Richie Hayward served in the United States Air Force as Weapons Load Crew Chief on F4 Phantoms in Southeast Asia. After returning, he spent almost 30 years in Law Enforcement in South Florida. After surviving that, he resumed his passion for outdoor photography and began traveling across Noth America, Central America and Scotland. His work is best described as “Eclectic” as he enjoys all the outdoors. Richie uses all Nikon equipment, some of it a D-90, D-700, Nikon 14-24mm, 80-400mm and 18-105mmm. It’s like Chevy vs Ford, just a preface, as both Canon and Nikon are excellent.
Richie now resides in Jonesborough, Tennessee, the oldest town in Tennessee and the Storytelling Capital of the world. Since his trip to Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park and Preserve, he has learned of plans to build a large gold and mineral mine, the Pebble Mine, a short distance from Brooks Falls. There are some fifteen exploration sites in Katmai National Park and Preserve alone.
The impact of this mine, with toxic tailing ponds up to 3 miles in size, could have a enormous impact on everything from salmon to bears. Even if the so called Fail Safe mine does succeed, there are surely many more to come as the Last Frontier is opened to oil and mineral mining.
For good photos and information, see December’s issue of National Geographic magazine among other publications online.
This month in our gallery, we are featuring the work of Richie Hayward. Click here to see his website.