morning on waldo lake

waldo-lake-reflections

Part of our travels this past September included our annual trip to Waldo Lake. East of Eugene and south of Bend, Waldo is one of our special places, and it is remote enough that there is no cellular coverage, which suits us fine. This year, we spent a week there with the Casita, living off the grid, hiking, chopping firewood, and enjoying the forest.

I love photographing the lake, especially at the beginning of the day, when the overnight winds have calmed, the mists are clearing, and portions of the shore become bathed in sunshine while others linger in the shadows.

Next year, I need to figure out how to get the tree on the left a bit further into the frame without reducing the left side of the image to a mush of trees (which is what it is).

Click the image to see it larger. You can find last year’s Waldo Lake photos here; the group includes one of my all-time favorites–and a rare black and white photo from me.

 

cathedral in the forest

canopy

Spent a beautiful afternoon hiking along the Salmon River (outside of Welches, Oregon) last week. The trail, part of the Mt. Hood Wilderness, meanders along the river through a forest full of old-growth trees, something you don’t see a lot of out here. All afternoon, I was taken with the dance of sunlight and shade above me, and spent most of my camera time shooting directly up.

ocean beach vista {south}

ocean-beach-south

Another shot from my recent jaunt to SF…

The Sony RX1 rarely disappoints me. I might wish I had different lenses for it, but it’s an unbelievably wonderful lens/sensor combination. This was handheld, in the wind, and it still came out extremely sharp. Granted, it was at 1/2000th of a second, but I’ve got a bunch of shots taken at that shutter speed in similar conditions that exhibit shake.

west lake, towards hollywood

west-lake-towards-hollywood

I have had a camera with me constantly for the past few months, but it’s not going to surprise anyone that I haven’t felt a creative spark at all. I look through the few shots that I’ve taken, and there’s absolutely nothing there.

This is the first shot in a long time where I actually looked at the scene as I drove by; made myself stop and backtrack to the location; and actually took the time set up a shot. It might not be great art, but it sure felt good.

[where is this?]

rain in the valley

rain-in-the-valley-ret

Went out into the Gorge yesterday with Duncan. As has been the case lately, we spent a good amount of the day dodging rain. That said, there’s a lot of green out there — spring will be here in full force any week now — and we found a few interesting places to shoot, both new and old.

This one is from an old standby: Cape Horn, on Route 14 in Washington. It’s a beautiful overlook, and we spent about 45 minutes hanging around, watching and waiting for something to happen.

In the end, there wasn’t a lot, but I did love the overwhelming amount of green floating up from the valley floor below.

where is this?

Shot with the Sony RX1, blended from a three-exposure set with HDR Efex Pro, then finished in Perfect Effects 4.