The Columbian | Serving Clark County, Washington

Lara Blair started out photographing people, but came to realize they weren’t her favorite subjects.

“I started looking forward to my dog sessions more than my people sessions,” said Blair, a 39-year-old Vancouver resident and owner of Lara Blair Images in Camas. The longtime animal lover has a 4-year-old beagle named Daisy.

Blair photographs pets in her studio and also goes into their homes for “dogumentaries,” which chronicle a day in the pet’s life through photos.

Blair recently had an article on turning a passion into a niche business published in the trade magazine Professional Photographer.

Blair donates her talents to various animal causes, including the Humane Society for Southwest Washington and the Pixie Project, a Portland no-kill animal shelter.

Images she took for the Pixie Project are featured in People magazine and American Dog Magazine this month.

“It’s been awesome,” she said. “When you’re charitable and you do the work for these organizations, the good stuff comes back. But that’s not why you do it. It’s icing on the cake.”

Writer spins hardship into poetry

John Porter of Washougal now can hold in his hands the product of the hardest time in his life. His book, “The New Testament: A Poetry Version,” was recently released by PublishAmerica.

In 1993, Porter lost his job of eight years, took a loss on the quick sale of his home and spent four months caring for his bed-ridden wife as she died of cancer. He turned to the Bible for solace. He has a bachelor’s degree in theology from Point Loma Nazarene College, so he was already very familiar with the Good Book. But as he read the New Testament during this difficult time, he responded in poetry.

“I just started reading the Bible and that’s what came out of it,” said Porter, 60.

In 2007, Porter, who writes as J.A. Porter, decided to try to get his poetry published.

He called the release of the book “thrilling.”

“When you go from this world, you leave a piece of you someone else could pick up and read.”

Vancouver woman hopes to shed light on history

The decision to update her 2004 book “Vancouver Barracks and a Walk Up Main Street, Vancouver USA” was an easy one for Vancouver’s Wanda Bafus.

She knew an update was in order when she ran out of copies of the first edition.

Bafus feels so strongly about sharing Vancouver’s history and telling the city’s story that she gave several copies of the book away after its initial printing. “If somebody doesn’t tell it, it will never be told,” she said.

Bafus, 93, recently published the second edition of “Vancouver Barracks,” boosting the page count from 70 to 97 pages. She added information about longtime Vancouver businesses such as Erik Runyan Jewelers and Sparks Furniture. Bafus also wrote about the Vanport flood of 1948 and the Army Reserve’s 104th Training Division, which is scheduled to move its operations by June to Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma.

“I want people to know about the history,” Bafus said. “It was something I thought people would be interested in.”

Bafus has lived in Vancouver since 1933 and hopes that readers come away with more knowledge of the city’s history. “You could do every bit of your shopping on Main Street. There was a store that sold everything,” she said. “It’s different today.”

Bits ’n’ Pieces appears Mondays and Fridays. If you have a story you’d like to share, call Features Editor Elisa Williams, 360-735-4561, or e-mail elisa.williams@columbian.com.

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