April 20, 2018 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com • 7A
Simmons steps down as member of academy board
Phil Simmons
resigns after
years of service
By Brenna Visser
Cannon Beach Gazette
FILE PHOTO
Phil Simmons, center, with board members and students of
the Cannon Beach Academy in 2016.
The Cannon Beach Acade-
my is in search of a new board
member.
Phil Simmons, a longtime
Cannon Beach Academy sup-
porter, is taking a step back
and resigning from the acade-
my’s board of directors.
Simmons is one of the
original supporters who was
at the forefront of keeping a
school in town after Seaside
School District closed Can-
non Beach Elementary School
in 2014 due to budget short-
fall and tsunami inundation
concerns. After five years on
the board, Simmons said he
felt a need to “take a break”
and submitted his resignation
this month.
Simmons said he chose to
resign as an active member of
the board to make more time
for travel and family, but in-
tends to continue attending
meetings and be involved
with the school.
“I’m still amazed we’ve
been able to pull it off,”
Simmons said, reflecting on
his time with the academy.
“What seemed to be an im-
possible challenge five years
ago, through the perseverance
grade next school year, hiring
more staff and expanding fa-
cilities like the playground
and kitchen to accommodate
a growing student body. As
the academy becomes more
established, the board is also
looking to set up a formal
fundraising committee to en-
courage a more steady stream
of funding for years to come.
While there will be more
growing pains to come, Sim-
mons offered some advice to
whoever takes his place.
“Throughout this pro-
cess, many of the decisions
we made were not what we
thought we were going to do,
but they ended up being the
best decision,” he said. “Keep
an open mind.”
of so many allowed us to not
only open a school, but do
quite well.”
In the last five years, Sim-
mons played an integral role
in securing the school’s char-
ter, fundraising efforts and
grant writing.
“His drive, belief and de-
termination is what got us
here,” said board president
Kellye Dewey.
“He kept us going through
so many trials and tribula-
tions,” board secretary Patti
Rouse added. “He’s been in-
valuable.”
With Simmons departure,
the board is looking fill his
role as the school approaches
new ventures, including ex-
panding the grades up to third
Nature photographer Hodges lives his
dream amidst the mountains and the sea
New gallery
showcases a
career’s worth of
images
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By Brenna Visser
Cannon Beach Gazette
Randall Hodges has al-
ways loved hiking.
A Eugene native, many of
his childhood memories in-
volve fishing and walking the
trails with his mom through-
out the Pacific Northwest.
“The first time I hiked
above treeline, man – I was
totally addicted,” he said.
But what he loved equal-
ly as much was taking photos
of the beautiful sights. After
cresting a timberlined ridge or
hiking to a lighthouse at sun-
rise, he would try to explain to
people how much more beauti-
ful these scenes were in person
than the photos could show.
“Then I realized I needed
to learn how to take a better
photo that would explain it-
self,” Hodges said.
So what if, he thought, he
could make his two favorite
things his life’s work?
This leap of faith blos-
somed into a long career
that has led Hodges to the
North Coast. After decades of
dreaming, earlier this month
he finally realized one of his
biggest career goals: to open
his photo gallery, “Images of
the West” in Cannon Beach.
It was a long and winding
road to get here — quite liter-
ally. Since beginning his pho-
tography career, Hodges has
hiked more than 27,000 miles
all over the West Coast to get
the dramatic nature shots that
hang on his wall.
In many ways, hiking was
a refuge. It’s where he found
peace after quitting his band,
which inspired his move to
northwestern
Washington
more than 30 years ago. It’s
where he went after he decid-
ed to quit his 12-year tenure
as a high-end chef in Seattle,
a career with which he was
growing disillusioned.
He decided the way to get
paid to hike was through his
love of photography.
“I’ve always been known
as a hiking photographer.
So one really bad day at the
restaurant, I locked myself
in my office and I wrote a to-
do list that said in one year I
had to quit my job,” he said.
“Then one year later, I did.”
To get established as a
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Photographer Randall Hodges taking shots of Mount Rainier.
photographer, he traveled 26
times a year for 14 years to
present his photography at ev-
ery art show he could find in
the Pacific Northwest.
But after a few too many
days of blustering winds
knocking over his exhibit
booth tents, Hodges made
it a goal to open his first
brick-and-mortar gallery in
Edmonds, Washington, four-
and-a-half years ago. He then
jumped on the chance to open
another in Cannon Beach after
seeing his dream property on
Hemlock Street open up earli-
er this year.
“It encompasses every-
thing I love about my business
and photography. (Cannon
Beach is a) great location to
shoot pictures, and a fantastic
town separate from anywhere
else you go,” Hodges said.
What makes Hodges work
stand apart from the others,
he said, is that every image is
produced in the camera — that
means no Photoshop, no edit-
ing. Instead, he has honed old
film techniques to create the
images he wants. Sometimes
it will take him years to get
the perfect photo. Sometimes
it takes visiting the same site
22 times if the lighting isn’t
correct, he said.
His commitment to au-
thenticity doesn’t go unno-
ticed, he said. He has made a
whole business out of teach-
ing people uninterested in
learning post-production edit-
ing techniques his method in
photography classes.
“In an age where you ar-
en’t sure if you are looking at
a real image anymore, people
know they are seeing what I
saw when I took that photo.
They are standing right next
to me on that beach and on
that mountain, and they know
it look liked that.”
For the next few years,
Hodges will be managing the
gallery remotely from Ed-
monds until his wife retires
from her position. But once
they make the move down,
they are here to stay, he said.
“We hope to be in Cannon
Beach for at least 15 years,”
he said. “That’s the dream,
and we just have to make it
work.”
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