I knew the title of my 5th book of photographs before I even started assembling the pictures. Well, I sort of knew it. The first person I discussed it in depth with was my sister, at the beginning of week-long girl's getaway at a special place in Mexico. I told her the title for the book would be I Hope You Found What You Were Looking For. She knows better than anyone that my life has been a journey of "looking," that I've been using a camera for discovery and navigation for six decades. She listened patiently, while I explained my concept for the book and gave me immediate support and encouragement. The only thing that bothered her, she admitted, was the use of the past tense in the title. But you're still looking, right?

I told my sister I'd give some thought to changing the verbs in the title of the book to the present tense. The next morning I took a meditative sunrise hike on Mt. Kuchamaa, a mountain long regarded as sacred by Native Americans. The spiritual quality of the mountain has been described by Natives as a place "where you get your power." On my hike, the pages of a book fanned out on the trail in front of me. Something magical happened as the sun rose. I knew for certain I was on the right track - about the book and about myself - and the path became filled with light and hope.

The book contains 60 photographs and includes poems by Kim Stafford, a Pacific Northwest poet who served a two-year term as Oregon's poet laureate. I see each of the images as meditations, similar to the quiet footsteps I took that morning up and down the mountain.