Westport, WA

In a trip that lasted slightly more than 24 hours, we drove out early Saturday morning to the town of Westport, WA, for some coastal camping. The drive is really quick, just over 2 hours, and the campsite that was chose was awesome. It's a few minute walk from the ocean huddled in this forest of tall grass and dense trees. The town itself looks like it is going through a makeover, so there was very little people activity, but the fishing boats were plentiful and pretty neat. I shot most of my photos at or near the beach this trip, as we were only in town for a short while. Again, the sun was in the best position to throw my shadow onto a lot of things, so some careful maneuvering was needed. When I go back I would like to see what happens at sunset, as by that time we were already back at our camp next to the fire. I used a polarizer for all shots, and some with an ND .6 and .9, at ISO 125. All shots were taken with the Sigma 10-20 as well! There's also a pretty awesome sausage shop just outside of town...very tasty stuff!

Discovery Park

This weather was awesome this last weekend, and in order to take advantage of this, a few of us decided to go to Discovery Park for an afternoon. We arrived shortly after 11, the sun was shining brightly, and as it turned out the tide was out leaving large(er) expanses of exposed beach and rockscapes. If one had planned to photograph this beach in a more 'planned' manner than I had, one would have known that the early afternoon is not the time to photograph, as the sun was in the perfect position to cast shadow directly on to any photo taken towards the water. So upon realizing this, i made the best out of what I could do, and had some fun searching for starfish and other assorted sea creatures that were hidden in the rocks!
Info: Image 1- 1/60 f10 ISO 100 @ 20mm (image 1) and 10mm (image 2)
Image - 1/80 f8 ISO 100 @ 20mm - polarizing filter used on all

Locks Textures

In the recent past I ventured to the Ballard locks for an afternoon. It was warm and sunny and there were quite a few people milling about. My girlfriend and I went to shoot there, and after a short while of walking about, I was captivated by the walls of one of the locks, and the colors and textures it had. The images are a small group of those textures and some of the variations we saw that day!
I figure it's probably better if I mention the metadata (camera settings) that I used to get some of these shots, so here it is!:
ISO125 F/8 1/100 @ 40mm (18-50mm lens), polarizing filter

Car Experiment

I was in the back of my buddy's car the other day and decided to just shoot randomly for a bit. Not necessarily out to get a particular sort of shot, but just to see what happens when you don't pay attention the whole time. I did pay attention to one aspect, the shutter speed, which was slowed in order to get a slightly blurred effect. Other than that I just pointed out the window and let it do what it may!

Mt. St. Helen's

The last weekend in April we decided to head out to Mt. St. Helen's for a trip to the summit crater and to do some skiing. The weather outlook was good, so we jumped on the opportunity. With packs, tents, and skis, we hiked from the trailhead for just over a mile before making a small makeshift campsite. It wasn't as far as we would have liked, but it got us away from the parking lot and into the forest. After a short evening filled with euchre and pseudo-sleep, we woke at 6am to get ready and head out. We made timberline shortly thereafter as the day began to warm. Thus began our 4 mile trek to the summit via the winter/worm flow route. The trip is of moderate grade, nothing too steep but then again nothing too shallow. At this time of year the snow is abundant, at times it was a bit too hard for skins, so some kick steps were required for several hundred feet, some of which the toe would only catch hold about an inch in (but a slide would only mean a few feet of frustration, so nothing to be worried about). The sun broke free later in the morning and the snow softened, so the ascent, though long, was enjoyable. What took 6 hours to ascend then took 45 minutes to descend on the wide open slopes. The snow was good except for the unexpected sticky stuff, which would really throw you into the front seat if you had picked up a little speed. We were able to ski from the summit to the car, which was great! Excellent trip!

Kerry Park at Sunset

I rode the bus home from work the other day, noticed the clouds around the city, and decided to take a jaunt over to Kerry Park. The clouds and the colors from the sun were an interesting backdrop to the city. I wanted a different angle from the park where it seems everyone comes away with the same couple of shots, so I walked around the corner past the fence and grabbed the wide angle to capture the flowers and grasses and also the city. It just so happened that the wind was blowing slightly which created some pleasant motion textures on the images. When it got a bit later, I tried out some longer exposures to see if I could get some of these clouds moving behind the city, but ended up leaving too quickly before it could happen well. Either way, it was a good choice for a visit and I came away with some quality shots.

Golden Gardens Pt. II

I headed back to Golden Gardens to test my theory of diffraction and shoot using a maximum aperture of f16. It was sunset so I was able to use a more open aperture (compared to the last time) while maintaining a longer shutter speed, which I had wanted previously. The results are definitely noticeable. An aperture setting anywhere from f12 to f16 produces crisp images without the 'fuzz' caused by the diffraction. There was no wind today, which allowed the water to be extremely calm, but the water lacked the same movement as the other day, but that was alright as it gave way to a very relaxing atmosphere. Everything was great until a dog walked up to me, which I normally would welcome, but the continued to step multiple times on all of my stuff and kick sand throughout almost everything. I managed to clean up the majority of it, but I was not very happy with that dog at the time....stupid dog....