I went out this morning to try and catch a Lake Superior sunrise for the first time in a LONG time. As I drove to my chosen location the clouds started to light up with color as the sun approached the horizon. Less than 5 minutes later, however, that brief splash of color was gone. I waited an hour for some more amazing light to appear, but it was not meant to be on this morning. I still shot several images, and this one was my favorite. While not the most impressive in terms of color, there is a lot of very subtle variation in color going on. Plus, the waves made for a nice touch as they broke upon the shore.
Cascade River State Park, MN
I finally made it out to shoot a Lake Superior sunset again, something I haven't done in quite a while. The wave action this evening was pretty sweet. It would have been nice to have a bit more color in the sunset, but it was a very beautiful scene nonetheless! I even got to see an otter running along the shoreline while I was making images of the waves. Sorry, no pictures of the otter... he was gone before I could get the camera pointed at him :-(
Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area - Oregon
Multnomah, more than any other waterfall in the Columbia River Gorge, is arguably the "must-see" waterfall in that area. It is also one of the easiest ones to see, with excellent access just off the roadway. We arrived late in the day but still managed to squeeze off a few shots before it got too dark to see the falls. This was a 6 second exposure taken from near the base of the falls.
Okay, I'm kind of working backwards a bit here through our trip out west. This waterfall was one of the first beautiful places we visited on our recent trip. It is located not far from the Canadian border in northeast Washington, in Colville National Forest. A beautiful, heavily forested 2-mile hike led us to this surprising gem of a waterfall tucked into the hillside. This is just one of many waterfalls in the area, I can't wait to go back and find more!
While driving down the coast from Reedsport, Oregon to Crescent City, California we stopped at this beautiful location in the town of Port Orford. The view looking south down the coast was incredible, and it was a perfect day to be making the drive. Coming from northern Minnesota where November days are often completely cloud-covered and the temp typically hovers around 30 to 40 degrees, it sure was nice to enjoy full sunshine and temps in the mid 60's!
Here's another shot from our recent trip out west. This one was taken on a very windy evening along the beach at Winchester Bay. We came across this large driftwood log that had all this wind-blown sand around it. When I saw the lines in the sand I knew I had to photograph the scene. Just as the sun was setting the clouds opened up right where the sun was, making that hole in the clouds incredibly bright. I used a 3-stop reverse-graduated neutral density filter to help balance the exposure between the bright sky and the dark foreground. Further editing in Lightroom 4 (using the graduated filter tool) allowed me to bring more detail out of the scene and balance the exposure even more. The in-camera exposure was much darker than the scene looked to our eyes. What you see here is the scene as I remember it. I hope you like it!
During our recent trip out west we visited Shore Acres State Park, one of the best places along the Oregon coast to watch the ocean waves. As I was photographing the surf breaking over the near-shore rocks I noticed these little ocean shrubs that looked like miniature palm trees. I think they add a bit of whimsy to this photo.
