Oregon - The first road trip of the year.
I knew when planning this Landscape Photography trip that the weather could be a bit dodgy . Woke at 5am to snow & an accumulation of 3 inches on the ground. Left the house 90 minutes later & thought of turning around 45 minutes later as the roads & visibility were atrocious. But once I crossed in to Oregon, the snow was gone & the roads were bare…until La Grande. The freeway was closed while crews plowed the Blue Mountains but two hours later with a full belly from breakfast the roads opened up & I was off once again.
Stuck in La Grande while waiting on Interstate 84 to open. Seeing the low clouds moving around the mountains I slapped on my 70-200mm and took a few hand held shots.
I arrived at Fort Stevens State Park Campground just in time for sunset & headed to the ocean to find the shipwreck of the Peter Iredale which ran ashore in 1906. Check the link to read a little more about the Peter Iredale and the many other shipwrecks in this area of the Pacific.
Up early the next morning for the scenic drive in to Washington to shoot waves at Cape Disappointment. I have seen a lot of fantastic images from this vantage point & shooting this location was the main purpose of the trip. I arrived a few hours before high tide to ensure a good spot not really knowing how many other photographers would be there. Upon arrival there were 6 other photographers & by the time I left, 4 hours later, there must have been 30, maybe more. If you’re in the area definitely check this out & the rest of the state park.
After capturing the waves I headed a few miles north to shoot another location but wasn’t able to get there due to high tide. Driving on the beach I spotted a few bald eagles standing in the water with the seagulls looking for food. I’d never seen a bald eagle in salt water but later learned that they are also known as “sea eagles”, so there you go. Learn something new every day.
Morning number two & I decided to check out the coastline along Fort Stevens. I wanted to get the shipwreck in a high tide long exposure image but the tide was too high submerging most of the shipwreck. I took this shot playing around with long exposures atop a bluff looking north towards the jetty.
This is a 2 second exposure creating motion in the waves but allowing the texture in the water to remain.
And then there is this image, which I’m quite sure is my favorite of the trip. Walking up the jetty I stopped to chat with a photographer who was shooting scenes with a couple of Leica’s. Turns out Fawn is an incredible fine art photographer living in Astoria, Oregon. I snapped this as we were chatting about our craft & immediately knew after taking it, that it was the image of the day.
Check out Fawn’s work here and give her a follow.
With snow and ice in the forecast I left a day early hoping to beat the storm home. It was a good plan that didn’t work out. The normal 90 minute drive to Portland took 6.5 hours! Thankfully my brother and sister-in-law live in Portland, so it was a good place stop for the night.
No point hurrying home so stopped when something caught my eye like the submerged trees above and this oak (I think) in a flooded field.
Driving home Sunday morning I knew I’d have to stop at the famous Multnomah Falls knowing that the snow & ice would make an awesome image. I haven’t finished processing the final image yet, but I think it’ll make a worthy print.
The final stop was this waterfall that I photographed in November of last year. The snow and ice made this area very treacherous not knowing where the water was, so after falling once, I called it and hiked back to the car for the long drive home.
Hope you enjoyed the images in this post. It felt good to get out and grab some amazing images to start the year. I will blog most of my trips moving forward so sign up for the newsletter to get notified when I publish a new one. Hoping that 2024 is off to a great start for you all. D
60 Days, part two - 2023 edition
Here are images 21-40 from my attempted “60 Days of Landscape Photography” in 2023. If I’m being honest, there are quite a few decent images here, a couple of which were good enough for the Gallery section of the website. Click on the image for a larger version along with a brief description of the image.
Click on the image to view a larger version (and to read a description of each).
60 Days, part one - 2023 edition
I tried. I headed in to 2023 excited with the plan of reaching the goal of 60 days of landscape photography. (You can read my 60 Days blog from last year here). Like last year, it didn’t happen. 40 days seem to be my sweet spot.
Here are 20 of 40 images from 2023 (the second 20 to follow). Some of these are film images, some are infrared, some are macro, and some are snapshots. Some are great and some are not.
Not every photography you take is going to be a portfolio worthy image so sharing the good with the bad is a fun exercise. Enjoy.
Click on the image to view a larger version (and to read a description of each).
Why Film?
In the age of digital photography shooting with film seems a bit silly, but film seems to be making a comeback.
In the age of digital photography shooting with film seems a bit silly, but film seems to be making a comeback. I own a Canon A1 that I bought in 1987 that I have dusted off and started using again. And only recently I acquired a Rolleicord Twins Lens Reflex (TLR) Medium Format camera that uses 6x6cm film. This camera was made in Braunschweig, Germany in 1955 and is a beauty. (Thank you Tyson)
But it didn’t stop there. I also picked up a pristine Nikomat (not Nikkormat) FT SLR. The Nikomat was made for the Japanese market between 1965-1967, whereas the Nikkormat was the same camera, but exported worldwide. This camera is solid and weighs just over 2lbs, more than my Nikon Z7ii mirrorless.
But then I wanted a Hasselblad but after missing out on a few eBay auctions, opted for the more affordable Mamiya RB67 weighing in at a hefty 5.5lbs. Here are just a few of the film images taken this year. All three film cameras are still loaded with film and I can’t remember what’s on them…part of the fun of shooting film.
I don’t have much in the way of answers for why I decided to pick up film again. Something to do? Something different to get the juices flowing? More than likely, for the fun of it. Remember waiting a week to get your photos back from the lab only to find out they all sucked? Yeah, it’s kinda like that. All of the color film images below have been taken on old expired film.
Click on the images for a larger view.
60 Days…part 2.
One of the (my) challenges of being a landscape photographer in Boise is that Boise (and the surrounding area) are boring to photograph. Boise sits on a river bed in the high desert at an elevation of 2700ft
Here are the second batch of 20 images from 2022 in which I attempted to get 60 days of landscape photography under my belt. (If you haven’t read the previous blog showing the first 20, check it out below).
One of the (my) challenges of being a landscape photographer in Boise is that Boise (and the surrounding area) are boring to photograph. Boise sits on a river bed in the high desert at an elevation of 2700ft. It’s flat. Sure, there are the foothills but they are treeless. Higher up you will hit the tree line but the trees are of the lodgepole pine variety, which for the most part, are ugly. Excuses, all I hear are excuses.
We’re into the new year and I know I need to shoot more, much more, to come away with more portfolio worthy images. In 2023 I will reach the goal of 60 days of landscape photography and hopefully more. In this second set of images, you’ll see a few wildlife images, some infrared, an ICM (intentional camera movement) image, and a polished turd (turning a crap image into a black and white as a last resort to make something out of nothing).
Enjoy. And remember to click on the images to open a full-sized gallery.
60 Days…part 1.
Part 1 of my 60 days of landscape photography…
In 2021 a UK photographer I follow counted up the number of days he was able to devote to landscape photography in the previous calendar year. That number ended up totaling 60 days. Doesn’t seem like a lot so I set a goal for 2022 to devote 60 days to landscape photography.
I missed the goal of 60 by a wide mark and only managed to shoot 40 days. Granted, I have a family, a busy headshot photography company, a product photography company, and trying to get a family portrait studio company going…and when it’s over 100 degrees for 30 days in the summer, the last thing I want to do is go out in the heat carrying my gear.
Laziness and excuses? Yeah, a little, but 40 days spent photographing a variety of landscapes was more than the previous year, and the year before that. So although I missed the goal of 60, I’m happy with the 40.
So here are 20 images from the first 20 outings. A few of these haven’t been published on my Facebook or Instagram accounts and not all are portfolio worthy images, in fact some of these are shit, but a shit photograph is better than nothing, right?
Part 2 to follow. Enjoy. (The last image of this series is of my cat Missy who left us in 2022 at the age of 18).
Click on the image to view a larger format.
Intimate scenes
In Boise the summers are hot and the skies are void of clouds. Blue skies, although nice to look at, are not ideal for landscape photography. As I didn’t travel this summer I slapped a macro lens on my Nikon Z7ii and spent a few days getting up close and personal with my garden.
In Boise the summers are hot and the skies are void of clouds. Blue skies, although nice to look at, are not ideal for landscape photography. As I didn’t travel this summer I slapped a macro lens on my Nikon Z7ii and spent a few days getting up close and personal with my garden.
Click on the images for a larger look.
New
So here it is, finally. The new website. Specifically, the new landscape photography website.
I’ve been dragging my feet on building this site for what seems a very long time. The reason is simple: Doubt.
So here it is, finally. The new website. Specifically, the new landscape photography website.
I’ve been dragging my feet on building this site for what seems a very long time. The reason is simple: Doubt. Doubt in my ability as a landscape photographer. Doubt in my images not being good enough to share on a webpage and doubt that people would want to purchase my art for their home. But thanks to friends and family (you know who you are) for constantly pushing and encouraging me, here we are. A big thanks to them, and a big thanks to you for being here.
I’m still tweaking a few things here and there but if you see any errors or would like to see additional (or less) content, let me know.
