Kris Cavin has a new career in Central Oregon but hopes to come back on occasion to take photographs of special events
KC Fresh, where have you gone?
Physically, he is in Central Oregon now.
Emotionally, though, he will always be tied to Camas and Clark County, especially in the high school sports world.
Amateur photographer Kris Cavin, known on Twitter as KC Fresh and for never charging athletes for his photographs, has moved to Bend, Ore., where he is starting a new job.
“I’m going to miss you dearly,” he said, referring to the community, “but I’m not dying. I’m just farther away. I’ve relocated, but I’ll be back.”
Still, it will not be the same.
Cavin has been a fixture at Camas sporting events. At least three events a week during the fall, winter, and spring sports calendars. Oh, and not just at Camas. His following on Twitter led to more athletes asking him to come to their games. So there he was at a Columbia River game, or a King’s Way Christian game, or a Union game.
Plus, when he was covering a Camas game, he often took pictures of the opponents, and he would post those pictures, as well.
Eventually, he had two Twitter accounts. The @KCFreshInc account showed some photos but also gave him a chance to showcase his personality. A teen in the 1980s, Cavin often posts: “Today is going to be so rad.”
Then he opened up his Photo Time account @itisphototime that was used just to post picture after picture.
Known mostly for sports, he also took photos of Camas theater and other events put on by the school.
The KC Fresh name was just kind of a fun way to be different on Twitter.
“I’ve never ever in my life gone by KC, ever, ever, ever, and now everyone in the community calls me KC,” Cavin said.
That is the power of the photographs and the man producing those photographs.
He has been recognized with community honors, including the Volunteer Spirit Award from the city of Camas. The high school awarded him nine varsity letters. The school district also honored Cavin with the Mill Town Pride Award.
His work has been published by media outlets throughout the state, including Clark County Today.
As Cavin noted, though, this is not goodbye forever. It just means he won’t be a regular at Camas events.
“I’ll certainly come back when I can,” Cavin said.
With the exception of those special events, it looks like Cavin’s “official hobby” as KC Fresh The Photographer has come to an end in Clark County.
His last event was, indeed, special. He took hundreds of photos on Nov. 20 in Puyallup, capturing memories as the Camas Papermakers won the Class 4A girls soccer state championship.
“I just remember, all the way home, smiling from ear to ear,” Cavin said. “The very last official Camas event I did was the state championship, brought to me by the girls soccer team.”
It was taking soccer photos of his children that got him started in sports photography.
It is his children who led him and his wife Jennifer to this next adventure.
Their son lives in Bend now. Their daughter, about to graduate from college, is going to live in Bend, as well. And earlier this year, Kris got an opportunity to change careers and be closer to family.
After a successful run as an insurance salesman in Camas, Cavin is entering the real estate industry in Bend. Kris and Jennifer decided it was now or never if they were going to make a move, and they would never regret moving closer to their children.
The Cavins made the decision but did not tell too many people at first. From October, every time he went to Doc Harris Stadium to cover a soccer match or a football game, he had no idea how many more times he’d be blessed to “work” there, he said.
“It’s breathtaking to me. It’s the greatest stadium in the world,” Cavin said.
A while back, he went to a couple of Camas sporting events all alone, no camera. His camera was getting repaired. He hated it.
“I felt bad about the photos I wasn’t able to take,” he said. “It was painful for me to watch a Camas sporting event just through my eyes. I had to watch them through a photo lens.”
Now, he says, he will be following the Papermakers on social media and by reading about the teams online.
He will be around on occasion. But it won’t be the same.
Ladies and gentlemen, KC Fresh has left the state.
Note: For more on Cavin’s rise from new businessman in Camas to becoming the ‘unofficial official” school photographer, see our profile we posted in 2020: https://www.clarkcountytoday.com/people/in-focus-kris-cavin-is-kc-fresh/
