Columbia Gorge Photo Journey

It's been almost a year now since my first photo journey to the San Juan Islands. We hit all of the island's scenic highlights, photographing views and critters the whole weekend. During the down times we played with Photoshop Elements and Lightroom on our laptops, bringing our island photos to new levels.

In April, I took another group to Newhalem and the North Cascades. We photographed Diablo Dam by morning light, skunk cabbage at noon and the Skagit River in the afternoon sun.

In the first weekend of October, I'll be leading another photo journey, this time to the Columbia Gorge and it's scenic highway, full of waterfalls, interesting architecture and lovely viewpoints.

If you love to travel, make friends, learn, and take photos, this is the tour for you!

San Juan Island Photography and Photo Tour

This week my 12-year-old son Leo and I spent about 24 hours on San Juan Island, scouting great photography locations and staying with my high school girlfriend, Vicki.

The last weekend in September, I'll be leading about 9 photographers around the island to capture the light and landscape of this fabulous island.

After dinner we hit the road to find the best sunset view. We started at Roche Harbor, then followed the west side, stopping at vantage points and meeting islanders along the way. They love their island! We planned to catch the sunset somewhere around American Camp, but were distracted by the overly-friendly foxes, Gimpy and Shady. Then we rounded the bend and nearly drove into the monster moon! Here is where I regretted forgetting my tripod. Ah well.

The next morning I planned to photograph the sunrise, but alas, I set my alarm for sunrise, not earlier! I still managed to enjoy morning light, which is extremely rare in my case.

Later, Leo and I hiked up Young Hill, the island high spot. Great view, but abysmal midday light. We toured English Camp, which is more interesting in terms of buildings than American Camp, but I have long preferred the sweeping windswept vista at American Camp. We also checked out San Juan Vineyards - they'll let us into the vineyard early to get the best light, though my students and I may be back later for the wine tasting.

We wrapped up the day with another quick trip to American Camp, hoping to find rabbits but only found foxes. Hmmm. Then on to the ferry and home. I'm so glad I'll be back soon!

Photos: Madrona - I love the colors of the tree and the sea; Beach at American Camp, after sunset; our two fox friends; Dusk at Cattle Point; Moonrise over Mt. Baker; Thistle in morning light; Morning view from American Camp; Garden at English Camp.

Fourth of July Frenzy

Okay, a better title for this post is "Teachers as Learners," but I love the word "frenzy" and had to use it. So there.

I've been teaching at Skagit Valley College and Whatcom Community College for nearly a year now, and wow, have I learned a lot! Being a perfectionist in some areas of my life, I've been consuming photography books to learn more so that I can be a better teacher. This week I've been reading about fireworks photos, and wanted to try them out before I actually teach the topic.

We planted ourselves at an awesome vantage point last night, just off the waterfront in Blaine. I took about 100 fireworks pictures and am sharing my discoveries here. I hope this isn't too techy, but some of you will enjoy that aspect! I used my 70-200mm lens on my Canon 5D Mark II and my Bogen tripod - super sturdy. I shot everything on bulb, which means I pressed the shutter and held it for as long as I chose. Composing was tricky, because my tripod isn't fluid enough to follow the action, so mostly I hoped something would fall within the frame. That said, I love the close-up pictures much more than the wider angle shots. They were all shot at ISO 400. The 2nd and 3rd images were shot at f/2.8 and the rest at f/8. The last two images were 9 and 11 second exposures.

I mostly played with two concepts. In the first, I moved the focus ring during the shot, so that the fireworks either went in or out of focus. These were all one-second photos. In the second, I kept the camera open for as long as 11 seconds, and used my gray card (a piece of gray mat board) to hold over my lens when nothing exciting was in the sky. This is the modern version of a multiple exposure.

Post-production in Lightroom, I increased vibrance and saturation a bit, and played with the levels, increasing or decreasing the highlights as needed and adding black and increasing contrast. Because the exposures were long, I had some trouble with the smoke clouds, and increasing the contrast helped diminish their presence.

My favs were the swerving focus pictures - they remind of of closeups of flowers or sea anemone – crazy! Have fun trying this out - next year!

Print Competition

Once a year pro photographers gather from around Washington and many from Oregon for the Professional Photographers of Washington educational conference. The highlight of this event is print competition, where each photographer submits four photos to be judged and the best receive a trophy or honorable mention. Most of the prints are mounted 16x20s and displayed under glaring lights for about 15 seconds. There are hundreds to judge, so it moves along pretty briskly. I love watching the judging and I learn so much from the judges' comments.

The first hurdle is scoring high enough to "hang," which means to be displayed at the conference. The second is scoring high enough to be reviewed for a possible trophy (each category has the potential for one trophy and two honorable mentions.) Then at a banquet, photographers are honored for service and for advancing in their degrees, and the trophies are awarded. Last year the pinnacle for me was receiving my Fellow of Photography Degree, which represented service hours and many prints over the years scoring high enough to hang.

This year all of my prints hung, and to my great joy, I earned a trophy for Best Unclassified Portrait for my print, "Run like the Wind." I love my clients so much, and deeply value their admiration and appreciation, and then having my own peers add this honor was like dessert after dinner - sweet, satisfying and savored. And of course, longing for more!

Snowy Owl Hunt

On Friday, Leo and I ventured across the border in search of Snowy Owls. It's a rare treat around here to see them – the last time we heard of Snowy Owls migrating our way was about 12 years ago, before Leo was born. That time I went with my husband Leo Sr., and the rest of my kids. Friday, Leo Jr. and I hiked along the same dike along Boundary Bay and were rewarded. We counted at least 23 Snowy Owls, plus a dozen Bald Eagles, several Northern Harriers (hawks), a Great Blue Heron, and a wonderful bonus, a Golden Eagle. It was a feast for a couple of bird lovers.

Friends, clients, and new friends

I often say I have the best job in the world, and one of the reasons is the great people I meet. My clients often become my friends. And sometimes my friends become clients, and our friendship is deepened through the joy of capturing images that become part of their family heritage.

My friends the Mickleys are a great example. We met at church and our friendship quickly grew. I photographed their family for my own purposes in the beginning – I was selling stock photography and my main subject was family relationships. I photographed generational pictures, staged photos of game playing and quickie family portraits, as I only knew how to photograph journalistically. As I grew into portraiture, I was officially hired for senior pictures. And then came the highlight of my portrait career – they paid me to photograph their daughter's wedding in Switzerland.

Chari was working as an au pair (nanny) in Zurich. She met Chris at an international church. It was an amazing and unique wedding, beginning with Chris swimming across the lake to the church! The guests came from all over the world - Malasia, Australia, Scotland. The Mickleys and I stayed with the groom's mother. Doris could only speak Swiss German and the Mickleys, English. 30 years earlier I was an exchange student in Germany, and most of my German stayed on the shelf, but a week of translating for the in-laws brought back much of the language.

Chris and Chari continued to live in Switzerland for the next four years, adding two baby boys to the family. I photographed their growing family during their visits. Then in 2010 they moved to Whatcom County where Chris is now in ministry.

Chris' mom visits during the summer and I get another chance to renew my German skills and strengthen our friendship. This year I photographed their family and parents at the Mickley's home, which was in peak fall color.

We grow, we grow older, hopefully wiser, and certainly closer as friends. I really do have the best job in the world.

Old Friends and Turtles

Seventeen years ago we travelled with our tent trailer across America to Washington DC, where we lived for four months while my husband Leo was a loaner reporter for USA Today. We spent a month getting there, visiting America's wonders and our friends along the way. One night we landed at a KOA in Rapid City, SD, at 2 a.m., after a vain search for a state park. We caught the pancake breakfast just before closing, late the next morning. As we wearily applied forks to pancakes, the elderly couple across the table beamed at us. "You must be turtles too," they said. We look at them with confusion. "We call ourselves the 'turtles' because we move pretty slowly." We laughed and agreed that we too, were turtles. We enjoyed a cheery breakfast with our new friends, Joe and Wilba Grotts, then packed up, toured Mt. Rushmore and pulled in at a campground near Wall Drug, in Wall, S.D. The Turtles were waiting. We were delighted to learn our paths headed in the same direction, so we spent the next two days traveling together, touring as far as Mitchell Corn Palace in Nebraska before they drove their RV home to St. Louis and we stopped in Centralia, Mo., to visit Leo's family.

Over the years we met up with Joe and Wilba. They even visited us here in Lynden. Wilba drew little turtles on the envelopes of her letters. About a year after Leo died of a heart attack in 2000, Joe passed on. Wilba said he started failing after he learned about Leo's death. Eventually Wilba's health declined and she was a shut-in at her home, where we visited several times. Last summer we camped at the same KOA where me met the turtles, and sent Wilba a postcard featuring a story about their famous pancake breakfasts.

Last week Leo Jr. and I spent Thanksgiving with my daughter Lainie, my in-laws and five brother-in-laws and their families. It was a wonderful reunion. On Friday we stopped by to visit Wilba on the way to the airport. We arrived the same day that hospice was to arrive. We spent a half hour with Wilba, remembering old times and holding hands. On Sunday her daughter called to tell me she had passed on, at age 90. Meanwhile the rest of us turtles keep plugging along, grateful for friends met along the way.

With love, from Uganda to America

My friend Tammy works for Childcare Worldwide, a child sponsorship organization out of Bellingham. Her work has taken her all over the world from Haiti to Uganda. But something special happened during her trips to Uganda - she met a boy named Nathan and knew that work life would soon spill over into home life. A little over a year ago she finalized the adoption and Nathan moved home to Lynden. This fall we celebrated his new life with his mom, Tammy, in America with a photo session at Berthusen Park in Lynden. I'm a member of Celebrating Adoption. Photographers give adoptive families free sessions, free proofs, and 15% off their order. It's a neat program and I'm delighted to celebrate adoption in Whatcom County! Welcome Nathan!

Teaching and photographing this fall has been hectic, fun and pretty much crazy! I think I may like teaching as well as photography! I get really excited seeing people liberated from automatic settings and set free to control their art. I also want to help people who love photography to grow! And yes, I am creating competition for myself, but I'd rather help develop competition that raises the standard of the industry by their art and their business practices. This month I am teaching "How to Become a Professional Photographer" at Skagit Valley College. I'll be teaching the same course with a slightly different name at Whatcom Community College beginning winter quarter. I'll be taking over my friend Sam Gardner's class, while he moves on to new adventures. This week's pictures illustrate William Hogarth's "Line of Beauty." I learned about Hogarth, an 18th-century painter, from Ken Whitmire, one of the finest portrait photographers in Washington. Ken has had his studio for over 50 years! I heard Ken this weekend at the Professional Photographers of Washington fall conference. I already new that the "S" curve is a line of beauty, especially in portraits of women. I learned that the elongated "S" is considered the most beautiful shape. I realized that we see this everywhere in art and nature. I've included some of my own examples, as well as the famous (infamous?) photo from a popular 80s movie and a logo you will recognize.