I’ve always wondered just where I “fit” photographically. There are so many superb picture takers and image makers out there. And I have been inspired by all of them.
Recently, I realized what I really like to shoot. First and foremost, I’m a landscape photographer. I love shooting macros too, but taking pictures of people, NOT! I can do it, just doesn’t churn my butter, as they say.
After many years of shooting landscapes, I realized what I really liked doing, and was pretty good at, was putting together panoramas. I seem to have an eye for just what needs to be in there to make it both a big picture and still retain all the elements that make a photo interesting.
So, expect to see lots of panoramas of places I have been. And I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Here’s a couple from our trip to Quadra Island this past July.
Walking Rebecca Spit on Quadra Island, BCSunset view of the Coast Mountains from Rebecca Spit on Quadra Island
We spent a wonderful morning with our friends in Roseburg – actually in the countryside between Sutherlin and Roseburg – and they gave us a whole host of suggestions of things to see and do as we travelled down to the redwoods in California and when we headed back home via another section of the Oregon coast.
We made our way back to I5 where we headed on down to Grant’s Pass. We wanted to take a coffee break so we got off the highway and just started heading through town. As soon as we drove by the Bluestone Cafe, I knew we had found our coffee stop!
The Bluestone Cafe in Grant’s Pass
As the food looked really good, too, we ordered a couple of sandwiches to take on the road with us. Good decision so we thought until we opened the bags a bit later. Much to our surprise, although the receipt indicated we got what we ordered and paid for, what was inside was a completely different order! And as I’m a pescavore and both sandwiches had meat, I pretty much had to make do with a bit of bread and some granola bars for lunch. Even so, everyone makes mistakes and I’d still give top ratings for this place!! The bevvies were perfect 🙂
From Grant’s Pass, we picked up Highway 199, which is also called the Redwood Highway. One of the places our friends had recommended we stop at was Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park. So we did. It comes up about 45 minutes or so after you cross into California. We spent about an hour there just walking a little loop and having our first experience amongst the big trees. Here’s some big tree photos from the park.
Yup, they’re big!
Really big!!
Like, really BIG!!!
There were also scads of white trilliums in bloom on the forest floor and I’m still striving for a perfect spring trillium shot. I take a bunch every year. Here’s a few of this year’s contenders from the park.
There was also a lovely bright red mushroom which cried out to be photographed.
And here’s one of the giants just hanging out in the forest. No trail to it. I just enjoyed seeing it so nicely ensconced in all the other foliage and shrubbery.
So, back into the car and on down the highway. We stopped at a pull off somewhere’s down the road from Crescent City for a bit of a beach break.
From here, we headed down to our ultimate destination, the Humboldt Redwoods State Park and the Avenue of the Giants in Phillipsville, where we had booked what we thought was a nice AirBnB cottage. Hoo boy were we surprised when it turned out to be a pretty down and out motel. It’s amazing how good you can make something look if you take pictures of it from a certain angle in just the right light.
By the time we rolled in around 8 PM or so, it was too late to do anything about it so we made the best of it. We headed to the Riverwood Inn, a restaurant/bar across the street from the motel and had a pretty good Mexican dinner so it was not a complete disaster.
Then we rolled into bed and made plans for spending the next day gawking at the big trees.
Well, I think that’s enough for now. I’ll finish this trip report with the next installment.
J had never seen the large redwoods and I hadn’t seen them for over 50 years and being tree lovers, we decided it was time to remedy that deficiency. She was on spring break so we planned a little holiday to drive from our home outside of Vancouver, BC down the Washington and Oregon coasts to Northern California and the Humboldt Redwood State Park, home to some of the largest and oldest of these trees.
We also had friends and relatives that we wanted to visit along the way so it looked like a win-win no matter how we set it up!
We left town after a relaxed breakfast and the first stop was at REI in Bellingham to look at some packs for J and I. I’ve been a longtime member of REI and often shop there for outdoor gear when I’m traveling to Seattle. We tried on a bunch of packs and I sorta liked one of the Gregory daypacks but decided not to buy it right then. J also tried out several backpacks and nothing struck her fancy and demanded to be purchased so we headed on down the road.
Our next stop was in Fairhaven to have lunch at the Colophon Cafe, one of my longtime favourite eating places that J had never been to. We enjoyed a great lunch and the plan was to head down the Chuckanut Drive but as we turned onto it, there was a sign that said road closed in 5 miles. We drove a bit of it anyway, got a couple of views, turned around after about 3 miles and headed back onto interstate highway, I5.
The next plan was to head over to the Northern tip of Whidbey Island via La Conner. We turned too soon and ended up taking what turned out to be an unintended tour of downtown La Conner and were rewarded by our mistake with a viewing on one of the fields we passed of the largest conglomeration of snow geese that either of us had ever seen. After quickly driving around La Conner, we turned around and stopped briefly for J to take a pic of all the geese. There were thousands and the field looked like it was just covered in white birds.
J’s photo of all the snow geese. There were thousands!!
Back on track, we headed over to Fidalgo and Whidbey Islands where we drove the highway down Whidbey Island to pick up the Clinton-Mukilteo ferry back to the mainland. You disembark about 25 miles North of Seattle, where we were headed to spend the first night with my daughter and son-in-law at their place.
Got to Seattle in the middle of rush hour and after getting off I5, we managed to get to their apartment at a reasonable hour. They live just a few blocks from the famous Seattle Space Needle, which is a nice place to view the city from if you have the time.
Spent some time with them and their friends at a game night. Then back to the apartment for winding down and calling it a day.
Day 2
After a nice breakfast, we headed down to the Seattle ferry port where we boarded the 11:10 AM Sealth to Bremerton. Coming into Bremerton was quite the scene as we passed a huge Naval Battleship in the port. Bremerton is a US Naval port and has many such ships. Once we disembarked, we headed West on Route 3 to eventually merge with Highway 101, our main route down the coast for the rest of the trip.
Day 2 was fairly uneventful at first until we realized the distance we had to go to get to friends we were staying with in Roseburg, Oregon. Oops, boy were we in for a long day! Well, that’s what happens when you don’t sit down and plan carefully. This was kind of a spur of the moment trip and we resisted planning.
So we stopped at a few viewpoints and then headed inland to pick up I5 again at Salem so we could get to our friends before midnight!! Original plan was to arrive at a late dinner time, LOL! Boy did we mess that one up. Let’s just say dinner was VERY late! Here’s a shot from one of the view points and another I took from the car while driving!
A beautiful coastal view from one of the pulloversA pic of the mountains and fields taken while driving
And that was Day 2’s scenic memories. J has lots of photos of the bridge and causeway going from Washington into Oregon but better for memories than blogging 😉
Bioblogging with Rich 