The next time someone asks why you live in this part of Oregon, you might want to hand them a copy of “The Spirit of Central Oregon,” a gorgeous 11-by-11-inch coffee table book. Shot and put together by members of the Cascade Camera Club, the 220-page book had an original print run of 1,000. With only about 300 copies of the book left, it will likely be a sellout.

“Something for everyone” is a tired phrase, but not when used to describe the photos in this book. There is plant life, wildflowers, wildlife, rivers, waterfalls, landscapes bursting with color in summer and draped in white in winter. But the area’s active lifestyle and its culture is also captured, with pages of the book dedicated to fishing, paddling, dogs and their owners, rodeos, horseback riding, skiing, climbing, cycling, fireworks displays, quilts and much more.

The project was more than two years in the making, and came about as a result of the COVID-19 shutdown, said Robert Agli. Agli is a member of the 75-year-old photography club and has well over a dozen photos in the book, including the cover shot: a stunning photograph of a sunlit Smith Rock in Terrebonne.

The club has about 80 members and meets twice monthly at Larkspur Community Center, on the first and third Mondays of the month. The first Monday of the month is dedicated to photo critique, Agli said, and the second is for different programs.

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When the shutdown made meeting in person impossible, “A former president of the club realized that the club was breaking apart because we couldn’t meet, and was looking for ways to keep everybody together,” Agli said.

“The Spirit of Central Oregon” features photos by 42 of the club’s members. It was primarily put together by Ric Ergenbright, a former National Geographic photographer, with a committee of five giving input. Another professional photographer represented in the book is Bruce Jackson, who produces popular prints and posters of natural settings and is a member of artist-run Tumalo Art Company in Bend.

“The whole idea of the book is, the principal concept is, when somebody is visiting you, or anyone asks you the question, ‘Why do you live in Central Oregon?’ you hand them the book,” Agli said. “You say, ‘Just leaf through this book, and this should give you an idea of why I live here.’ If you’re into landscapes, it’s there,” Agli said. “If you want to know about farm life, activities, it’s there.”

“These are going to be collectors’ items,” Agli said. “The book sells itself. As soon as people see the book, the first thing they say is, ‘I want to buy a book.’”

In that case, “The Spirit of Central Oregon” is $60 and is available at cascadecameraclub.com. Shipping is $8, but there is an option to pick it up in person for locals.

Capturing and reducing the breadth of Central Oregon’s beauty and culture in even a book the size of this one was one of the biggest challenges, Agli said.

“There’s so much going on around here. The joke is on any given weekend, there’s three things you want to do and you can only do one. This is just to capture some of those,” he said. “If we put in everything that we wanted to put in, you’d need a cart to haul the book around.”