August 2009 Roadtrip

Last weekend, Wanda and I decided to take a couple of days for ourselves and do some driving and shooting. We got up very early on Friday morning, 4 am if you can believe it, and drove down to Crater Lake for the day. My goal was to shoot some landscapes in infrared, and Wanda's was simply to get away from the house and spend some time in nature. She finds the lake a very restful and peaceful place, and wanted to get out of town for a a bit as well.

It's quite the drive from Portland to Crater Lake. It typically takes anywhere from 5 - 6 hours depending on the traffic and the road conditions. Because we left so early, there was very little traffic to impede our travel, and we made to the North Entrance of the park around 9 am. We checked the weather the night before, and unfortunately the forecast had changed from earlier in the week from mostly sunny to mostly cloudy with a chance of showers. Since we had made plans for the entire weekend which included some time in Bend shooting the Cascade Lakes and visiting with some friends, the trip was on regardless of the weather.

When we got to the Crater Rim, the water was so still and quiet that the clouds were reflected almost perfectly such that it looked as though you were looking down into the sky. We took the time to hike up to the Watchman's Tower which is where the above shot was taken. The hike took us about and hour, and it was quite windy at the top of crater rim where the tower was located, so we didn't linger too long admiring the view. It was kind of neat to look down into the small crater at the top of Wizard Island though.

After our short hike, we continued around the crater rim to the Rim Village where we had a cup of hot chocolate, purchased some souvenirs as gifts for the grandkids, and walked down to the Crater Lake Lodge. While there, I took the opportunity to take a few infrared landscape shots of the island. That image can be seen above.

From the Rim Village we drove down to the Pinnacles. These are geological formations created when fumeroles were fused, buried by subsequent eruptions and then years later exposed when the surrounding ash and soil were eroded away. They are strange and interesting formations, and Wanda had some fun shooting them with one of my cameras.

The Pinnacles:

As we wrapped up shooting the Pinnacles, it began to drizzle, and though we had planned a picnic lunch, we decided to finish the rim drive, exit the park where we entered, and then head on up to Bend for dinner and a good night's sleep. We had reservations for two nights at a hotel in the Old Mill District, and we knew there was a weekend concert and art show planned during the our stay.

We got into town around 5 pm, checked into our room and decided to check out the art show before dinner. There quite a number of booths set up and an eclectic collection of art on display - sculptures, photographs, quilts, paintings, crystal, glasswork, and much more. We didn't purchase anything, but we had fun walking around and looking at the various displays.

After the short walk through the art show, we stopped for dinner at Greg's Grill. The meal was quite delicious, but the most enjoyable part of the evening, was sitting around the large gas firepit outside the restaurant enjoying the music from the concert and chatting with the locals. While we were there savoring the company, the music and our drinks, the weather began to clear and soon we were able to enjoy a lovely sunset. Unfortunately, with our previous 4 am wakeup call, we had to call it an early night and head to bed.

The next day we met with some friends for coffee, then headed out to shoot the Cascade Lakes for another day of shooting. We managed to get in some photography at Sparks Lake and Devil's Lake, but not much at any of the other lakes because of the sheer number of people out enjoying the day.

On our way back into Bend from our day's outing, we stopped at a meadow by Spark's Lake and had our picnic of hummus, flatbread, fruit and cheese. It was a quiet and peaceful meal and most relaxing for both of us. Afterwards, we did a little more shooting, and Wanda managed to catch me in my classic "shooting a landscape pose." And here's the final shot from that day:

When we got back into town, we stashed our gear in the hotel room, then took a short walk downtown to the Deschutes Brew Pub for a locally brewed beer. Later that evening we met our friends for dinner, had another lovely meal with good conversation, and got a good night's sleep before our trip home the next day. Before we went to sleep, however, Wanda made sure we got the laptop out and planned our next few get-away weekends in advance.

Shooting as Fun and Therapy

Wanda is away for a couple of weeks. Her mother took a severe turn for the worse and she made snap decision to make the trip back to Georgia. It was certainly the right decision, given the circumstances, as her mother almost died before the doctors got her stabilized. She's out of the hospital now, but Wanda needs to remain with her parents for a while longer to assist with setting up her mom's home therapy and to help get both her parent's affairs in order.

Her mothers sudden turn was precipitated by a fire that destroyed both their outbuildings, included her father's woodworking shop and resulted in the lost of several thousands dollars worth of equipment, as well as many precious family heirlooms. The stress of the event (which has been determined to be arson), was just too much for her mom who has been chronically ill for several years now.

I have, of course, had more time on my hands with Wanda gone. We talk every morning, and I'm doing a lot of on-line research and paperwork for her parents, but given the three hour time difference, my evenings are mostly free except when the grand kids are here (a couple of nights each week so far). To get my mind off things and to give me something to work on while she is gone, since I've cleaned the house, the yards and the garage already, I took a road trip on Sunday and then shot with a young model I'm helping to get into the business on Monday and Tuesday.

The road trip was quite relaxing. I took Hwy 26 and Hwy 6 to the coast and it was a gorgeous spring day for the trip. From Tillamook, I took the Three Capes Scenic Route and did some photography out at Cape Mears and the lighthouse, then drove down the coast to Florence to meet my model and spend some time with her parents.

The model, Gabriell, is a lovely and talkative young lady, had expressed an interest in modeling part-time to earn extra cash. She is quite photogenic. I've known her for several years and Wanda and I are great friends with her parents. I photographed her for her senior portraits last year, and she was the Sand Fairy for my ongoing project. I definitely wanted to have a discussion with her parents before the shoot to keep them in the loop and to explain what we would be shooting, especially since I expected that Gabriell would be interested in the more lucrative areas of modeling (glamour and artistic nudes), based on her previous history. Of course, it was just fun spending the time with two good friends and chatting about life and family as well.

On Monday we got an early start shooting per our shoot plan, and headed out to Collins Beach, on Sauvie Island. As you can see from the image to left, Collin's Beach is a Clothing Optional area. The look on Gabriell's face was something to see when she saw the people on the beach, but she was quite game to get started and we got some great shots. The day was beautiful with a clear sky and wonderfully, warm weather and we had great views of Mount St. Helens and other peaks in the background. We spent about 3 hours shooting there in various outfits, and I think we got a number of great images for Gabriell's portfolio.

Here are just a couple of shots from that session:



Over the remainder of the day and the following morning, we got quite a number of additional images, but I haven't had the opportunity to process any more of those (the grandchildren have been staying with me since Tuesday), but I certainly think that this young lady has potential and with some hard work, she could make some real money as a glamour model for local artists and photographers.

The Early Bird Get the Light

Sometimes you just have to get up early to get the right light. These images were taken at 5.03 am last Friday morning as I was traveling east along the Suislaw River leaving the coastal city of Florence and driving inland. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Infrared Photography

I've long been interested in infrared photography, but it's always seemed such as hassle to me. Back in the film days you had to buy special film, then load it in basically darkroom conditions. On top of that, certain cameras couldn't use the film because they used infrared beams in the body to count the frame advances. Finally, to shoot with infrared you had to use a special R72 filter to let only infrared light into the camera, which meant you had to pre-focus before you put the filter on and that your exposure would be extremely long compared to
a normal exposure.

In most cases, the advent of digital cameras didn't change things much really. While the digital sensor is, in fact, sensitive to both visible and infrared light, camera manufacturers place a filter over the sensor that among other things, removes the infrared light. So, while you didn't need to load the film in the dark, you still had to use an R72 filter to remove the visible light and exposures were still lengthy. Some cameras were much better than others at capturing infrared. The Olympus C2020Z, which I owned for a while, had a good reputation for IR photography, though I never actually used it for infrared.

What did change, however, was that the IR filter in a digital camera body could be removed and replaced with a sensor cover that did allow the infrared (actually Near Infrared) light to pass and all0ws for infrared photography without the use of an R72 filter and with normal exposure times. The image above is a test shot from my Canon 20D DSLR which has had this conversion completed. It was just returned from Lifepixel today (after about three weeks away) and this was taken in my back yard with a Canon EF 50 f/1.4 lens and converted to B&W. The image below was left in color and the red and blue channels reversed to make the sky blue vs. red.

This is going to make photography a bit more fun this summer, and I plan to use the converted camera extensively, but not exclusively, as part of my fairy project. It will also be fun to use it for some landscape photography along the Oregon Coast and for my planned trip to Crater Lake National Park.

Salt Creek

Salt Creek is an area of Death Valley that is both beautiful and intriguing. As you can see in the photo to the left, there is a long wooden boardwalk that stretches into the distance from the parking area. The boardwalk provides a path above the waters of Salt Creek. In the summer, the creek bed is mostly dry and the boardwalk rises over cracked mud and vegetation for most of its length, though there is at least a small amount of water year round.

In the spring, however, the water flows and the streams can be several feet deep and the boardwalk is quite necessary. It's at this time, the Salt Creek Pupfish population explodes and the clear waters of the stream allow clear viewing of these small creatures.

Salt Creek is a beautiful and, in the summer, empty spot. We wandered there shooting photos, even some outdoor glamour stuff, for well over an hour without seeing another soul. It would be a wonderful place to visit again.

Autumn Photography

I enjoy shooting in the Fall. Of course, the seasonal colors were much better when I lived in New England and Upstate New York. Here in Oregon, the colors are more subdued and tend toward the yellows and oranges as opposed to the bright reds and deep burnt oranges of the Northeast. Also, the weather here makes for more difficult shooting as the storm fronts start moving in off the Pacific beginning in October and a dry day becomes more of a rarity.

I took a day off last week to do some fall shooting. My plan was to drive over Bald Peak into Yamhill County and down to McMinnville to shoot around the vineyards and the town. t was supposed to be a dry day, but the morning was actually pretty foggy and damp. By lunch, however, the weather had cleared and I managed to get in some shooting. Driving over Bald Peak was quite interesting in the fog, but I did get some spooky looking shots at Bald Peak Park and on the property of some friends who live up on the mountain. I found some interesting colors driving down the mountain into valley, but the colors were still fairly dull due to the overcast skies.





When I got into McMinnville, I was happy to find quite a bit of color in the town itself. There were several maple trees outside the Hotel Oregon which had turned, and there was a Farmer’s Market scheduled for that afternoon and the vendors were setting up some very colorful displays. I wandered around town for a bit, had lunch at the hotel, and they shot a few frames of the market, the town, and some of the outlying vineyards. All in all, it was a nice relaxing day, but I sure would love to visiting Vermont and Connecticut in the fall again.