His son, his boat and a shared sunset

Scott Fricke’s old point-and-shoot was looking a little too worn for a dad-to-be.

The Glen Ellyn man had used it to fill albums with thousands of pictures capturing vacations and family milestones.

His wife, Christy, knew he would be snapping plenty more when their first child arrived, so she gave him a Canon PowerShot SX2015.

“I carry it with me everyday,” Fricke, 36, said.

The avid shutterbug naturally grabbed his camera when he and his now 18-month-old son, Liam, set sail on his 1963 Thompson boat on Long Bay of Lake of the Woods, Ontario — their first boat ride together.

“While I was driving the boat, he actually fell asleep in my arms,” said Fricke, a project manager at a Naperville architecture firm.

As the sun was setting on their “maiden voyage,” he steadied his camera on the boat’s windshield. His focus wasn’t just the summer sunset.

Peering through the lens and competing with the fading light, he centered the bow of the boat in the frame, attracted to the texture of the wood on the 15-foot vessel.

“I’ve been around boats my whole life,” Fricke said. “That’s why I wanted to include it in the picture.”

The Daily Herald photo staff selected his photograph as the month’s top picture in our Photo Finish contest for November. Fricke will receive a $50 gift certificate from PJ’s Camera, 662 Roosevelt Road, Glen Ellyn.

DuPage Photo Director Scott Sanders praised the image.

“I like it because the composition is very clean with no unwanted elements in the photo,” Sanders said. “The result is a photo that has a very peaceful quality to it. It reminds me of some of my own vacations, too.”

Fricke, who received his first camera from his dad at 8 years old, estimated the trip to Canada yielded more than 1,200 photos.

“Oh boy,” Fricke said when asked how many he’s amassed. “My family makes fun of me for taking so many pictures. I don’t know if I can count them all.”

But he insists on keeping a tangible reminder of those family moments.

“I like capturing every bit of my life so I can keep a record of it,” he said.