Lynnwood photographer's photo will be used on postage stamps

posted: Saturday, April 23, 2016, 12:01 a.m.

LYNNWOOD — final summer season, suddenly, Kevin Ebi acquired an e-mail. an organization that works with the U.S. Postal provider was inquiring about a stunning image on Ebi's nature photography website. The message requested if Ebi, who runs his dwelling wilderness Nature images business from his Lynnwood home, would trust the usage of one in all his photographs taken in Hawaii for a postage stamp. "Who says no to that question?" stated Ebi, 42, who launched his photo company in 2003 and a year later left his work as a radio broadcaster. Ebi's fabulous image, "Rainbow on Haleakala," will now be considered nationwide as a stamp on cards and letters all through this year's a centesimal anniversary of the country wide Park carrier. On April 15, the countrywide Park service introduced that Ebi's photo of a rainbow over the crater at Haleakala country wide Park on Maui is the 10th of sixteen perpetually Stamp photographs being revealed this month to rejoice the company's centennial. A superb analyze superstar trails over Mount Rainier, previewed Wednesday by the countrywide Park service, is additionally among the centennial collection. a primary-day-of-problem ceremony for the national Parks forever Stamps is scheduled for June 2 in ny, and dedications will even be held at parks shown on the stamps. "here is certainly a career excessive. You rarely see a nature photograph on a stamp," Ebi observed this week. The photographer's good fortune comes at a time of personal worry. Ebi's spouse, Jennifer Owen, is in need of a kidney transplant. She is now being handled with dialysis five days a week at their domestic. Owen, also forty two, all started having kidney issues in her 20s. In 2004, she had transplant surgical procedure on the Virginia Mason Transplant core in Seattle. Her cousin was the kidney donor. Ebi referred to she is on a ready checklist for a kidney. Their hope is that a dwelling donor could be discovered. docs, Ebi referred to, have advised them a kidney from a dwelling donor might closing 25 years. As Owen waits and undergoes just about three-hour dialysis remedies, she works full time for Bio-Rad Laboratories, a clinical and science machine business. Dialysis, Ebi referred to, "maintains you alive, nonetheless it doesn't provide the life you had." Owen can not travel remote places like she once did along with her photographer husband. She did accompany him to l. a. in January. That shuttle changed into for the outlet of a "100 Years of country wide Parks" demonstrate on the G2 Gallery, which specializes in nature and wildlife photographs and has commonly displayed Ebi's work. Ebi remembers the cold, wet watch for his lucky second in Hawaii. The graphic on the stamp became shot along with his Canon 1Ds Mark III digital camera on a stormy day in November 2008. "It turned into nasty weather, a horrible thunderstorm," he referred to. "You land in Maui and or not it's sunshine. You get the condominium automobile and power higher and higher. The right of this mountain is a bit over 10,000 feet," he noted. He wanted to catch a sunrise for instance one of a collection of reports he is doing on native legends. His plan changed into to scout out Haleakala country wide Park's crater a day forward of taking the break of day shot. however the storm didn't let up. "I couldn't see anything else," he referred to. As travelers in the vacationer center ran for his or her cars, Ebi huddled backyard in a jacket expecting a ruin in the climate. When a rainbow regarded, he also saw the reds and purples of the historical volcanic cinder cones. "i needed a rainbow falling on the rainbow of the cones," he talked about. With the rainbow off to the aspect of the crater, he began taking images. In 90 minutes, the climate allowed simply just a few moments for the shot he desired. "The picture on the stamp changed into next to the remaining of these opportunities," he pointed out. "One shot and it turned into gone." by chance, he discovered some thing pleasing that day. Ebi's transition from radio to images also happened nearly by accident. From 1997 to 2004, he was a economic information anchor at KIRO radio. He worked 5 a.m.-1 p.m. on account of the hours of monetary markets in ny. "There changed into a whole lot of time to go mountain climbing each afternoon," he observed. He begun taking a camera on his treks. Ebi majored in economics and communications at Pacific Lutheran institution. His photography education changed into self-taught. "My photographs received more suitable and stronger, and that i began putting them up on a domain," he talked about. quickly, editors have been contacting him. Ebi's photographs have been published in country wide Geographic books, country wide natural world magazine, a national Park carrier e-book and with articles on the Smithsonian establishment site. His work changed into featured in a 2014 Pennsylvania gallery display marking the fiftieth anniversary of the wasteland Act. His photos of Mount Rainier's Emmons Glacier and of the Cowlitz Chimneys are displayed on two massive murals at Rainier's first light tourist middle. For the stamp photo, Ebi noted he turned into relatively but not richly compensated. "The postal service is broke," he quipped. "It was a good fee, however i am no longer buying a boat." photography has taken Ebi to unique locales world wide. "i really like taking images," he pointed out. for a lot of of these journeys, Owen became at his facet. "She become totally lively. We traveled in all places Iceland and New Zealand. We had been using bikes for 20 miles on a weekend," he observed. They now work to raise cognizance of the need for organ donors. Ebi waited out the rain to catch a rainbow. Now, he and his wife watch for one other type of miracle. Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com. greater assistance and the way to assist find Kevin Ebi's dwelling desolate tract Nature images at www.livingwilderness.com. guidance in regards to the national Park provider and U.S. Postal carrier Centennial Stamps is at www.nps.gov/subjects/centennial/postage-stamps.htm. For counsel about the way to support Ebi's wife, Jennifer Owen, with her need for a kidney transplant, call the kidney donation line on the Virginia Mason Transplant center at 206 341-1201.