Swirling

While on the Oregon Coast last month, one of my self-assignments was to photograph moving water with slow shutter speeds. I love the effect this creates - smooth silky water. I love the sense of motion within the image especially when photographed against solid objects. And what better place to play with water & slow shutter speed than the Oregon Coast.

We were down in the Newport area and decided to stop by Seal Rocks State Park. There are some lovely rock formations in the bay - sandstone, so they have worn away into some magnificent shapes. While most of my group focused in on the waves against the rocks, I went another direction. I began exploring the upper beach taking simple images of sandstone and pebbles until I reached the south end of the beach and smiled with delight. There in the sand, was a row of sandstone exposed by the waves. The stone had been smoothed by waves over the years: dips, crest, crevasses - perfect for parting & catching waves and foam then slowly releasing them back to the ocean.

I set up my tripod, first trying to get a good wide angle with the beach & bluff behind. But the day was a normal northwest kind of a day with heavy flat overcast skies that became unattractive in the scene. So I moved closer, composing on the rocks with the surrounding beach. But this still didn't seem to depict the motion I wanted - too much was distracting from the scene.

Finally, I stood on top of the rocks, hoping my boots would keep out the water, and focused more closely with an interestingly shaped rock in the foreground and composing with another along the line to draw the eye into the scene. All I had to do after that, was wait. And my patience was rewarded with a nice low wave coming up over the rock then down the other side. My shutter speed of 5 seconds was long enough in the low light to catch what I had hoped for - an interesting rock with silky foam & water cascading off & swirling around.

St. Mary's by the Sea

Along the Oregon Coast there is a little church tucked up along the sand dunes away from the highway. It sits back a little way from the beach yet the beach is ever present in the sanctuary. This is a church built by & for sea-faring folk. Those whose lives and often deaths were influenced by the ocean just beyond the dunes. A bench for contemplation sits at the top of the dunes. I like that bench and took my turn at photographing it but it was the warmth of the church that attracted me.

The door to the sanctuary was ajar so I coaxed my friend to peak inside. Being braver then me, she did & immediately called back "You have got to see this." As I walked into the sanctuary, I became breathless with excitement. The glow of the windows we had seen from the outside filled the church. We meandered throughout the little church taking pictures of details colored by the golden light from the windows.

But my favorite image remains this first one, taken as I entered the sanctuary, my breath still as I looked at the glory of it all. The pews lined up, light falling on them and dark shadows defining their shape. The geometric shapes of the golden windows shining brightly from the darkened walls leading your eye to the light on the red & white flowers on the side alter in the distance. Brought to me the quiet stillness I love so much in churches when it's just me and my reverence.

One for my mother

My mother loved owls. I never really knew why. I was barely out of my teens when she died and hadn't yet gotten to the place where my mother was at all interesting. But I knew she loved owls and most of all she loved Snowies.

Snowy Owls are a rare occurrence in the Pacific Northwest - they rarely migrate this far south, but every few years one or two can be spotted in some areas around Seattle & the coastal areas. But this year seemed like a bumper crop of Snowy Owl sightings. They were sighted in & around Seattle and reports were coming in from Montana & North Dakota. But the Boundary Bay area in British Columbia was the most interesting for birders - up to 20 Snowy Owls could be seen sitting on the drift logs at any time. Photographers & birders "flocked" to the area.

I was thrilled when a birding acquaintance told me she would be leading a Mountaineers trip to Canada to see the Snowy Owls and other birds at Reifel Bird Sanctuary. I wanted to try & get a picture of the owls.

My mother had been on my mind a lot lately - just the stresses of life and how I remember her warm & loving hugs. One day while shopping, every rack of shelves held an owl something: a figurine, a cup, a candle holder. So when the opportunity to photograph one of her beloved birds came up, I couldn't say no. Even as the weather looked bad, I knew I would go. My back account was stretched thin before payday, but I took out the cash to pay for gas. There wasn't a question in my mind that I would go.

I hoped the birds would be close enough for me to see and photograph. I don't classify myself as a wildlife photographer, so don't have all the fancy equipment to capture animals at a distance. But I needn't have worried, the owls were lined up on logs not 20 yards from the trail sitting, watching, grooming. Camera lenses and birding scopes in a line pointed at them and I set up along with them all - focusing on one large fluffy bird on an interesting stump hoping he might do something more interesting than stare at us.

Then he did. He twisted around to start grooming, lifted his head feathers outstretched and I got a picture my mother would have been proud of.

Walking with Rangers

The Mt Baker-Snoqualmie Forest offers guided snowshoe hikes at Stevens Pass & Snoqualmie Pass on weekends. I had been reading about them for a couple of years & advising people to go on them but had never gone on one myself. So when my friends, the Mountainettes, decided to go I just had to sign up.

The day started out cold and shady. We'd be in the trees most of the day. Not like the previous day's snowshoe when we were on the ridge most of the day. But we were excited about a day of sun anyway. Our Rangers, Chuck & Cindy, got us off quickly after a few jokes & introductions. Ranger Chuck was in the lead and would stop every now & then to point out a view or some trace of life in a winter forest. We talked about winter travel safety and history. We took photos, told stories and laughed.

By the end of the day we were happy, tired, and ready to go again.

Happiness is . . .

I had gotten an email from a friend Friday morning wanting to know what I was doing on Saturday - the weather would be fabulous & she knew I was one of only a few friends who wouldn't complain if she wanted to take the 5:35 ferry out of Edmonds to go on a snowshoe adventure. However, I had committed myself to a snowshoe event with my sister. It would be a great day for the views at Hurricane Ridge & not the tromping through the trees at Stevens Pass for the event. Luck would have it though, the event was funding Susan G Komen Foundation and after the flap earlier in the week regarding funding of Planned Parenthood, my sister & her friends were done with their support of Komen. She cancelled. And I was waking up at 3:30 to go to Hurricane Ridge.

The trip really only hit one snag, a car sized boulder in the road that closed the road for and extra hour. But we weren't bothered by this - a quick trip back to town for second breakfast and a cup of coffee later and we were on our way again. The parking lot at the visitor center was already filling up, but there was still plenty of room as we parked our car and started of on our day.

We weren't in a hurry to get anywhere. In fact we didn't relly care if we got to the top of Hurricane Hill at all. We meandered along the snowy road, heading off into the woods anytime we thought we might see a view or just for a small change of pace. Some of the snow was just too much to resist and I threw myself into a snow bank, on Mary's recommendation, to make snow angels.

Once we hit the end of the road, the "work" began - a steady and often steep climb up the first knoll to the ridge. The rest of the climb to Hurricane Hill would follow the ridge. The views we had been admiring all morning became even more incredible as we climbed. We stopped for a while taking pictures until we couldn't stand the biting wind anymore and continued on our way. It was too far past the first hill that we came to a section of trail that cut into the snow along a cliff. I didn't like the looks of it, even less so when as I watched a group go by one of their number slipped. Nope I was done.

Mary & I started back to the visitor center for some hot cocoa before calling it a day, smiles on our faces.

Kissed by the Setting Sun

When heading out on a photo trip, I will sometimes set myself an assignment - work on macros, play w/ depth of field - whatever might work for the destination. If I'm heading to a mountain meadow, I might play with macros for the wildflowers or I might play with depth of field highlighting one flower with soft focus all around, or sharp focus for the whole scene. For a recent trip to the Oregon Coast, I set myself an assignment of playing with shutter speed and the waves. I love the look of smooth waves that you get when you have a slow shutter speed and the Oregon coast is perfect for that. I will share some of my images from that self-assignment in another post. What can also happen while I'm out shooting is that I'll give myself another assignment - one I hadn't thought of previously. This second assignment was capturing sun stars.

Another photographer in the group was working on capturing sun stars which gave me an idea. While waiting for the ideal light just after the sun sets, why not see if I could create sun stars? I had already positioned my camera well before the sun came close to the rocks, but as I watched its progression along the sky I began to get more excited. Will the sun really "touch" top of the sea stack? Could I really be that fortuitous? I waited, I'd like to say patiently but I wasn't. I watched the sun's progress, the waves swirl around rocks below, a sea lion's head popped out of the water, a seagull flew between the sea stacks. Then finally! The moment I had hoped for - the sun began to slide behind the top of the sea stack. I had already set up my camera for the shot.

I knew from lectures and articles that sun stars are created when you stop down your aperture as far as you can. The star is made from the high amount of light -it leaks through the leaves of the aperture itself. The farther your aperture is stopped down the more intense the sun star. So I closed my lens down to f/32 and set my shutter speed to compensate. I metered off the clouds as they were the closest to middle grey in the scene.

I ended up adjusting my exposure slightly as the sun went down, but the end result was something I had hoped for and luckily got.