The Beach at Monterosso al Mare
In April 2009, we took a family trip to Italy. One of the fabulous areas we visited was Cinque Terre. The Cinque Terre region is a rugged portion of coast on the Italian Rivera consisting of five small villages.
Some folks were nice enough to build a bonfire and then abandon it. So, I captured this scene on the beach outside our hotel in the village of Monterosso al Mare. The reluctant model is our daughter.
One of my favorite photos from the trip.
Mt. Rainier
It's hard to believe that it's been a couple of months since I visited Mt. Rainier National Park and I'm just now getting around to posting some images.
Mt. Rainier, also known to Native Americans as Mount Tahoma, is the largest mountain in the Cascade mountains and in the state of Washington. But during my short stay, I barely saw it :( I seem to have the bad luck of having bad weather follow me on my trips. This trip was no different and I didn't get to do as much shooting as I had planned.
The first day that I arrived in the Park, the weather was fantastic. This was the only day that I was able to clearly see Mt. Rainier. I stayed at the Paradise Inn which is located on the south side of the mountain. The first night I shot this of the milky way looking towards the Tatoosh Range.
There are lots of trails to hike in the Park and it's easy to find a trail that suits your fitness level. One day I hiked the Grove of the Patriarchs trail which has lots of really big, old trees. I came upon this large, hollowed out log and I used my flashlight to "lightpaint" the inside of this tree.
Christine Falls
Silver Falls
While hiking the various trails around Mt. Rainier, you're likely to see lots of water falls. Christine Falls is actually located on the main road, in fact the arch you see above the falls is the main road. So, there wasn't any hiking involved in getting here but still it's a great view. Silver Falls (image on right) required a hike of a few miles to reach. It was a nice way to spend several hours since Tahoma was covered with fog.
The Paradise Inn is a rustic lodge built in 1916. It's located in the Paradise area of the national park. I think one of the reasons it's called Paradise is because of all the wild flowers that are native to the area. Since this was my first visit to Mt. Rainier, I thought there were a lot of wild flowers. But, I was told this year was actually a bad year for the wild flowers due to the severe drought conditions out west. The wild flowers are supposed to be at peak bloom during the summer but closer inspection showed that the flowers that were there seemed very dry. I can only imagine how magnificent it must be during a peak year. The flower image above was taken near the Paradise Inn.
Since the weather was cool and foggy most of the time, it was nice to be able to enjoy the lodge. Bill the piano man would play every afternoon. And I mean he would PLAY and PLAY, typically for a solid 3-4 hours without even pausing between songs. If that wasn't impressive enough...he was FANTASTIC, too!
Since the lodge doesn't have any modern amenities (no TV, radio, internet, cell phone signal, etc.) it was interesting to just sit in the great room area of the lodge and watch all the folks pass the time by socializing, reading, families playing games, or just sitting back and listening to Bill. At about 7:30 pm, Bill would leave and give the lodge over to one of the park rangers who would give a presentation about one aspect of the Park. Since the weather was pretty cool while I was there, typically in the 50's to low 60's, there was always a fire going in the two fireplaces in the lodge. There is a fireplace at each end of the great room (you can see one fireplace in the above image).
Despite the fact that weather had a negative impact on my photography plans for this trip I still enjoyed my time at Mt. Rainier National Park. I enjoyed the character of the Paradise Inn and enjoyed the trails I was able to hike. I've added this to my list of place I want to revisit. I'll hope for better weather next time but if that doesn't work out, I'm sure it'll still be ok.
Photoshop World 2015
I've once again made the trip to Las Vegas for Photoshop World. This has become an annual trip for me, I think this is my 7th consecutive conference.
It has become more than just a conference, it's become a community that I really enjoy spending time with. It gives me the opportunity to spend a few days with like minded photographers and it helps recharge my "photographic" batteries for another year.
This year, I started the trip off with a trip out to Nelson, an old mine town that has a bunch of eclectic, americana stuff that's always fun to shoot. I took Gabe along with me, it was Gabe's first trip to Nelson...I think he was a little surprised that a place like this actually existed in the middle of the desert. We ran into our old friend Pete at Nelson. A couple years ago, on a different visit to Nelson, Pete took the photo of me that is at the top of this blog. I'm starting to think Pete may actually be the ghost that lives at Nelson!
While in Nelson, they always tell us to beware of rattlesnakes. I have yet to see one, which I think is a good thing. But I did spot this old gas pump giving me a funny look. This shot of the gas pump was actually inspired by Pete...there's a pretty strong resemblance.
There's no particular theme at Nelson. It's just a bunch of really cool "stuff." I really liked this outdoor rack of miscellaneous items but I think the old tire is what makes the image stand out! :)
I also like the old cars and trucks, like the one you see below. It was hard to pass up the bright yellow and green.
The next night, I did a workshop back in Nelson where we did some lightpainting. I had never tried lightpainting before and I really enjoyed it, although it was much more challenging than I expected. For those who don't know, lightpainting is done in the dark and you provide light with a flashlight while doing a long exposure in your camera.
After a couple days of fun in Nelson, it was time for the conference to start. As usual, there were a few interesting models available to photograph.
We have a short day tomorrow and then the conference will be over. It's been great to see friends again and I'm already looking forward to next year.
It's always fun to spend a few days in Las Vegas, especially in August with the cool, and refreshing 105 degree temperatures!
The Great Smoky Mountains
Over the past several months, I've had the opportunity to visit the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park and drive part of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The Parkway is one of those "great" scenic drives in this country that everyone should do at least once, but please...not all at once! :) The Parkway was gorgeous with lots of fall color. We made a stop at the Mabry Mill for breakfast, and I did a couple shots of the famous mill.
Great Smoky Mountain National Park is the most visited National Park in the US, so it can get a little congested. However, both times I was there it was really nice. The fall colors were a little off last year but still very nice and the spring trip allowed for some great stream shooting opportunities.
There's one main road in the park, so it's hard to get lost. But there are lots of trails that will lead you to great vistas, streams, and awesome hiking.
One of the main attractions in the park is Cades Cove. There is a one-way loop road that takes you through Cades Cove. Depending on the traffic, this can be a slow drive but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. We saw some horses running to get somewhere; I think they just got off work at the stables. :) We also had several deer running and jumping right behind our vehicle which was cool to see.
No visit to the Great Smoky Mountains is complete without finding a couple interesting water falls. There are so many water falls to see, here are a couple of my favorite water fall shots from this year. Hopefully, I'll find a few more the next time.
When it comes to streams and flowing water, I always like to see how they look as black and white images. I use OnOne's Perfect Black and White photoshop plug-in for black and white conversions.
There are also some historic cabins and churches in Cades Cove. It's always interesting to see places like this and try to get a feel for how folks lived back in "the day."
If you go to the Smokies in the spring, there's always a chance you'll see some nice wildflowers in bloom or interesting ferns. One of my favorites was this Fiddlehead.
There's a reason the Great Smoky Mountains is the most visited park, you never know what amazing things Mother Nature will show you. If you get a chance, I highly recommend visiting this great park. Try to go in an off season, so the crowds will be smaller and, if you can, put your feet up and stay a while!
Looking for Blooms!!
I went to Meadowlark Botanical Gardens early this morning for a little macro shooting. It had been quite a long time since I've photographed some flowers. I enjoy it but I was disappointed that there wasn't more in bloom.
I worked on doing some focus stacking. It was fun but it was slow and tedious with manual depth of field calculations, etc. In the end, I have this one image of a flower I can't identify. Does anyone have any ideas of what it is? If so, please let me know.
Perhaps I'll try again next month, maybe there'll be more blooming.
Azalea blossom