About Betty Sederquist

            Following graduation from the University of California, Davis, she traveled the world for several years. “Lucky” photos of exotic environments and a love of writing and editing pointed her to the career she has followed for more than 30 years: writer/photographer. After purchasing her first Nikon camera in Japan, she settled in Alaska, where she honed her craft working as a darkroom technician and photographic assistant for several commercial photographers in Anchorage. During these early years, too, she looked over the shoulders of National Geographic photographers as they worked on assignment in the North.

            “The low-contrast light in these northern latitudes is phenomenal,” she says. “And of course the subject matter is irresistible. It was hard not to be a photographer in this environment.” Soon she gravitated to book publishing, helping to write and illustrate several Alaska books.

            Betty Sederquist continued building her stock photography files while exploring Prince William Sound wilderness east of Anchorage and flying much of the state via bushplane. Today her stock photo collection includes about 100,000 edited images.

            In the early 1980s she lived in Sacramento, where she became managing editor/staff photographer for Sacramento magazine and then editor. In 1985 she moved with her family to 30 acres in Lotus. When not gazing out her window at a vista of mountains and meadow, she works on various publications and for the last 15 years has incorporated computer design skills into her arsenal of talents. For example, since 2004 she has produced the annual visitors’ guide for the Coloma-Lotus Chamber of Commerce. Her most recent book, A Handbook for Global Careers (2003), underwritten by the Center for International Trade Development/Los Rios Community College District and distributed to college career centers throughout Northern California, draws upon her international travels. She also recently wrote a book featuring historic images of Coloma for Arcadia Publishing.

            From her home she continues to market her images, with sales to clients such as National Geographic books, Ranger Rick, McGraw-Hill, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Steppin’ Out, Sierra Heritage, Sacramento magazine, Serrano and Sunset magazine. In 2010 a number of her images appeared in the coffee-table book, Ghost Towns: Yesterday and Today. She is also represented by several photo stock agencies in the U.S. and Europe. Since 1989 (excluding a several-year break) she has taught journalism, photography and most recently digital imaging at Folsom Lake College and Folsom Lake College in Folsom/El Dorado Center in Placerville.  Since 2003 she has led groups of photography students to Mono Lake and Bodie on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevadas. Recently she has branched into organizing private workshops.

            Although she continues expanding her stock collection on the California Gold Country (see her online magazine, sierrafoothillmagazine.com), she returns to Alaska regularly. In the summer of 2012 she led her 16th and 17th photography tours in Southeast Alaska with Dolphin Charters. On these adventures, up to eight clients at a time get up close with grizzly bears, humpback whales, glacier ice and spectacular scenery during a weeklong trip using a comfortable 50-foot boat, the Delphinus, as a base. In December 2003 and again in December/January 2009/2010 she co-led photography tours to Ecuador, spending time in the high Andes Cloud Forest, Cuyabeno Reserve deep in the Amazon rainforest and also visiting the Galapagos Islands.