Road Trip ~ Time for A Fall Mountain Road Trip with the Fuji XT-1

The Little Dude, my travel companion on this trip.

It's that awesome time of year in the Pacific Northwest when the trees turn and amazing colors explode in the midst of all the evergreens.

It's time for a three day road trip to check it out. Destination; Central and south central Cascade Mountains. Mount Adams and the Gifford Pinchot National Forrest. Pictures to follow.

O.k., I'm back and what a wonderful surprise it was to visit this part of the Washington Cascade range.  Not sure why but this was one area I haven't been to but I will be going back frequently.

This being a solo trip, except for the Little Dude, this was my first trip with the Fuji XT-1 and it's "kit lens" the Fuji 18-55mm / f2.8-4 and wow, what a perfect little setup to travel with.  Nice size, nice weight, easy to pack around on hikes and walks and just a blast to use with both an electronic view finder and a tilting LCD screen.

The trip begins at Randle, Washington at the intersection of State Highway 12 and National Forest Road 25.  After turning south on FR25 for a very short distance the next left puts you on FR23 and immediately

the beauty of the Gifford Pinchot Forest begins to unfold.  Fall travel through the Gifford Pinchot seems like the perfect time to go.  Quiet and peaceful.

My destination for the end of my first day was the small town of Trout Lake, Washington.  FR23 to Trout Lake is 56 miles and by typical standards, given that a portion of this road is not paved, the time to travel to Trout Lake should be about one and a half to two hours.

My journey to Trout Lake ended up taking closer to eleven hours.  There's a lot to see and take in on this beautiful drive.  Rivers and streams, small waterfalls, lakes and mountains, valley's and forest floors.

Add in the fact that I'm taking photos and the trip begins to take some time, especially when you stop every mile or two.

The FR23 turned out to be one of the nicest drives I've ever taken.  Paved most of the way with about 10+ miles being unpaved but nicely graded.  Hardly any traffic which was probably a benefit of traveling after school has started and on a weekday.

The scenery along the way is absolutely breathtaking.

The Cispus River

The Cispus crosses back and forth soon after entering the Gifford Pinchot and there are several good viewing points from bridges as well as little hikes along the banks.

The Cispus river

Mt. Adams from Takhlakh Lake

The area here, around Takhlakh Lake is also a campground and day use area.  Nice hikes and beautiful scenery everywhere.  Quiet and peaceful.

Once you're here, at Takhlakh Lake, you're about halfway to Trout Lake, Washington but there's still much to see along the way.  The road continues to climb and I'm not sure but I think you reach an elevation of around 5,000 feet.  All along the drive are beautiful scenes of Mt. Adams.

After arriving in Trout Lake, Washington your choices of places to sleep and eat are a little limited.  There is a really great little market, a gas station and a couple of eateries.  The people I met in town, where I ate and where I stayed were warm and friendly and made the stay there desirable enough to want to go back.

I stayed at the Trout Lake Valley Inn and had some of the best service in one of the cleanest, warmest motels I've ever stayed at. The folks that run and work there are nice and accommodating. The price to stay is unbelievably fair and and throw in the free Wi-Fi and the free breakfast and you just couldn't do better.  I'll stay there again and recommend it highly.

I spent the next day traveling back and heading west through mountain roads, very few of which were paved. The rain came down and the clouds hung low hampering the photo part of my journey.  So I did a little exploring and found an ice cave, natural bridges and an Indian Long House.  This part of the drive took me toward Mt. St. Helens but the clouds were heavy and low so my only shot was the one below and I had to wait for quite some time for them to lift enough to get it.

I ended up cutting the trip a little short as the rain was not forecasted to stop but I still have to report that it was one of the best overnight trips I've had in the Cascades.  And around these parts a little rain can't stop you from being out there.

Mt. St. Helens in the clouds and in the distance

For more photos go to  My Web Page  where a few more images are available.

Thanks for reading and following along.

Tom

Finding my Photo-Mojo with Mobile Photography, Apps and Technology

At times I just get bored.  I loose my "photo mojo" and find myself completely uninspired.  I've been in that kind of funk recently and when I am it's just not a very rewarding time.  So since I'm so in to my hobby and find myself fulfilled with what I do, when I'm not doing it I'm not as happy as I would like to be.  What to do?

Photography is interesting in many ways; understanding light and shadow, being prepared for the "decisive moment", knowing what to shoot and how to shoot it, making it a career or just having fun or finding the artist inside, knowing your gear and understanding the technical side of it, aperture, shutter speed, ISO and lighting.

iPhone 5s edits in Lightroom 5.5

Photography is or can be a life long pursuit and can bring delight to yourself, the people you know and in todays social-network connected world can bring joy to people from around the world.

When I've lost the mojo to go shoot or even know what to shoot, I sometimes turn to gear.  Why, because as a hobbyist and amateur photographer I also like the gear.  Cameras, lenses, bags, tripods, lights, hardware and software and there's an industry out there today like no time in photographic history built specifically to support the photographic community.

iPhone 5s with edits in Photogene

There's stuff out there and available to keep you buying and changing gear for the rest of your life.  But I'm done buying stuff. Well that's easy to say and everyone that knows me would probably say, "not likely", but I'm certainly buying less theses days.

So in my current slump instead of turning to gear and looking for new stuff to buy, I'm turning to the gear I have, the software and Apps I have and I'm looking for new ways to shoot that inspire and bring a little something new to the game and will render a completely different end result.

In the past I've had no respect for the "look" and finish that filters from Instagram, Hipstamatic or the advanced filter settings in cameras give because they seem like just a way to cover a badly photographed scene.

Orchid.  Fuji X-T1 using Advanced Filter "Toy Camera".
Edits in LR5.5 included a vignette and crop.

I still think that but by having an opinion like that I've shut myself out of the fun that those filters can bring when perfection doesn't need to be the goal.  And in fact I wonder if a photo taken with a filter such as these can't also be considered perfect for the story and scene that it's describing through the eye of the person taking it for the story they want to tell.  After all who gets to say what's perfect?

If the documentation of life happening around you is something that fascinates you and you have the inclination to do so, waiting to do it with hundreds, thousands of dollars of gear isn't necessary.  What is important is knowing how you feel about what it is you see and how you want to interpret that feeling and idea into a visual art form, a story, an album, a print.

But whether you have high dollar equipment or your standard smartphone with a built in camera, the filters and finishes available, in most cases for free, can offer you an unimaginable array of moods that you can wrap your story, your idea around and finish with an expression that fits your original idea for the story you wanted to tell.

iPhone 5s with edits in Snapseed

You can do this with filters built into your expensive camera, you can do this with filters built into the camera phone, you can do it in post production on your laptop, desktop or tablet with easy to find, cheap to free apps.  Many of these apps will allow stacking, thereby giving you an opportunity to take a photo and use several (stack) different finishes for creating your very own look.

So for me the idea here is to find my Photo-Mojo, to get inspired to go shoot.  Some of those ways can included buying new stuff, some can include taking a walk or a drive.  Some can include racking your brain for a new idea, a new story to tell.  Or you can dive into your well of apps and filters and play around and find a look you like which may lead to story you might like to tell, which may lead to the place you'd like to shoot it, which may lead to the end of your boredom and with some luck you may find your Photo-Mojo again.

The final take away for me is to not limit myself.  I tend to do that.  I think and train myself that something has to be done in a specific way and then I don't let myself stray.  Straying is the best part. In photography, like in most other areas of life, it's the journey not the destination.  Stray, try everything, have fun.

Good Luck and thanks for reading,

Tom

Fuji XT-1, uploaded to iPad edits in Photogene including the frame

iPhone 5s edits in Lightroom 5.5 with presets