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WEDNESDAY EDITION
Siuslaw News
Coast Life
❘ APRIL 13, 2016 ❘
SECTION
B
SENIOR NEWS
CALENDAR
INSIDE — 6B
Re fl ec t ed
w av e s
Vern DiPietro’s dramatic photographs
of the ocean gain regional exposure
B Y J ACK D AVIS
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
Siuslaw News
JACK DAVIS/SIUSLAW NEWS
Local photographer Vern DiPietro
photographs Pacific Ocean waves
as part of “Reflections,” showing
at Blue Sky Gallery in Portland,
Ore. Here, he focuses his camera
at Sea Lion Caves on Highway
101 near Florence.
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Ph o t og ra p hy V ie w i ng Dr aw e rs ev en t be i n g
h el d n o w th ro u g h M ar c h 31 , 2 01 7 , at Bl ue
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r e g i on a l No r t hw e s t p ho to g ra p he rs c ho se n f o r
t h e sh o w .
DiPietro, 58, has been working on a
series of reflected wave photographs
for the past six years. Blue Sky Gallery
juror Katherine Ware, the curator of
photography at New Mexico Museum
of Art in Santa Fe, selected his series
titled “Reflections.”
“Reflections” is the distillation of
approximately 40,000 wave images
shot by DiPietro.
This will be DiPietro’s first major
show.
Growing up in Portland, DiPietro
became fascinated with photography
from an early age.
“There was a professional photogra-
pher that lived about a half-block away
from our house. I was doing odd jobs
for her and she would take me around
to gallery openings. I met a lot of
interesting people and got interested in
photography,” DiPietro explained.
In 1971, when he was 13, he saved
his money and bought a Nikkormat
camera body for $225 and a 15-mm
lens for $200.
“My dad flipped out over the price,
but that got me rolling,” DiPietro said.
“Then all my money went into film
and processing.
“It’s not like today when you can
buy a good little camera and just shoot
and shoot and shoot until you get bet-
ter,” he added.
DiPietro moved to Florence the first
time in the early 1980s as a member of
U.S. Coast Guard Station Siuslaw
River. He was an engineer at the time,
but wanted to drive boats.
“I made surfman before I left
Florence,” DiPietro said. “Surfman is a
Coast Guard designation for an enlist-
PHOTOS BY VERN DIPIETRO
DiPietro chose from over 40,000
photographs of waves for his
“Reflections” collection.
ed coxswain to operate surfboats, like
the ones at Station Siuslaw River, in
heavy surf. I actually saved a couple of
lives while here in Florence.”
One of the things DiPietro learned
while training to be a surfman was to
watch out for reflected waves; waves
that crash into rocky headlands and the
energy is reflected back out to sea.
When conditions are right, the reflect-
ed wave collides with an incoming
wave to create a dramatic explosion of
opposing forces.
“The area around Sea Lion Caves is a
nightmare in a boat because of the
reflected waves,” DiPietro said. “If you
are pointed out to sea, you are looking
at the waves coming in, but you have to
be aware that something is also going to
come and bite you from behind.”
His fascination with reflected wave
patterns grew out of his time in the
Coast Guard. He now puts that ability
to good use in his photography.
DiPietro retired from the Coast
Guard and moved back to Florence in
1987.
“I’ve applied before to this show and
others,” DiPietro said. “It’s like any art
form; you get a lot of buzzers (rejec-
tions). I’ve been really frustrated. I
applied to a show in Colorado. The
theme was water. I thought, ‘I am so
in.’ But I didn’t make it.”
His favorite spot to catch reflected
waves is at Sea Lion Caves, north of
Florence at Heceta Head.
“Today, everybody is a photographer
and it is very hard to break in,”
DiPietro said. “That is what makes this
show so exciting. It is a huge deal.”
DiPietro does not have his work
exhibited in any local galleries. He sells
most of his photography from his web-
site, www.VernonDiPietroPhotographer.
com.
All of DiPietro’s prints at Blue Sky
Gallery, at 22 NW Eighth Ave.,
Portland, in the historic DeSoto
Building, are matted to 16-inch by 20-
inch. The gallery is open noon to 5
p.m., Tuesday through Sunday.
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Follow Jack on Twitter@SNews_Jack.
Email him at jack@thesiuslawnews.com.