It is Wednesday and that means adventure day. After brainstorming Mike and I decide to head up to Larch Mountain in the Columbia Gorge. Driving up there, as we gain elevation snow slowly becomes part of the landscape. Snow covered trees symmetrically line the road.
We decide halfway up to pull of to the side of the road and explore the surroundings. Opening my door I am pleasantly surprised at the absence of sound. Dead silence. I get my camera out and position myself in the center of the road to capture the symmetrical landscape in front of me.
Out of the silence a strange methodical sound surrounds me from above. I look up and see two huge hawks sweeping above the trees.
Twenty minutes later and we’re back in the car and on our way to Larch Mountain.
We are often so set on getting to our desired destination that we fail to enjoy the journey. While getting to the top of Larch Mountain, with the amazing view of Mt. Hood National Forest, was breathtaking, the most enjoyable part of the adventure was stopping and exploring the forest area along the road.
Two weeks ago I had a jam packed weekend of ultimate frisbee and hiking. The day after I returned from the Handford Howl Frisbee tournament I headed out to Bagby hot springs with a group of friends to relax my sore muscles. The following day consisted of ultimate frisbee, lunch at a Nicholas Restaurant (a Lebanees and Middle Eastern cuisine) and a hike on Wahkeena trail in the Gorge. About halfway through the hike it got completely dark so it became a night hike.
The photos below are of the stream that feeds Multnomah Falls.
Overlooking the Columbia river and I-84. I think it was a full moon that night or at least pretty close to one.
Speaking of night photography in the Columbia Gorge you should check out this photo taken by Ben Canales, a photographer I found on flickr. Pretty awesome story for how he got the photo.
For the past three years Tuesdays have been Ultimate Frisbee pickup day for my team, The Natural 20s. After a very wet weekend, this past Tuesday was a beautiful clear and warm day to play frisbee.
This evening was a reminder that the opportunity for a great photo can come at any moment.
I’ve been sitting at my computer all day editing photos when I glance out my window around 4:30PM and the sky is ablaze and the pavement is a reflection of purples, reds and oranges. I quickly grab my camera and race down to the waterfront with hopes of getting a photo of the skyline with the amazing sunset behind it.
I’m almost at the waterfront when I get stopped at a red light. Looking up at the sky I know that the amazing sunset is on its way out and I’m not going to make it down to the waterfront in time. Instead I pull into the adjacent parking lot, jump out and get as much shots off as I can before the colors faded to dark grays.
I love stormy days like this. It pours all day creating rivers and lakes on my street and then just as dusk comes the rain ceases and blue sky appears to provide an amazing sunset.
Last weekend I took of with my ultimate frisbee team, The Natural 20s, for an ultimate frisbee tournament, the Hanford Howl, in Richland, WA. While we didn’t win any games it proved to be just as fun as all the tournaments we’ve been to in the past. For the tournament I rented the Canon 2x extender so it made my 70-200mm f/2.8 IS L lens into a 140-400mm f/5.6 lens which allowed me to get much closer to the action. The big 20 sided die in the photos was made by the awesome David Kurushima.
For more photos from the tournament you can view them on my facebook album: Natural 20s at Hanford Howl 2009. Be sure to check out the video at the end of this post for some Mortal Kombat fighting.
This past weekend I took a couple autumn photos while in between scheduled photo shoots. Most of the colorful leaves will probably be gone by the end of the week due to the consistent rain.
After our 17 hour drive to California I woke up the next day and headed out to Corona Del Mar with Lauren to relax on the beach. It was quite nice to bask in 90 degree weather. Later that night I headed into LA and joined my cousin Audrey and her husband Wes at a great exotic sausage grill called Wurstküche. They had all kinds of sausages, even some with rattle snake and alligator meat. I opted for a little less exotic and went with an apple spice one.
I ended the night in Long Beach, visiting my cousin Sam. The next day Sam invited me to a meditation class he was teaching. I’ve done a little meditation on my own in the past but have never been very good at it so is was a great experience having a peaceful environment to practice. The little meditation I have done I’ve found has helped immensely with cleaning up the clutter in my life as well help me be in control of my emotions instead of them being in control of me. All meditation takes is concentrating on your breath.
On Sunday I spent all day doing lifestyle test shoots with local models. I’ll be posting those photos and info about them soon on my professional blog: Isaac Lane Koval.
The trip came to a close with our drive back on Tuesday and Wednesday. This time we took two days to do it, stopping in San Francisco for the night. I’ve been to San Francisco numerous times now but have never managed to stay there longer than a night. Hopefully next time I pass through I will be able to explore more. When we drove into San Francisco there was a huge looming cloud that engulfed us. It felt like were in a disaster movie and should have been escaping from the city instead of driving into it. Apparently this kind of weather is pretty standard in San Francisco. And people always ask how us Portlanders can handle consistently cloudy days.
After our stay in San Francisco we woke up early the next morning to get back on the road. One of the great things about waking up so early is the sunrises you get to see. In between drifting in and out of sleep, in the back seat, I snapped off a couple photos of the sunrise.
This trip made me realize how easy it is for me to just get up and travel. I’m going to make a bigger effort in the months to come to travel more. There’s so many places I want to go, from the Redwoods to Yosemite to Utah, that are really in our backyard.
After a 16-17 hour day of being in the car and at various rest stops along I-5, Lauren, Sasha and I made it to Orange County. It is now 91 degrees outside. Quite a change from Portland’s recent dreary weather.
