Taylor Westphal Photography

Tour of The Great American West

2011-05-28T23:26:00.000-07:00

The next bout of rock-poking is in Utah (where I sit while I write this). I made big loop, to eventually end up in Salina, UT for work. First stop was Yellowstone, which is still buried in many feet of snow.

Then down near the Tetons, and spent the night in Jackson.

Down into Utah.

Arches

Natural Bridges, Canyonlands.

Some horses in Arizona

Horseshoe bend

My death march in the desert to find hoodoos

Then off to Zion

Some nice ponies outside of Zion.

A quick stop at Bryce.

Then straight to work for the next 90 days!

The Long Night, a.k.a.: Spring in WA

2011-05-28T22:20:00.000-07:00

Upon returning from the subzero temps of winter in Montana, I was greeted by heavy snowpack for my time off. I did two quick hikes before having my wisdom teeth ripped from my head, both of which were generally snow filled. (the hikes, not the teeth).

After bleeding on my pillowcase for a few days, and eating many soft food items, I was told by the oral surgeon that I heal fast.

Moreover, I was told that I still had about 6 weeks until there was work for me. So I decided to fly me and my heavy wallet to Hawaii.

We went snorkeling in Hanauma Bay

Money can't make you happy. But money can remove problems that make you unhappy...and it goes a long way to open doors for you. I think the next problem I'll remove will find me somewhere south of the border like some pyramid exploration, hiking in the Andes, or perhaps the other way.... an Alaskan Cruise or.... Australia? Now the trick is to find someone to share this "removal of problems" with.

(Been busy) Photos since September.

2011-01-19T18:03:00.000-08:00

Haven't had much time/patience/mood to sit down and update this thing, so instead of posting separate blogs for each of the trips, I'll post one with what I think are the best photos since the last post. (as usual, the full archive is available to be viewed at flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrdrfishasuar/sets/ )

First, shortly after the Canada trip I went out alone for a few days to White Chuck meadows, which is a place I've been eyeballing for a while, as well as being the closest approach to glacier peak these days. It was spectacular! I spotted 9 bears (some were repeats, I think), and chatted with 4 guys who had been on the PCT for the last 4-5 months, and were almost done. Anyway, I got a late start, and finished the hike in the dark, which was cool once I climbed above the cloud layer:

"Meadows" is a bit of a misnomer, there are indeed blueberry and heather meadows, but the actual level portions are few and far between (and hard to get to). This is the view from Portal Peak, note the cinder cone in the bottom right.

This is a view of the PCT, right around the corner from where I camped; the meadows in full sunset red glory.

Next up was artist point, another solo trip (though, not for lack of trying), another place I'd been meaning to get to. I'm not a huge fan of places whose natural beauty is interrupted by parking lots and ski lifts, and while I think its great that you can step out of your car and just be there, I'd rather do the work and have true solitude.

Then shortly after that, I went on a quick dayhike with Jeremy, to one of the few places on the mountain loop I've never been. North and Independence lakes... nothing spectacular, but its always good to get out and see new places.

Maybe a week or two after that, I was on a plane to Ohio to start my geology job, which has taken me to some fascinating places.

Ohio had mennonites, and various other quaint things.

Straight from Ohio to Utah, near the Wasatch mountains... where we drill endless thousands of feet of conglomerate....so....much....conglomerate.... outcrops can be seen everywhere nearby:

Lots of interesting "painted hills" nearby, colorful layers of sandstone and friends.

I was intrigued by the true powder snow, and how with subzero temperatures the flakes don't degrade right away, as they do in WA.

So I had about a week back home, just enough time to put myself back into debt by buying a new car, with two days to get used to it before driving it to Browning, MT to spend the entirety of the holidays in a trailer surrounded by cattle and horses.

Also, crazy fun weather here:

That's all for now, I should have a month or so off now, so there will be more photos coming soon.

The Frigid Northern Wasteland (Canadian Rockies)

2010-09-22T23:42:00.000-07:00

Not really in the right frame of mind to write a lot about anything right now, but I thought I should at least get some of my favorite pictures from the trip on here, since I think this actually comes up higher in search results on google than my flickr does.

It was a long time in the planning, and a place I've been coveting for a long time. We just got lucky and got there just in time for the worst September weather in years.... I'm definitely impressed with the area and will definitely go back someday.

The drive up has some great scenery too (and is closer than Yosemite, only a ~11 hour drive or so)

I did some drive-by shooting

Also, I want to go back to Moraine Lake again, get some better pictures.

It snowed on the hike in to the valley.

You can actually helicopter in fairly cheaply, which might be what I do next time (like $150 for you and 40lbs of gear)

Some rad, plaid-clad mountain men that built the lodge or something.

A few days in, and we finally got a view of the mountain we came to see.

Then, finally, a REAL view, and a damn fine one at that. Also we were lucky enough to be in the perfect spot at the perfect time...

Now, the awesome pyramid you see above is supposed to be in this shot too, but alas, luck is short these days.

We hiked up to the moraine pile at the base of the mountain, and goofed around.

Also, we found trilobites. I actually ended up finding a better ahemcoughsample after this one.

The grainyness and poor focus bothers me, but people seem to like it.

No one does, to my knowledge.

Nearby, there is this perfect, gorgeous, lush, and huge meadow.

In Canada, it's always winter.

Creepy robot eyes

Driving south to Glacier NP from Canmore, AB, is a gorgeous mountain pass road that seems to go on forever.

The eastern slopes of the Rockies.

Crazy clouds in Glacier.

Foolin' with the white balance.

Logan Pass.

Going to the sun road.

Stayed a night at Bank's lake in Eastern WA to break up the drive.

Pointed the camera straight up and took a picture.

The longest exposure I've done yet. (~30 minutes)

Lovely warm tones of weathered basalt.

Spider Meadow (8/21)

2010-09-22T22:20:00.000-07:00

Seems like so long ago, the last warm and mostly sunny day this summer.....

Went to Spider Meadow with Erika and Nathan, and finally went past the end of the meadow and up towards spider gap, which was really cool, by the way.

Back to Back Knee-Thrashing

2010-08-17T15:44:00.000-07:00

Andrew and I debated for a bit about where to go on our Saturday off, since the forecast was for unreasonable heat and clear skies. Yes, the clarity is a rare thing in our neck of the woods, so we didn't want to waste it, but also didn't want heat stroke.

Eventually we decided to check out Twin Lakes, by Monte Cristo, a place we've been meaning to see for years.

Whole set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrdrfishasuar/sets/72157624602826593/

At the end of the day it was a total of about 20 miles, with many thousands of feet of elevation gain (with steep climbs both ways)... but completely worth it, gorgeous in its own right, and we definitely know it's worth coming back. We both drank about a gallon and a half of water through the day, and definitely not enough food... which is why we stopped for Mexican food in Granite Falls, I had a huge burrito AND a big quesadilla.

You take the Silver lake trail. Therefore you pass Silver lake on the way there.

While the portion to Silver lake is most of the climbing, it is by no means all of it. The trail from Silver to Twin is pretty fantastical however, and gorgeous.

Also, Andrew and I have similar views on what makes a good photo.

Almost to the high pass above the lakes... see how cool the trail is?

Instead of dropping down to the lakes we decided to scramble up a little peak above them (we ended up going down later anyway, for water)

Pretty spectacular huh?

On the peak, which may or may not have a name.

The lakes must be fairly deep, to have such a rich color.

Many flowers, also, the lakes are bigger than they look.

There are some pretty remarkable vertical cliffs at the east end of the lakes.

We were shirtless the entire day, working on our full body lobster impressions.

One last look at the lakes.

One last photo of the awesome trail (this was on the way down)

Exhausted and trashed as I was, I had already made plans to hike Monday to hike with Lauren, which gave my one day to try to recover from both soreness and sunburns (not complaining, just cringing). And of course what hike to I pick other than my all time favorite, Gothic Basin!

The hiking book I have calls this hike "relentless", and for a good reason, there are portions of the trail that go more or less straight up (in order to see someone ten paces ahead of you, you have to crane your neck).

Whole set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrdrfishasuar/sets/72157624742954610/

The forecast was about the same: TOO DAMNED HOT. So I packed my chacos and hiked around the basin with them, walking in the ice cold ponds and waterfalls (SO refreshing). Also, I got the makings of my first chaco tan, which is a big deal for an REI employee.

Lauren enjoying a sweet waterfall with a view.

This was pretty amazing, like my own little discovery channel special. We were sitting there watching this mother grouse and her babies, she was completely unconcerned about me (sitting ~5 ft away). Then suddenly she made this little hooting noise, and the babies sprinted for cover behind rocks and in cracks, and become completely motionless. I looked around for the cause, and saw a hawk overhead, just passing by (or hunting, who knows). As soon as the hawk was gone, she made more hooting and they all jumped up and went about their business. Too cool.

One of the babies.

My poor Reeses were completely liquefied.

There was a solid breeze, so it wasn't hot enough to swim... but in fact just right for napping. Lauren slept a solid 15-20 minutes or so.

She also knows how I like people to act for photos.... ridiculous! Goofy faces and exaggerated poses make for fun photos... so... don't take yourselves so seriously.

Also visited the mine shaft... like caving, but not exactly.

The heather is in full bloom.

And I'll end with that beautiful photo. If you are willing to be not-serious in a photo, you are, in fact, qualified to hike with me. All applicants are seriously considered, but I reserve the right to turn down pouty or fussy people.

Keep it secret, keep it safe. (Bathtub Lakes)

2010-08-12T01:32:00.000-07:00

There is a push among local hikers to keep this hike on the DL. The reasoning is that it is right downhill from Mt Pilchuck (literally), which sees many, many thousands of visitors every year. And what have we seen in places that get a lot of visitors? That's right, probability states that a certain amount of those people will be assholes and/or morons, and those people will either: a) Shit in the lakes, making everyone sick. b) Burn down the forest. c) Leave huge piles of beer cans and cigarette butts all over. Or even d) all of the above.

Alright fine! I'm over-simplifying. But only because I've seen it happen, but I also know there is a correlation between difficulty of getting somewhere and being less likely to find idiots there. So here I go, risking the wrath of... who knows... to tell you about this fine place you can go.

I've heard you can get to it from a ridge traverse from Mt Pilchuck too, but we took the bear-pinnacle lake route. Hike to Pinnacle lake (short, with very reasonable elevation gain), the follow the crappy trail around the south side of the lake and just start walking up the rocky gulch on the far side.

They're nice, like a cross between Gothic Basin (one of my favorites) and Rampart Lakes... if that means anything to you. But unlike those places, I think you'd see a fraction of the people than at those places.

Another possible deterrent to keep the crowds away: in 2006 (a week before a backpacking trip I planned in this area) two women were found shot dead on this trail!

Pinnacle lake, you can see Andrew and Josie following the brushy path.

The gulch... rough going, made worse by horrid swarms of mosquitoes.

When we got up to the basin, sunset was rapidly approaching, and there was a cool low cloud bank in the puget sound basin.

Best picture from the trip

lots of wildflowers

We didn't really get a chance to explore...another time, perhaps.

We didn't get to explore because the following morning we were greeted by a wall of fog (well, we were inside the cloud, to be accurate) so it kinda sucked.

I brought you some flowers... please love me!

That is all.

Two of Washington's more beautiful lakes

2010-08-02T11:37:00.000-07:00

Through late July, I was lucky enough to hike to two of the alpine lakes in Washington that I think are prettier than most.

First up was Colchuck, which I think I've gone to almost every year for some time now.... Normally however, I go there in early June... but with all the late snow this year, the trail was covered until mid-July, which is nuts.

Anyway, the forecast threatened temps near 90, but odd clouds and a nice breeze kept it closer to 75 the whole time.

The obligatory mountain yoga.

Mountain acrobatics (I was pretty proud of myself, but the jumping pictures were much more popular)

That being said, they are really cool jumping pictures.

I'm not actually THAT buff, but sometimes I can pretend.....

And at last, the lake itself, dramatic as always

About a week later, I took a car full of beautiful girls to the beautiful Blanca lake.

Having only been here in September, its usually not even an option to swim without getting hypothermic. Here we are sitting on the rocks, gathering the courage to jump in the glacier-fed water.

The exuberant Lauren was the first to take the plunge.

And everyone followed in kind

With my cowardly self being the last one...

The swimming was great, and plenty hot enough to dry off/not freeze to death (in fact, the top few inches of the lake were not ice-cold). One last look at the lake:

Stay tuned, the real hiking season is just getting started...

Forgotten Meadows, again.

2010-07-12T20:45:00.000-07:00

I know, I went here once already this year, in February. I almost went back a third time the next day... Phoebe's wallet grew lags (intentionally misspelled) and jumped out of her pack somewhere on the hike. She called the ranger station and they said no luck yet, then at 11:30 the night before I get a text saying she was contacted by someone who found it! Phew... honesty is the best policy kids, everyone wins.

Never been here in mid-summer, always interesting to see how different places are around the year... this hike happens to be fairly brushy, no shortage of stinging neddles and devils club.

Since I have like 2 dozen pictures of this waterfall already, I figured I would do something a little offbeat... also, I love the little mini-ivy on the right.

Same ol' same ol'.

Oh snow.

My favorite Volcano

Del Campo and polarized clouds.

The always fun hero shots.

Proof I was even there. Plus Mt Baker in the bottom left.

Parts of the talus slopes I measured earlier this year were completely covered in ferns....I mean completely! It was nuts.

The Silver Lake fastpacking experiment

2010-07-12T19:52:00.000-07:00

I finally got my ultra small neo-air sleeping pad, which means that I can now go backpacking with a large daypack (my sleeping bag and bivy are already the smallest and lightest available). So with my approximately ~25 pound backpacking load (that's including my heavy camera gear) we zipped up to Silver lake from Monte Cristo, which is a hike I've been meaning to do for quite a while. Too much snow to continue on to Twin lakes, which is supposed to be twice as gorgeous (har har). Maybe later...

Also, these were slated to be the two hottest days of the year so far, topping 90 on the west side here (craaaaazy). We were sweating bullets hiking up there, but the ice cold water was a treat.

Anyway, like the all the hikes in this area, the trail itself is both punishing and scenic.

Some crazy spires.

Poodle dog pass.... no idea why it's called that... must be something about those goofy turn of the century miners.

What in Tarn-ation!?!?

This was in fact, the only cloud in the sky.

I found some sweet quartz with pyrite in it right after I took this.

Ahh yes, night... respite from the heat at last.

Crazy spinning sky.

The galaxy.

The lake

This is one of those times when I whimsically bent over, set the camera on a rock (instead of pulling out the tripod) and took the picture. I didn't take any more because the first one turned out perfect.

Relics of a bygone era.

Road hike.

A panorama from the highest point I climbed (scouting the twin lakes trail).

The ultra trim backpacking system worked ok, but in the future there are things I won't skimp on, like the bear can.... but I'm excited for other trips this year... carry less, be happier.

Nason Ridge + Merrymoor = Summer, at last

2010-07-12T19:32:00.000-07:00

Instead of being sociable for the 4th of July, I went hiking with Margot, one of the few people I can be completely open and honest with. Turned out to be the ONE cloudy-ish day, but got some great recon... I'm definitely going back to complete this hike sometime this year.

Imagine this same trail with gorgeous mountains everywhere in sight instead of white.

Typical Cascade metamorphics...always fun to look at.

Flowers and such

We went to Merrymoor one fine evening to teach Kim how to belay, and obviously to go and be active in the nice weather.

Me being a dweeb with my badass oakleys.

I always forget that the park has enough relief to see rainier from the top of the pinnacle.

I didn't actually intend to line up this shot like it is, but it worked out really well. Sometimes you just get lucky....

The lip-bite of concentration.... or frustration with the lens in her face? We may never know.

Hunter with his hillbilly college hat.

There was a guy there who obviously climbs a lot....

Who is that studmuffin?

I prefer to be in nature, but Merrymoor has such great bold colors, especially during golden hour.

Climbing (etc) in June, etc.

2010-07-12T17:49:00.000-07:00

I've been so busy getting out, that I haven't blogged about getting out in a while.

In June there was some rock climbing, and kayaking. As always, these are just my top choices for displaying, many more photos can be found in the respective flickr sets.

First was exit 38, which kicked off the start of the REAL summer, with the sun coming out and even a bit of oppressive heat. Some great 'epic' shots came out of the day. Here, Kim's first rock climb EVER.... (I break'em in the hard way ;) and she did awesome)

Gloria, who also did awesome.

Kenny, who doesn't really like climbing, but he did great regardless.

And this guy, who kinda sucked in general.

Flying chipmunks!

It takes two girls to belay my fat ass. Also, Micky with the most hair she's had since she was young.

Next up was kayaking in Lake Union. I rented a sit on top kayak, which is approximately 293 times more comfortable than a normal one. Also, it seems half the houseboats are pretty scuzzy, and half are really nice (like this one). Yes, my legs sunburned.

Steve wanted an ultra cliche seattlite picture...

Kinda like urban decay, but not.

My favorite from the day.

Then off to Leavenworth to find more oppressive heat, harder climbing, and general tomfoolery.

Kim's second day of climbing, a badass and very difficult 5.9.

I'm so clever

The spiderman impression

The route used the ENTIRE rope....phew....long route.

Kim being a badass.

Welcome to the brodeo

Micky couldn't handle the bucking bro-nco.

Gorgeous girls in a gorgeous place.

The middle of nowhere, IS somewhere.

2010-06-16T21:36:00.000-07:00

There are no grand philosophical revelations, no starry eyed excitement, the grass isn't greener where I go (actually, sometimes it is, but you know what I mean), and I don't want to polish some mountain man image. It's not to become one with nature, or test my will against it, or even understand it better. It's escapism, in its purest and simplest form.

I actually had planned to add more to that, but the escapism worked, and I'm calm now.

I accomplished a number of things here, some were unforeseen. First, I'm in significantly better shape than I thought. On the bike ride in (the first 12 miles of forest road), I felt like crap which I assumed was because of the heavy pack on the ancient bike. I discovered on the way out that the entire road is like a 1% grade, which you can't see going up, but I basically coasted all the way back to the car, which is why I'm home earlier than I expected (also because I got bored). Left home at about 6:30 after teaching the kids martial arts in Edmonds, and was on the trail by around 8:15ish.

I got to my first camp at Downey Creek, set up in the fading light (about 9:30, good ol' solstice), and since EVERY campsite along this road and trail had fire pits, I decided I would treat myself for the first time in ages.

Tuesday was a long haul, starting with actually getting to the trailhead. Sulphur creek is an old, dead car camping site.

Like, seriously?!?

You could totally make it!

Then on the trail. So, one of the things I (re)learned was that I hate repetitive forest hikes that don't actually go anywhere. The other thing is that from this trail, there are trails that DO actually go cool places.... when the snow isn't trying to kill you. Lots of cool waterfalls though:

I'd be impressed if they shot that from far away.....but I doubt it.

Oddly, I immediately thought of my friend Shelly, who isn't actually obsessed, but always seems interested in bones of all ages.

I should have taken a picture from down below, this bridge is pretty high up actually. Also, it's a suspension bridge, so it wobbles when you go across it...

So, I hiked probably 4 miles beyond the bridge (which I'm told is the 6 mile mark) with a number of detours, backtracks, and side trips, I eventually gave up trying to find a campsite, hiked back, and set up at the horse camp by the bridge.

Both the trail AND the road were being worked on, WHILE I was there. Interesting.

Anyway, woke up at 9 or so and headed out after breakfast. My original plan was to take it easy, get out to the halfway point and camp again. However, I was kinda bored and making damned good time, by the time I started riding the bike, I got hit the realization that it was literally all downhill to the car.... so away I went.

But while I was hiking and getting bored, I started taking pictures of the trail.

To my knowledge, there is no place untouched by logging, but there were sections of this trail that might have been...I may have to look it up.

To me, ferns are a happy plant. They're so soft and pleasant, no thorns or hard edges. So many varieties, from the huge mesozioc ones in Hawaii, to the cute mini ones here. I love ferns.

On your right, there is a banded metamorphic mess, typical of the cascades. In the river is a mess of valcanics, you know, from the volcano. (This river is actually the main lahar path from glacier peak, which could be another reason there are no ancient trees here)

On the way out I actually walked around the Sulphur Creek campground while eating lunch.... definitely been a while since this place has had traffic.

This is actually on the road in. Theres a detour around the side. I just found the obviousness of the sign humorous.

So, I made such good time, that I decided to go for a cruise. Lake Diablo called my name. Stopped by the overlook, the sign said high wind warning, but shit....it was like a hurricane up there! Daayyyum.

Anyway, loooootta miles on these old bones. Until next time children....

Hikes of May: Goat lake and the Suiattle River

2010-06-02T00:45:00.001-07:00

Mid may, did a quick overnight trip with Andrew to Goat lake. Tried to explore the overgrown trail that goes to the far end of the lake... have the cuts and bruises to prove it.

Did some crappy star pictures from the logjam. It was kinda hazy, so they didn't really turn out.

The morning was nice enough though, very still water.

Or at least it was, until this guy started paddling around in the inflatable raft he lugged up there...

We then took the time required to properly photograph the awesome waterfall.

It's one of my favorite waterfalls in Washington, I think it's the biggest attraction on this hike.

A bunch of us made plans to go backpacking memorial day weekend, and it turned out that various spring storms dumped many extra feet of snow in the mountains, and our weather has been unseasonably cold and wet anyway, so it got bagged. I did homework on the worst days, but sunday turned out to be kinda nice, so I went for a dayhike with Dyan.

My goals were to scout out the Suiattle River Road (which has been seeing some maintenance lately), because it's where a number of previously famous scenic hikes used to leave from, but the road had some washouts.

It's a pretty road, and past the ONE washout, the road is actually in BETTER shape than the road up to the washout. I plan on fixing my mountain bike and taking a stroll some day.

We walked about 5 miles in and sat on the river bank for lunch. We found this remarkable rock that was too heavy to carry all the way back. It's all quartz that probably filled some crack in a bigger rock, which had a big bubble also... then that original rock has split and washed away, leaving this sweet quartz...thing behind. Would have made a great doorstop.

Buck Creek, at the buck creek campground.

MORE GEOLOGY!?!? A huge boulder with some freakishly sinuous folding.

Columbines

Since we're awesome, and the road was flat and clear we made damned good time, and were back at the car at about 2:30. With so much daylight left we decided to scout out more trails. Squire creek pass was close, and has trad climbing routes Dyan was interested in.

On the way in we saw a BEAR! Looked like he was eating the berries on the side of the road. He must have been young, because he had an amazingly clear and even coat of fur... I decided that there should be bear shows (like a dog show), and I would enter this guy (who I've named Grills), and I would win.

An old growth cedar up in the hills

This is the climb she was interested in....use the trees for scale... too scary!

This was shot out my car window.

Hikes of April, Lakes and Rivers and Stuff

2010-05-09T21:58:00.000-07:00

First hike of April was bridal veil falls, trying to see conditions and get out in the nice weather with the lovelies Margot and Dyan.

Dyan decided to stand under the waterfall for a few minutes....

Next on the list was a recon of the Icicle creek area by Leavenworth, with Phoebe. Fresh dusting of snow (some while we were hiking) impeded any actual hiking, though we did hike on the fourth of july creek trail (one of the other trails up icicle ridge) for an hour or so until we hit solid snow.

Scouted out the road to the colchuck trailhead.

And did some important lizard rock basking.

The end of April I got to scout a hike I've been pondering for a while, and intend to go back to with backpacking gear... the north fork sauk river trail, which eventually climbs up to a cool pass, and is essentially the shortest approach to climb Glacier Peak right now. I was accompanied by Sally.

Crazy snowy-ish weather.

The ramshackle Mackinaw shelter (no, I have no idea what or who a mackinaw is)

On the drive back, it was snowing hardcore (this was completely dry when we started that morning)

She describes herself as a furseal, and apparently wears spandex skorts regardless of weather, which is cool.

First hike of May: Greider lakes. Had our first solid stretch of great weather, oddly coinciding with a day off, but that day turned out to be mother's day, so we couldn't go too far so people could get back in time for dinner with the mater. Never been here before (though I've been in the area), both hikes out here are rather bland, and I doubt I'll return... though it was a great day and perfect length for the situation.

I always get too lazy to change lenses, then I remember how cool the super wide angle is...

Basalt-land the theme park (Hawaii)

2010-03-27T18:53:00.000-07:00

I figured since my last birthday was spent in Granite-land, I would keep up the naming convention for igneous rock themed places. I took about 800 photos during the 6 days, posted 180, and less than 10 are probably worth printing. A good crop, all things considered.

Since I have no intention of posting a blog with 180 full size photos, I'll pick a few of my favorites, or ones that need explanation.

Here is the whole set:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrdrfishasuar/sets/72157623591921525/

TOUGH TOUGH TOUGH photography there. Solid black ground with bright white skies...confuses the poor camera. Lots of otherwise good shots were ruined because of over- or under-exposure, so I actually ended up shooting in full manual most of the trip, which slows the entire process down quite a bit.

This is also my first trip to anywhere tropical (Hawaii is ~20 degrees latitude) and there are so many amazingly cool trees, I can only imagine what the older islands are like.

Also, awesome little gecko creatures.

Goofing off is a theme that kept a solid hold on the trip.

I got home by riding two seaturtles lashed together with ropes made of....well, I don't really have any back hair.

A shout out to Kim, thanks for demanding I get shave ice, except you were wrong: the one with ice cream in the middle is totally better!

Some aa lava (as opposed to pahoehoe). Shelly put it the best way: its the sound you make when you're walking on it.

And this is why we walked on that crap

The Valley of the Kings, unfortunately the road down is too steep for our shitty vans, but I was just told that there are all sorts of old dead cars piled up at the bottom of the slope (that have fallen), but also that it's gorgeous and amazing down there....

Full 300mm zoom, plus big crop....I saw a whale! It even breached once, but I wasn't ready :(

First they had a hole digging competition, then a person burying one, then a person-volcano eruption one. Doug won the funniest faceplant into the water one.

This adorable kid didn't think we were that funny.

Some important charts and shit at HVO, on my birthday.

No caption needed.

South point, the southernmost point in the US, and I totally....got out of the van and walked to it...

That's our professor jumping off a cliff into shark infested waters!

The long walk to the mantle beach.

I also walked alone often, and found cool things because of it.

Yes, the sand really is that color, its the only green sand beach in the world, basically the water has eroded into an old cinder cone, which brought all that olivine up from the mantle...pretty sweet huh?

Bikini babes surfing in a volcano!

I'm a rebel without a cause

The mouseover caption is the best I could think of anyway

Some of us got crabs.

My favorite splashing picture (and I took a lot)

There are these signs on the beaches "Stay 15ft away from turtles" along with the fact that it is against the LAW. People walk right past these signs and get pictures of themselves touching these poor guys. Morons.

Some laws however, don't make much sense. Nevermind that the ENTIRE island is made up of this stuff.

One thing that became ever clearer to me this trip, is that I am much more useful than I am interesting.

Steam vent in the old Kilauea lava lake caldera

More cool trees, this one we climbed on.

Tree molds

Giant tree ferns

More oversized plants

Sexy model poses

Cool, (actually...not cool) hot spring fed river.

Tramp stamp baby!

Man, I really am a skinny bastard.

WARNING. The next photo is not for the feint of heart or wussies in general.

Usually warning signs make sense....

Rainbow falls, sans rainbow

Mauna Loa, the biggest volcano in the world.

The entire group (as far as I know...)

I stitched a panorama with the two main volcanoes, but the original will not fit here, so here is a link to it:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrdrfishasuar/4467849725/sizes/o/

A plant apparently unique to hawaii, and only high elevation (this was at about 9000ft)

Glad I got at least ONE rainbow shot before leaving Hawaii

Really cool textures

Road fail

Road double fail.

Hard to see, but the more silvery stuff is fresher (like, 1-2 years old as opposed to 6-10 years)

Lucky stand of trees

The pit of fire

Mauna kea and coastline from the airplane

Gothic Basin, winter alpine ascent.

2010-03-07T21:42:00.000-08:00

Alright fine, so it's pretty much spring conditions, don't even worry about the details.

The snow is wet, sloughy, and clumpy in most places, ice in the covered places, and has a thin layer of powder up above 5000ft. We used all the gear we brought, including ice axe, crampons, and snowshoes. Forecast was downright mediocre, but ended up being reasonable most of the day, albeit cold and windy, and we got hit with snow flurries up top, and it started pouring rain right as we were a few minutes from the car.

The trail is clear to the first waterfall crossing, at which point it is snow nonstop above. The crossings are do-able now, but won't be in another week or so....we hit this hike right on the cusp, and it really won't be safe to hike again until most of the snow is gone.

Oddly, I'm sore in more places than usual, most unexpected. Like my core (abs, pecs, lats, sides) which I suspect is from constantly shifting my weight and stance on the nasty terrain. But anyway, here are some pictures to slake your thirst (speaking of thirst, Andrew made me try a Corona at the little mexican restaurant in granite falls....not bad.)

Gearing up with ze alpinist stuff.

Some sketchy snow-bridges, though not as scary as ones on a glacier...

More posing.

As a good portion of the "normal" trail is buried, it ended up being easier/safer/shorter to go straight up into the basin.....

Second Breakfast

Now I'm mad, I cleaned the lenses and inside of the camera as good as I could, and the damned specks are still there, might be time to bust out a computer blower thing.

The weather was "inclement", in that clouds were coming and going, but it was way better than a solid blue sky.

Not much different, but cool clouds

I've never been up here in the winter, its really cool ALL year apparently.

Shafts of light

The sad and broken monte cristo road, access to a lot of hikes I really like.

People whine about shooting animals, what about the constant murder of poor defenseless signs?

Icicle Ridge, sans icicles....

2010-02-28T21:31:00.000-08:00

Well. THAT was a steep hike. The boys had their little GPS toys, so we know we went 4400 feet elevation gain in 5.1 miles, for a 10.2 mile total round trip. Perfect weather for it, just cold enough to keep us from burning up, but nice enough that there was no need to bundle up (heck, I did the snow free portion in shorts...).

These signs relay important messages, that you actually need to follow. I've always wondered who the hell makes these? They are COMPLETELY bonkers, and impossible to take seriously.... I mean come on, look at those horses!

That's highway 2 down there.

The boys with the toys.

I have a lot of pictures into the sun because that's where we were headed.

The "snow lake" trail into the Enchantments....

Where we called it a day.

If you want to instantly and unequivocally win my heart, you will find out where to buy this product, and buy me one. (Andrew got it as a gift, and doesn't know)

Fuck BPA, I like this thing.

Best picture from the day, in my opinion.

On the way home, we passed the "Bonefish Grill", where they have a skeleton of a fish on their sign. I immediately thought of fossils, was inspired, and have decided to open a fish and chips restaurant, and call it "The Devonian Grill".

Good weekend in Feb-tober!

2010-02-21T19:29:00.000-08:00

Ten points to anyone who knows what skit is being referenced in the title.

While el nino is a double edged sword, to be sure....the little bastard sure gives us some great weather, and mountain conditions we don't usually see until May.

Saturday was a simple field trip for a geology class, of the "hop out and look at something, wave hands around while talking, get back in van" variety....which I don't mind, but not very thrilling or photogenic. We followed the snoqualmie river, and talked about river stuff.

For Sunday, I came up with the somewhat crazy (in retrospect, definitely a bit crazy) idea to bring a bunch of people hiking up to Mt Forgotten. Disturbingly awesome weather, ended up laying on the snow shirtless (like I did last June, in almost the exact same spot, oddly). However, while there wasnt much snow, everything down in the trees was patchy black ice, on a steep slope, which was a recipe for very slow going, and a lot of very sore ankles, knees, and wrists. I really do feel bad about dragging these guys up there, but they seemed to have a good time, and it WAS gorgeous..... I'll just be sure that the trail is not solid ice next time I invite them out....

Also, we got the data we needed for our geomorphology project, so quite a bit was accomplished.

So saturday was thus:

Sunday, day of soreness.

Keep on truckin'

Evan, taking up the rear.

Read the mouseover caption....awesome.

Zee lovely mountains. Though I can't seem to find the source of that speck in the left side of every photo.

Kenny decided he had earned a victory cigar, and Andrew smelled it but when he looked over, Kenny was sipping from his camelbak, so Andrew asked in a shocked voice "is that a hookah pipe?!?" So we made a photo.

We were all tshirted out, it was good times.

This might be one of my favorites from the day.

We took a few, but this one had such attitude!

Ms Baker, and her volcano.

The Turk, and the shadows of people standing in line for photos....

I didn't realize how vibrant people had dressed until I started uploading photos...

Breana was a trooper.

Evan, with the borrowed sunglasses....I brought three pairs, and they all got used.

I actually have no idea what was going on here.

I just now saw the sun reflection in my sunglasses, which looks awesome and fake.

The whole group, minus Peter, who sadly fell behind and was eaten by Velociraptors...you know, lots of them.

After I took the above photo, I realized just how red her hair looked in that light, so told her to stop for a second and took this:

Feeling like a sore, creaky old man right now, but a good start to getting in awesome shape for the year.

Barclay Lake; dreary, grey: weakest debut of a fancy new camera EVER

2010-01-24T17:09:00.000-08:00

I love my home. I love just about everything about [western] Washington, and the greater Seattle area.

When I'm in the mood to make photos, I have a major problem with grey. It makes everything dull, destroys all depth, and often makes it a waste of time to even pull the camera out. I don't mean white out, or cloudy, or foggy....look at the last post, that can sometimes be very scenic, I just mean the solid grey skies, as seen below.

I bought the new camera I've been coveting for a long time, and while the camera is everything I wanted and more, the debut hike for it was....unsatisfying. No matter, there is more coming, and it was good to get out.

The other problem is the dynamic range in a place like this is garbage. While this camera has expanded settings to help this, the rich, dark green trees against bright white sky and snow, just doesn't work.

This was about the best I could wrangle.

We climbed up towards eagle lake, but got bored and stopped at a boulder field.

Ate some snacks, and talked about how cold the rocks made our butts.

Someday soon, this huge tree will fall.

I didn't realize everyone had agreed on the "hands on lap" pose, else I would have followed suit.... maybe I'm just more friendly.

Skyline Lake: Repetition is a double edged sword.

2010-01-10T18:24:00.000-08:00

As far as I can tell, I've been coming here around new years (give or take), since 2005. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not, but it certainly is interesting to see the different amounts of snow and whatnot. Also, it's a fun, pretty, easily accessible, and safe place to take people snowshoeing.

This year, oddly, the weather was gorgeous down in town, and great up through the mountains, but with no shock considering my usual luck, there was a cloud, literally sticking to Stevens Pass like glue..... No matter, made for some dramatic pictures anyway, and jolly good fun regardless.

This is a summation of the conditions today, for the most part.

And thus:

And again

Lots of people up here, as usual, demanding group shots of their own, and offering trade in the like.

Visited the lion-king-esque rock, as needed, weather was better for some cool silhouettes.

Did some alpine bouldering, as Dyan was drooling over the exciting granite.

Then, there was a miraculous break in the could bank, which we were in the top 30 ft of anyway....

Tried climbing that funny little peak, to see if it was above the clouds...it wasn't.

Breaks came and went, but not often enough to warrant sticking around in the cold wind.

Jogged up to Heybrook lookout on the way home.

Good start to the year so far. Keep up with me on facebook if you'd like to partake in these, I'll announce them there usually.

The solstice turning point: reminiscence and hope.

2010-01-02T02:58:00.000-08:00

I learned the hard way that one can't dwell on the past.... and I don't. In fact, I don't think I could list off what happened in 2009 aside from the big stuff....

One of the many reasons I love photography, is that you can be selective about what gets recorded. For example; being cold, wet, and miserable for 3 days fades into legend, while the beautiful sunset you watched there stays solid and memorable. Or the fury that burned at the thought of someone's actions, becomes dampened into a simple "sigh" and photos of a good hike with a person you once knew.

For me, 2009 was characterized by a few things:
-The explosive expansion of my social sphere.
-Continuing the trend of increase of my skill in photography, including having some of my work published.
-A fair bit of travel, specifically: Yosemite for spring break and my birthday, Montana for field geology, and Europe for Andrew's wedding and the Europe thing.
-My [not so] secret emotional breakdown over the course of the entire year, which stemmed from general fatigue and loneliness.
-The delightful discovery that I will indeed be finishing school this year (cough...7 years in the making....then I'll go get a masters soon too).
-A big deal for EVERYONE ELSE apparently: Having my first 'drink'. However, to this day I've had few enough drinks to be counted on one hand....

Here are some new photos I uploaded, mixed in with a few overlooked ones from this last year.

Taken on my birthday.

Andrew and I having a right fine time in the mountains.

Scotty, Brontosaurus rex, and Garnetman.

Previously unreleased material. I think everyone knows the story here.

The Brown Eyed Girl, full of angst.

The Bauer, full of angst.

Scott, Scotty, and the Moon, on 4th of July.

Ze Matterhorn.

Actually, the Matterhorn is a huge metamorphic mess, and they had cool signs talking about it!

My favorite hike.

Good day.

I think I'm going to do a lot more solo backpacking this year too.

For 2010, I have these plans and hopes:
-Finish school....like, actually. Then apply for the Masters in Teaching ASAP.
-Go on a date, successfully.
-Take some photos of mountains and stuff... har har.
-To facilitate the above, I am going to continue traveling, this is probably what I'll be putting most of my energy into. Here is my list of confirmed trips: Hawaii for spring break and my birthday. Assiniboine provincial park and Banff in the Canadian Rockies, with possible side trips to Glacier, Tetons, and/or Yellowstone. Lots of hiking in Washington. Keep in touch if you wish to join me on any/all of these adventures.

Change of plans, Mountain loop shorties.

2009-12-30T18:33:00.001-08:00

Some dude in a semi broke highway 2, and they decided to wait until MY DAY OFF to fix it....friggin jerks. Anyway, so that shot down plans to go up to skyline ridge for this otherwise drizzly day. With the 50/50 choice between I-90 and Mtn Loop, I chose north, simply because I know more places.

As always, having no vistas to shoot means I'll point the camera at the people I'm with. For those readers who don't know these people, you might recognize them from my posts from Montana; they are fellow scientists.

I arbitrarily chose places that I knew we could get to, and wouldn't be too avalanchy (a major concern, with the fresh rain). Big 4 ice caves, Mallardy Ridge, and the North fork falls.

Started at Big 4, I thought maybe it would take at least like 20 minutes of walking before snowball fighting started, but it pretty much started as soon as I closed the car doors.

Next was Mallardy Ridge, however, it's been like literally 8 years since I've been here last, so I had no idea where the trailhead to cutthroat lakes was..... So we walked to road end, found a decent lunch spot, and ate until the wind picked up and got really cold.

A winter scene.

There was no shortage of flinging or general snow related abuse.

And construction projects.

And of course, wanton destruction of giant snowballs.

Shelly had some kind of deep-seated shame about this shirt, but I thought it was hilarious.

Shortly after this photo was taken, I went through a small patch of potholes only to hear a horrid scraping and booming noise coming from the car, I slowed down and it stopped, but the brush cover from under the nose of my car had finally taken enough abuse and fallen off completely.....I recovered it, and may have to reattach it with zipties. Kinda funny.

Cool moss and lichen.

All in all a fine day with fine folks, making the best of a crappy hand of weather and highway closure.

Source Lake, low(ish) avalanche danger

2009-12-24T15:41:00.000-08:00

Left my house at 4am, hit the trailhead at 6, caught sunrise at the top of the ridge, and back to the car and on the road by 9:30.

Anyway, the mission was to take a certain photo of the Alpental area, the status of that mission is still pending.... Alright, time for dinner.

Climbing out of the cloud bank.

Sunrise.

Margot, and alpenglow.

This is the photo I hope will work for my task. You will note how huge it is (it's a stitched panorama, taken at full resolution.)

Rainy Mountain Loop Sampler

2009-11-15T17:42:00.000-08:00

Decided to go play in the slush today, and give a foriegn friend a tour of my favorite hiking area. Conditions weren't even that bad, road-wise, but it was just raining, all day. My main goal was to scout the trailheads on the Sloan Creek Road, two of which I found, but eventually the snow got too deep for my low car, so I didn't find the other one I wanted to. However, my other goal was to find and photograph the North Fork falls, on the Sauk River, which was also accomplished. Decided there was still plenty of daylight, so we hit big 4 ice caves on the way there, and boulder river on the way out.

I think this is the first (of few) times I've been here and there has actually been a decent sized cave.

Yes, this was the weather the entire day, but incessent rain and clouds is the price we pay for such reasonable, non-extreme weather.

Yes, I drove a Swede around in the snow in my Volvo.

Found the North Fork Falls, which I had heard about but never got around to seeing.

One more, a slightly longer exposure.

Then, hit up boulder river on the way back into town.

These are tough to photograph in an interesting way, there aren't many angles you can get, especially when the river below is basically flooding.

But I try regardless.

The Great Greenbelt Adventure

2009-11-11T15:00:00.000-08:00

I had three hours to kill on foot in north Lynnwood while my timing belt was being replaced by Volvo. So I arbitrarily chose to walk west from 99 where, as far as I know, I actually haven't been. Ended up at Meadowdale high school.....interesting? Not really, but it surprised me anyway.

As I walked, I stumbled upon a greenbelt, of all things, and it ended up being MUCH bigger than I expected. I was disappointed in that I didn't come across a huge group of airsofters, which would have been a lot more fun than wandering around finding interesting trash and orange leaves, but one musn't dwell on fantasies.....

I found no less than 6 creepy crack-sites like this, all with cheap tents and sleeping bags crumpled in the dirt, soaked and ratty. This one was the most elaborate.

Oil tank?

No, that leaf did not end up there on it's own.

This place even had a stream (drainage/runoff), which had incised a significant chasm, with how wet the ground was, I actually didn't want to go down for fear of not being able to get back up...

The remains of an old apple orchard, I counted at least 8 trees, in rough rows, the ground was littered with old dead apples.

I got short bursts of sunlight breaking through the clouds, usually right on cue when I walked up to a colorful tree.

These were actually right outside the greenbelt, in the field of an elementary school.

A naked jet taking off from Boeing, perhaps to go get some decals? Note: no windows, must be a cargo model for fedex or whatnot.

Meadowdale high school....

I snickered, then walked away, then realized I actually had a camera with me, and walked back to take this.

I really like this, I think I might do it more often. Kinda trippy huh?

Leavenworth Glaciology

2009-10-18T21:40:00.000-07:00

I'm actually taking TWO glaciology classes this quarter, because that's how insane I really am. So, instead of driving all the way down to UW to park, squeeze into a top-heavy deathtrap (more on that in a second) and then have to get taken all the way back there just to come back home late, I decided to just drive my own car over to Leavenworth and meet the class. Not only am I super fast, but they had some trouble getting rolling in the morning, and I ended up getting to leavenworth about 45 minutes ahead of the class.

I used this time to scout out the icicle ridge trailhead, which I've been meaning to do for a long time, and now definitely want to do the whole trail.

Since I had time to burn, I bounced up the trail for 10-15 minutes to take some pictures of the lovely fall color.

There was plenty to be had.

I think this one is my favorite.

Then, off to meet the kids. It turned out that there was NO room in the vans anyway, so I decided to stick with my car and follow the vans around, and took a few people in my car too. Which was fun, because my car rocks, but doesn't roll.

Like field camp (hiking and coloring), we spent the day playing with dirt and counting boulders.

There is this guy outside of leavenworth who is rich and strange, he built his own mini train track for his own mini train that tourists come up and ride around for a fee. Apparently he wears the little conductor hat and everything.

This particular class is mixed, co-taught with the lower level glacier class. So there were a few students who had ZERO interest in participating or even pretending to pay attention. Too bad too, because it was really interesting material from one of the leading experts in glaciology of this area.

Saw some fairly tame deer in the woods, odd during hunting season....

Thats all, no rant tonight, aside from maybe that research papers make me unhappy. Though apparently I'm very close to being DONE. Sweet.

Mt Baker Glaciology

2009-10-10T21:40:00.000-07:00

I should clarify that it's more of an intro to glaciology, basic ideas and being able to poke real ice and talk about things we discussed/ will discuss in class....though, we are apparently going to go into ice physics quite a bit..... hrmmm

I can't think of anything funny to babble about, so I'll ask what the deal is with you folks? I get the absolute LAST people I would expect, coming to me saying "yeah, I still read your blog and look at your pictures and bla bla bla". But very few of you ever say so, and I certainly can't predict WHICH of you. Oh well.

Baker railroad grade, where I havent been since.....2006 when we tried to climb the damned thing with like 12 REI folks.

Not actually that much in the way of fall colors, just the blueberry bushes (berries are WAY past their prime)

Dang, I was hoping it would put these side by side, but alas, my HTML skills are crap at best.

Some boyz from field camp.

Not sure why, but this picture came out friggin awesome!

Right around the same time, I just zoomed in a bit.

Metamorphism is a harsh mistress (Vesper Peak solo)

2009-09-25T13:21:00.000-07:00

My first attempt at rockhounding was....shall we say...a bust. I am, so far, more like a rockjackrusselterrier, running excitedly in circles and finding nothing. Actually, I found some mediocre hydrothermal quartz, but I think I may actually need to do more research before I find anything really cool.

However, the hike itself was great! I'd never done Vesper before, and it was much shorter than I expected, and just as steep as claimed. I went by myself, mostly because you all have like 7 jobs and hate free time. Also because I like going hiking alone sometimes.

This is from the road, I highly recommend coming down this road even if you want just a scenic drive.

Not much color yet....

Revenge of the Pluton.

And some of the guys that Pluton has messed up.

I camped on the edge of the lake (you can see my little yellow bivy in the bottom right corner), the climb from it is surprisingly short.

Hover the mouse over the photo.

Granite always wins in a fight between two rocks. And I have NO idea what this stuff was, all banded and foliated and.....stuff.

Same here, various metaconglomerates and metasandstones and such.

Del Campo and Gothic on the right.

This photo has been artificially brightened, but look how long that slab goes for in the bottom of the frame, I would guess at least 2000ft, maybe more.

I only ever seem to do this when I'm by myself.....

Hello I-5 corridor! You can see the olympics kinda poking out. Must have been a bit grey down in town eh?

Rainier in center frame. Rain shadow in action!

I'm not scowling, but squinting into the sun.

Way cool hike, I'd definitely go back.

Taylor vs Sepia bandwagon, Round 1

2009-09-22T22:11:00.000-07:00

Sometime in ancient history, there was a person I spent lots of time with who insisted that a photograph could (or would) look "better" or "more artsy", simply by clicking the sepia option. If you don't know what that is, look it up, because I only have like 2 photos from weddings that I've done that to, for a specific reason. Long story short, I think it's ridiculous.

The sepia tone is what would HAPPEN (as in: NOT intentional) to old photographs during a toning process applied to make the photograph resistant to fading. Now, I'm not saying it can't look good, because sometimes it does, especially if a photo is overexposed (if you're an amateur dweeb like me), sepia can sometimes salvage an otherwise non-presentable photo. Also, if you dress up like a cowboy and want the photo to look old and crappy, you can do sepia.

Nothing in particular spawned this rant, it's something that comes up from time to time, usually when people ask why I love photos with wild colors (because the real world is colorful, why not showcase it?!).

Now I will conduct proper science, by offering evidence to support my view, from my hike to Mt Dickerman today.

Yes, the saturation here is a bit wonky, because it was really, REALLY red on its own, and the in camera color boost was enough to make it look fake, but rest assured, it really was this gorgeous.

Kim was basically a blueberry obsessed zombie.

Glacier peak is our secret volcano that no one knows about, soon, people won't see it at all. They'll say "GLACIER peak huh? is it behind that cinder cone over there?"

It was like, 95 degrees today, on the first day of fall. WTF.

Funny weather station..... or something..... [insert shifty eyes]

It's too bad we have all these damned evergreens, staying green, forever.

I think this is my favorite picture from the day.

The madness! Bushels and bushels of madness!

So, there you have it. I posit you this question, if I made the above photos sepia, would they have been better? (that's a rhetorical jab, aka: me being an ass)

Why was Taylor gone all summer?

2009-09-21T13:50:00.000-07:00

So, lately I'm sure some of you have noticed that I have been complaining about not having any money. Actually, I don't really care about money, but when you don't work all summer, and while not working, spending lots of money....economics and physics have a lot in common, namely: conservation of energy......

Where was I you ask? If you missed the last blogs, or the rare updates while I was out and about, I'll do a quick fill in for you, with some of my favorite photos from those places.

First was Dillon, Montana, for UW field geology. 30ish students basically stomping around sagebrush smashing rocks and losing compasses, and sometimes looking for garnets.

Dillon and the surrounding area is above 5000ft elevation, so I got a pretty good tan, and by good, I mean hilarious.

We did some light painting, which is always good fun. This is one of my favorites of them.

Any geology anywhere, if you stop working for any amount of time, rocks will start being thrown. It is a basic physical law.

We WERE going to go to Glacier NP, but alas, it was not meant to be.

Because of this.

So instead we went back to Dillon, there was plenty of booze that folks had bought for the camping trip..... also there was swimming.

And we took a trip to Jellystone.

Montana has lots of lightning.

This photo still makes me giggle.

There was a Demo Derby in town. Not too exciting, the one we have in Monroe is way better.

Some of the kids thought to sleep outside. Good stars at 5000ft.....still lots of light pollution there though.

I managed to butcher my leg right proper.

The infamous 'boob rock', in probably my favorite field area (most like home?)

Love this photo.

Metamorphic geology with the finest of folks. I also took the biggest sample EVER home from this area.

All the folks in one place, minus the TA's from the first half.

Also, some photojournalism. And an excuse to post Scottie's naked, wet body all over the web. HA!

Then I came home for a day and a half (just enough time to shower and repack), and then hopped on a plane to Sweden for Andrew's wedding. Since I was the photographer I'll show proof I was there:

Yes, I drank beer in a hofbrau in Munich. Big deal, get over it.

Hiking in Germany

Stepped through a space-warp and ended up in Leavenworth.

Chased Ibex in Switzerland.

Hiking in Switzerland

More of the same....ho hum.

Hiking in Italy.

The Mediterranean. Yawn.

Rome.

I would like to point out that the Vatican is creepy.

Artistic subversion in the Sistine Chapel.

And that is all. The rest of the photos are on flickr as usual, just thought I would be thorough for anyone who was curious why I've been complaining about being broke.

Some old favorites, to kick off the new blog

2009-09-20T19:54:00.000-07:00

I recently became aware that I am a dinosaur and my preferred method of blogging (myspace) is not visible to everyone, so I will give this thing a go and see how well it handles photos.

As a test post, I'll do a few of my personal favorites from recent years that you folks may not have seen.

One that has been my most popular for a while on flickr, and is near the top of the list for images searches for "milky way". I don't think it's that great, personally, but it's interesting I suppose.

Rampart Ridge, near Snoqualmie Pass, you can see Rainier in the background. This is the one I had published on both the Washington State Tourism Website, and the WA magazine cover.

The Enchantments, famous for its urine (salt)-obsessed goats, who fell for my trap of standing where I wanted them to stand for my photos.

A favorite early season hike of mine, colchuck lake.

Yosemite, Bridal Veil falls.

Ptarmigan/grouse in Gothic Basin on quartzite, my all time favorite hike that I do every year. I believe this was 07.

Glacier Peak from Perry meadows.

This was somewhere in the rampart lakes area.

More from the Enchantments, the actual reason they're famous is in late Sept/ early Oct, the larches all turn lovely orange and the whole place is just gorgeous.

Much like this maple on Perry Creek.

I really like this effect, this was on Mt Pugh.

From my Montana field camp.

Always fun, over Stevens Pass

Now I'd like to show you that you don't need a 'fancy camera' to make fancy pictures. I went to Blanca lake a few days ago, and the last time I'd been there was 2005. In 2005 I took the following picture with a 3.2 megapixel point and shoot camera:

And this one a few days ago, with my $2000+ camera and lens thingy:

The biggest difference is that the lower one I shot at 12 mp, because I may actually want to make a very large print of it.

That's all for now, if this works well I'll switch from myspace to here for all photography related blogging, since you don't need to have a myspace to view this guy, or even comment.