My father, Les Blacklock did most of the “Land of sky blue waters” still photography for the Hamm’s beer ads. Our red canoe was featured in many of them, the scarlet canoe contrasting with the greens and blues of Canoe Country. That was an aluminum canoe.

I purchased this Old Town Otca for my dad as a birthday present around 1982. Unfortunately, Parkinson’s disease prevented him from taking it out on his own, but we did do one trip together with it. I used it as a prop for several well known photographs, the most famous was used in our book, Minnesota Wild and also on a best selling poster from that series.

I took it out of storage last week to use for my upcoming book on the St. Croix watershed. It was the first time my wife and daughter had seen it in the water. What a difference to sit in a piece of art, on caned seats, compared to the aluminum canoe we have always used!

I’ve had the idea for the paddling image for about a year, so it was fun to finally make it. I must have made nearly 100 captures of my wife, Honey paddling, to get a few that worked. Still not certain which I’ll select.