I just finished up a pair of workshops in Olympic National Park. Both trips had great opportunities. During the first trip we had a really nice sunset on the Obstruction Point Road and nearly perfect conditions in the Hoh Rainforest. During the second trip we had an amazing sunrise on Hurricane Ridge and a pair of nice sunsets on the coast.
The Hurricane Ridge sunrise during the second workshop was the second attempt at a sunrise. We got rained out on the first attempt and I feared we were going to be fogged out on our second. We arrived in the parking lot to practically zero visibility. We could see some of the hill above us and just as I started suggesting we climb up there, the fog around us dropped away and we could see the all of the mountain peaks floating on a sea of clouds. It was pretty amazing. The fog moved in and out, the sun came up, and we spent the next frantic minutes running back and forth from vantage point to vantage point, sometimes photographing telephoto scenes of ethereal fog, other times the distant peaks glowing pink, with clouds below them.
We didn’t see much of the sun on the coast during the first workshop but I saw some stunning long exposure shots made at Ruby Beach. The conditions were cloudy and gray but the monotone nature of the scene made for some truly remarkable black and white imagery. It made me hope for similar conditions for the second group. But we had a clear skies and an orange sunset, which made for some great silhouettes surrounded by orange light.
I mentioned the great conditions in the Hoh during the first workshop. Well, we had bright sun during the second and it forced us to look for small things and shoot small areas. One of the most entertaining shoots was of a snail we found. We placed it on a moss covered log and let it go do its snaily thing.
All in all, I saw some pretty good images coming from participants in both workshops.
Most of the image you see in the above slideshow were taken during the second workshop. With the smaller group I was able to do a little shooting of my own!