Still working through a few stragglers from my Olympic Peninsula trip last Fall... I just haven't had the time since then to get away for much new shooting and the winter around here locally has been a total dud (photographically speaking.. but we are saving a lot on firewood and propane:)
Normally I look for more going on in the sky than there is happening here, but when you're traveling, the weather just has a mind of it's own and after all, I think the clean blue sky kind of adds to an overall simple, graphic effect on this one.
This is Second Beach, just south of La Push, WA.
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I made quite a few nice additions to my waterfall collection while up in the Olympic Peninsula. Without checking my notes (there were so many), I recall that this one is called Merryman Falls... one of quite a few found around the Lake Quinault area. My point of interest here was not so much about the falls itself, but the crazy lushness and detail of the rainforest in the surrounding scene.
I don't know how it works for everyone else, but for myself, out of every session, trip, or grouping of shots, there is always THE ONE that stands out and seems to have a life of it's own. This is the winner from my Olympic trip in September. Of course I got quite a few perfectly decent, printable images, but they all seem a little second-tier compared to this one, which is already framed and hanging in the prime spot in my gallery. I very rarely get stuff up that quickly; I'm still printing stuff from several years ago that I have never finished and hung.
I arrived here at Ruby Beach an hour or so before sunset, pleased to see that the cold, heavy fog from earlier in the day had disappeared. Wandering around and exploring different angles as the sun went down, I eventually worked my way behind and slightly above this glassy pool of water reflecting the sky and the sea stacks. Suddenly, the wonderful abstract design of the scene became apparent to me... and it only got better and better until well after sunset, when the soft glow of twilight brought out the best colors and the perfectly silent mood.
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Another view of some huge driftwood on the beach, this time on a rare clear evening at sunset. For most of the time I spent in this area, the beaches were totally fogged in, so this was a pleasant break. This spot is known as Second Beach and is just near the little native american fishing town of La Push. I have a pretty funny shot of about 30 or so photographers all shooting on this beach at the same time.. I think there was some workshop or something going on this particular day. You have to walk almost a mile through the forest to get here, so I was a bit surprised, but on second thought it IS known as probably the most photogenic beach in Washington and it seems like quite a few people choose to stay and camp out overnight when the weather is good. It lived up to it's reputation for beauty on this evening.
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Again in the Hoh Rainforest: Don't know what kind of mushrooms these are, but I would guess maybe not the edible kind! I thought the decaying log and moss would be an attractive subject in themselves, but the little grouping of mushrooms in the foreground definitely adds an area of contrast and that specific, attention grabbing point of interest that is so important.
I probably shot more of the color green in one week here, than I have in the last ten years combined:)
I suppose everyone has been to the beach somewhere and seen some pieces of driftwood here and there. I had never seen anything even close to this before. Seems like anywhere there is an outlet to the sea from one of the many rivers flowing out of the Olympic mountains, the surrounding beaches are littered with great fields of dead wood washed down from the forests inland... and I am talking thousands and thousands of *huge* chunks as well as nearly whole trees. Sometimes it takes some minutes to get through it just to reach what's left of the beach. I'm afraid none of my pictures really does justice to the scale of it; I was more concerned at the time with climbing over it.
Click the image for an enlarged view and you'll get a better sense of size.
An off-hand shot from our Olympic Peninsula trip, taken on my iPhone:-o. Yes, further proof that being in the right place at the right time (and realizing it) is always step #1, before concerns about equipment. That said, shame on me for not appreciating a potentially great shot and being too lazy to walk a few feet back to our car and haul out my regular gear. Thing is, it was cold and windy and I was kind of tired after a long day:( Because of that, I'm afraid this one will never make it to the gallery wall, except as a framed mini-print or maybe as a greeting card. Other than the horizontal crop, image is straight out of my camera/phone as-shot, with the handy "HDR" feature turned on.
Taken literally 50 ft. from the exact location in my previous post, at Kalaloch beach (pronounced "clay-lock"), in far western Washington. Different day, different time of day... during a rest stop on the way back to our lodge near La Push, after spending a day around Lake Quinault to the south. You'll notice on closer look, that the sun in the moment captured here is actually setting behind an off-shore fog bank (which most nights was not so "off-shore"). Click for a larger view, and I'll talk later about the amazing fields of giant driftwood that you get a taste of in this scene.
"Kalaloch", in the native Quinault language, means something along the lines of "sheltered landing" or "canoe launch place"..I guess you can see why.
Visit the SkyWatch home page each weekend for more great skies from all over the world.
I just returned from a long-planned trip up to the Olympic Peninsula of Washington, with it's rain forests, waterfalls and gorgeous beaches. So I should, at last, have a flurry of new work to show over the next few weeks.
We had been to the area only once before briefly on the way to Canada, so it was a little familiar, but my wife and I have wanted for years to spend some real time exploring up there. We made sure to stay in a central location that would allow access to the whole peninsula each day without having to change lodgings all the time, and I think that worked out pretty well. The weather was not quite as cooperative as I would have hoped.. we had clear blue skies inland most days (who would have thought, in this most rainy part of the country) until the last two days, and that made shooting in the rainforest a little difficult.. lots of hot spots from the sun in the otherwise deep shade; then the opposite with heavy fog at the ocean, some nights so thick that you couldn't even see the water from a few feet away. But, hey, that's nature for you. All in all we had a great time and I did manage to catch some good new material... and very different subject matter for me. The whole area has such a different vibe to it, compared to the desert and mountain scenery that I usually work with here in the southwest corner.
The above shot is right near the ocean at Kalaloch...(can you tell where the ocean is, based on the shape of the trees?).. it was a very foggy shot as exposed, and that was my intention, but with a little contrast boost while playing around, most of the fog disappeared and I kind of prefer the detail in the main tree now with just a hint of fog around the edges. Experimenting with different interpretations is always the most fun part for me.. also, this one may well end up with in monochrome.. after a quick look I like it that way too.
