Advertisement

Help legendary Oregon surf photographer Mark McInnis rebuild after losing everything in devastating Holiday Farm Fire!

"His home, his digital photographs, film negatives, family heirlooms, clothes and everything he owned is gone."

The recent fires in Washington and Oregon have devastated so many. As an Oregonian, I watched in horror as complete towns became engulfed in flames, entire regions laid bare. The Pacific Northwest’s surf community is small and tight and I discovered, yesterday, that the legendary PNW surf photographer Mark McInnis had lost everything as his house burned to the ground.

Chris Burkard, who recently appeared on Dirty Water and is very near a saint, set up a Go Fund Me for his good friend, writing:

Friend & photographer, Mark McInnis, has brought joy to many with his images of distant waves and remote landscapes. He recently moved back to his home in the PNW only to have the recent Holiday Farm Fire completely decimate the community of Blue River, Oregon. And with it, his home. The salt in the wound is that this tragedy occurred just prior to finishing a year long project of backing up his entire collection of images offsite. He was left with nothing. His home, his digital photographs, film negatives, family heirlooms, clothes and everything he owned is gone. We are talking well over six figures of loss. The harsh reality that Mark’s cameras and entire library of images and backups were all set ablaze is a learning lesson for any creative person, especially when your livelihood depends on it. My hope is that we can give back to Mark to get him back on his feet and hopefully repay the joy that he has given all of us through his photographs. And, for the record, Mark refused to set this up himself. It took some harsh words from a friend for Mark to realize that we are grieving as he grieves and that the way we heal, is to help. So while he may not ask for help, but he genuinely needs it. Furthermore, in true McInnis fashion, Mark is insisting on donating 10% of all donations over the $30,000 mark to The Upper McKenzie and Volunteer Firefighter Relief Fund. Thank you in advance for supporting my great friend, a valued member of the photography community and an inspiration to us all.

If you have every enjoyed McInnis’s beautiful work, or care to help, please click here.

And thank you.

0 0 votes
Article Rating

Commented on Disqus? Log out, tap the Disqus button, and your old name and comments come back. The box is ours.

Join the discussion

Your comments are still here. Every one of them.

Twelve years of BeachGrit comments came across from Disqus. Connect and we will show you how many are yours. We get your username, nothing else.

Unclaimed
Handle
Comments
Posting since

Connect Disqus to reveal.

Subscribe
Notify of
54 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
commenter

Come on.

How many surf photographers actually qualify as “legendary?”

Divine, Brewer, Stoner, Chang, Merkel, King, Severson, Grannis.

Clark Little? Too soon. But he’s made more money than all of them put together.

Bev Morgan is underrated. I was bugging Connie to do a book but she blocked me because I rag on Trump so much.

Who else?

What does it take to be legendary?

That word is thrown around waaaaaaayyyyyy too much.

ValiantScorn

You’re an exceptional comment responder. Have a nice day!

commenter

Soy numero uno.

NEGATRON

Ben you do realise you’re doomed to waste your life pissing on the Guy thats doomed to waste his life pissing on the dead and dying surf industry.

commenter

Naw this is just a hobby.

Got bigger fish to fry.

Bluefin tuna is now #1 by the way.

Ed

Just asking for a friend.

He can afford a holiday home but not Insurance?

Waterproof Polo

Have an upvote for being the Forrest Gump of the commenting sectionals.

Waterproof Polo

I feel like a boss snatching one from the crowd. Far from dirty yo!
*Edit when/if I get one

Billy Hunt

Or it could halve (being an extremely volatile stock)?

What are the key internal and external drivers of the stock price?

Hippy

Cool that other people help your dad.

Hippy

de Rigeur?

commenter

Yeah de rigueur is the English spelling.

They add that extra u like colour and favour and boneur.

Phat-wan kerr

“Depending on what is announced at Battery Day the stock could double overnight.”
true,
it could also plummet off the back of some random IG post or tweet.
by the way, you can get a car for 400 bucks, which for a lot of people, (think those have just lost everything in a fire) would be far more useful than a share in an “extremely volatile stock.”

Waterproof Polo

Or Elon could take off back to his home planet!

Tom

But why??? You write an essay on merits of grammar – bored??

Waterproof Polo

He has post comment remorse more often then not. Major commitment issues our Benny boy.

commenter

It is proper spelling and grammar that distinguish us from the Mongol races.

Mapski

What do you have against the Mongol races? The Mongolian Derby is the longest horse race in the world! Won 640,000 Togrog on Shiravsamboo Galbadrakh in 2009. Easy money.

commenter

My mother’s village was sacked by Dingus Khan – she calls him Dingus Khan – and she had just gotten the washing done and Dingus and his Mongol hoardes ruined all her hard work.

Unforgiveable and her stories passed that dislike on to me.

ValiantScorn

You just repeated China talking points. So, you’re a hipster punk who never gets laid, and wants people to think you are some smart market investor. Lamborghinis, blah, blah…..
You’re broke, and work at Starbucks or something. Hey, somebody just od’d in your bathroom, go clean up. Then check your TSLA stock….ON BREAK~

Tom

With all your genius spell checks above it is “lose” not “loose”!!!!

Gadoot

You are a genius writer who’s unrelenting compulsion to spell and grammar check is legendary.

commenter

“whose” not “who’s”

Are you a Mongol or something?

Billy Hunt

Sorry, what’s TSLA and why should I care?

ValiantScorn

It’s a stock on the exchange, and it is about to plummet. Hope little buddy shorted. Battery story is about to “burn” his plans. He’s bragging about people who waste money on stoo pid things, and then talks about his stock choices. This man is screaming to get laid, and somebody think he has money.

FL Skunk Ape

Any time I surf in CA I feel dirty.

commenter

Naw, last winter I went to M____ L____ and was reminded of how big and nasty and perfect that place gets.

Solid eight foot, only a few guys out and it was just firing non stop..

Crowds not a problem. Drowning and sharks and hypothermia a problem.

Nat Young the Younger was one of them and he was destroying it on a 6′ 3″

California gets really really good if you are in the right place at the right time.

Chas Smith

When was the last time you were in the right place at the right time, Ben Marcus?

Hippy

Questions to ask Ben Marcus

1. Why did he get hired at Surfer? Must of been a reason.

2. Why would anyone continually brag about living in Waikiki longer than a hotel stay?

3. I don’t trust stock advice from my broker, why Ben?

4. Vegas gamblers and Russian brides? Who thinks about these things? Now down on his luck after that Norway trip for Surfer 25 years ago???

You’d think that trip would buzz you for 30 years easy. What about residuals? Dayum they owe Ben money for sure. I’m sure someone holds the written contract?

5. If only I could contact Ben, I would give him a pile of money to invest.

Hippy

Ben, I’m just having fun with you because you know it all. I am pretty much always sarcastic, most folk don’t need to be reminded.

I would like to interview you.

Waterproof Polo

Every time the rich buds are passing out stock tips!

commenter

I won part of a jackpot hand at the Hustler Casino not too long ago.

The guy to my right had Aces full of Kings and the guy to my left had Four Aces.

This was a $4/8 table and the normal jackpot was doubled to $30,000, so we all got a nice chunk of change.

That was what inspired my Russian wife to start playing poker and that lead to Las Vegas and doing that book which involved Tubesteak and Gidget and the Concrete Heiress and all kinds of weird timing.

Truly weird.

Like 10.0 on a Richter scale of synchronicities.

Hawaii had moments. When we were driving back from one of the Surfer Poll parties we saw the best fireball ever – green and red and breaking into pieces flaming east to west toward the KoleKole Pass. That was good timing.

Brock’s deal was sad, but also joyful, kind of like a New Orleans funeral. It was kind of a 90s reunion, although the Champ – I call him The Champ – kind of glowered at me when we were all swimming around the canoe with Jim and Doric aboard, or maybe he was thinking of Chas Smith and BeachGrit.com and how surf media has fallen to shit and he was glowering not at me but past me and I misread it.

Buying Tesla at <$400 was right place, right time. It’s at the $443 split price right now. Hovering around there, hopefully fixing to head upstream like a horny steelhead after Battery Day.

Hope so. I want to buy a Sondors XS. I hear EBikes are the go at Lowers these days: “It’s like an EBike parking lot down there.”

Just being in Malibu in the fall is right place right time, although a little homesick for Santa Cruz – a place that rules this time of year.

But nothing will top the period from 1972 to 1999 for timing and being in the right places at the right times.

The Gods loved me and seemed to give me everything I asked for.

They have since moved on.

Oh well, we have dreams and memories.

Wow I saw Grace Slick in Malibu yesterday.

She is old as the hills, but still going. Would love to chat with her.

https://uploads.disquscdn.c…

FL Skunk Ape

Too cold for me. I like to go south.

commenter

Yep its cold. Especially in the winter when those offshores are blowing out of the Salinas Valley. That’s why I think they should turn the Salinas Valley into a wind farm and line it with windmills from one end of the other. They’re building a huge battery storage area around Moss Landing. Why don’t they fill it full of renewable wind energy?

dickie toledo

where was he when the fire started? did he flee without grabbing his stuff? how did it all go down?

Gwen Walz’s Eyes

“Lose” not “loose” her house again again.

Pot kettle black

Tom

sorry i did not get down this far just said same thing!!!

RedHeadedStepChild

I like what you did there – condemn the use of “legendary” and then brand-drop Lamborghini and Porsche instead of going with “car” or “vehicle”, also adding the “three-story” in front of house.
It’s the subtleties like this that keep the common folk engaged.

Wiggolly's Paddling Style

Go Fund Wiggolly. Christ my life is shit as.

@surfads

A bin fire that rages year-round

Phat-wan kerr

make a nice t-shirt.
Go Fu** Wiggolly.
chin up mate,
can’t be too bad, could be living in a caravan while your old man takes pictures of your greased up peach. or you could be Morgan Williamson.

James Bickerton

When you try to tell that to the young people of today they won’t believe ya … ?
https://youtu.be/ue7wM0QC5LE


54
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x