Monthly Archives: January 2014

New Experiences

The Seashore of Olympic National Park

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The Coast

Often a national park will have multiple ecosystems to explore allowing for a more diverse experience. Olympic National Park definitely fits into this concept with three different systems – mountains, forests, and a coastal ecosystem. It’s always interesting to find freshwater environments near the coast so you can contrast and compare them. A small distance apart can make a tremendous difference in the wildlife that visit each and in some cases both types of water. Gulls, eagles, and bears will visit both freshwater and saltwater in search of food while salmon will only enter freshwater during spawning season and ducks and deer remain near the freshwater. Pelicans will primarily stay near saltwater along with so many other sea creatures (urchins, sea stars, ect…).

Sandy Beach Littered with Logs

Those of us that don’t live near saltwater are not use to seeing the diversity of both these ecosystems and how similar they are as well as how different they are. After visiting the interior of the Olympic Peninsula for a couple of days it was time to venture to the coast and enjoy another environment. Two things on our list of things to see here were the sea stacks which are basically large boulder or small islands of rock out in the ocean not far from land and tide pools containing urchins, anemones, and other sea creatures caught during low tide.

Dungeness Crab

We started out at Beach 1 near the Kalaloch Lodge to start our coastal adventure. After a short hike down to the beach you notice it is full of logs piled everywhere and Dungeness Crabs laying all over the beach being picked at by gulls. Being there in late August may provide a different encounter with the crabs as I’m sure they don’t litter the beach here year around. Working to get over the logs you land on the soft sand often desired with a beautiful beach. Unfortunately, there where no sea stacks and no tide pools to peer into. After a little more exploring, it was time to find our next meal and another vantage point to explore the ocean coast.

The View from the Lodge

Since we were near the Kalaloch Lodge, and there aren’t a lot of dining options in this area, we opted to eat there and enjoy a great view of Kalaloch Creek entering the ocean. We enjoyed our meal and then a quick hike down to the ocean for another touch of the soft sand before venturing off towards Ruby Beach. This beach was recommended as the best location to see the sea stacks closest to us. There are better beaches for this which also offer nice tide pools but they were several hours away and our day was dwindling as it was.

Rocky Shores of Ruby Beach

Getting out of the car at Ruby Beach you can’t see the ocean but there is definitely a strange sound. Another short hike to get to the water and now this sound makes more sense. There is no sand here, just small, smooth, flat rocks making a unique sound as the water washes onto them. Finally a view of sea stacks. I’m sure they are more impressive on sunny evenings as the sun wanes behind them but this day was cloudy with heavy mist all around us. Still they were fun to see. Due to our timing, the tide pools would not be visible as it was near high tide. That was a little disappointing as pictures we’ve looked at provide a lot of colorful creatures. To see a post by Lee Rentz displaying some beautiful photos of the tide pools click here.

Sea Stacks

After enjoying this stone beach for awhile, rain moved in making the decision to call it a day and head back to the hotel pretty easy. Three days of exploring this national park left me exhausted so an early night at the hotel was just right in order to recoup before returning to Seattle for another long day’s adventure.

Another Form of Sea Stacks

Photography Experiment, Troy's Blog

Low Angles

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Snow Sparkling in the Sun

What better way to kick off the new year than by continuing on the photography experiment, I’ve been working on using a different perspective for some of my shots – a low angle. Playing around with using low angles has really helped change my perspective when trying to setup a shot. Fortunately there have been some amazing sunsets recently encouraging me to get out in the cold and snow to play with the camera. The photo above caught my attention as the sun was rising higher in the sky one morning reflecting on some freshly fallen snow. A perfect time to practice a low angle to see if I could capture the scene in a little different view. I really like the leaf and it’s shadow in contrast to the white shimmering snow and the detail this angle presents. Centering the leaf in the shot probably was not the best choice but that’s what practicing is for, right?

Normal View of a Winter Sunset

While the sun was setting one winter evening I loved how the clouds and colors were interacting giving a beautiful view. Taking several pictures of the surrounding landscape at the normal photographic view gave some nice photos but something we’re used to seeing. Trying something a little different such as a low angle shot provides a little different picture. I’m undecided if I like the sky in the background out of focus or not. Using a low angle meant I could either focus on the sky or the snow but not really both. While out practicing I didn’t take multiple shots changing the focus and then deciding which I liked better. I guess there’s a reason to get out again and spend a little more time changing the focus. Ultimately this picture highlights the clouds and colors in the sky more because all of the mid-ground elements are hidden putting the sky against the snow.

Low Angle of the Same Winter Sunset

Changing locations I tried this technique again to see how it would look at a different perspective. Walking out on a frozen lake covered in snow I didn’t like how the picture looked while placing the camera at snow level. It wasn’t low enough to capture enough of the snow covered lake. Fortunately the camera I use has a flip screen so I can see how things look before taking the picture. To try and improve things I kicked out the snow to get the camera lower giving a more balanced picture. At least I thought it did. As a side benefit some of the snowballs from kicking out this snow gave some great shapes to enhance the overall shot. In fact, I believe they make this photo. Without them the whole scene loses something. It becomes a little boring to me even though the clouds were reflecting off some great color in interesting shapes. Again, the snow is out of focus and I’m uncertain if it should have been more in focus. More to practice with on the next outing.

Low Angle With a few Snowballs

Low angles aren’t just for a wintery landscape. While in Victoria, British Columbia this past fall this couple wanted their picture taken in front of the Empress Hotel. Unfortunately the best photo opportunity is from the sidewalk in front of the hotel which is fairly close to the hotel. The choice is to cut off part of the hotel or part of the couple unless you’re using a wide-angle lens which I don’t currently have. Wait, a low angle just might provide another option which is what I used hear. A low angle shot can be for more than just a different perspective I guess. A technique definitely worth using. There are very few pictures using it that I found uninteresting.

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Family Ramblings, Troy's Blog

2013 in Review

Olympic Mountains in Olympic National Park

It’s always interesting to look over the last year to see where you were so that you figure out where you’re going. We choose what point we call a year in order to do this. It doesn’t have to be when the year changes. Maybe there’s an anniversary of something meaningful or another date in the year that makes more sense for you. Most people decide to do this as the year comes to a close on the calendar and a new one is beginning. I guess mentally it gives us a sense of finality and an opportunity to start fresh with the change of a number in the year.

Questions I like to ask are:  Did the goals set get achieved ? If so, were they beneficial goals? Was there satisfaction in achieving them? If not, why not? Should those goals be extended another year? Where there other achievements that weren’t set as goals but happened anyway? How did those unexpected achievements affect you? There are a number of other questions you can use to analyze the year and how you used it but these will get me started.

An Alaskan Cruise

My goals for 2013:

-Complete the Photography Experiment Monopoly Board

-Explore Olympic National Park

-Cruise to Alaska traveling through Glacier Bay National Park and hiking on the Chilkoot Trail.

-Share these travel experiences with others creating life long memories they can reflect on.

Well, how did these come out?

Before the Photography Experiment

I completed over half of the Photography Monopoly Board but have yet to finish it. I will continue this in 2014.  While working on this I got involved with photography so much that I spent quite a bit of time out and about taking pictures. Just to give you an idea of what I’m referring to, I took over 55,000 photos in 2013. While this seems like an incredible number to me, 48,000 of them are from a time-lapse project covering our entire Alaskan Cruise. That leaves 7,000 images taken while working on photography this year. Still a lot of images to go through for a year. Many of these are not great pictures but I still like looking through them as they remind me of the adventures taken in order to get the images. As I’m sure you can imagine there are a number of really nice photos as well. Just the laws of probability suggest that if you take enough pictures, some of them will turn out. This has created an unexpected issue for me. How do I display the number of images I really like? There are too many and not enough wall space. This photography experiment will continue into 2014 because it has helped me improve and I enjoy it a lot.

During the Photography Experiment

We did explore Olympic National Park and were joined by 5 other family members as we did so creating some wonderful memories while learning some great information. Also, the Alaskan cruise taking us through Glacier Bay National Park and to the Chilkoot Trail was accomplished. There were a total of 14 friends and family on that part of our adventure, 7 of which had never been on a cruise before. There are a couple of posts yet to come from this trip. So, all in all, 3 out of the 4 goals were accomplished. Why is sharing these experiences a goal of mine? I love seeing and doing things I’ve never seen or done before. Probably the only thing that I enjoy more than that is to watch others as they experience new things. These adventures don’t mean much to me unless I can share them. As an example, while working on photography I found a nearby park reserve that offers many opportunities for some great photos. There have been numerous trips there this fall with many more coming I’m sure. Only a handful of times has there been someone with me. It is those few times that stand out for me more than the others because I get to share that with the people who have been with me.

Some unexpected achievements this past year include a couple of trips to the North Shore of Minnesota along with a few weekends camping with friends. One big one was the opportunity for Lysa to go to Europe during the summer of 2014. That one has definitely altered this next year for all of us both economically and time constraints.

Minnesota's North Shore

Moving on, what are some goals for 2014?

-Finsh the Photography Experiment Monopoly Board

-Explore Gettysburg, Edison, and the Lewis Falls Trail

-Share these travel experiences with others creating life long memories they can reflect on.

-Send Lysa off on her own European adventure

May you have new life experiences in 2014 and find some great adventures!