NPs 4: Day 7 (June 4)

The final day.

Today we were on the beach first thing in the morning, fueled by starbucks, and ready to capture haystack rock at sunrise. I am happy to finally have "my own" shot of this popular destination.

As the warm morning light disappeared, I switched to my Lensbaby for some abstract-style waves.

And here is one last image from the Oregon Coast!

Thank you so much for taking a look. One more NPS down, many more to go. Where will the next National Park vacation be?

NPS 4: Day 6 (June 3)

Is there anything more magnificent than Bandon at sunset? Yes... Bandon at Sunrise!!! We were there right as the sun welcomed the waves for the new day. The bummer part about sunrise shots in June is that sunrise is (yawn) early. I spent my foggy-brain efforts trying to get some interesting long-exposure, dreamy water movement...

As I progressed down the beach, I noticed a group of men digging in the sand... clam digging, I suppose? One guy was riding around between everyone on a bike; seemed like a nice way to start the day. I wish my regular morning routine involved riding in the wind of the sea.

While the man visited with the other guys, his bicycle perched perfectly for a reflective portrait in front of face rock.

We kept heading north along 101 and found made a stop at the Sea Lion Caves near Florence. At first, I considered it a touristy indulgence. I mean, any place that charges admission & sells popcorn should be considered a tourist trap, right? But, after seeing the 2,000 sea lions basking on the sunny rocks, I found myself clicking away with fury. I think I dropped over 200 frames in this place, and it was hard to narrow it down to just a few ...

Along the way we spotted the Heceda Lighthouse... isn't it so cool? We plan on heading back one day, making the lighthouse trail tops on our destination list!

Hmm, this one might be out of order... too many places in one day! We briefly drove through a sand dune park, and briefly took a few, brief pictures.

Ok, so, somewhere in our NPS 4 brains, this plan made sense: Leave Newport, Oregon, at sunset and drive to Cannon Beach, Oregon. Its only 2.5 hours away... we can be there before midnight! It will be dawn at 5pm, so we'll sleep in the car! No seriously, what were we thinking? Oh, well, these are the times that create the best memories.

The drive north was pretty much a straight shot, no stop, no nonsense kind of drive, with one exception. We could not pass up the very last bit of light dipping below the horizon and pulled over for few quick frames. I liked the shape of the rock; to me, it looks the silhouette of a wolf howling at the crescent moon.

Aww, sunset.

NPS 4: Day 5 (June 2)

Well hello there, blog. Long time no... post.

I guess it takes the threat of Snowmageddon to get me to actually wrap up my pictures from NPS 4 ;) There are still a few more days of the trip to post (hopefully today even??), but we were winding down at this point.

The day before we only made it from Crescent City to Brookings, and well, today was another one of those days. We made it from Brookings to... Bandon! We stopped along the way at the Hughes House in Port Orford, Oregon. This charming home seemed like the perfect Lensbaby subject!

And I took a few pictures of some wild irises growing near the home.... here is the unedited version of the purple iris:

And, ta-daaaa, here is the edited version. (btw, I owe some creative credit to DMA for his editing assistance for this one.)

And here is the white one, ala lens baby.

And finally, we reached our final destination... Bandon. It was my first visit there, and all I can say is ... Wow. Seastacks and sunset, could there be a more magnificent combination?

This wraps up Day 5 for me! Thanks for taking a look!

NPS 4: Day 4 (June 1)

Today was a long, but absolutely beautiful day. I think that this was the end of our 8-hour maximum, no stress, super chill days of exploration. We spent the morning in the Jedediah Smith State Park just outside of Redwood National Park. Have you ever been there? It is stunning. Simply amazing.

I am such a nut. Even while I am surrounded by gorgeous, ancient, ginourmous trees, I am captivated by a cluster of leaves. But look at them.. so still, so green, so full of detail!


And here is my feeble attempt to capture the beauty of the redwoods.

We stopped a little tiny unmarked beach at the very northern tip of the California coast & I was again mesmerized by the flora.

Little did we know that our last stop of the day would be less than 30 miles from Crescent City. That's right... we went from Crescent City, California, to Brookings, Oregon. If you want to get all technical, then we drove more than 30 miles with the trip through Jedediah, but (what is that expression... 30 miles "as the crow flies") the point of my long winded story is that we didn't go very far! :)

Harris Beach State Park is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited. We arrived there in the early afternoon and fell in love with the place. We only left to run into town for dinner, and since it was perfect picnic weather, brought it back to the park. This beach was a photographer's play land. Any time I can use my neutral density filters, I confidently call it a good day.

Ugh. I am throwing this pic in (the one below) to remind myself to check my aperture setting. I usually am taking macros or portraits & tend to stay in the lower aperture settings. I ended up with crummy detail & horrible halos on the entire set of long exposures that I took in this spot. A pricey mistake, eh?

Just as we were walking back, I noticed this odd little bird. I do not know what it is... do you? His body style & super long beak look so prehistoric. I called him little dinosaur bird. I wish I had more light (or a fixed 2.8 lens!) because the sun had long since set and I was already in the high ISO range. Oh well, at least I took a few pics & have moderately ok detail.

And that is a wrap for now! I'll get cracking on Day 5 pics... more beautiful scenes from the Oregon Coast!

Thank you so much for taking a look & hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

NPS 4: Day 3

Rain. So much rain. I was very, very glad that this NPS trip involved minimal car camping. Not that I am not a fan of the simplicity, but it was so rainy. And while rain makes corn & corn makes whiskey, rain also makes MUD and mud makes a messy car!! Oh well, it was still spectacular.

Our first stop of the day was the tiny little town of Trinidad. We stopped there yesterday, too, but this time we explored the beach! The, uh, gray, rainy beach. It tried my best to keep my spirits up & capture the beauty, but I have to admit, it was challenging to photograph. If only I could capture what my eyes see.

Then we continued north & stopped along a lovely beach. There was a huge sur (or whatever its called... a jutted cliff!) but I was more interested in the smaller scenes.

ooo, and we managed to explore some dark, mossy areas, too. spooky, yes?
And more sorrels!!! yay! For this round, I edited to black & white.
And then, at the base of a gigantic, decomposing trunk I found sorrels with a few lovely little blooms. I set up my tripod & concentrated on just the right exposure to make the blooms pop. While editing, I fell in love with this group in black & white.

And we ended the day back in Crescent City. Was it for the fish & chips? maybe. maybe not. Was if for the beautiful scenery? probably. I mean, really, isn't this place gorgeous?

The funny thing about the last two pictures is that they were taken from a lookout that is wildly popular with photogs. Thankfully, I was zoomed out quite a bit, because if it was a wide angle shot you would see about six to ten other folks. I felt like I was back at the Moulton Barn at sunrise. sheesh.

Well, that is all I have so far! I will begin Day 4 very soon, so stay tuned for pics from the last leg of the Redwoods & the gorgeous Oregon coast! Thanks!!!

NPS 4: Day 2

And now we have the second day of fantastic landscapes! On this day, DMA and I actually made it into the park. All I can say is Wow.

Well, I can probably say more, but how can I do the flora justice? The trees are taller than my camera can reach. Their diameter is wider than my arms can reach. There are too many shades of green for my brain and eyes to comprehend. The textures of trees, leaves, decomposing whatever topped with raindrops are just simply overwhelming. It is times like this that I yearn to be more poetic.

One of the first stops of the morning was along a little beach just outside of Crescent City. I have included my unedited "before" picture as well as my "after" image. I truly try to keep my edits to a minimum... partly because I don't have the skills (yep, that's right) and partly just to give respect to the natural image. You can definitely count me out of the HDR crowd; its just not my thing.



And now, here are my pics from inside the park!!!

Of course, I can't resist backlit leaves. No really, I can't.

I was completely captivated by these Redwood sorrel... gigantic, super waxy and super... green.

And, here is a view of the water through a coastal tree. I think this was in Trinidad? Again, I really need to take better road trip notes. Or, cut down the procrastination time when editing.

thanks for taking a look!!

NPS 4: Day 1...ish

Thanks to a few rounds of coffee, I have some pictures edited from my most recent National Park Series. Ok "recent" might be stretching it a bit, because by "most recent" I mean May/June 2011. (insert pathetic sigh here.)

So yeah. ;)

For this trip, DMA & I headed to the Redwood National Park. The very enchanting & beautiful Redwoods! It was a nice road trip & we topped it off with a drive up the Oregon Coast along Highway 101. Even months later I am still in awe of the beauty we saw throughout this trip. The pics from these post aren't exactly from the First Day of the trip, because that was a snooze-fest down I-5. So, technically, these are from the second traveling day... the day we arrived in Crescent City, California. (btw: if you want to be all technical and see the real Day One, you should check out DMA's website!!)

Here are some pics from the road... (they *might* be from the Jedediah State Park. I need to take better notes, eh?)

oooh, and a couple sunset pics from a random beach we found in Crescent City, California. This is the Battery Point Lighthouse.

I want to go back!!!

November Check-in

oh gawsh.... I moved... again! It seems like it is my annual ritual, eh? The good news is that now I am in a *super* cool spot (can't beat being within walking distance of a Trader Joes, right????). The bad news is that I had to pack up every single thing I own, drive it around, and redistribute somewhere in my new place. Ugh. It is a long process. And, well, I am pooped. (oh, and the picture up above is in the new place! yay!)

Don't worry, don't worry... I have been on a few little photo shoots (girl's gotta keep her sanity somehow) AND I have a new camera on the horizon. perhaps.

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods. :)

Summer Blooms

Not sure how many years it has been... five now? Six??? I have been helping my mom set up for the best one-day fair in the Northwest... The Silvana Fair. Some years I am up there Wednesday, Thursday & Saturday for set-up/clean-up, but this year I decided to keep the road rage stress down a bit and just go on Thursday.

I have a secret.

I like to go on Thursday because that is the day people bring in their gorgeous flowers. I adore the evening light that streams through the high windows of Viking Hall, and can't resist to take a few frames every year.






These were all taken in auto mode with my little canon point & shoot. not too shabby. Thanks for taking a look!