Reflection - Mount Rainier National Park, Washington

The title of this post has dual meanings. The obvious one is as a description of this scene. Pre-sunrise light was just beginning to light up the lake, creating silhouettes of the trees with corresponding reflections in the smooth-as-glass waters of the lake. The other meaning is not part of the scene but rather a side effect of the scene. As I walk to this spot, the glow of the sun is nowhere to be seen. I needed a headlamp to find my way to the lakeshore. I haven't seen any sign of life either on the road or on my walk down to the waters edge. The silence all around me is deafening. There are no sounds to be heard which make my thoughts seem more clear to me. There is great clarity in my mind. I am not really thinking about the photos I am about to take. Instead, I am reflecting on how lucky I am to be here. Alone with nature. Realizing that I am just a small cog in this wonderful world we live in and being able to partake fully in its beauty this particular morning. I think of all of the paths that I took in my life that led me to this spot.  No distractions anywhere this morning but taking in Mother Nature's beauty. Soon my thoughts will change. I'll starting thinking about composing my photos as the horizon begins to light up. I'll think about photography things when the sun begins its daily rise into the sky. I'll wonder how the majestic mountain out of sight on my left will light up. But that will be in a few minutes. For now, I am still reflecting on the mysteries of life as I stand on the shoreline of Reflection Lake.

 

Artisan's Barn - Uniontown, Washington

The Palouse is home to many types of barns that dot this landscape of farms, but the one that  stands out from the rest is the Artisans at the Dahmen Barn. Located near the southernmost edge of the Palouse, you notice from the distance that its white color is in stark contrast to the area's red and brown barns. The closer you get, you realize that you have never quite seen a fence like this, constructed with over 1,000 wheels.  As you pull into the parking lot, you realize that this is no ordinary barn. It is home to some very original art made by local artisans that is on display and for sale. The barn also houses several studios where artisans can create their masterpieces. The studios are also used to conduct classes on creating art.

The barn was built in 1935 for Jack Dahmen, who used it as part of his commercial dairy operation for 18 years. He sold it to his nephew Steve and his wife, who had interests in the arts. Steve began building the wheel fence over the course of 30 years. In 2004, Steve donated the barn to a local non-profit organization with the stipulation that it be put to a community use that evolved into its present day operation. 

Heading to the La Sals - Moab, Utah

The American Southwest is famous for its desert scenes and sandstone rock formations. It has been made famous thanks to being featured in countless cowboy movies and television shows. I would guess the majority of people (of a certain age) are reminded of these media creations that take a romantic look back to the era of the Wild West. I know that when I stand on some dirt road  with no one around, my mind takes me back to my childhood when I played cowboys with my friends. What little boy that grew up in the fifties and the sixties wouldn't have wanted to be standing on the dirt road I was on when I shot this photo? The orange color of the dirt and rock formations that permeate the southwest, along with the snow-capped La Sal Mountains in the distance and the blue sky, is a virtual time machine to the days long ago. I almost hear the hooves of the calvary horses in the distance ready to appear at the end of this dirt road. 

Different - Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont

And now for something completely different. Many of you who are fans of  the Monty Python's Flying Circus television show that aired between 1969 and 1974 will remember the previous sentence as one of their favorite catchphrases. They used that to move from one segment of the show to a very different segment. I thought I would use it to transition from my normal landscape photo to this photo of a carousel horse that I spotted at the Shelburne Museum last year. The museum is an amazing eclectic collection of Americana and art located on 45 acres near Lake Champlain. The displays range from lighthouses to covered bridges to numerous examples of New England architecture to renowned art exhibits. I found this carousel horse in the unique horseshoe-shaped Circus Building. In it, there are amazing miniature displays showcasing the hand-carved miniature Arnold Circus Parade that stretches the full 500+ feet of the building. On the other side, hand-painted carousel figures are on display that were made by the renowned Gustav Dentzel Carousel Company. The museum is a great place to spend the day (you will need most of it) if you are in the area.

Working the Scene - Death Valley National Park, California

Zabriskie Point

Sometimes landscape photographers forget that it is important to give a scene some sense of scale. I know that I am often guilty of that myself. We become so enamored with the beauty and magnificence of a location, we assume our resulting photos will convey what we are seeing to the viewer. Don't get me wrong, viewers often do get the beauty through our photos, but what they don't always appreciate is their scale. Placing a recognizable element in the scene will easily remedy that situation. When I saw my great friend Jaki Good Miller working the scene down the trail at Zabriskie Point last December morning, I knew she would be the perfect addition to bring the scale of this iconic location to life.

Bow Lake - Icefields Parkway, Banff National Park, Alberta

One of my friends recently told me that they were trying to figure out if I was actually in the place that I had posted a photo from or not. I get that question quite often. In fact, often enough that I thought I would explain my process. First and foremost, I travel a lot in retirement, but some people think I am on the road continuously. That is not the case. On average, I may get out on photo trips four times a year. 

I think the fact that I post photos from so many different places gives others the impression that I travel more than that for photos. When I go on these trips, I shoot lots (thousands) of photos. I almost never edit a photo on a trip as I want to edit them on a large screen. When you see me post an iPhone photo or a video, it means that I am probably at the location or have just left it. When I get home, I usually edit about ten photos right away and post them over a couple of weeks. I have others that I have set aside to be edited, but I choose to put them away for some future date. Why don't I edit all of the keepers right away? Several reasons. First, I have found that the more I edit, they all begin to look similar because I have processed them in a certain frame of mind (I believe that photographers' editing tends to reflect how they are feeling). Second, my processing skills are always evolving, which will allow me to produce hopefully better results down the road. Third, the editing software that I use is constantly improving, so I might be able to get more out of a photo that I can today. Fourth and most important is that I have been posting on my blog for over six years. If I keep posting the same trip until I run out of keepers, I believe my followers as well as myself would get bored.

Hopefully for those who wonder where I am, this has answered that question. So why did I post this photo today? Well, I just got back from Oregon and have posted a lot of Oregon photos since I have been back. I typically look at my keepers collection in Lightroom and just scroll them and pick one of a place that I haven't posted in a while and just seems to fit my mood at the time I am looking.

Barn - Pullman, Washington

I am getting pretty excited for my upcoming trip back to the Palouse next month. I have been there twice before, but this time it will be a bit different. I am co-hosting a Photo Tour there with my buddy Jeff Clow, who runs a terrific photo tour business. Jeff has only visited the Palouse once before during the harvest season last August. I am excited for him to see it in the spring, as it is totally different. At harvest time, everything is all shades of gold and brown when the crops are beginning their journeys to people's tables. Spring, on the other hand, is very different. Gone are all of the shades of gold and they are replaced by shades of green that signify the rebirth of the crops. Gone is the dust that the harvest brings when the giant farm equipment cuts the crops and the trucks drive them to the granaries. That makes for a quieter and more peaceful environment. I think the barns stand out more in spring, as they contrast well with the green landscape and they are everywhere. In all shapes and sizes. Some old and decrepit, others looking brand new, and yet others somewhere in between, like the one in the photo. All in all, I am looking forward to showing the spring to Jeff and the many friends (both old and new) that we will be hosting next month.

Secluded - Cape Meares, Oregon

This is what most landscape photographers want to find when exploring. Discovering a place that is the epitome of what they think the location they are scouting should look like. Thanks to some really tedious research before the trip, we found  an ideal spot, far from the crowds. Blink and you missed it. Climbed down to the beach and all we found were two locals - both fisherman. The scene was just what the doctor ordered. A brief glimpse of the blue sky. A waterfall to the right of me creating this small creek in front of me. Large driftwood scattered on the beach most likely fallen during some severe storms. A giant sea stack almost on the beach with a few trees growing out at its top. The distant cliffs with the seeming always present fog and mist. The rolling surf of the Pacific Ocean that relentlessly pounds the coastline. And to top it all, very secluded that allowed us to have a great experience by ourselves save a couple of fisherman.

Algae and Waterfall - Tolovana Park, Oregon

The Oregon Coast has some really neat beaches that offer hidden surprises that are just waiting to be found. I had been to this beach a number of times before and considered this a JAB (just another beach -- a Jeff Clow saying). What I discovered on this trip was that I probably visited it when it was high tide. Go at low tide and all of these hidden gems appear as if by magic. Sea caves aplenty. Waterfalls around the curve in the coast. Colorful algae marking how far the Pacific Ocean comes in during high tide. Try to find this kind of scene on the Atlantic Ocean coast--I haven't seen anything like it. 

This particular scene really attracted me for several reasons. First the waterfall and then the sea cave caught my eye. What really took it to the next level for me was the color of the algae and the rock formation that definitely looks like a cutoff foot. This composition certainly does not take full advantage of the cave and waterfall, but it was the only angle that I could make the foot "come to life".

Stacks on the Beach - Bandon, Oregon

Golden light. That is what most landscape photographers will tell you. Shoot in the golden light. It makes everything look better. I have never appreciated this tenet of shooting landscapes more than on my recent scouting trip to the Oregon Coast with Jeff Clow. Up to the point of the trip, we had been in Oregon praying for any type of light instead of raindrops and bleak skies. Sure, we took a few photos along the way, but we both knew that most of them would never see the light of day. Unexpectedly, we checked into our hotel in Bandon and saw that the sky was clearing and that we might actually see the sun (we hadn't for five straight days) and headed to the beach. Just as we got there, I shot this photo where you can see the clouds moving east, allowing the sun to light up the seascape. A welcome sight for sore eyes. The evening kept on getting better and better and we were quite thankful that we were able to see the Oregon Coast as it should be seen -- in great evening golden light.

Wizard's Hat - Bandon, Oregon

On my scouting trip to the Oregon Coast with Jeff Clow last week, we actually hit one evening where we had that elusive magical light that had abandoned us on the other nine days of the trip. If I could have picked in advance just one place for this to happen, it would have been here. We had just arrived in Bandon, which I will now refer to as Oregon's sea stack heaven. It had rained off and on during out drive and we had just checked into our hotel. We decided to check out the beach as it began to clear up. Once there, the evening just started getting better and better. We hadn't planned on staying there long as we were both pretty hungry, but as we shot the scene from the overlook, I turned to Jeff and said, the light is too good, I am heading down to the beach if you don't mind. He didn't, so off I went.

One of the sea stacks that I wanted to shoot was Wizard's Hat, pictured here. Each of the sea stacks have their own names, such as Face Rock and Howling Dog. If it were not for the hotel clerk that checked us in, I might not have found it easily. The reason is that when looking from the sea stack from the south, it resembles a howling dog. When looking at it from the north, it resembles a Wizard's Hat. Since I approached its stack from the south, I might have looked for another sea stack had she not informed me of that fact. Anyway, the light was great, the clouds were amazing and no matter which direction I shot it from, it was going to be a good shot.

Tall - Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park, California

After Jeff Clow and I reached our last stop on our Oregon scouting trip, we actually had some free time to do whatever we wanted to. Before the trip began, we resolved to ourselves that we would try to visit Redwood National Park if we had time. The hidden benefit to experiencing bad weather on the trip was that we had an afternoon to do just that. What we didn't realize was that the redwoods stretch for about 470 miles down the coast of California (there are some in the southernmost part of Oregon) and that the National Park was simply too far away to visit. We didn't know that until we reached the Jedediah Smith Redwood State ParkVisitor's Center and found out that there are several State Parks that surround the National Park and they are all run as one big park.

After talking with the Park Ranger there, we decided to visit Stout Grove, which wasn't too far from where we were. The road there has pretty narrow dirty holes with quite the number of potholes. Once there, the parking is limited but there were a couple of spots still open (good thing we weren't there in the summer). The trail is a loop trail that is a little over a half-mile long and pretty flat. There we were treated with the tallest trees in the world. The tallest redwood in Stout Grove is 342 feet tall (the tallest known one is 380 feet tall) and it is extremely difficult to convey their size through a photograph -- I know we tried. It is safe to say that you must see them in person to get a sense of how big they really are. I liked this particular tree, as the light was really nice on it, which I hopes accentuates on how tall it is.

Leaning Tree - Cape Arago, Oregon

Many of those who follow me on social media were able to hear about the weather challenges that Jeff Clow and I experienced on our ten day scouting trip to the Oregon Coast. Along the 362 mile coast, we were subject to rain (lots of rain); snow, hail and gale force winds. Jeff had found out that the region had thirty-eight straight days of rain on the day we got there, and I can safely say that that number totaled forty eight on the day we left. We added up the time that we actually saw the sun and I think it totaled maybe a day and a half, most for just an hour before the deluge would start again.

Since this was a scouting trip for one of Jeff's future Photo Tours, it wasn't all bad. We accomplished what we had set out to do -- visit over two hundred possible photo locations and rated each one for it's worthiness to visit during the tour. It would have been nice to get some great photos had the weather cooperated but the main goal was accomplished. The one thing we learned for sure, the tour will not be held in April.

I shot this photo during one of the periods where we actually had a little sun. I particularly liked how the tree at the end of the cliff looked like it was ready to fall into the Pacific Ocean below. 

Granary - Palouse, Washington

A funny thing about the Palouse. You start looking on back roads for certain types of subjects and you discover very different ones. We had started down a dirt road east of Steptoe Butte looking for some possible sunrise spots that would show a different side of the butte. We found what we were looking for with some great vantage points to revisit in the mornings (we have yet to shoot at sunrise but will next month). After finding these spots, we decided to keep driving on the dirt road and came upon this old granary sitting all by its lonesome. The sky and clouds provided a great background, and the ground behind the granary was golden due to the fact that it was harvest time. A nice unexpected find. 

Ohpir Pass View - Uncompahgre National Forest, Colorado

I have been in Oregon most of this week, and will be there all of next week scouting the Oregon Coast with Jeff Clow for an upcoming photo tour (yet to be scheduled). There are so many places across the US that are simply beautiful in their own right. Just before I headed out on the road, I accidentally came across this photo that I took when I was in Colorado a couple of years ago on a photo tour with Rick Louie and Chris Nitz. Talk about a beautiful location. We had headed out from Telluride and headed through and over the San Juan Mountains. We stopped at the top of Ophir Pass and this view just captivated me and the foliage was peaking. It was just one of the many amazing scenes that we saw that day. After crossing the San Juan's, we jumped on the Million Dollar Highway (It is aptly named) for further exploration.

Teton Cabin - Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

No, this isn't the iconic Thomas Alma Barn that is visited by photographers from around the world. This is just up the street from that barn on his brother John's homestead. John's homestead is best known for his pink house, even though he also has a barn. The brothers arrived in Jackson Hole in 1907 and settled on two parcels of land. The log cabin in the foreground was built by John where he lived for ten years and then with his wife and family for another seventeen years (the famous pink house was built in 1934). John built the cabin in the background in 1945 for his son and his wife, but they only stayed in it for a year. It served as a bunkhouse after that. In 1953, he sold the property to Grand Teton National Park, but retained a life lease until his death in 1990 at the ripe old age of 103. 

I wanted to make the first cabin the subject of this photo to show what it must have been like when John settled there in 1907. No electricity, water or any modern conveniences. I can't imagine it was an easy life, but who needs them when you have the Tetons as your back yard? Just think about this. Photographers flock to this area (known as Norman Row) to capture the amazing sunrises. John spent 83 years there and was able to see over 30,000 sunrises during his life there.

Tranquil Setting - Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Why do landscape photographers get up at o'dark thirty, hop in their cars and drive sometimes long distances to take photos? To experience this scene is why, and maybe you are able to capture a few good photos while you are there. You won't get this photo at any other time of the day, except maybe for sunset and the experience will not be the same. Why won't it be the same type of experience? My answer is twofold. 

First, most popular sunrise locations are virtually deserted and you often are sharing it with no one else. On this morning at Sprague Lake, I was the only one there. As a result, there were no distractions, no people talking or running around, just me enjoying the tranquility and oneness with nature. I am pretty sure that during sunset later that day, I would have encountered a lot of people and the experience would not be of the same quality. Secondly, landscape photographers know that the best time to get a smooth-as-glass lake that perfectly reflects the subject is extremely more likely during sunrise. Once sunrise occurs, you can usually bet that you won't see mirror-like reflections the rest of the day. So, when you think that landscape photographers are a bit crazy to get up so early, keep thinking it, because we think everyone else is a bit crazy for missing these experiences.

Brandywine Falls - Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio

Cuyahoga Valley National Park is a very different kind of national park from others that I have visited. Located just south of Cleveland, Ohio, it started out as a a recreational area in the 1870's, and later became a National Recreation Area in 1974. It was later designated as a national park in 2000. The park is nestled in and out of communities, and to get from one part of the park to another, you actually drive through neighborhoods. There are no spectacular formations or mountains that you find like those in the west. It is a quaint park, with lots of hiking trails, waterfalls, hills, and a river running through it (Cuyahoga is a Mohawk word meaning crooked river). 

This photo depicts the park's most famous waterfall, Brandywine Falls. There is a nice boardwalk trail that takes you to the falls, but it only gives you a fixed view. Leaving the boardwalk is not permitted, so it is hard to shoot it from other angles without being significantly blocked by trees and branches. Nonetheless, it is quite a relaxing and tranquil location.

Along the Trail - Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

I have done my share of hikes in the west and most of them are memorable for different reasons. Some are exhilarating due to their difficulty or heights that give you wondrous views and vistas. Others are favorites because, as you traverse the trail, there is beauty all around you. Some are memorable because you shared the experience with close family or friends. No matter what the reason, they are experiences that you never forget.

The Park Avenue Trail in Arches National Park is not overly difficult (mostly flat), nor is it overly long (1 mile one way), but the scenery along the way and in front of you is beautiful. It got its name due to the sandstone walls that tower over you, reminding one of walking on Park Avenue in NYC. The rock formation at the end of the trail (pictured here) is known as Courthouse Towers. I love this hike because of these formations but, even more so, is that I first shared it with my son after he graduated from college. We spent two weeks exploring Utah together and this was the very first hike that we did together. I will always remember that hike and him whenever I am there, and it makes it one of my all-time favorites for that reason.

Golden Hour Glow - Gold Beach, Oregon

If you haven't figured it out by now, Gold Beach is my favorite spot on the Oregon Coast. Are there other spots along the coast that rival it? Sure, but if you like sea stacks (like I do), this is the place to go. Interestingly enough, the town did not get its name for the golden light that lights up these stack daily but rather the discovery of gold near the mouth of the Rogue River in the late 1800's. No gold remains in the mines, but there still is photographer gold in those hills (okay, beaches).