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If you have ever travelled to Washington DC and the Northern Virginia suburbs, you know how busy and hectic it can be.  The traffic around the beltway is some of the worst in the country.  In the Tyson's Corner area there are countless office buildings, two large malls, a futuristic new metro system, dozens of restaurants, many hotels - and no safe area to walk.  During the Christmas holidays with mall traffic, it can take 15 minutes just to get out of your parking spot.

But who would imagine that only 15 minutes away from all of this madness is a wilderness setting where the Potomac River goes through a narrow gorge before arriving in Washington DC?  The water rushes over large rocks and twists and turns between canyon walls.  These photographs are from Great Falls, Virginia.  The photo at the top of the blog post was taken about a month ago while my family and I were on a college visit and a weekend trip to the area.  My company's headquarters is located in Tysons Corner and the two photos at the bottom of the blog post are from several years ago on one of my earlier visits.

When I am at Great Falls hiking along the trails that follow the river and gorge, there is no clue that 15 minutes away is the traffic and madness of the beltway.  When I am at Great Falls, I slow down, I breathe deep and enjoy the natural setting.  I forget about many of Life's problems.  And while I know a simple hike does't solve Life's really big problems - you'd be amazed how many of our "problems" are NOT Life's really big problems.  When I am at Great Falls, it feels like I am a hundred miles away from civilization.  And sometimes it is good to be a hundred miles away from civilization - we all need a break from the madness sometime.

So when the stress gets high, or work and life is crazy, or you just need a break... take 15 minutes and find the wilderness that is close to you. 

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It was an incredibly full day today.  We saw the "heights" and "depths" of Lassen - and both were incredible.  In the morning we did a 3 mile hike to "Bumpass Hell" and yes that is the real name. It is a large geothermal system that is still active and part of what powered the volcanoes in this area.  It looked like we were walking on the moon - but I hope the moon doesn't stink like this did.  If you were downwind of any of the large steam vents, it was gagging!  The photo at the bottom of this post was from Bumpass Hell.

In the afternoon we did an 8 mile hike (up and back) to the summit of the second largest mountain in the park. We gained 2500 feet of elevation on the hike and the summit was at 9,250 feet.  We walked through large pine forests, alongside streams and meadows, and climbed up above the tree line before reaching the summit.  At the summit, we were greeted with this view of several peaks in the park.  If you look closely, you can see how they all formed the ring of a larger extinct volcano.  We enjoyed a 20 minute nap at the summit and then it took a full two hours just to hike down.  As I write this, I have a hard time thinking about putting on my hiking boots tomorrow morning - my feet are just killing me!

Hopefully you enjoy "heaven" and "hell" as much as we did.

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The day didn't start that well, but it finished strong.  Due to a planning mistake on my part, we were in the wrong place for sunrise.  Nothing worse than getting up at 4am and driving an hour to the sunrise location only to watch the sun light the up the boring scene behind you rather than the carefully chosen scene in front of you!

And then, since I had been whining about "boring featureless blue skies" since our last trip, I was rewarded with overcast conditions all morning.  :(  

But we made the best of it and changed some plans around a little bit.  And then the sun broke through around 3pm after we had hiked a very steep trail up to Ridge Lakes.  It was about the steepest hike I have ever done - not what we needed after Rich and I both woke up in the middle of the night with leg cramps.

The photo above is of Lassen Peak at sunset.  This is the volcano the park was named after.  It last erupted in 1917.  The planning for sunset was way better than the sunrise planning - and so was the light.  We watched the peak turn from white to yellow to finally a deep red color.

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Our wakeup call was 4:30am today and we left the room at 5am for the first full day of our Lassen NP trip.  There is no finer way to see the sunrise than from a mountaintop and the image above is a view of Mount Harkness from the Park Highway.  

We had a 17 hour day today... leaving the room at 5am and returning at 10pm - after having dinner at one of only two open restaurants in the town of Chester.  These places really do need to stay open past 9pm for people who like to take photos until it gets dark.  

We hiked up Mount Harkness in the morning through a beautiful tall pine forest and at the top we were rewarded with a 360 degree view of the the mountains - we could even see Mount Shasta (14,000 ft) in the distance.  On the way to our next destination I may have lost my driving privileges.  Driving on a dirt road, we went past a photo opportunity and I was backing up the car to get to the spot to take a picture.  I must have focused more on the photo opportunity than the road - we came about 6 inches from sliding the car down a 6 foot embankment.  In my defense, they really should have wider gravel roads and proper shoulders!  

In the afternoon we hiked through Drake Meadow and out to Devil's Kitchen where we saw lots of steaming vents from the geothermal formations in the park.  So it was a great first day - sunrise on the mountain, tall pine forest, 360 degree views of the mountaintops, meadows, and steaming geothermal scenes.  Pretty good day!

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It's the first night on my photo trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park in northern California.  After flying all day, then battling traffic out of San Francisco, we arrived with about 20 minutes of daylight left.  I took a few photos along the park road but nothing inspiring.  But we did hear that the night sky in Lassen is amazing.  So after a dinner of tortilla chips and cookies, we headed back out into the park.  We set up next to a group of astronomy hobbyists with the biggest telescopes I have ever seen.  Above is a photograph of the night sky showing the Milky Way and a lucky shot of a meteor in the right side of the photo.

It's midnight Pacific time and the wake-up call is 4:45am.  It's going to be a long day tomorrow!  I may post a couple images during the trip.

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In a blog post in January, I mentioned that I like to travel new roads and that I dislike runs or bike rides that are "out-and-back" because I don't like to see the same scenery.  But it's not really true in all cases.  When I discover an area that I really like, I do go back… over and over again.  And it's not that I notice everything all at once.  From years of practice I have learned what areas will likely hold possibilities for photographs and so I return… many times.

The image above is from an early Spring day at the Unami Creek - the same one I visited in January where I made some nice winter photographs.  This time, it was that special combination of warm early morning sun and cool air, with almost no breeze to disturb the water.  The lighting was the open-shadowed light that you get in early spring before leaves are on the trees creating deep shadows.  I couldn't resist the combination of reflections, rock, and grass. 

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The image at right is from a nearby spot along the same stream.  I must have fifty photographs of water in my portfolio, each of them with different swirls of color or reflections.  Every time I see one, I stop and photograph.  I just can't seem to get enough of these, nor do I get tired of photographing the water.  Every second it is something new… the movement of the water changes the patterns and swirls, the light changes, and a slight movement of the camera causes something new to be reflected.  If you click on the image you will get a larger version and you can see the swirls of trees and color and all the twisted shapes.  As I was posting this image, I happened to click on the Home Page of my website and was taken to one of my favorite photographs - a water photograph of course!  

Compare the feeling of these two images to the photographs in the January post… A Winter Creek.  Same place, but a different time - and completely different feeling.  I can see a project taking shape here where I do some images from different seasons - all in a short 3 mile section of creek along a road only 15 minutes from my house.  No need to fly to a big National Park to make great photographs.  (Although that is fun too and I have a trip coming up in July to Lassen Volcanic NP!).

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I wanted to share some exciting news that my Amusement Park portfolio was published in LensWork Magazine.  LensWork is a black & white photography magazine published six times a year.  Where many photography magazines focus on camera gear, LensWork focuses on images and the creative process of photography.

Each issue features five photographic portfolios of about 10-15 images each.  The Amusement Park portfolio was published in LensWork #112 and includes 14 of my photographs.  The online version includes 35 photographs and an audio interview.  This is the first time I had a portfolio of photographs published and I was pretty excited when I received the notification.

The interesting part of this entire process is the reminder that people respond to photographs in different ways.  I submitted the 25 images that are on my website plus another 15 images I consider to be good, but not quite as good.  Three of the "not as good" images were published in the magazine and three of my absolute favorites on the website were not published!

No matter what, this was an exciting process having the portfolio selected, writing and editing the project statement, and conducting the audio interview with the editor, Brooks Jensen, for the online version.  Definitely a photography highlight for me!

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Thirty days ago I was complaining and whining that Spring would never arrive.  I am very happy to say I was wrong - Spring is here!!

And what flower is more symbolic of early spring than the daffodil?  I spent a couple hours Saturday morning photographing a field of daffodils.  There is a farm about ten minutes from my home town.  A couple years ago, we happened to drive by just as the daffodils were blooming and I've been meaning to go back ever since.  The entire front yard area of the farm is filled with daffodils - some yellow, some yellow and white, and these beautiful orange and white ones.  Finally this weekend, I was able to take some time and go back and photograph.  I left my house at 6am to get there for the good early light and before the wind started kicking up.

I'm always amazed at how fast time goes by when I get lost in photographing something that interests me.  Most of you know I have very little patience.  And if I told anyone who knows me that I spent two hours photographing these flowers in this one area, they wouldn't believe it.  Yet it is true and this happens frequently when I am photographing.  It's one of the reasons my daughters always ask if I am taking my camera when I say "Let's go hiking!".  They know there is a chance we might get stuck in one area for a long time.

Enjoy these pictures of Spring… because Spring is finally here!  

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It's another cloudy, windy Sunday with the temperature in the low 40's and the threat of snow in the coming week.  It sounds like I could be writing this in late February - but it's late March!  And like everyone else, I just can't take this winter anymore - I am definitely ready for spring!  I decided to look through some spring photos from a couple years ago that I haven't published.  I thought I would find lots of photos taken in late March of early flowers, budding trees, and fields of light green grass.  And while I found lots of those photos, I discovered they were taken in late April and early May.  So maybe it's my impatience with this freezing cold winter and maybe spring will be here soon enough.  I hope so!

Enjoy these photographs and by the time I make my next monthly post, I certainly hope we'll be seeing scenes like this in real life!

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I have posted a new gallery on my website.  This is a project I have been working on for a couple years and finally have enough images for a full gallery.  I have always been intrigued with how things look in the off-season.

The photographs in the gallery are from an old family owned and family run amusement park in Pennsylvania.  It is not abandoned - it is still in operation today.  But it couldn't be further, in distance or atmosphere, from the big company parks of today.  It is set in a rural location, far from any major metropolitan area.  It sits among rolling hills and fields and underneath tall mature trees.  A creek runs through the middle of the park with rickety bridges going across in several locations.  There is no fence keeping everyone out since you can pay per ride - the way it was done thirty years ago. I spent several days over the course of a couple years photographing during the off-season.  And while the rides look old, there is definitely pride in the park and the work they do each off season to get it ready for the families in the summer.

You can click on any image in this blog post to see it in full screen mode.  If you are reading this in an e-mail, click on the header of the e-mail to go to the blog post on the website.

You can also see the full gallery here…  Amusement Park

Enjoy!

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I have lived within fifteen minutes of this creek for seventeen years and only "discovered" it on a bike ride late last summer.  I was looking for a new long ride and mapped out a route that took me down Swamp Creek Road alongside the Unami Creek.  I wasn't expecting much, just a different ride to change things up.  It turned out to be a beautiful ride along the creek, with large boulders, heavy woods, and cascades alternating with slow moving pools.

I immediately thought this would be a good location to come back, explore a little, and maybe I'd create some good photographs.  I brought my daughters along a couple weeks later in early fall and we explored the area, hiked a bit, and found a deserted boy scout camp in the woods along the creek.  And while I took a few pictures, it was really just practice.

Last weekend, we had a 60 degree rainy day after a week of extreme cold.  I thought there might be some interesting photographs to make and ended up with these three as my favorite.

I've never been a big fan of doing the same drive or bike ride or walk all the time.  I can't stand "out and back" walks or rides.  So if you want to see something new, take a different turn or take a new route completely.  And do it sooner than every seventeen years!

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The highlight of October in my hometown of Hamburg PA is the annual King Frost Parade.  It has been held for fifty years and when we were kids, the parade seemed huge - it felt like was at least four hours long, with more than thirty high school bands, lots of floats like the "Haunted Hauler", decorated trucks and cars, and the Reading Motorcycle Drill Team.  At least that is how we remember it.

Today, it's a lot smaller, but still an important part of autumn in Hamburg.  For the last few years I have spent a couple hours leading up to the parade photographing the scenes as the town prepares for the parade.

By the time the parade starts, there are a couple thousand people lining the streets, the kids are excited, and people line up for the hot soup, cheese steaks, pizza, and french fries.  I haven't made any photographs of the parade itself.  I prefer to focus on the late afternoon quiet scenes as the town sets up, with the harsh late October sunlight.  Most of the photographs appear as if the town is deserted rather than getting ready for the annual event.

The photograph above is one of three new ones I added this year.  This is an ongoing project where I expect to add three or four photographs a year.

Click here to view the King Frost Gallery.

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I hadn't taken a photography and hiking trip to a National Park in a couple years due to a very busy schedule.  But in late November I visited Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California.  The park is on the boundary of two of the four deserts in the US - the higher elevation Mojave desert and the lower elevation Sonoran desert.  We spent most of our time in the higher elevation Mojave desert where there is more annual rainfall and more interesting plant life and terrain.  This part of the park is where you find the Joshua Tree and the Wonderland of Rocks.  Hiking at nearly 5000 feet for ten hours a day from sun-up to sun-down certainly took a toll!

Mornings before sunrise were as cold as 28 degrees and by 10am it would warm into the fifties.  By the afternoon the temperature would get into the low seventies.  The first day we had great cloud formations in the skies.  The next three days though, we had nothing but clear blue skies.

People think of deserts as a barren place, but Joshua Tree was anything but empty.  As you will see in the gallery, there was a lot of color, many different types of plants, and great rock formations.  And while the Joshua Tree is the signature plant of the park, I found the rock formations and the hikes through canyons to be the most enjoyable.

Click on the link to view the gallery...  Link to Joshua Tree National Park Gallery.  

At the bottom of the gallery page is an area to add comments.  You can comment as a guest.  You will not have to create an account, but you will need to type in a name and e-mail. 

Enjoy!

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On a recent trip to Joshua Tree National Park, we took a detour and visited the Salton Sea.  The Salton Sea is the 2nd largest saltwater lake in the US - just behind the Great Salt Lake.  Unfortunately, the Salton Sea is no longer the vacation and resort destination it was envisioned in the 1940's and 1950's.  Only a couple hours from Los Angeles, the Salton Sea was going to be the resort hangout of the stars.  And for awhile it was.  

But today, it is a dying, polluted lake that is getting more toxic each day.  It is surrounded by white sand beaches (crushed fish skeletons) and the skeletons of resort towns like Desert Shores and Bombay Beach.  They aren't completely deserted and people still live there.  But the 1,000 people that live in these resort towns are surrounded by the skeletons of houses, roads, and parks.  Grand avenues that lead nowhere, street signs in the middle of the desert, and a fire station standing alone - that is the image of the resort towns around the Salton Sea.   

While in Desert Shores we spoke to the bartender of the local VFW.  Now in her late sixty's she told us about her youth and how she waterskied across the entire width of the Salton Sea - on three separate occasions!  She was quite proud of her accomplishment, she enjoyed talking about her youth, and most importantly of all - she saw Western Shores and the Salton Sea for what it meant to her.  I think she had a very different picture of it than we did.  

Appropriately, she directed us to Bombay Beach and the Ski Inn... home of the "best burger on the Salton Sea".  The image at the top of this blog post is the sign in the parking lot of the place where we had lunch that day.  And I'll let you decide how the story ends on the burger.

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