I had a slight tumble this morning, as Hudson and I went off in our backyard wilderness to shoot the sunrise. I got a bit banged up, and quite embarrassed, but I dusted myself off and gamely went on. I’m glad I did, even though I thought I didn’t get a single decent shot.
There will be more from this trip, but I wanted to get something up while I had a decent connection.
Six posts here in all of 2014. Maybe a bit shameful, but I was clearly preoccupied with many things, including the wholesale building of a new life.
I’ll have more to say this year for sure, but to kick off 2015, here is a shot from October’s “Great Alford Desert Adventure,” which was one of my favorite trips of last year. (Which, given last year’s travels, is saying something.)
It was 30° when I took this shot, but I really didn’t notice.
More later. I promise.
Matt Kloskowski, Hudson Henry, Brian Matiash and I drove out to the Oregon Coast yesterday to photograph Thor’s Well, a well-known landmark (part of Cape Perpetua) that is spectacular at high tide. We had hoped for an epic sunset–which wasn’t to be–but we still had a great time. I’d go into more detail, but Hudson has an excellent recap on his blog about our exploits here, so pop over there for more photos and fun.
It was quite a day. We started out at Oneonta Gorge with wetsuits and dry bags to shoot the lower falls, and then high-tailed it out to the coast for sunset, getting back home and to bed after 1 a.m. I’m still working through images, but it felt good to be back out with a camera in my hand. (I see that Matt has already posted his keeper from the Oneonta shoot; mine will probably go up in the next couple of days.)
We had a lovely time in Hawaii. We spent the weekend in Honolulu, where Susan had a race, and then a week in Maui, mostly relaxing. I didn’t shoot as much as I would have liked, but I did get a few shots here and there that I liked.
This couple was having a blast, waiting for the waves to break over the seawall, then bracing themselves as they crashed overhead.
Hudson and I went shooting in the fog on Sauvie Island this morning, along the Multnomah Channel. I’ve been shooting this scene for years: every January, the fog comes in for a few weeks, and it’s just a glorious place to shoot.
I’m still working through all the photos we shot, but this one jumped out at me pretty quickly. I love the three cormorants on the pilings, all aligned in the same direction, and I just got lucky with the bird flying right above the water. (Check it out full size to really see all the detail.)
[Check out Hudson’s blog: one of his Denali shots is on the cover of this month’s Sierra magazine, which is pretty friggin’ awesome.]
I’m a bit surprised by the turns and twists of the back half of this year. I really had imagined that I would remain in a much sadder place this Christmas, but that hasn’t been the case. And this morning, as I headed home, the clouds cleared, and the Willamette was more beautiful than I had seen it in a while. I just had to stop and shoot.
Like many of the shots I’ve taken over the past couple of months, this one feels like a placeholder, but it is a marker for the joy and happiness I have in my life on this day.
Life is crazy and beautiful; for now, that’s all I will say about it. More to come, for sure.
This was taken with a new camera, the Sony a7r — more on this later as well…