From Washington to Oregon

There are many advantages to my job when it comes to my passion of Photography. I do get to visit scenic places and I get to drive alot. Though some would not call the driving an advantage. My time is usually also my time before I clock in and when I go to bed. Yes, I am gone far too much from my family and taking flights right now is very difficult, but most any job I know of has trade-offs.

This is one of the better trips I have taken for sight seeing. I have not spent any time in the state of Washington. For me this was a new experience and if given the chance again I will look forward to it. When traveling for work I don't get the chance to bring my best glass. I don't have much space in my shoulder bag and frankly with a camera and a laptop that Tenba bag gets heavy!

I had a tentative route through Washington and into Oregon. My route I have some control of, but most of the time it is more a matter of how quickly I can travel to get the work done that I need. I do my research before I head out to a new area and try to line up a number of different areas that might be scenic. I find it works best to have as many areas as possible. I don't know how long my work will take when I am on site, and so I have found it best to have multiple locations to choose from. Since I am traveling many times hundreds of miles in a day, I also have to be concerned about the weather. There are many occasions I can have great shots that I have to bypass because I don't have the time to stop and other times I will have too much time, but the weather won't cooperate. Sometimes there are surprises along the way. Things I missed when doing my research. Seeing these horses from the side of the Interstate was one of them. I have to admit it was a little strange to be on Interstate 90. I have traveled east and west along this interstate many times, it was eventfall to see where the road ends some thousands of miles to the west of where I live. As I glanced up these horses were easily spotted and in most cases I might not have stopped to look at the artistic metal horses charging for the cliff, but since I wanted to capture some photos for my daughter and had a little extra time, I took the short hike up to the view. I'm glad I did! I hope to at some point incorporate my own video into this site, but currently I don't have a camera that does video. For now You Tube is my friend. This is the video from another family that made the trip to Grandfather Cuts Loose the Ponies.




You can see more of the planned route below.


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Nothing like a back roads drive to make things interesting. I can not complain about the sites. The only problem is when it isn't a photography trip you are a slave to when you travel by. That means there are many shots during the middle of the day or at off hours. I found a perfect picture of an old truck, but at 2:00pm it challenges the highest of dynamic ranges. It was even sitting in the correct direction for what could have been a GREAT sunset shot. To my knowledge there aren't any sunsets in Oregon at 2:00pm! So I shot it during the day. I still thought it made for a good picture. My Photography is impacted many times by images from people I know. I probably wouldn't have stopped for this picture, but having recently been married and we worked with Dixie Pixel. She was WONDERFUL, though I can't figure out this post-processing thing she does. Well if you look at her stuff, she likes old trucks. We found one where we were married and well guess what I think I have a thing for them as well.

I did plenty of Panorama's on this trip and also as you might suspect quite a few HDR's. Traveling during mid day made it a necessity. Before this trip I had not done alot of experimentation with HDR's during the mid day. Though not perfect, I kinda like how they came out. I of course converted them in Photomatix. I Photomerged in Photoshop though, much as I wish something else was better.

Since I was on Midwest time and never switched over I did get some nice sunrises. Of course I didn't make it to sunset on most days. Bad thing about getting up at 3:00am is that by 7:00pm you are pretty much shot.



This was one of my more creative trips and you will see many images processed many different ways. Hope you enjoy the trip through the pictures like I enjoyed driving it! Please comment either directly or below.

Washington to Oregon