Notecards of this image can be ordered here.

All prints are handmade by Peter Ralston on archival rag paper with an archival ink set.

Small Matted Prints - This collection is printed on 8.5 x 11 inch sheets, matted, ready to be framed.

New Work - This open edition is a collection of images created since January 2004. They are printed on 17 x 22 inch sheets.

The Master Prints - This limited edition (LE) collection of 25 images were selected as especially important to the artist. This edition is limited to 50 prints of each image plus ten artist proofs (AP). They are printed on 24 x 36 inch sheets.

Custom sizes of this image are available by special request.

The story behind The Beginning 

On the morning I made this photograph, I was over on the high western shore of our harbor. It was unusually silent, and then I heard the muted drone of a boat coming out of the inner harbor. 

I simply waited a few minutes, and that was that, the first boat out at the beginning of another day’s hauling. 

But more than that, it was the beginning of the day in which two good friends were to marry. It was the beginning of their marital passage through life. It all felt very special and this image became, of course, their wedding present.

And the bride is now a mother, and she helps me with design work, and her beautiful little daughter plays on the floor of my studio office and I love it all and it all seems just perfect.  Because it is.