Abrams Falls

This is a popular waterfall in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. I got to the trailhead early in the morning and hiked through the misty woods for about 2.5 miles or so to get to the falls. I had the trail to myself and it felt great to walk through the woods early in the morning. The falls, obviously, were beautiful.

Cape Alava Trail

Taken in Olympic National Park. This is a short and fun trail to the Pacific Coast, but it is incredibly slick when it is wet. I have taken several spills on this trail, but I always end up falling harmlessly in the shrubbery on the side. Most of the time I can avoid the fall by throwing my arms out in the air to balance myself. I'm sure I look awfully strange to the possums and coons watching from the trees!

Mother and Young

This was taken in Olympic National Park. This doe and youngster were feeding on grass when the youngster tried to share some grass plucked by the doe. I snapped about three photos during this moment and managed to get the focus right between the nettles. Thanks for looking.

From the Hillsborough River

I was kayaking on the Hillsborough River when I saw this egret catch a salamander. At this particular moment, the salamander appears to be facing the egret just before he was devoured. I'll post a more friendly animal photo in my next post!

Kayaking the Yellow River

I went kayaking on the Yellow River this last weekend. It turns out that it was a prime deer hunting area so things got interesting when we started hearing gunfire. We did not get to the scenic camp site that we were hoping for, but this spot was good enough. I took this photo just after the sun went down.

Horizontal Version

This is another shot from the Washington trip. I think I like the vertical version better. The waves were actually pretty violent but the intensiy of the waves does not show up in the slow shutter speed. I am looking forward to printing some of these out at 12x18 to see how they look.

In other news, I am going on a kayaking/camping trip this weekend. The fun never ends :-)

Three Shells

Although I believe I prefer to the rocky coasts of the Pacific Northwest, I also enjoy the smooth beaches of Florida's Gulf Coast - especially in the undeveloped regions. I hope you like it.

ss0"6, f20, ISO 200

From Mountains to the Sea

One thing I like about Northwest Washington is that one day I can be shooting great winter scenes in the mountains, and the next day I can be on coast where the temperature is more mild and shoot scenes like this. Finding a good composition in this area was not hard, but it was difficult (as it always is) to find a truly great composition. This is probably one of my favorites for this area, as composition goes.

Canon 20D, Canon EF 17-40mm lens, SS6", f13, ISO 200

I'm Back

Hello! I am back from Washington. Although bad weather shut me out on several days, I did manage to get a few photos that I am proud of. I drove up to the Mt. Shuksan area last Friday and hiked into the waist deep snow to set up for this shot. Although it was frigid outside, I was thrilled when the sky turned pink, red, and orange just before sunrise.

After this shoot, I am now a big believer in snow shoes. Hiking into waist deep snow in hiking boots is extremely exhausting!