Ann and I got up at a reasonable, but still early time the next morning, got dressed, coffee’d, fed and packed, and headed out for the morning’s destination - Fern Canyon.  This was one of the locations the Ranger we chatted with during our Christmas trip said we shouldn’t miss - so long as we didn’t mind a bumpy ride.  In Beast?  Are you kidding us?   

For our February adventure, Ann and I decided to take advantage of a long holiday weekend and to make it even longer.  Once we realized that taking the highway down to the Redwoods took about as long as going to the Painted Hills, there was little doubt where we were going.  We’d had a taste of the Redwoods over Christmas and we wanted more.  So on the Thursday before the President’s Day Weekend, we took off after work and headed down I-5.

As I’ve mentioned a few times recently, this month I’ve been studying the work of Joe Cornish.  In addition to being a superb photographer, he also is very down to earth - for example, admitting that he often doesn’t know why one image works and another doesn’t - and is willing to share his thoughts and experiences.  So I’ve learned  from his words as well.

Ok.  I could have argued that, if this had been a leap year I wouldn’t have been cheating.  Or, that because March has 31 days and February only 28, gifting February an extra day to make the difference only 30-29 was a just and proper way to distribute my time (based on a calendar imposed on us by the Romans that really does not make much sense).  But I’ll be honest - I cheated.  A bit . . . . No, I cheated.

This is about as close to taking a selfie that Ann and I are likely to get.

Quite often the most difficult thing to do is to see the image in a subject that you find appealing.   You’re attracted to a subject, you find it interesting, but you can’t figure out where the photograph is.  Not everything, even something interesting, makes for a good photograph.  You have to see the image before you make it.

Last weekend Ann and I headed out on Thursday afternoon to maximize the long weekend, and to just get away from things.  Destination - Redwoods State and National Parks.  We didn’t get back until fairly late on Monday, which means we had a great time photographing.  We’re exhausted!

No, we didn’t (unfortunately), go photograph the Portland Japanese Gardens again.  Instead, I’ve been trying to catch up on cataloging my photographs from 2017 and, as all too often happens, working on some of them.  I recently returned to the photographs of the gardens I took during our mid-December trip and was pleasantly surprised. 

One of the things I enjoy about photographing in general, thinking about photography, and looking at and reading about other photographers’ images is that it enriches my daily life in many different ways.  Yesterday morning was a perfect example.

Consistent with an adventure that had not quite gone according to plan (“Plan, what plan?  We ain’t got no stinking plan!”), we wound up getting up late the following morning.  Whether it was because we forgot to set our alarms, or we didn’t realize how well the fragrance of juniper would help us sleep, or we mistakenly thought the thunk of snow clumps falling from the trees would wake us up early (“Snow?  What snow?”), we inadvertently slept in.  That is, of course, if you consider 5:30 to be sleeping in as we do when we’re out photographing.

A couple of weekends ago Ann and I had our first adventure of 2018.  The trip was as odd as the week leading up to it.

Ann and I were itching to get out and do some photography, and not just a short day trip.  The question was where?  In the winter time, that question is often answered by the weather, and in this instance, the weather forecast kept changing on us during the week leading up to the trip.  At one point the entire state was forecast with rain, snow, rain and snow, or rain/sleet/snow.  It wasn’t looking good.  We finally decided that regardless of the weather, we were going out and would have to make a call on the day we leave.

Last weekend Ann and I had quite the worthwhile adventure.  It was so good, in fact, that it’s going to take a bit to write up because it’s chock full of interesting stories and images.  So to bide some time, I decided to do a shooting the shooter posting from our trip.  And for once, I thought to pull out my iPhone to photograph Ann making images!

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this before on the blog, but I’ve often said that any day out photographing is a great day, even if you don’t come home with any photographs.  By that standard, our trip this past Sunday to Brice Creek was a great day. 

This edition of shooting the shooter is going to be a bit different because there are multiple pairs (in one case, more than a pair) of images.  Unfortunately, they’re all of me doing the shooting (I do have to get better at taking photos of Ann making photographs - but in my defense, one points a camera at Ann at the risk of one’s well-being, so . . . I guess that’s no excuse, my life insurance covers murder by wife, … I think.). 

What better way to start out the new year than by closing out the last?

Ann and I decided we wanted to spend this Christmas by ourselves doing what we so love doing, photographing.  After following the seemingly constantly changing weather forecast for several weeks, it looked like the best destination would be the coast, so we decided to head down to Bandon.  Bullards Beach state park’s campground was open and we doubted that it would be full.  We were right.