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Driving to E. Washington, I pulled off of the freeway to stretch my legs.  I lucked out and stumbled upon this scene.

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Taken last November.   

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It was the patterns formed by the shallow water on the sand that caught my attention.

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Both of these images are from my hike on Larch Mountain a couple weeks back.  Please let me know what you think! 

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Inspired by William Neill, I'm enjoying making some "impressionistic" photographs. I'm just using camera movement at shutter speeds around 1/8th sec.  I took this last weekend while hiking on Larch Mountain. 

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Another photo from the trip to Mt. Hood a couple weeks back. 

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We weren't sure if we'd see Mt Hood last weekend.  Most of the time it hid behind clouds and rain.  But it did make this brief appearence.  

This photo was tricky to take and "process".  The sky and snow on the mountain were very bright, so I had to expose for them and let the trees be very dark.  Then I lightened up the trees in photoshop.  Sometimes when I do this, I think this result is a kind of unreal look to the photo.  I'm not sure if that's true of this one.  I've worked on it too much to know any longer.  I'll be interested in your thoughts. 

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I spent last weekend on a family getaway to the Hood River valley, which runs from the northeast shoulder of Mt Hood down to the Columbia River.  There are a number of photos from this excursion that I will be posting as I have the chance to take a closer look at them in the next couple of weeks.  But I want to start things off with the last photo of the trip.  The one that almost got away.  This photo was taken from a ridge that I passed 2 or 3 times without climbing up to see the view.  Each time I passed it, I had the suspicion that it might give a nice view of the river below with some autumn colors thrown in.  On my way back from my last photo outing, feeling rushed one hour before we needed to check out of our vacation rental, I almost passed it by one more time.  I'm glad I didn't. 

 Ahh Autumn. Arguably the most beautiful and lovely of all seasons.  Living in the Northwest, I must admit that for me, all of this beauty comes with a dash of dread.  This ecoregion has few rivals in it's ability to produce dreary days ... and the dreariest season is just around the corner.  (The rainy season starts well before the formal start of winter.)  So, for now,  I appreciate the show put on by autumn. Such graceful beauty. 

I realize that I am being duped. 

But, if nothing else, it is a good reminder to live in the moment.

I took this photo last July while hiking in the Columbia Gorge. 

An experiment in impressionism, inspired by William Neill. Taking a blurry photo is more difficult than I imagined.  It took me 20 tries to get one that I liked.  The sharp version below came more easily.  I'm still not sure which I prefer.  Which would you rather hang on your wall? 

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Here is another photo from my afternoon in Oneonta Gorge.  As I took this photo, I stood thigh-deep in the stream with cute little juvenile salmon circling my legs.  I didn't realize my toes had gone numb until I returned to the car.  

I thought the columbia river basalt formations were interesting in contrast to the calm creek and the smooth rocks beneath its surface.