One of the main reasons I was inspired to launch this WanderLush project, is because I wanted to collaborate with, and share the photographic talents and adventures of, my Dad and two sons. I was especially eager to share Derek’s patient and appreciative images, of the world as he’s seen it. This is a story dedicated to him and some of the images of his recent remarkable Business Travels.
The 2020 pandemic was hurtful and painful to people in varied, specific and individual ways.  For Derek, in his last semester in college in early 2020, it meant a complete and sudden halt to the beginning of his adult life that he’d always worked for.  The internship he had earned suddenly cancelled along with classes and graduation.  It left him with literally nothing to do and no way around it, with no certainly ahead.  It was hard to watch this happen to him at that moment.  Every day for more than six months, the silence from the company that had offered him the internship was deafening and concerning.  Would the call come again?
Yet meanwhile there were lives being lost and heroic work taking place every single day.  It was a fearful time and inspiring to watch the world respond and pivot collectively and immediately to simply what needed to be done every day in order to keep going...  We all watched how some of those things entirely and irrevocably changed the way the world operates in innovative and sometimes freeing ways.  All of us, in varying degrees, had faith that in time, this too shall pass.
Thankfully, after the months of silence had passed, the Houston based company called again and Derek’s internship was rescheduled to begin in early 2021 after a nine month delay.
Derek was guided to the physical commodities trading business in 2019, based on an under appreciated and old fashioned job searching method: developing a relationship with a respected professor at CU Boulder, named Roberto Caccia. This relationship led to an early internship at a smaller Denver based firm, and later its founder recommended him to the Houston based company he’s worked for since then. Tricon Energy was founded by Spaniard Ignacio Torras in 1996. They now have over 20 offices world wide, and trade over 20 products around the globe, including chemicals, fertilizers, and raw materials.
2021 was an eerie time for all of us, but there were many silver linings that emerged too.  One of those for Derek, was the fact that early that year, when the world was slowly coming out of its mourning and fog, Derek tapped a fortunate opportunity. He had the chance to begin his rare (at the time) in-person work life in a formerly bustling and constantly traveling office, that now had just a few people coming in, including Torras.  It offered Derek the chance to get to know and personally work with the founder of this 400+ employee company.  This fact changed the trajectory of his life, as Torras was able to discover Derek’s potential to grow in his business and found ways to position and tap him.
During this time Derek heard many stories of their former work life, and wondered with a mix of angst and hope, whether this opportunity could return to its robust pre-pandemic activity and success. He was so patient… And it was gratifying to see that his patience paid off.  One year later, two years after his graduation, in 2022, the world quite literally opened up to him in a profound way. His first business trip was to Boston in the summer of ‘22.  It would be his first and last domestic trip.  Since then he has traveled to 14 countries for Tricon in Europe, India, Africa, South America and Asia.
His first role that Torras created for Derek, was to provide market intelligence to several trading teams by studying economic indicators and writing reports for Traders. It was a role he relished as it gave him a fast education in the industry and allowed him to have the chance to work and travel with Torras. Since fall ‘23 though, he works as a Junior Trader on one product line where he works to bridge relationships and broker sales between producers and consumers of their products or attend conferences. In the past four months he has traveled to Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Morocco, Mexico, and he is currently in Brazil. Next month he will travel to India, Malaysia, and China. (It’s good to be young!) For this reason he relocated to London last August in order to be more strategically located.
Though time spent devoted to photography has diminished, he still loves to capture the countries he visits. So here is a summary of some of the world as he’s seen it, during his remarkable Business Travel in his young professional life.

Side Note: Derek was born on Bainbridge Island, Washington in the Puget Sound in 1998. There were many artists living there. One made furniture with custom poetry or prayers…
I loved them so I bought a little hand painted coat rack that we still own, with the following custom verse I had printed on it.
My prayer for him then, continues to be as relevant for him then as it is today:
Make Friends
Seek Adventure
See the World
Make a Difference
Seek Peace
Find Joy
Come Home Often