow. The rooster, now doubly aggressive, lived for days to continue his kamikaze ways. He eventually slowed and then mysteriously disappeared. All that was left: a dozen or so feathers, three relieved kids and one scuffed-up arrow.

  • Wiring

    Wiring | Wenatchee, WA | 2013

    A tech-heavy agency requiring miles of new wiring moved into an upstairs office space. For weeks we heard the whir-whir of cable being pulled through conduit — then silence. We tiptoed up the back stairs to find connector cords splayed like neural innards. My co-worker picked up a strand. “Maybe these plug into their brains and spines,” he said. “Tell me again .. what agency is this?”

  • Scrunchie

    Scrunchie | Twisp, WA | 2013

    Hair care is loaded with cheap, simple inventions that affect millions of lives. What’s more basic than a comb or bobby pin? And though more complicated, scrunchies wield great power as holders of hair for when women spring into action. Tying back locks to ensure clear vision and reduce distractions has become a “battle ready” precaution for, say, leading a mountain rescue or making baby’s lunch. One elastic band transforms her from dinner-date fashionable to kickass professional.

  • Rural Mailbox

    Rural Mailbox | Twisp, WA | 2012

    What’s more utterly fantastic than a lone mailbox at the intersection of two gravel roads in the middle of nowhere? It’s a portal to exotic places and a receiver of valuable information. Millions of people use mailboxes to channel emotions — anger, happiness, affection — straight into the hearts of those who matter. Each isolated box is part of a gazillion-dollar delivery system that, in many ways, connects soul to soul. Most fantastic: The cost to send love across 2,400 miles to my aging Mom is 49 cents.