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Greetings,
Just getting ready to head back to Olympic National Park for another workshop,
So far here in the Pacific Northwest, it’s been one of the nicest winters I can remember. Seriously, we’ve had one of the wettest and coldest Junes on record. When I was in the Palouse they had experienced so much rain that some towns flooded. At one of my favorite locations, a stream that is usually just a trickle under a bridge spanned about 50 feet! It made for some unique photos though.
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Palouse report
I recently returned from yet another Palouse workshop. The weather was tricky but we managed to pull out some great images. And the weather did cooperate to its fullest on our last evening. We got a little bit wet, but you do need rain to get rainbows.
Below are a few more images I managed to grab, the last two from a private trip I had right after the workshop.
Next year’s workshop will be in mid to late June. Drop me a line if you want to be on the early notify list.
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Update on my Colorado Tripod Vector tripod
 Regular readers might remember that I recently got a new, tall tripod from Colorado Tripod Company (their Vector tripod). It’s really tall. Nearly Shaquille O’Neil tall. Well, maybe not that tall. But with the ballhead attached, it’s taller than me. And that’s what I wanted.
I wanted the height mainly for photographing auroras overhead, but it’s come in handy on steep terrain, where having one leg reach far below me was needed.
So far, I mostly like the Vector tripod. One problem (or feature, depending on your point of view) is that when I unlock a leg lock, the leg section that’s being unlocked will start descending. Falling really. Gravity takes hold and the leg extends all by itself. This is kind of nice, but I’d rather have a bit more control than letting free-fall take its course.
I prefer that there be a little bit of friction so that the leg doesn’t fall easily by itself, but at the same time it doesn’t take a lot of pulling on my part to extend a leg. My first Gitzo tripod had such a tight seal between leg sections that when extending a leg, a vacuum was created and the leg section being extended would be sucked back into the upper section, just the opposite of the issue I’m having with the Vector.
My current carbon fiber Gitzo is in the Goldilocks zone between the two extremes and is why that tripod is still my favorite to use.
The Vector is still a fine tripod and is very sturdy (and tall). I’ll just have to get used to the leg behavior. One major advantage the Vector has over my Gitzo (besides its 76” inseam) is the ability to swap out tripod feet. I can unscrew the existing rubber feet and install spiked feet. The tripod came with a set of short spikes, and I’ve also purchased some longer spikes. These come in handy when photographing along the seashore where the incoming surf tends to undercut those rubber tripod feet. I’ve not actually used spikes yet but I’m planning to when I go to Olympic next week.
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Silver Falls and Bandon
I still have a few spaces left in this October’s Silver Falls State Park and Bandon photo tour. This will be somewhat of a whirlwind tour. Silver Falls doesn’t take long to photograph, I’ve done it several times in an afternoon and a morning. This trip will include a whole day and a morning for the park.
In Bandon, we’ll have two shots at a sunset as well as a chance to photograph a (hopefully) giant crashing wave at Shore Acres State Park. The tides will be right, so I’m hoping for a bit of stormy weather to go along with it. It could be epic!
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Auroras
John Barclay tells me that we still have two spots available in our September 27 – October 4 aurora photo tour in Yellowknife.
If photographing auroras has been on your bucket list, and you’re interested in this trip, take a look at the auroras page on my workshops site.
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Newport in September
And finally, there is still room in my Oregon Coast: Newport workshop coming up September 7-11.
The Newport area has it all: two spectacular lighthouses (and one little stubby one), crashing waves, a great harbor, nets, ropes and other fishing gear, crashing waves, a scenic bridge, and the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Best place to photograph puffins that I know of!
For more info, visit my Newport page.
And that's all I have for now. Stay safe everyone and I hope the summer weather is being kind to you.
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