Olympic National Park

My job requires that I travel a fair amount to my company’s facilities throughout North America. Luckily this means occasionally I get an opportunity to have the company pay for airfare to locations near some of the more fabulous national parks we have in the US. Right now I am sitting in a hotel in Vancouver, BC for just that reason.

When I found out Vancouver was on my schedule for this year I had to decide if I was going to shoot in the Canadian Rockies, on Vancouver Island or in Olympic National Park. I feel like I chose well when I decided to go to Olympic. I arrived in Seattle on Friday night and drove to Port Angeles. Saturday morning I began one of the better photography trips I have ever been on.

Sol Duc Falls near(ish) Port Angeles, WA. Get here very soon after sunrise on a clear day to avoid harsh light on the river.

It is hard for someone born and raised in Ohio to fully digest the landscape in the Olympic Peninsula. Towering western hemlocks, Douglas firs and big leaf maples exist on an incomprehensible scale, forming the canopy above a lush understory of ferns, spring ephemeral wildflowers, and fallen giants who fell to windstorms or old age. These downed logs slowly rot away nourishing the new growth springing up to take advantage of the new hole in the canopy.

Trillium Grandiflora - something I did not expect to see in these temperate rainforests.

Photographing woodland is extremely difficult. Chaos reigns in the understory and finding a coherent composition is, for me at least, a challenge. I walked through these forests holding my viewing card and raising it to look through and try to isolate vignettes in the wider scene that will make for a good photo. As usual, a good photo is all about the light. Several times during this trip i had my tripod set up and a passerby looked at where my camera was pointed and asked “what are you shooting?” to which I answered “the light”.

Hoh Rainforest - Not the greatest composition in the world, but the light coming in from the left and hitting the moss at least makes it interesting.

Two tools I used on this trip that were extremely helpful were my viewing card and my circular polarizer. If you don’t already know, a viewing card is a card with a cut out with the same aspect ratio as your sensor. You can use an old slide to do this, or you can cut one out for yourself. I’m lucky enough to have a brother who owns a metal shop and he was able to make a metal one for me. I may not always use it but I carry it all the time in my camera backpack. In these types of woodland scenes the viewing card is very useful in screening out some of the chaos and letting me see the potential compositions. A polarizing filter is critical for cutting the reflections from waxy and wet leaves and to an extent cutting through atmospheric haze. Every “keeper” shot I took in Olympic had a polarizer in front of the lens.

Merriman Falls in the Quinault area.

I am very thankful I got to enjoy a few days in this breathtaking park and look forward to going back for a longer visit since I barely scratched the surface on this trip.

Another Spring trip in the Smoky Mountains

Last weekend was one of my annual spring trips to Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP). I go twice a year and participate in the photography workshops held at the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont (GSMIT). It is always a highlight to see the instructors, GSMIT employees and participants at the workshop. Many participants come back year after year to see our Tremontster Family.

Fog in the valley below the Foothills Parkway. Spring colors are nearly as good, maybe better, than fall colors.

It has been a hectic spring at home with work travel, lots of yard work killing invasive plants and one thing after another needing to get handled during my free time. This means I feel like I never get time to go out with my camera and shoot (the reality is I haven’t prioritized that over other things). Heading down to Tremont for a weekend washes all of that away and I can get back into my comfort zone around friends amongst the natural beauty of GSMNP.

This gobbler in Cades Cove just couldn’t believe the hens wanted nothing to do with him.

Several newer participants in the workshop asked me why I keep coming back and going to the same locations again and again. Heraclitus said “A man can never step in the same river twice.” Even though until I just looked it up I would have sworn that a Native American said that, the same is true of photographing any location. It is constantly changing. Trees grow and fall, like they recently did in a bad storm in the Cove and at Tremont. The rivers change from a raging torrent to a lazy meandering stream revealing compositions that weren’t there before. Buildings age and are reclaimed by nature. Every single time I go back I find a new subject to photograph or a new way to photograph an old subject.

One of many chimneys left from the historic Elkmont area of the park. My first shot of one of the chimneys that I liked.

Of course the easiest answer to “Why do you keep going back?” is that I simply enjoy being around the people that put on and take part in the workshop. The instructors are always willing to lend a hand in post processing or to encourage me to escape my compositional comfort zone, the staff are some of the most dedicated conservationists you’ll ever meet, and being around 15-30 other photographers of every skill level can really challenge you to see new things as we all work on finding our inspiration.

Sunrise in Cades Cove. Who needs an interesting sky when you have this setting?

Now I have some more photos to edit and bags to pack as I am headed to Vancouver for work next week. Luckily I am going to be able to spend a few days in Olympic National Park while I am out there so I’m glad I got to stretch my photography muscles out in the Smokies.

In case you are interested, the next GSMIT photography workshop is in the fall, November 1-4, 2024. https://gsmit.org/event/autumn-brilliance-photography-workshop-2024/ for more information. I hope I will see you there!

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Fall Trip 2023 - pt 1

Each year I go to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) in Tennessee/North Carolina in the Spring and Fall. The workshops are held at the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont (GSMIT) and have been taught for years by a fantastic group of photographer instructors.

This year I decided to take some extra time off work and not only spend 4 days in the GSMNP but also drive the entire Blue Ridge Parkway from north to south.

Seven hours in the car to get to Waynesboro, VA and my starting point at the North end of the parkway. First morning was spent at basically the first East facing overlook on the parkway. While the sunrise wasn’t really all that special my adventure was ready to begin!

Unfortunately, as the sun came up and I made my way down the Parkway I realized I was just a week or two late to see “peak” color. This was especially true as I climbed into the higher elevations. On top of the lack of colors, I was dealing with quite heavy traffic on the Parkway. Lots of people had the same idea as me I guess.

Linville Falls

So I spent most of my time the first 4 days of the trip driving from one hotel to the other along the 469 mile Parkway hoping for a good sunrise each morning, good sunsets and/or some fog to get good conditions for photography. I did take a few side trips off the Parkway to see waterfalls in NC like Linville Falls above and Looking Glass Falls. I spent two nights in Asheville, NC and things started looking up as I finally got some good light for a sunrise and some serious fog on Halloween for the drive into GSMNP. I’ll Follow up on the second half of the trip in the next post.

#Portugal2022 - Lisbon

When I turned 40 I decided I would go to Europe at least once a year for the rest of my life. I was doing very well until the COVID pandemic hit. I was actually in Scotland when it first hit the UK so that was 2020 handled, but I wasn’t able to get overseas in 2021. For most of 2022 I thought it would be the same but thankfully the pandemic eased a good bit and I was able to get to Portugal (Lisbon and Madeira specifically).

The underside of the viewing platform at the Elevador de Santa Justa

I was originally going to participate in a workshop on Madeira, but that got cancelled TWO DAYS before my flights. I quickly rearranged my plans for my time on the island and flew to Lisbon. I pointedly decided not to brood on the injustice of my plans being changed around and dove into the trip embracing some photography that I am not normally used to. On my first full day I took at walking photo tour with Miguel at Photowalks Lisboa. This was a great decision and I can’t recommend Miguel’s tour enough. Actually I am disappointed I didn’t have the foresight to book an evening tour later in the week…next time maybe. We walked through the Alfama district and Miguel encouraged me to get out of my comfort zone and try some “street” photography.

An Alfama resident gets ready for work

Shooting (literally) from the hip is quite different from the deliberate, considered approach I usually take towards photography. It was uncomfortable and it was challenging and it was fun. I’m not sure that the shots would be considered praiseworthy, but it is something I will likely do more of in the future.

There was a time when I used to tell people that when they saw a photo of mine in black and white, that meant I had screwed up the exposure and a B&W conversion was the only thing that saved it. That is no longer true for the most part and I found myself shooting a lot of B&W on this trip.

My walking tour with Miguel was not only challenging artistically but also physically as I did not take his advice and catch an Uber or Bolt to our meeting place, but instead walked from essentially sea level to the highest point in Lisbon, Miradouro de Nossa Senhora do Monte. My watch kept track, and by 9:00 am I had climbed up and down the equivalent of 44 flights of stairs. I was exhausted by noon and had to get some lunch.

That’s enough for tonight. More on this trip later.

I’ve been working on bringing my website up to snuff and even adding a way for people to purchase prints (and other products with my images on them). You probably already know this since you most likely found this blog through my website but if you haven’t seen it yet please feel free to visit Rich Rings Photography.