Category Archives: Water

Columbia River Gorge

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Tamanawas Falls

Tamanawas Falls. Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 12-100 mm, ISO 200, f/9 @ .6 sec., Bryan Hansel ND/CPL filter.

Columbia River Gorge
Teardrop blocks

Teardrop blocks

It doesn’t seem possible, but I am at the halfway point of my solo journey. Rod flew into Portland, so I drove inland and we spent four days in the Columbia River Gorge. Hauling the teardrop through the Portland Airport worked better than I expected and when we made it to the campground, I was anxious to show Rod how well I setup camp. Of course, this campsite was VERY unlevel so I enlisted his help to use the risers that were unused so far. Rod showed me the trailer had feet stabilizers on the back end too. Hmm… I did fine without them so far, I will probably continue without them.

Art of Macro Photography book

Amy and the book sample

With camp settled we drove 30 miles to Hood River to meet a friend and fellow photog, Sharon, who graciously accepted delivery of the final bound pages of our Macro Book. The printer overnighted (from China) two sample books for us to confirm the page order. Mail is not easy to receive when on the road, so Sharon agreed to sign for it and we met her in town to get the box. Book looks great and is in binding now ready to put on a boat August 7th. Our mid-September distribution is still on target. If you want to reserve your autographed copy for the first shipment, order it here: https://www.horndesigns.com/Books

Waterfall Alley…or Not
Tamanawas Falls trail

Cold Creek. Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 12-100 mm, ISO 200, f11 @ 4 sec., CPL filter.

What should have been waterfall alley, wasn’t.  Don’t get me wrong, we found many waterfalls, but since the Eagle fire last summer, most of the gorge is off limits. Including 2 feet outside our campground. We had to pass security every time we drove to our campsite. I know it was for safety, but this communication was lacking on the website or I would have booked a different campsite.

Our first morning in the Gorge, we drove an hour to Tamanawas Falls near Mt Hood, Oregon to capture images before the sun beat down on the creek and waterfall. The two-mile hike was beautiful and we stopped several times on our way to the falls. At the second stop along the creek, I realized I forgot something.

Rod and Amy by waterfall

Rod and Amy in front of Latourell Falls

Luckily, Rod was up for a run and he ran back to the car to get my new filter adding an extra 1.5-2 miles to his hike. In the past few weeks, I discovered the Bryan Hansel Waterfall Polarizer filter by Singh-Ray Filters. It shipped to the house and Rod brought it but I forgot to put it in my camera bag that morning. This filter combines a polarizer and a solid ND filter giving 3 to 5 stops of neutral density with a polarizing benefit too. I love it. We stopped many times on the two-mile trail capturing images along the way. When we arrived at the falls, there were only 3 other people there so capturing images was pleasant. I enjoy having a nimble non-photographer with me (Rod) because he helps me get to places I might not carry my gear by myself. When we headed out, the crowds came. It really pays off to wake up early for the best light and avoid people in your landscape image. We had a lovely dinner in White Salmon at Sharon’s house with wood fired pizza and wine. It was great swapping stories with her and Steve and enjoyed their beautiful view.

Crown Point State Scenic Corridor in the Gorge was open to vehicles, so we spent a day checking out those waterfalls and short hikes. I didn’t worry about getting images, just enjoyed my time with Rod. After all our hiking, we had lunch at White House Gorge Winery where Rod sampled ciders and I sampled wines. Very relaxing, but hot with temperatures in the mid 90’s.

Starvation Creek falls

Starvation Creek Falls. Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 12-100 mm, ISO 200, f/10 @ 1 sec., Bryan Hansel ND/CPL filter.

Umbrella Creek Falls

Umbrella Falls. Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 12-100 mm, ISO 400, f14 @ .4 sec., Bryan Hansel Filter

We spent another day hiking around Umbrella falls and Starvation Creek Falls. We thought we were hiking 2 miles to Umbrella Falls, but somehow, it was only .25 miles which gave us plenty of time to view both. Umbrella falls were very exposed to sunlight, so I concentrated on small trickles of water instead of the big falls. Starvation Creek was a great location: large falls, small falls and most of it in the shade. Of course, I am still waiting to see if the poison oak I brushed against breaks out on my skin! I could spend more time in the gorge capturing images of waterfalls, but I would prefer to go in the spring when it isn’t so hot.

Margaritas & Ukuleles
Rod with his ukelele

Rod on our last night

Rod brought his ukulele so each evening, we had a ukulele jam session! During the past weeks, I would practice during the day after my camping neighbors checked out and less people were around. But with Rod, it was more fun and I wasn’t so worried about what the neighbors thought (probably because he plays much better than me!) We ate Tillamook cheese, local smoked salmon and drank 24oz margarita cans! It doesn’t get much better than that. Although I am enjoying my solo trip, it is much more fun sharing it with others. Before he flew out, we spent the day in Portland at the Japanese Gardens and Powell’s Bookstore. Now, back to the ocean!

For the Photogs!

When photographing waterfalls, keep the lens cap handy and a dry lens cloth. In between shots, wipe the lens and put the cover back on to minimize spray.

If you are curious about the difference in what filters can do for a waterfall image, here are four examples. I kept the aperture and ISO the same in each photo, notice the difference in shutter speeds and the reflection on the leaves.

Gorge Filter Samples

 

 

Cape Lookout

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man in fog

Cape Lookout. Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 12-100 mm, ISO 250, f/16 @ 1/250 sec.

Lookout

Teardrop with tarp

Three very peaceful days at Cape Lookout State Park. Weather was varied and still no rain. The first night the sea spray was so heavy I put up my rain cover tarp off the back of the teardrop. As you would guess, the spray still found its way to me. The next morning was foggy and windless so I immediately went to the Cape hiking trail for beach and foggy tree shots. Only one other person was walking the beach and I was able to add him to my photo. While I hiked the trail, I found dew covered thistle stalk with a small spider web and spent an hour or more capturing this image.

Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 60 mm macro, ISO 250, f/3.2 @ 1/160 sec., in-camera focus stack of 8 images.

After I returned to camp, the sun came out and without the wind this was the best beach yet! I put down the camera and sat on the beach for part of the afternoon. Although soaking in the sun was great, it was too mellow for me and I took off for a walk down the beach. There were many washed up jelly fish on the shore and I think they are moon jellies. Austin asked me if I tried throwing them back in… I did not. After texting one photo to Rod, he pointed out that I was not looking at a jelly but a plastic lid. I hated admitting it, but he was right. All the others were jelly fish though! Here are two photos, one of a jelly and one of the jelly like lid. Hopefully you can see why I was fooled by the lid.

Moon Jelly. Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 40-150 mm, ISO 200, f/3.5 @ 1/1250 sec.

Burn Ban

Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 40-150 mm, ISO 200, f/6.3 @ 1/8000 sec.

Little did I know this might be my last campfire. The dry summer has hit Oregon and Oregon State Parks started a burn ban. At least I won’t smell like a campfire anymore! My second day was full of touristy locations Munson Falls, Tillamook and Cape Meares Lighthouse. While in Tillamook, I drove by the creamery intending to stop but the crowds were thick and I decided to bypass the bustle. Instead, I bought Tillamook cheese at Safeway. Wasn’t that a cheesy excuse? The afternoon was again sunny and I walked the beach with camera in hand. This adorable little girl jumping the waves drew my eye. My only regret is that I was too relaxed (lazy) to talk to the parents and offer the photos.

It’s interesting how different the waves look at low tide vs high tide and from one beach to another with comparable tides. Here are two of my favorites.

Low Tide. Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 40-150 mm macro, ISO 64, f/16 @ 1.3 sec., 8 stop ND filter.

Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 40-150 mm, ISO 200, f/22 @ 1/5 sec., ND filter.

For the Photogs!

Sand Dollar Shell. Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 60 mm, ISO 200, f/9 @ 1/60 sec.

With the calm winds at Cape Lookout, I used my macro lens more. The first night, I brought shells and a broken sand dollar to my camp. The cloud cover provided a perfect softbox and I setup my table top tripod to capture the images.

Here’s a tip when photographing around salt water. Don’t forget to rinse off your tripod. When I capture the wave images, I often step into the area were larger waves flow up the beach. I watch to avoid splashes, and make sure I rinse the sand and salt off my tripod each night.

Low Tide

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Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 12-100 mm, ISO 200, f/10 @ 1/100 sec.

Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 12-100 mm, ISO 800, f/5.0 @ 1/250 sec.

After several weeks, I live for low tides, especially when it is a negative tide. My next stop was South Beach State Park, outside of Newport, Oregon. Beautiful beach just a ½ mile walk from my camp. The first thing I did when I got to camp was take a shower! My previous campground was perfect expect for the lack of showers. After 5 days…I was ready for a shower. I celebrated by making a fire and enjoyed the calm evening. Low tide was at eight o’clock the next morning so I drove 10 miles to Seal Rock. I read that was the best place to go for low tide and it was great. Not to mention there were seals too. I spent several hours on this beach capturing images of sea stars and seals. I even returned the next day. The first day was sunny and the seals were much more active. The second day was cloudy and cool and the seal just slept!

Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 12-100 mm, ISO 200, f/10 @ 1.6 sec.

Newport has a beautiful bridge that I photographed last summer so I included that image. My pace has slowed as I relax more and capture images of what interests me and mostly, it’s the tide pools! I spent one afternoon with an old friend, Jeff Cox. He was a volunteer with Arizona Highways Photo Workshops with me for several years and sold his place in Tucson to live south of Newport. Jeff and his wife took me to South Beach Fish Market for lunch and it was excellent! I had a crab sandwich with a ¼ lb fresh crab on it. Eighty percent of the menu includes fried items from crab to oysters, they have it all. Jeff took me to the Hatfield Marine Center where he volunteers and I got to touch sea urchins, anemones and sea stars. My favorite anemone photo came from here. Then we checked out the Yaquina Head Lighthouse and the Newport Harbor. It was a fun afternoon and it was great having a fellow photog to talk to!

Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 12-100 mm, ISO 1600, f/4 @ 1/160 sec.

Moving to Oregon

Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 12-100 mm, ISO 250, f/11 @ 1/320 sec.

Ok, so that heading was just to get your attention. But, I have to admit, I have looked at real estate in Oregon. Let me clarify, I have looked at my realtor app to identify housing costs, I have not toured any homes. I’m not sure it will come of anything, but I could live on this coast. So, would a house on the Oregon coast be a winter home? Because we have a great summer home in Flagstaff.

One thing that is alarming when driving on the coast are the tsunami warning and evacuation route signs. With so many worldwide natural disasters in the past few years, this signs definitely send up a red flag.

For the photogs!

Capturing images at low tide is much easier with cloudy skies. In the images below, the first was captured with sunlight and the second with cloudy skies. Notice how the colors are brighter with cloudy skies and the shadows are not so harsh.

Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 12-100 mm, ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/125 sec.

Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 12-100 mm, ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/500 sec.

Before the trip, someone told me, “don’t be lazy.” Meaning change the lens, or carry all the gear, whatever it takes to make the shot – do it! Well, I’ve been pretty good about that, but when I visited Seal Rock and took my long Panasonic lens 100-400mm, I did not take my tripod. I knew it was full sun and would be able to shoot with a fast shutter speed. A fast shutter speed still isn’t good enough if the lens is so long I can’t hold it still! So, my favorite image is not as sharp as I would like due to my movement, but I included it above because it shows the seal yawning. The second day, I went back and handheld my 40-150mm lens. Since it was cloudy, I chose to bring the faster lens.

At low tide, I also saw a bunch of white plasticy looking things. After asking about them, I learned they are squid egg sacs. Although the beach was covered with them, there are still plenty more in the sea! Once they are on land for awhile they sacs will not survive.

Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 12-100 mm, ISO 400, f/5.6 @ 1/320 sec.

Long Days

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Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 100-400 mm, ISO 200, f/8 @ 1/400 sec.

After three weeks of sunrises before 6am, sunsets around 9pm, and scouting or hiking in between, I am tired. I took a few days with less photography and recouped. I napped, went to the library, ate in town and hung out by the campfire with my neighbors – two teachers from Boise. The highlight of this area was definitely Luna Sea Fish House. Rod and I ate there last year and it is still the best clam chowder so far and the halibut and chips are outstanding.

View from the top of Cape Perpetua

For these three nights camping, I did not have a campground chosen, the one I wanted didn’t take reservations, so I lived on the wild side. I ended up at a different campground then I had planned and it was better. Leaving it to fate worked. Cape Perpetua forest service campground is lovely with a creek next to every camp spot and endless trails around. I hiked the St. Perpetua trail to the top of the Cape, a 600ft elevation climb in under 2 miles. With clear skies, the view was astounding. I also hiked down to the tide pools and photographed crashing waves. At the end of the day, my phone said I hiked 77 stories and completed almost 20,000 steps. No wonder I was tired!

Cape Perpetua

This area is known for its beauty and crashing waves. It does not disappoint. Although I was tired part of my stay, I enjoyed the tide pools, crashing waves and patterns in water. There are never enough sea star images! Every sea star has a personality, whether they are “cuddling” with others or look like they are “dancing,” I smile at the sight of them. Low tide was a negative tide early in the morning, so very few people were there, it was an ideal time to photograph them.

Messages in Water

This water is almost whimsical. Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 12-100 mm, ISO 400, f/6.3 @ 1/4000 sec.

At one point, my husband Rod asked me, “Why photograph water? What interests you?” I have thought about this a lot. As I capture images of water, I love how emotions can be expressed in water from raging mad to serene and calm. As I came to this conclusion I started a new book I purchased a year or more ago and haven’t had time to read, The Hidden Messages in Water. In the book, Masaru Emoto, studied water crystals and how they formed differently depending on their environments. When the water was subject to classical music beautiful crystals emerged, when subject to hate words no crystals formed. Then, he makes the relationship to humans being 70% water. No wonder water makes me feel emotions. After starting this book, I recognize water energizes me and brings me different emotions. It sure is fun photographing.

This crashing wave causes concern. Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 12-100 mm, ISO 200, f/5, 1/500 sec.

Teardrop Travels

My Renegade and teardrop trailer in Yachats, Oregon.

So many people are curious about the teardrop, so I thought I would share it with you. This bed on wheels has a queen mattress, battery with 10 volt and 110, stores camp chairs and REI folding table, with a back hatch to cook out of (or I cook at any given picnic table). We have a tray on the front of the teardrop that holds our “bear proof” cooler and with two bags of block ice, I keep my items cold for 5+ days. Not to mention, I can make a U-turn and if my parking is so dismal, I can disconnect and move it myself since it only weighs 1000 pounds! I keep one box of food in my car, mostly nuts, easy to boil Indian food and rice and Austin’s suggestion – mashed potatoes. I often eat rice cakes with almond butter and honey for breakfast or settle for a Lara bar.

Bottle wine is better than box wine.

Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 100-400 mm, ISO 400, f/8 @ 1/1000 sec.

One of my past conversations with my sister was about wine. Not an uncommon conversation between us and when I told her I was buying a box of wine to have on the trip because the box would store better and easier when drinking from my plastic tumbler. She said, “You are in Oregon get a bottle of Oregon wine.” So, I bought both. And without a doubt, bottle wine is better than box wine. Now, I need to find a wine glass to replace the tumbler.

For the Phototogs!

Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 12-100mm, ISO 400, f/16, 1/320 sec.

One thing I have been serious about is cleaning my gear daily. Wiping it down with a damp cloth to remove sea spray and using a blower and wipes on the lenses. The sea spray gets everywhere! If I am not wearing my gear, I keep it in the car, covered or in a tub. After a few days rest and a shower, I am ready to tackle on Newport, Oregon.

Sweet

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Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 12-100 mm, ISO 200, f/22.0 @ 4 sec., with circular polarizing filter.

Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 12-100 mm, ISO 200, f/13 @ 2.5 sec., with circular polarizing filter.

The whole reason I chose the next campground because it was located near Florence, OR. Last summer, Rod and I hiked Sweet Creek Falls and I wanted to go back. I did have my camera and tripod with me last summer, but we arrived after the sun was hitting the creek, so the images were not what I wanted. So, I planned a trip back. And not just one, but two. I went both mornings while camped outside of Florence. It was a 45-minute drive to the creek and I was the first one there, I had the place to myself for at least an hour. Once the sun hit the trees above, the reflections hit the water below and it was magic. This hike has many different waterfalls, some larger and some smaller. All exquisite!

Jessie M Honeyman State Park campground was much busier than any other I stayed in. Sand dunes are attached to the campground and many families were there with the four-wheeled sand vehicles making it much busier and louder. I was happy to spend more time at Sweek Creek Falls!

Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 12-100 mm, ISO 400, f/8 @ 1/5 sec.

Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 12-100 mm, ISO 400, f/18 @ 2.5 sec., with circular polarizing filter.

Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II, 12-100 mm, ISO 400, f/16 @ 4 sec., with circular polarizing filter.

Florence is a nice little town along the river and I continued my taste testing of clam chowder soup here as well. This time I went to Mo’s – the Oregon favorite. It was good, better than any so far.