Savannah Reflections

Recently we purchased a trailer and begun traveling on weekends. After getting the hang of it, we went for a week and stayed here by the lake in the Creekside RV Resort in Savannah, Georgia. Having given up on traveling in the era of COVID, RV'ing seems like a good alternative. Suffice it to say; this was a nice place to hang out while maintaining proper social distancing.

Big Hunting Creek

It goes without saying, Big Hunting Creek is big with hunters. However, the only thing I was hunting for was a waterfall. In fact, I was looking for Cunningham Falls State Park. As it turned out, it's just up the creek, which I eventually got to, without a paddle. This is a long exposure that I made using a tripod and an aperture of F-22. It's a good thing it wasn't windy; otherwise, the leaves would have come out blurry. Scenes like this are gratifying for me, and exactly why I love photography in the first place.

Forest Carpet

I took this a couple of weeks ago on a walk through the forest. Autumn came late this year, and only about half the trees had changed colors. It's pretty cool how the forest floor is carpeted with leaves while the afternoon sun is shining through the trees. It was an amazing walk, and I was so happy to be in Maryland, which has all kinds of trails in places like this. To get this photo, I held the camera close to the forest floor and used a small aperture; that way, both the foreground and the background are in focus. That same aperture setting is what causes the sun to give off the starburst-like rays.

Forest Highlights

It's a late fall in Maryland and walking through the forest; there are only smatterings of color here and there. I expected the deciduous groves to be rich in autumn hues, but it's mostly green. But here and there, one tree has broken from the crowd. To be sure, there are areas within an hour's drive of Annapolis that are more colorful. Walking through a nature trail is reward enough. And when I do see a flash of color, all the better.

Cunningham Falls

The colors are here in the Northeast, so a few days ago, I drove to this random park called Cunningham Falls; it turns out it's not so random. I don't know the area, so; I picked a random place to visit on Google Maps. Little did I know this is a popular spot because there were a lot of other photographers that showed up as well. I took all kinds of shots from different angles, including this, which is a twelve-shot panorama. The scene consists of twelve shots, four groups of three that I processed in AuroraHDR, and stitched in Lightroom. The result is a very high-resolution landscape of a not so random Maryland park.

Sunday Reflections

Most Sundays, I take a drive along country roads. Sometimes the most significant thing to see is the river, clouds, and reflections. With all the urban growth, I started driving further out. The funny thing is that if I drive far enough, I'll end up approaching the outskirts of another metropolis. Open spaces are dwindling. I'd like to think other places are still wide open. Like maybe some of the western states, or the prairies. But in reality, every little inch of space from coast to coast is owned. Or at least we like to think so. But I am reminded that the land is much older than our relatively new claims upon it.

Pacific Trail

The Wild Pacific Trail is just as it sounds, on the Pacific and wild. Wild, as in hiking or trekking in BC's Vancouver Island. The image uses HDR techniques, meaning I combined three frames of different exposures and blended them. Also, I used f10, so most everything is in focus. I love trail shots for the sense it creates of going somewhere and, a natural desire to know what's just around the corner. This trail, in particular, is especially good for that; it has hundreds of turnouts that open on amazing views of the pacific.

Shady Oak

If I lived in a pasture, I'd spend most of the summer sitting under the shade of an oak, and that's no bull. I took this on a drive through the country here in Florida. Contrary to popular belief, most of the state is agriculture. All you have to do is drive from one coast to the other to see what I mean. The drive takes about two hours and passes through a lot of cattle country. It's no wonder rodeos are big here. I'm an indoor weeny, depending on air conditioning to make it through the summer. If you lose your air-conditioning here, you may as well live on Mars or, under a tree.

Below Rainbow Falls

This photo is just below Rainbow Falls in North Carolina. It's on a trail with a waterfall payoff at the end. I think the word rainbow sums up those fall colors. North Carolina is famous for its autumn tones, which, as I write this, is still a couple of months away. It was nice to hike in the mountains and get a break from the humidity back home. This is another old photo I pulled from the archives. Old images are veritable breadcrumbs leading back to forgotten details. For instance, from the picture, I recall the hike took longer than expected and, was a little more strenuous. So when we got back to the hotel, we ate pasta and dinner rolls, leaving only, ...you guessed it, breadcrumbs.

Hidden Gem

Mulholland road in Parrish, oddly enough, dead-ends at a bridge. Because of that, it feels remote, even though it's in the middle of a housing boom. Living in suburbia as I do, the trick to doing local landscape photography is finding gems tucked away in plain sight. Even though I think I've found most, I'm pretty sure there are more. They are, by their very nature, not easy to find. I took this photo about five years ago, and today, as I drove by, the road is under construction. That means it's probably going to get more traffic and, extend past the bridge; meaning no longer hidden. But I'll keep searching for more spots like this in the suburban jungle.

Multnomah Falls

No trip to the Portland area is complete without visiting Multnomah Falls. Here is a lie; there was nobody here when I took this shot. In fact, to get this, I had to elbow my way through layers of Instagrammers holding phones aloft with their backs to the falls. I should have known better, it was July 4th, but I went anyway. I Photoshoped all the people off the bridge except for one. In the end, this edit is not far from the scene I imagined in my head. If I did have the place to myself, I would have taken more shots, but I like this shot, so maybe that would have been a waste. Anyhow, when I go back, even if it's winter, I'll come early to try my luck again. But it's all good; I ended up hiking to the top to see even more waterfalls and a lot fewer people. It ended up being an excellent day, for Instagram and me.

Dee Wright Observatory

This spot is from a massive lava flow, surrounded by volcanoes on all sides. I wouldn't want to be here when the next one blows. Living in Florida, it's easy to forget there is a healthy amount of volcanic activity in the pacific northwest. It wasn't my plan to visit volcanoes, but little did I realize, most of the mountains in Oregon are. If I recall, Oregon and Hawaii are in the "ring of fire," and we all know Hawaii is quite active. When I first arrived at this spot, I was struck by how fresh the flows looked; I thought maybe they were ten years old. It was more like fifteen-hundred years, which, as we all know, is just a blink of an eye in geological terms. As amazing as it was, I was still glad to leave before mother nature decided to blink again.

Dutchman Falls

The water from this fall runs year-round and is fed by a spring. I would have gotten closer, but Instagramers were posing in front. I Photoshopped out the Instagramers because I kind of like it without them, maybe it's just me. Last year on the same day, I was at Mount Rushmore and encountered the same thing, hundreds of them. I need to start an Instagram of Instagrammers. Nevertheless, it was quiet and pretty here, which was at the top of a steep hike from the Columbia River. I had water but too much heavy camera gear, but I didn't realize I was going to climb the trail until I got there. As all of my hikes in Oregon, it was well worth it, and I'm looking forward to going back for more walks, Instagram notwithstanding.

Babbling Brook

This photo is a little brook on the trail to Dutchman Falls. It's about as idyllic a trail as you could hope to find. The midday light through the overhead branches created a latticework of shadows, which is slightly confusing to the eye. The brook feeds Multnomah Falls, which is perhaps the most photographed waterfall in the Pacific Northwest, if not the country. I came here on holiday and found crowds of people visiting at the base. So I hiked up to the top of the falls and found a quiet trail with this stream. I recommend hiking to the top, although it's strenuous with many switchbacks. But once you get there, you'll be glad you did. From there, I walked up to Dutchmans Falls, which is another picture for another day.

Faerie River

In my imagination, this is a place where you might find the fae folk. The stream is part of a river in a state park, but I had the idea little invisible beings were all around. The image is from the Hillsborough River State Park in Florida. Maybe it was my mood or the setting, but parts of it seemed nothing short of enchanting. There are places inside forests like this that have an ephemeral quality of nature about them. I experienced the same thing in the forests of Oregan a couple of weeks ago. Some sections of the trail had a subtle quality that you could easily miss. I have no idea if nature spirits exist; I've never seen one. At the very least, encountering these areas in the wilderness gives me pause and stokes my imagination.

Huckleberry Lane

Driving up Highway 126 along the McKinzie River, the temptation is to pull off at every little bridge or vista. On one near Fin Rock, I found this lonely lane. I've heard so much about the forests in the Pacific Northwest, and seeing them for myself was worth the trip. An old utility road through the forest is an invitation to explore. It was blocked off, so maybe it's better I didn't drive it in my little rental car. I imagine that, like the Mangroves of the tropics, these conifers constitute a significant source of CO2 sequestration for our planet. Not only that, the forests are the habitat for mycelium which we are just now discovering can lead to cures for pollution and disease. Let's hope these forests remain protected as vigorously as our Florida mangroves.

Cannon Beach

Cannon Beach reminds me of Carmel by the Sea; only it's about eight hundred miles to the north. A little more unconventional, perhaps, but that's a good thing. Actually, this is a view of Crescent Beach with Cannon Beach in the distance; but the whole area is known as Cannon Beach. I drove here to Ecola State Park from Portland in the morning, and getting an early start was vital. After I returned from a hike, the roads and parking lots were full of holiday travelers. The July temperature is in the upper seventies. There used to be a direct path to Crescent beach from here, but it got washed out in a storm. The alternate trail is about a mile and a half and is rather arduous. Even so, it was worth it, and because it was harder to reach, there were very few people. So I walked the whole beach, took plenty of photos, and skipped the crowds.

Emerson Point Clouds

To get here, you walk through a jungle trail, and it's easy to get a bit disoriented. That is until you pop out from the brush at sunset. The image I took here is similar to one I did from the same spot a half dozen years ago. The clouds and weather ensure each image will be different, and I never tire of it. Due to the full range of light and the difficulty of shooting into the sun, this is a combination of at least five photos. I combined the images with AuroraHDR and then parts of it re-layered in Photoshop. In some respects, this is a painting, in that the light was blended to create a picture. That creative process I find satisfying, even if it is the same scene on a different day.

Scott Lake

Scott Lake was a detour of a detour I took while driving through Willamette National Forest. I took so many detours its surprising I made any forward progress at all. I figured as long as I had gas and some trail mix I was probably not going to have problems. The only real dilemma was deciding when to turn back. If I didn't need sleep, I'd have driven all night, and that would have been just fine. I could see setting up camp here and exploring for a few days. As its the pacific northwest, I'd half expect to see a bigfoot. This area is so big and untamed that it would not surprise me in the least. At least this is where I would be if I were a bigfoot.

Cape Cove

While driving along the Oregon coast, I stopped here in Cape Cove. The area is so pretty it's hard to take a bad picture. The coastline has these massive rocks that are the remnants of an eroding mainland. I can imagine that ten-thousand years ago the land extended well beyond where it ends today. These are up and down the Pacific coast, and they make for good studies in geology and, in my case, photography. I created this effect using an ND filter, which allows for a long exposure, even during daylight; this is a 20-second exposure. With that, the water appears smooth like glass. Also, the aperture is set to f22, which allows both the foreground and background rocks to be in focus, and it creates the star effect of the sun. Also, shooting right into the sun like this created lens flare, which in this case, I quite like.

Forest Path

A few days ago, I walked through a forest in Oregon's Ecola State Park. It was a nice break from the regular everyday routine. It was my first time visiting Oregon, so I toured both the mountains and coast to get a sense of things. There was no real plan other than drive, observe, and take photos. I'd see something intriguing, and follow it until I had to turn around. In this case, I was near Cannon Beach, which is a famous resort town. This particular trail leads to the isolated Crescent Beach, which bears no resemblance to the beaches in Florida. It was a good change of pace.