[/caption] This is the view of Portland from the Broadway bridge. The Broadway bridge offers some of the best views of the city but you need to make sure to get here before 10:30 am since the sun travels directly behind the city and the river, which causes too much glare and back light. This photo was taken at around 10:07 am and the sun was at about a 90 degree angle in the upper left corner. I was positioning the camera towards the SW part of the city and I was standing at about the middle part of the bridge span. The are some spots where you can find shade, to eliminate most of the glare, but if you get there early enough you won’t have to worry about the sun glare as much. Every bridge, in Portland, offers some great views and awesome photo opportunities but the Broadway bridge gives you the best bang for your buck.
Monthly Archives: April 2013
Portland, Oregon
[/caption] Beautiful night shot of Mt. Hood and Portland lighting up the night sky on a rare warm April evening. This photo was taken from the grounds of the Pittock Mansion and as you can see, the trees that had blocked parts of this view for several decades were recently removed so now you can get the shots that us Portland photographers have been dreaming about. This shot was taken at about 9:00pm, about 45 minutes after sunset and I still had my CIR-PL and warming filter attached in order to increase the shutter speed to 8 seconds.
Oregon Daffodil’s
[/caption] This is a photo of a group of daffodil’s in the Oregon’s Willamette Valley. To get this shot I laid down on my stomach, attached my bubble level and took the photo without knowing what it would look like since I couldn’t see the images on the LCD screen. Though my tripod does have the capability of folding down to the ground, I decided to try my luck at holding the camera and I was pleasantly surprised that just having a bubble level allows you some great opportunities that you otherwise wouldn’t have. However, I did end up deleting quite a few but I was able to move around a lot more without having to constantly set up the tripod in tight areas.
Wallowa Mountains, Oregon
[/caption] The Eagle Cap Wilderness is part of the Wallowa mountains in Eastern Oregon and if you’re looking for some amazing hiking trails and beautiful scenery, I would plan a trip during the summer months. The snow can last as long as July in the higher elevations, so unless you plan on bringing your snow shoes, you may want to wait until late July to Early August before having the ability to hike well into the interior of the Eagle Cap Wilderness area. The water is so abundant that you will find yourself surrounded by raging waterfalls, creeks and rivers well into late summer. And since the scenery is so diverse and overrun with colors, you may want to bring a tripod in order to avoid any blur or camera shake due to your camera sensor having a difficult time choosing a focal point. The meadows are filled with wildflowers, the mountains are craggy and millions of shadowed drop offs create lots of shade and the forest floor are teeming with green vegetation, which would cause most high elevation mountain ranges to be envious.
Image of Portland, Oregon
[/caption] Perfect sunny but cool afternoon day looking over downtown Portland, Oregon with the snow and clouds hovering in the distance. This photo was taken just a few weeks ago so the vegetation in fairly dormant but the snow in the foothills of the Cascades are creeping ever so close to the Metropolitan area of Portland. The weather, during the month of March, can be very unpredictable but sunny days can offer some great photo opportunities. This photo was taken from the South West part of the city and looking North East with the Lloyd district in the distance.
Mt. Hood, Oregon
[/caption] A summer storm creeping ever closer towards the summit of Mt. Hood as I dangle along the edge of the glacier. They say that late summer can be a tricky and somewhat dangerous time to summit tall mountains since there are more chances of electrical storms to develop and I guess I am now a firm believer in that saying. This photo was taken on 8/24 and the day had started out cloudless and very warm but as we crawled our way towards the summit we noticed that a huge cloud was forming in the southern part of the Oregon Cascades. This photo paints a clear picture just how massive and potentially dangerous these storms can grow within just a short amount of time. This photo was taken just above the Hogs Back, as you can see it in the right corner of the photo with its sulfur gasses streaming out of its vent. Mt. Jefferson is to the right and just below the storm cloud and I’m assuming that the storm developed near the Three Sister and Mt. Jefferson. We really lucked out since we were able to descend and get to the Timberline Parking lot before we noticed lighting near the summit. We truly dodged a bullet and I won’t be heading anywhere near the summit during late summer.
Mt. Rainier, Washington
[/caption] The views from Mt. Rainier National Park are pretty awesome but having a view like this with the moon high above makes it even more spectacular. The photo was taken from just above Paradise Ridge and only a few hundred feet from were the bare trail meets snow. The Tatoosh Range is in the foreground with the rest of the Washington Cascades far in the background. You also have great views of Mt. St. Helen’s and Mt. Adams as well. To get this shot I was using my Sigma 17-70mm lens and set the focal length at 50mm in order to eliminate too much of the trees from appearing in the photo. The aperture is at F7.1 and the shutter speed at 1/200 second. I set the ISO at 100 and the white balance at +0.3 since the sun was directly in front of me but at least high above. I took this shot on 7/26/12 at about 5:00 pm and the wildflowers were awesome.
Columbia River Gorge
[/caption] The month of June is probably the best month to capture the Columbia River Gorge in all of it’s splendor. June offers the best weather along with the best month to witness the neon green foliage along side the thunderous waterfalls pounding the basalt rocks below. And since Spring can be pretty wet and cold, most of the wildflowers are most abundant during the month of June, which also allows some pretty fantastic photos. This particular photo opportunity really caught my eye due to the amazing cloud formation that had developed over the gorge. To get the shot I set up my tripod and used my remote switch to avoid any camera shake. I also attached my CIR-PL and warming filter due to the brightness from the sun.
Columbia River Gorge, Oregon
[/caption] Spring offers the best time to head out the Columbia River Gorge in order to capture the waterfalls and foliage at their best. With all of the waterfalls and vegetation, you can find yourself losing track of time and immersing yourself in it’s splendor. However, you will want to make sure to bring your tripod, remote switch, additional batteries, extra memory cards and as many ND filters that you can carry. It’s not hard to run out of memory cards or battery life since I’ve been able to set the shutter speed as long as 30 seconds during broad daylight and only to find that I run out of battery life before it’s time for dinner. There are also thousands or millions of photo opportunities above the waterfalls, since this is where you will find the smaller and slower paced creeks and streams burrowing through the foliage and basalt rocks. There are endless amounts of smaller waterfalls and hidden pools just asking to be photographed. You will literally be consumed by the sheer magnitude of photographic opportunities.