At the Foot of Mount Saint Helens

I count myself pretty lucky to live in such a beautiful state. I have grown up being surrounded by beautiful mountains, forests and breathtaking coasts. Since I have lived in the Seattle area for the last ten years, I have spent most of my time in the Olympic mountain range. However, this weekend my brother and I went back to the south side of the state where we use to live when we were younger.

Yale lake is situated at the foot hills of Mount Saint Helens and only twelve miles from Apes Caves. (if you haven't been to Ape Caves...go!) Because we went on a weekday for the most part, we had the lake to ourselves which allowed me to take lots of photographs.

Here is a picture of Yale Lake later in the evening with Mount Saint Helens barely peeking out from behind the clouds in the background. I love photographing in the late afternoon because that is where I tend to find the beautiful golden lighting.

Further back in one of the corners of the lake we found this beautiful little area, although we had to dodge a few tree stumps. 

Loving my macro photography, I was able to relax in the sun and take time to look at the little things. 

Including, this adorable little Newt!

As well as these logs sticking up out of the water surrounded by beautiful shades of blue!

My Camera, My Dog and the Open Road

Summer Road trips are always a must for me and probably should be for anyone. This summers road trip was prompted by a friends wedding and turned into a trip to find an apartment in Montana. It began by driving from Seattle to Pullman the first day where I met with old friends and took some nice long strolls down memory lane. The wedding was about thirty miles outside of Pullman on the Snake river surrounded by impressive cliff walls.

Here is a photographic of the lovely bride and groom during there fast dance as a married couple. 

The Palouse is an incredible area with lots of beautiful rolling hills, and many times greatly underestimated by people who have never been there. There are two main buttes outside of Pullman, Kamiack Butte and Steptoe Butte and both make for an incredible backdrop for photographers. 

Although it can seam at times to be solely wheat fields, they have a certain beauty about them that for me is alluring. 

Having lived in the area for four years, I have a lot of pictures of the Palouse at many different times of year. It is the late summer thunderstorms though that I find this area to be the most beautiful and interesting. 

And because I love flowers (even prickly ones) and because I couldn't help it, here is a picture of a thistle I found on my hike up Kamiack Butte!

After a few days in Pullman I left one very early morning and headed to Bozeman Montana. Right when the border changes from Idaho to Montana is one of the prettiest and dramatic landscapes I have seen. This picture just doesn't do it justice. (maybe because it was taken from a car...) 

I finally reached the beautiful Bozeman Montana area and was in awe of how much sky there was...which is probably why it is called big sky country...or the fact that I currently live on an island that is surrounded by trees. Either way, I am always surprised by the beauty there is in our country. 

I didn't spend much time in Montana since I had to get back to work the next day, so I started the very long trek back to Seattle. My furry companion and I certainly got anxious to get out of the car as we started to get long glimpses of ocean. 

Oh and did I mention fresh and cool ocean air!

Here is my fuzzy companion just as happy to see the ocean as I. Thank you for looking at my blog and I hope you are all out there taking at least some little road trips. Happy photographing! 

Lavender Festival

It was five years ago that my family and I stumbled upon the Sequim Lavender Festival. Ever since it has been one of the highlights of our summer. Although I unfortunately can not convey through photos the wonderful smells of ocean, lavender and sunshine that accompany this wonderful festival, nor the lavender flavored ice cream, I hope that you are able to get a sense of why I love this festival so much! For me photography is all about getting out there and taking pictures of whatever catches your eye and this festival allows me to do just that. If you have ever been to Sequim, Washington the first thing that will catch your eyes will probably either be the dramatic coast line or the foothills of the Olympic Mountains and here is a photograph of each.

Sequim is on the top part of Washington right on the entrance to the Puget Sound. One of my favorite hikes is to go out on the five mile spit to the lighthouse, where you become surrounded by ocean.

Another of my favorite hikes (are you catching on to a pattern here?) is also just outside of Sequim. Hurricane  Ridge is at the heart of the olympics and an amazing sight to see no matter how long you have lived in the area. 

So back to Lavender...there are fields and fields of it and farm after farm of it as well and it sure does smell and look heavenly! 

You can even cut your own bundle...or if your my mom then three or four :). 

I love the contrast of the bright green and purple that the Lavender creates. You can even catch a small glimpse of the bees busy at work in the background. 

And because I love flowers...and because poppies and Lavender seem to mix well...and because I couldn't help myself, here are two more photos for the road. Enjoy!

Island Life

I love summer. Not just because the sun makes constant and may I add, warm apperances but because it means longer days, camping, barbecues and of course the sprouting of beautiful flowers...everywhere! Even though I don't get summers off as I once did, I am lucky enough to work in a place that is extremely photogenic.

This picture involves so many of my favorite things! Lavender, blue skies, daises, hollyhocks, roses and lilies!

When I step out of the kitchen, this is what I am met with everyday, paddle boarding anyone? 

Here are some closeups of flowers that I found as I was walking around. It never fails to surprise me how many things I find to take pictures of when I least expect it. 

Hollyhocks, pictured above are so amazing. They usually tower way above my height with beautiful and detailed flowers. Unfortunately, to photograph them strait on showing the height can create a boring photograph, so I tried a new angle that I found much more appealing. 

Lastly, I found some daises. For some reason I have always loved to photograph them from below rather then the top. The shadows that the petals create mixed with the contrast of the blue sky create a combination that makes the photographer in me smile with glee. 

Wisteria Before Work

Since I decided to start photography seriously, about two years ago, I have had one camera. In that time, as you can imagine, I have grown very comfortable and somewhat attached. As of several days ago I have officially stepped into the semi professional camera world and it feels great as well as intimidating. My new camera in both size and weight has probably doubled...in fact so has the amount of memory, focal length and battery capacity. 

Yesterday I had a break in my crazy work schedule, so I decided to take out my camera for a spin. I happen to be very lucky in that my work is nicely situated in both a beautiful location as well as having beautifully kept "grounds". For the last several weeks, we have had the most beautiful wisteria blooming, as well as roses, california poppies and columbine. 

I can't believe how many years I have seen this beautiful vine growing and how long I have waited to photograph it. Now I just have to find different variations!

When I tried for my first shot I had a hard time getting my camera to focus automatically. Therefor I tried manually focusing to find that I didn't know where the ring was...heh heh. So about fifteen shots later I finally figured it out. (I should probably read the owners manual first) In the mean time I kept getting a lot of blurry shots, which I ended up liking, mostly because they reminded me of an impressionistic painting. 

When I photograph I tend to shoot more on the macro side then anything else. Unfortunately my lens is more on the telephoto side, which is great for some things, but when it comes to flowers it can be terribly frustrating. Maybe my tendencies for macro photography are due to my photography professor always saying to get up close and personal with your subject...or maybe I like the idea of photographing things that are not normally or easily noticed. Either way, getting use to a new vantage point resulted in some different and interesting photos. 

Stepping back from my subject also allowed me to focus more on composition, shape and contrast, rather then solely on small details. Which is always a good thing. 

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed my blog! Stay tuned for my photos soon!

 

Tulip Heaven

Let's just say that for a photographer, events such as festivals are a dream come true. When it comes to me, put any sort of flower in front of the word festival and I will even get butterflies of happiness. Because of this un contained excitement out in the field I have lots of photographs to share with you.

This was my first time going to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival and it exceeded my expectations. To get there we decided to take the Port Townsend Ferry up to Whidbey Island and take the bridge over deception pass. For those of you who have not had the privilege to visit this area, the view is breathtaking...literally.

In order to take this picture I had to walk to the center of the bridge, that not only has some great height to it, but also had cars whizzing past your body by only a foot (I am probably exaggerating, but that is what it felt like!). I think my palms might be sweating even as I write about it...did I mention that I am not particularly afraid of heights either? Anyways, my point being, if you get the chance to drive through Whidbey Island, take it! It is beautiful! But be warned.

Once we passed through all the wonderful little towns headed towards Mount Vernon, we began to spot glimpses of fields displaying wonderfully bright patches of color. With Mount Baker behind us as a background, I began to have fun, relax and take lots of pictures of one of my favorite subjects, flowers, thousands and thousands of flowers!

This is the first field that we stopped at. The time of day was perfect for lighting and two bike riders just happened to pass by giving me a nice photo opportunity.  

Purple and green make a beautiful contrast. For some reason the phrase from the Beatles song, "strawberry fields forever" kept popping up in my head throughout the day. Maybe because the fields went on forever?

Sunshine, flowers, mountains and beautiful blue sky! What more could I ask for?

Although the focus of the day was tulips, I couldn't help but to step off the path when I noticed these beautiful yellow flowers and the wire fence. 

As the day went on, the sun became more intense making it harder to photograph without losing detail in the photographs, or having them become washed out. 

This is an example of a photo that is just about to be blown out. Yet, it still works and became stronger even, because of the harsh light that illuminated the flowers giving it depth and texture against the shadows. 

These are my last two photographs of the Tulip Festival. I am fortunate that I live in an area where natural, and even un natural landscapes create beautiful photo opportunities constantly. All I have to do is take a walk outside and I would find thousands of things to catch my eye. Enjoy!

A Walk on a Spring day....

The change from winter to spring is one of my favorite times of year. The sun starts to come out more and small groups of flowers start emerging from the dreary brown. As a pacific north westerner, it can mean even more rain but mixed with glimpses of that bright yellow light we like to call sun! In the mood to take my camera out, I decided to go on a walk and take pictures of whatever caught my fancy.

For me photography is either planned or unplanned. That seems simple enough, but none the less, they are very different. When photographing people, events or even the 52 week photo challenge it takes a lot of planning and preparation on my part because when you step out into the field you have a set objective you wish to achieve. As you can imagine, sometimes this can take the fun out of photography, which is why I like to step back and go out into the field without a plan, which is exactly what I did today.

Prepared with my plastic bag and rain jacket I set out for the south end of the island and was pleasantly surprised to find the rain had let up. As soon as I parked my car and walked across the street I was greeted by a little song bird, who amazingly, sat long enough for me to take a photo.

I am always amazed at how much there is to take photos of in such a small area (especially when you have a small obsession with flowers). Walking along the beach, there were plenty of flowers for me to oooo and awe over. 

Now thoroughly chilled I decided to go get a cup of coffee to satisfy my coffee addiction (I blame it on living in Seattle)...but not before I found a few more flowers just waiting to be photographed just outside the cafe.