Learning Something New

My dear friend Dr. Michelle Mazur of Relationally Speaking recently challenged her clients to do something they weren't good at. In her blog, she spoke of her heinous attempt at art and vowed to take an art class. Michelle will be the first one to tell you she hasn't an artistic or crafty bone in her body.

It's just not her strong suit.

I will be the first one to tell you that I can not take portraits.

I have tried. I suck at it. Being an introvert, it is difficult for me to communicate the desired pose and how I hope it will look in the end result. I barely passed Studio class in school. As a result I like to take pictures of flowers, waterfalls and dogs. Portrait photographers hold a very high esteem for me. They are able to do something I could only dream of.

So when she challenged us to do something we suck at, I knew she was telling me to focus my lens on the human face.

I had some practice before. A few years back I challenged myself and joined a Street Photography group.

I had fun. And produced some show worthy work in the process. But there I could hide behind the camera, shoot from a distance, stay invisible.

Actual portraits? That means an interaction and communication, ideas that incite apprehension and at times fear.

Giving Michelle my goal she reacted with joy. Then I asked if I could practice on her.

"Of Course!" she replied.

I would like to say that I overcame my fear & apprehension. Michelle is a good friend of mine after all. But alas, I was tongue-tied and lost in my directions. I asked her to face a glass wall and she made fun of me while trying to comply (she wanted to know her motivation). I wasn't sure what I was looking for but got something. In her frustration with my direction she began to laugh and there she was - the woman I know she is: fun, happy, confident, strong.

Later she said "Dude, you need to make me look at walls more often." She now uses that image in some of her promotional materials. Plus another image when all I could tell her to do is walk between this spot and that spot.

Her tagline is "What is your presentation destination." An image of her walking near a sculpture at the Olympic Sculpture Park exemplifies the journey to the destination perfectly for her.

I may not have overcome my sucking, but there is hope.

Cabin and Flowers

I had been wanting to head to Mt Rainier's Indian Henry's Hunting ground for several year - ever since I had passed through on my trek along the Wonderland Trail and then later saw the amazing meadows and wildflower display. When I had hiked through, the meadows were still under at least a foot of snow.

No flowers. No meadows. Lots a flies in the outhouse but that's a different story.

That 1st trip, my hiking partner & I sat on the deck of the Patrol Cabin not knowing it's history (it is the 1st such cabin to have been built in the park). We admired the view of the mountain rising from the cabin's "back yard", imagined the flowers that would appear later that summer.

Nothing would prepare me for the wildflower images I would see after the hike. Those images inspired me to plan another hike to this wonderland.

When a buddy of mine expressed a desire to be at Indian Henry's for the wildflowers and shoot star trails over the mountain, it gave me the perfect reason to head back up.

We opted to camp at a cross country zone behind the cabin and Mirror Lakes so we'd be close to the area we wanted to photograph, thinking that Devil's Dream Camp was too far from the meadow. Just remember that the hike to the cross country zone was heinous - trail was unmaintained and at points dangerous in the dark.

We set up camp and decided to stay put through sunset and stars. Too tired to explore.

The better time to photograph the historic cabin and the meadows would have been in the afternoon on the way in. The sun would have lit up the cabin set back in the trees and I really wanted to get that image.

On the way out, I stopped to take the shot I had missed on the way in even though I knew the lighting just wasn't what I wanted. The cabin hid from the scene in the shadows of the tree. I started planning on the hike out which Photoshop actions I would use to make the image something reminiscent of the history the cabin has experienced.