just just just Kerry Park!

Today's adventure brought me to Kerry Park in Queen Anne. Actually, it was a bit of an adventure... I got lost! Well, at least now I know where Glazer's is located! Anyway, I made it to my destination... I think it is only the second time I have been in Queen Anne (the first being about a year ago when I went to Chopstix for my going-away party. Yes, dear friends, it has been just about a year since I left for DC!) I love it up there....

So, the park looks pretty unassuming from the street....

But then, look at the art work....

Ah, isn't the view amazing?

Amazing at sunset...

... Amazing at twighlight...

An amazing view of Alki...

... And yes, amazing at night.

I had fun up there... I used aperture priority, but it usually set the shutter at 30 seconds. Interesting. I started in ISO 400, but ended up going to 1600 as it grew darker because of the whole 30 second thing. NOTE TO SELF: put a remote timer on the list of stuff from Kits (or maybe Glazer's???). OH, and a new tripod; oh man, my tripod came apart twice while I was there. oh dear. I didn't use any filters (well, UV is a given, no?) and had fun going up and down the park looking for the right angle. There were quite a few photographers there; particularly at twilight, and it was a very pleasant atmosphere, in general.

As I left, I found another little park-like area at the end of the street that would probably have some fabu shots of the Olympics at sunset (did I really just write fabu? man, I am sleepy.)

Thanks for checking out my cool Seattle skyline shots! Hope you have a good weekend.

It is a tradition

Ok, we figured it out... Del and I visited Mt. St. Helens the day after his birthday last year. That trip was awesome; we were enchanted by the magnitude of the mountain and the gravity of its history.

We knew we would be back.

After an internship in a place far far away, six crazy months of grad school, and an intense roller-coaster ride we made it back... on Del's birthday-ish again! It has been on our radar all summer; I have the webcam and 7-day weather forecast bookmarked! This weekend turned out to be a good fit for weather and busy hiking schedules.

Turns out that early September is spectacular on the volcano. It was a gorgeous day & perfect for hiking... sunny but not too hot, and (almost) perfectly cloudy.

The plan? hahaha ha.. Thats funny. Like our many other ventures, this hike had a rough idea of places we wanted to go, but ended up following whatever adventure the wind had planned for us. Today's exploration started with a closed road that shouldn't have been closed. Luckily, we had a shiny new Garmin Rhino in hand (thank you Al! you are so awesome) to help us figure out alternative routes. A muddy, boggy, branchy, yet beautiful side trip later we found ourselves back on course for the Fawn Lake Trail.

As I am writing this I am realizing that I have about a hundred stories from the day. Since I aim for brevity but have trouble stopping myself when I am on a roll, I better just wrap things up... so here is the day in a nutshell: headed out EARLYish Saturday, learned that Applebees in Chehalis doesn't open until 10am, couldn't take the road we wanted, found another way (thanks again, Al!), hiked.. a lot, got sidetracked in mud, del almost sunk in quicksandish mud, found the trail, talked to the nice hunter guy who had many maps, took some great pictures, found the "trail" despite not seeing it (um, al, thank you ssoooo much), hiked up and up and up to places I never imagined in my life I could hike to, reached our destination (fawn lake) which turned out to be absolutely amazing (even more so after seeing some pics of what it looked like after the eruption.... see links below), took the nice forest service roads back to the truck (Pinky Vista!), still had enough daylight to explore Coldwater Lake & watched the sun set behind the ridge as we left the park. The day was complete with a trip to Olive Garden in Olympia, because.... it is a tradition.

Now that you now about the day in a nutshell, here are the pics... enjoy.

The Log by Pinky Vista

I am not sure if this was taken at Pinky Vista, but I think that it is the closest Way Point... I love how you can see Mt. St. Helens in the background, and the cloudline covers its current ridge. You can just imagine what the dome must have looked like before the eruption.

Forbidden Flower

Much like my attempts to macro at Rainier, today's macros were challenging due to wind. To get the shot below I held the flower with one hand and hit the shutter release with my other hand. I used my new f1.8 50mm and Canon close up filter.

The Third Plateau

I used an f22 aperture and a circular polarizer for this. There is a long story with this shot, but the basic idea is that at this point in the day I felt very accomplished. It was at this point that I realized I never, ever imagined that I would be able to accomplish the hike we were on. My how my life has changed in recent years.

The Trail, 1 & 2

So, from the third plateau we climbed even higher to reach the Fawn Lake trail. For this set of pictures I tried to use the depth of field tricks that I learned two weeks ago on the Rainier trip. The first pic is how I initially composed the shot, then the bottom one is using the "put your tripod up high then angle the camera down" technique. I also used a circular polarizer and hand-held my cokin 2nd filter.

Wonderment

We did it. We made it the Fawn Lake overlook. I wasn't sure what to expect, and my goodness, the view was breathtaking. I didn't take very many pictures there because I knew I couldn't adequately capture its beauty.(Del can though, and I can't wait to see his pictures!) Both of the pictures below were taken hand held, the first with a polarizer and the second with just a UV filter. I did a little bit of editing at home; the first one was too dark and the bottom one was toooo bright.

I also did a little google search when I came home and found a few pictures of this area following the eruption: one is from the US Geological Service, and the other is from I don't know where. When I saw those pictures I was amazed at the resilience of the area; It is so lush now. One might even say lavish. Note, if you look at that first pic, we were stationed at the top of the ridge. wow!

Coldwater Lake, 1 & 2

A tradition wouldn't be complete without a trip down memory lane. We headed to Coldwater Lake to revisit a few sites from last year's trip. This is kind of a weird place, I can't explain it... must be the altitude. Anyway, the lighting is tricky there, and I spent a lot of time trying to take the first picture. I tried a UV filter, polarizer, 2nd filter, and blue gradient filter. I wanted to capture the rocks on the lake shore AND the peaks in the distance. The pic below is ok... still not what I was imagining, though. Another day then?

There is a trail that runs along the side of the lake. It is quite lovely. We didn't go on it last year, but Del's eagle-eyes spotted it from across the dock this year, so we headed over to explore. I like the way that this pic below turned out.

And, of course, I took some more macro shots. The Coldwater Lake trail is perfect for me for macros because the hillside shelters most of the wind! Unfortunatly, time was quickly zipping away, and I managed only one last macro to wrap up the day.

As always, thanks for looking at my pics! Mt. St. Helens is beautiful, and I am thankful to have had the opportunity to have an adventure...

St. Edward the Fourth

Well, I tried it again.... I attempted to get some shots from St. Edwards State Park ...for the fourth time. My previous attempts to get some pics from the park were complicated by looming darkness and crummy weather. This time, my challenge was time; I had just over an hour to spare Thursday afternoon between work (in Bothell) and a meeting (in the U-District). In my world, Kenmore is on the way to the U-District. (just like Bellevue is on the way home from Ballard). I did enjoy my little trip there, and yes, will be back... hopefully for more than an hour.

The Seminary

The first two shots are of the old seminary. It is such a neat building. I used my polarizer on the top one (awesome sky, huh?) and used my new depth-of-field skills to capture all that lovely grass in the foreground. If only they were flowers. The bottom picture is a close up of the brick near the rear entrance of the seminary... I used my new canon f1.8 50mm, canon close up filter AND a little sideways cokin action.

In the Grotto, Part I

My mission for this trip was to find the grotto. It was surprisingly easy to find! I took many pictures here, mostly messing with the white balance (hmm, shade, sunny or auto?) but also mixing up the composition a bit, too. The bottom two pictures were taken from the same spot, only adjusting my tripod up and down. I didn't use a polarizer or cokin filter for these, and kept my aperture at f22.

In the Grotto, Part II
It was a little eerie to hang out in the alcove section of the grotto. I am not sure if it was an alter or what, but it was vibey. I felt weird taking pictures there and like I was offering up my camera when I set it on the ledge to switch out filters and lenses. Oh well, guess that's where faith comes in handy, eh?

For "In the Grotto, Part II," I have three pictures taken from the same spot. The first one was my first attempt. I set up my camera, I think at f22 still, metered and pressed go. Well, you can see, the rocks in the foreground are too, too dark. I had a bright idea... use fill flash! So, the middle picture is an example of what the rocks look like with a little flash. Better, but still not quite natural. Then, I figured it out. Try a mid-range f-stop (I think it is around f14?), keep the shutter open a little longer & use my cokin filter sideways to tone down the sunlight. Sideways cokin is the new orange.

In the Grotto, Part III

And then I busted out my new lens & close up filter.

Random-ish Side note: I have a little story that makes me chuckle; when I was taking the seminary picture (the very first one on this post) some landscape workers zipped by in their trendy golf-cart-mobile and one guy said "look at that weird chic." At first, I was a bit annoyed (um, who are YOU calling weird? Weirdo.) but then I thought, "wow, if he thinks I am weird taking pics of the building I wonder what he would think of my macro shots... ha!"

So, with that funny notion in mind... here is a mossy rock. Macro, of course. Taken on the steps into the grotto, of course. On a tripod with a self-timer, of course (btw, I NEED to get a handy little remote, the 10-second timer is getting old...). And, in true Lori-dawdling style, it took me about five minutes to take this pic because I kept experimenting with different settings. Take that, weirdo landscaper guy.

Now that I am using some powerful close-up tools, I have a new appreciation for the wind. Before, if there was a nice breeze, I would take it for granted, its coolness going undetected. Now though... now I am trying to get some beautiful berry shots I am supremely aware of the wind. Their delicate branches sway so easily in the faintest of breezes, resulting in many blurry shots.

The shot below is of the trail that runs near the grotto and heads down to the lake shore. It is a fine example of my multi-tasking abilities. I managed to set up my tripod, compose a shot with a limited range (50mm grrr!) and carry on a conversation with my mom (complete with directions to Home Depot). Not bad.

Newman Roses 1, 2, & 3

I arrived early to my meeting and was delighted to see a bunch of roses outside the chapel. How lovely! I used my tripod for all of these, an ISO of 200 (it was windy so I wanted the ability to use the fastest shutter speed possible) and a bunch of different f-stops. I also moved the camera around to different angles & heights. I used my close-up filter on the top two, but removed it for the bottom one. Also, the bottom one has some slight editing (white balance, curves & contrast); I only took one shot at this angle. I didn't have a chance to try any different settings because by that point my friends were arriving and I drifted into conversations....

Another day, another shoot. I have had the XTi for one month now. I am amazed at how comfortable I am with it, and with the adventures I have had this past month. September is looking like it will be an adventurous month, too... ;)

Thanks for checking out my pictures & for reading all my random commentary. Aren't those roses beautiful?

Takin' A Break

Hi there! I had a busy weekend, but no pics to prove it! I plan on heading out to some cool places this week, though, so check back again in a few days.

Show me your teeth

Above: Ty & Brandon

After using my compact macro lens on wildflowers and random branches, I figured I needed to try out the portrait quality on that thing before my two-week return window was up. Naturally, I headed up north, where smiles and goofy faces are in abundance.

Above: Corbin

My brother-in-law is the self-proclaimed smartest, um, person alive (there is an inside joke that goes a bit differently than that, but we'll save that for another time, eh?). I figured he could give me a straight-forward opinion on the ease of use of the lens. I was having trouble with it; it felt really clumsy and I couldn't figure out the right distance for macro vs. portraits. He took many random pictures (he inherited the randomness when he married my sister. sorry dude.) and introduced me to a new way to get Corbin to smile for pictures... "Show me your teeth."

On my northern adventure, I also took some close-ups of my cousin's lacrosse stick and one of Corbin's toys. The pictures turned out ok, but with each shot I felt like I was weighing more on luck than on control of the lens.

Above: Lacrosse, anyone?

Above: This thing is actually tiny

Above: See what I mean? Luck, pure luck.

Above: Headphones work better this way.

So, the pics turned out all right. It was still clumsy and ackward and involved a lot of unnatural poses. "Corbin, look at auntie... Corbin, over here..." tends to wear on the poor kid being photographed, the photographer, and any one else in the vicinity.

I ended up borrowing Cole's 1.8 50mm and close-up filters and heading back up to Arlington. The 1.8 is sooo fast; I was able to capture some more candid moments of Corbin (check them out below). Who knows if my work will ever make it into a gallery; who knows if anyone will ever want to buy it... one thing I do strive for, though, is to create photos that my friends and family will cherish... they are the audience that matters, right?

Oh, one more thing to note: that adorable rocking horse. My grandpa made a handful for the grandchildren when we were younger... that thing is 30 years old! I love it; and it is such a wonderful feeling to watch my sweet little nephew enjoying it, too.

Weekend Adventures, Part II

Sunday was awesome. I went to Mt. Rainier with my friend, Cole, for a photography lesson with Randall Hodges. Randall is a nature photographer who shares his skills with new photographers via lessons out in the field.

Sunday's class brought 12 budding photographers to the Mt. Rainier National Park at the crack-o-dawn. I am not kidding. As I left Bothell at 1:40 am I thought, wow, most people are just wrapping up their Saturday night functions. My adventure was just beginning.

The Reflections Lake Series

Despite our early departure from Seattle, and arrival at the Nisqually entrance at 4:18am, we some how became totally, totally turned around in the park. Long story short... we arrived at our first spot, Reflections Lake, just as the "good" light was fading and while the morning sky was still quite pretty, it wasn't very interesting.

I have included three pictures from Reflections Lake. The first picture was taken in Aperture mode at f22 with a UV filter. I wanted a good "before" picture; if I were to use my trusty "little Canon" (I mean my beloved A520) it would probably end up looking just like that. Washed out and zzzzzz. For the middle picture, I was still in Aperture priority, but I used the Cokin filter. Nice sky, huh? The trees looked dark on my LCD, but I *hoped* they would show up better on a regular monitor. When I got home I realized that all of my trees were dark. Huh? That stumps me because the clear part of the gradiant filter should have let enough light through, yah? Oh well. I made some adjustments with the Canon editing software (gasp, its true!) to get the third picture, below. Before this trip I would have never, ever, thought about leaving in the middle of the night to go catch a sunrise at Mt. Rainier. But now, I am hooked. I want to go back.

Oh, you may wonder "why was she in Aperture priority?" Well, that is what Randall recommended. I figured that since I was there to learn from him, I should be a good student and follow his directions. Actually, I had to keep reminding myself that all day. Its interesting because my pictures turned out different than usual... except the ones waaay at the bottom; those are totally Macro Supergirl shots ;)

The First Hill Series

When we arrived at the Reflections Lake location, I was a bit disappointed that the shoot was taking place in the parking lot. It was a great location, but what fun is it to go to a mountain and shoot from a stinkin parking lot. As we approached the group, I muttered "A parking lot? Are you serious? This is weak sauce. Weak sauce." Cole had no idea what I was talking about.

Luckily, after about 40 minutes of shooting at the lakes we caravanned to our next destination: the Paradise Trails. The rest of the morning was spent climbing up, up , uphill. Definitely NOT weak sauce; quite the opposite... it was Odaleedo.

Our first stop was a pleasant meadow along the trail. All twelve of us set up our gear. It was crowded. Since my Reflections Lake shots had Mt. Rainier centered, I composed this group with the mountain to the side. The sky was so pretty, except for one big 'ol cloud. It reminded me of the Sunset Park shoot on Thursday, where there was one stinking cloud covering most of the Olympics.

Again, I used aperture priority, probably still way out at f22. This time, though, I used a circluar polarizer AND cokin filter. Randal suggested turning the polarizer so that the sky was really, really dark. So I did. (see the first picture). When I looked at the picture at home I felt that it was too dark (not like I pictured it), so I made some white balance and contrast adjustments to create the middle picture. The third picture I am kinda proud of... I had moved my camera around a bit and had taken some pics where the mountain was cut off a bit more. I asked Randall if I was on the right track with my pictures, and he repositioned my camera and said try this compostion (I didn't post those pictures, but basically he said less sky and show more of the mountain). The third picture is the one that Randall composed... not too different from the ones I had taken a few minutes earlier. Not too bad, eh?

I moved down the trail a little bit and was able to catch a little bit of a stream, too. The picture below (to the left) is one that I composed, and subsequently adjusted a bit when I got home. The one to the bottom right is one that Randall composed. I guess I am not too far off track, composition wise. Seeing what a difference just a little bit of tweaking can do helped me realized that I need to slow down a bit when composing. Just for fun, I converted my pic into black and white. Ansel is my hero.

The Second Hill Series

Once I saw the little stream, I didn't want to leave the area. But, the crummy part about being on a group lesson is that you have to move on. Plus, there were a ton of wildflowers there. Water features and flowers? Sadly, I was a diligent student and carried on with the group.

I'll be honest, the next destination was not as much fun for me. By the time we got to this spot, the clouds had slipped behind the mountain in full force. They weren't even cool, contrasty clouds either. Just blah. It didn't help that it was crowded with all of us, and there were more trees around. The trees were cool (very, very cool!) but it was a challenge to compose, given the cramped conditions. Oh... except when this photogenic marmot made an apperance on a nearby rock. Then everybody grabbed their tripods and used up a heap of their available memory on the little marmot. Always a contrarian, I didn't follow the crowd, and was instead, finally able to plunk my tripod down in peace and compose a decent shot.

While I was packing up for the next destination, I saw a group of dedicated hikers on another trail. I loved the way they looked, and a Lori-shot zipped in my mind. I could see it! The angle of the trail complimented by the line of hikers with their uniform backpacks. They were moving fast. I had to think fast. I put my camera in auto-mode and snapped the pic below.

So sad, isn't it? Its crummy. At that moment, I missed my little canon, and the freedom I used to have with it. With the little canon, I just take pictures that interest me. I love the spotaneity. Moments like this are just captured; no stress, no strategic use of aperture/shutter, no metering. Just see what grabs your eye and go.

For a few minutes I was like one of those cartoon characters that had a little cloud over their head and a scowl on their face. My packback weighed a ton by then and the people were getting to me.... and then I heard that our next destination had a ton of wild flowers. My ears perked, the cloud vanished and I smiled all the way to the next stop. aaaah, flowers.

The Third Hill Series

When we got to this place, Randall said that the overcast sky is perfect for macro shots of flowers. Huh? I guess it is just my own style to like a soft, sunsetty type light on them, or some sort of backlighting. The shots from this spot were really quite tricky; the lighting was crummy, it was super windy (which, btw meant I was cold & you know what I am like when I am cold? grrr, huh?), and there were a lot of hikers getting in the shots.



I do like the way that they turned out. I guess I am still feeling the frustration that I always feel out in the field; I cannot capture things in my camera as beautifully as they appear to me in real life. That is not yet my gift. It was amazingly beautiful, and neat to see the way the trees and flowers changed at the different altitudes.


The two pics below were taken in, of course, aperture mode. This time it was at about f10 and I didn't use a polarizer. The first pic is "as-is" and unedited, while the second picture has some white balance, contrast and RGB adjustments.


























Its All Down-Hill From Here
Oh, I mean that literally. After the last meadow it was 11 am and the class was wrapped up. Randall thanked us for attending the class and gave us free reign of the mountain. Cole and I figured we would be back again to explore this enchanting mountain, so we decided to head back to the car and take pics along the way.


I wanted to get a shot of the tail headed down, but some guy was in my way. I waited patiently for him. Then he took off his backpack and proceeded to take many, many pictures of a stinkin marmot. Grr. Get out of my shot! I figured I could sit there like a dummy and get all irritated or I could set my 10-second timer and take a nice, cheesy shot of myself on the mountain. Go cheese. (ps. at this point, you've probably noticed that all my skies are kinda turquoisy. Del, any insight on how to fix this? I still have the raw files...)

And then, we saw waterfalls... right near the road! Still technically weak sauce, but still very cool. I switched to full manual mode for these.

Throwing out all of the landscape skills I had acquired along the trail that day, I fell into my old habits...I fell of the wagon... I succombed to my addiction. That's right. Flowers.

I took these near the side of the road.

Three Barista Coffee
This pic is called "three barista coffee" because, honestly, it took three baristas (and a good 15 minutes) to make 'em. Dang.

... the end.

p.s. I highly recommend a trip to Mt. Rainier. There are tons, truly tons of amazing features to shoot. Plus, it is challenging... it challenges you physically (um, it is a mountain), the climate is challenging (the weather changes! and it is windy), you really have to tap into your creativity (it is hard to get a non-cliche rainier pick, you really have to work on the composition), and then there is self-control (when do you stop?). I hope that you enjoyed my pics, and thank you for reading all of my random rambling.