So in no particular order here are my top 10 with a little description to go with each

1. Grand Falls, Arizona

2. Shooting Star over Mount Hood and Lost lake

3. Keyhole 2 days before the Arch collapsed

4. Metlako Falls, Thanksgiving Day, Columbia River Gorge

5. Ruby Beach Sunrise, Black and White

6. Seal Rocks Oregon, Christmas Eve Sunset

7. Grand Canyon, Arizona, Black and White

8. Painted Hills, John Day Fossil Beds, Central Oregon

9. Tunnel Falls, Columbia River Gorge

10. Bandon Sunset, Southern Oregon Coast

And as a bonus, this is the one shot I took this year that means more to me than any other…why?

Because it was the first time my daughter and I went camping at the coast. The poles in our tent busted, there was not a room to be found and my 4yr old daughter looked at me and said, Daddy, it’s ok, we can sleep on the beach in the sand.

I was so happy she was willing to do that. We got all set up with a nice fire and she did some roasting of hot dogs and marsh mellows. While the fire slowly burned down she kept asking me about the stars.

She talked and talk and I just listened to her little mind work away as she tried to figure out life’s biggest question. Finally she fell asleep, the beach got quiet and the milky way came shining in like it owned the place….

this photo I took that night while my daughter was sleeping at the feet of my tripod means the world to me!

Thank you all so much for your support over the years…I really appreciate being part of a great photographic community.

May your 2012 be the best year yet!

 Peace, Darren White

]]> http://darrenwhitephotography.wordpress.com/2011/12/30/personal-favorites-from-2011-my-top-10/feed/ 6 darrenwhitephotography Little Colorado Sunset My Lost Ways copy Keyhole Thanksgiving at Metlako Falls Black Rubies Seal of Approval from Santa Grand Canyon black and white Painterly Sunset Autumn Falls Transitions of Light Kiwanda Milky Way http://darrenwhitephotography.wordpress.com/2011/01/12/jan-8-2011-visiting-home/ http://darrenwhitephotography.wordpress.com/2011/01/12/jan-8-2011-visiting-home/#comments Thu, 13 Jan 2011 04:16:20 +0000 Darren White Photography http://darrenwhitephotography.wordpress.com/?p=248 ]]> Growing up on the coast and now living only 100 miles away I feel lucky to be able to basically go to the beach anytime I want….I had a pretty rough Christmas after wrecking my car and ending up on the coast in pouring down rain for 5 days. Needless to say I needed another getaway…..My new tripod had came on Wednesday and I was dying to get it out and actually take pictures that weren’t blurry from tripod movement…  Saturday morning at 3:46 I get up and load the SUV and then get my daughter and put her in her car seat and load up her stuff and off we go….I needed gas so as I was pulling into the gas station I started sliding all around…Yep, the ground was a solid sheet of ice…I thought maybe it was just in town and that once I go to the freeways it would be better. After getting gas we drove the 6 mile straight stretch to the freeway where the roads seemed pretty good. Made it through Portland and up onto the hill where the ice started again. Then up near the top the snow started coming down at a very high rate….you know how when you drive in the dark and it’s snowing it looks like you are in a time warp or something….it was like that for about 20 miles as I made my way to the summit of the mountain and started down the other side….as I got down about 10 miles on the other side it just turned to rain and no ice….I pulled into Tillamook and the rain was still coming down…..I dropped Lexi off at Grandma’s house and I drove south to one of my favorite little beach towns, Pacific City, Oregon.

I had wanted to shoot the Keyhole with some good wave action for a long time and the sky was starting to break up as I made my way down the beach….however the tide was not quite high enough yet so I decided to shoot on the other end of the beach where there were some rocks in the sand to help break up the waves and give the water some good movement….

I shot here for a while and just kept shooting…The sun was rising to my left and coming up over the hillside. There were just enough clouds to keep the color in the sky for that extended period of time….Every photographers dream….a sunset or sunrise that lasts more than 12 minutes.. Shoot shoot shoot……I was scrambling around like crazy trying to find comps. then the fog lifted and I noticed that I could see Haystack Rock in the far south distance.

I hung around this side of the beach as the light was changing constantly until I felt the tide was high enough to bring some good waves into the Keyhole….Now you may be asking what the “Keyhole” is all about. Well, its this amazing arch where water comes through and crashes on the rocks which look like they have fallen over the years from overhead. For years I always thought this was a cool place for a low tide shoot…It wasn’t until I was there last time that I realized this is a much better place for a high tide shoot.. And oh boy was I right…..I just wish the sunset had been a couple hours later so I could have got them both in these shots….  Here are a few shots from the infamous “Keyhole”.

The above image is a 30 second exposure as the waves crash on the keyhole entrance and roll into the sea of rocks you see before you. This image really doesn’t give you that scary feeling the other 2 will.. Most of the waves were pretty nice but there were a few that scared the hell out of me…..

When you are standing up high on a rock and you see these big waves hit that wall and start their way into where you are standing, the heart starts to race because you want to get the shot and you know by the time you take the shot it ill be too late to run for your life..So you brave it…you take the hit of the wave in hopes you don’t get your camera drenched and that you pressed the shutter at the right time with the right shutter speed….I did a few of these images you see above with the waves hitting the wall and crashing below me….getting wet from my waist down. I was kind of froze in time…I did not want to stay there but I also did not want to leave in case I missed a really good one….Well as luck would have it….I stayed just long enough….About 10 after this shot, the sets really started rolling on…one big one after another as the place filled up with water and now the water was almost at my feet when all the sudden I see it….a swell about 20 feet tall comes crashing onto the entrance of the Keyhole and the loudest thundering roar I have ever heard….then I notice that the wave is not slowing down. My heart pounding in fear and excitement all at once…this huge waves crashes on the rocks right in front of me as I press the shutter…..getting hit by the wave and totally wet I first look and dry off my camera making sure no salt water gets into the working areas….All good there….then I decide I should look to see what I got….my heart still racing now from the unknown…did I get the shot or not….do I want to brave it again if I didn’t….as I press the preview button I am very very happy with what I had captured in that amazing moment of time…..

I may have pressed the shutter too soon or too late because I am pretty sure the waves were higher than this at one point but I was totally amazed at how well the chosen shutter speed had captured the action of the water that soaked me!!!  After this I left and walked back to the truck where I collected my thoughts, did some serious thinking and finished drying off my camera and tripod. I decided I needed to unwind a bit so I made a stop at one of my favorite coffee shops, Stimulus Coffee in Pacific City. They have always gave me great service and delicious coffees and food….Back to Tillamook to see my daughter……

The day went on and we did our thing and then I decided to stay there for sunset…..The clouds looked good, the sky was coming on with color so back out to the beach I go….This time it was Oceanside just for a quick shoot….We shot sunset and then as we were walking back after it was almost dark we noticed the sky start to light up again. We both stopped and looked at the sky….just taking in the beauty that it was…All the sudden we both break out or cams and tripods and start shooting again..This time we were just shooting to capture this amazing moment….It was the perfect end to an amazing day of photography.

Lexi and I arrived home safely after driving back though the snow on the mountain…..All in all an A+ Day!   Please remember to click on the images to view them larger with more details…

Cheers,
Darren

Sunday Jan 2, 2011. I went out shooting in the Columbia Gorge with Ned Fenimore, Eric Hahl and Rick Lundh. All 3 are great photographers and fun people to shoot with. We all share the passion of photography. We started out at the Woman’s Forum shooting across the little valley over to the point where the Vista House sits. (See image above and click on images to view larger) We were not out of our cars much due to the extreme wind and arctic like conditions. I feel we were able to capture the sunrise quite nicely with the Columbia River in the background and Washington State on the left side of the river. The sky was beautiful as the sun rose to the far south. The wind, however, was not so friendly. I would estimate gusts of up to 6o mph brought the already cold 23 degrees down to about 11 or 12 degrees wind chill. Lucky for us our biggest worry here was just holding on to our tripods and making sure the wind did not blow them over. After this we decided to take the Historic Highway Rt 30 and see what the water falls looked like here. First we stopped at Latourell Falls which is a beautiful waterfall anytime of the year. We made our way down the trail until the dry pavement turned to solid ice at least 2 inches thick. Not having the proper footwear we did not attempt to go down to the bridge due to a sharp turn in the trail and a downward slope. Chances are better than not that we all would have ended up on our butts and we would not have been able to get back up the trail anyways!  See image below for what Latourell Falls looked like on this day!  Here you can see the ice covered trail on the far left and the bridge down below on the right.

Next we stopped at a few other waterfalls but I did not take out the cam as I was more into shooting the various ways the ice had covered the Gorge.  We stopped next at Wahkeena Falls where we took the short hike up to the view of the main falls.  This was a beautiful sight to see as the cement railings were totally covered in ice, the walkway between the 2 was solid ice and icicles were hanging from the arches in them. While we were shooting here the mist was so great and the air so cold that as it hit our jackets, hats, fingers and cameras it just froze. We all had white frost on our jackets as we made our way back down the trial. A sign of a good time. Below you can see the massive amounts of ice that have covered the entire area.

As fun as that was to shoot, it was by far not the toughest to shoot. We hit that waterfall next. Horsetail falls. The extreme amount of water coming over the falls combined with the wind and mist made this one by far the most dangerous with the most ice. Getting down low to get a good comp was near impossible. By the time I had covered my camera, and walked down the stairs to get a not so typical comp, there was ice forming on my hands, camera and in my facial hair. I was able to fire off a couple shots but only the first one was free of water drops as the mist just covered my lens and camera faster than I could get a second shot off. This was the best comp I could get with the least amount of water on the lens. Be sure to click on this image to see the quantities of ice. This was also as far down as I could go safely.

In this next image you can see how the mist has covered the branches of the trees and iced them over. Some are so heavy with ice they break and fall. The ground to the left of the sign looks dry but it was solid ice that was clear and not white so it made walking all that much more interesting!

We ended the day at Emerald Falls aka Gorton Creek Falls but there wasn’t as much ice there as these other places. We called it a day after that. All in all it was a good day and fun to get out shooting when the weather conditions are extreme to us. I know as some of you read this you will laugh thinking to yourselves that this is not extreme. Well maybe not for you but here in the Northwest this is pretty cold!

One last picture to also show the intricate beauty of ice closer up as water flows underneath it. These closer more detailed shots are really what I like about ice formations. You really never know how water will freeze and the designs it will form.

The above image was taken before noon on an overcast day last year giving the cool blue tones you see here.

Canon 5D MK II,  F/22, ISO 50, 1/4 second, 2 stop soft grad.

The central Oregon coast is a special place to me. The sheer beauty alone brings thousands of visitors a year during all kinds of weather conditions. My personal favorite time to visit is during a good storm. Granted the light is usually not the best and the lack of definition in the clouds will take away some interest in the image for some. It’s what comes after the storm, the time when the clouds start to break and the light show beings. Sometimes this includes rainbows, big thunderheads, and even lightning.

I actually car camped here the night before and the rain poured and poured. I thought I was crazy for staying here but I wanted a shot of Thor’s Well in the sunrise light and I knew the storm was supposed to break up around daybreak.  At first light I could see nothing but solid gray skies over the ocean the air was a muggy and warm as walked down onto the rocks. The tide was a little too low to get the shot I wanted of Thor’s Well so I continued exploring the various channels and inlets that form Cape Perpetua.  One thing that amazes me about Cape Perpetua and the Cooks Chasm area is that there are no fences or signs telling you to stay back or not to walk on the rocks, in fact there is a paved trail that leads down to the rocks where your exploration begins. So now you are totally free to walk where you please depending on how brave you are. Make sure you know the tides well because one wrong move could end your life.  I’ll touch more on this later in another post.

This shot here is the result of waiting out the storm and watching the clouds to the north start to break up. I could see the sky behind me was already clear so I knew that once the sun came up all the way over the horizon the light would be too harsh and contrasty to pull off a decent shot. This channel is the largest in the area and when the waves are rocking you better take cover or an umbrella. I have video of this where the waves are hitting and shooting up at least 30ft. With the wind that blast through there at times even someone a 100ft away can get wet.  In my color version the water is a beautiful aqua green color. While the light was really nice here I still wanted to capture that stormy feel with this image and the aqua green water and pinkish red sky really did not convey that feeling to me. After converting it to black and white the mood and feeling stood out very well to me and I knew this was the feeling I was going after.

A little history about Cape Perpetua taken from Wikipedia

For at least 6,000 years Native Americans hunted for mussels, crabs, sea urchins, and clams along the coast near Cape Perpetua. Evidence of their lives can still be found in the huge piles of discarded mussel shells that lay along the shore near the Cape Perpetua Visitor Center.^[1][3]

Several early explorers sailed past the cape. The first recorded passage was by Bartolomé Ferrelo in 1543; then came Sir Frances Drake in 1575 and Martin d’Aguilar in 1605. The cape was named by Captain James Cook on March 7, 1778 as he searched for the Pacific entrance to a Northwest Passage. Cook named the cape Perpetua because it was sighted on St. Perpetua‘s Day.^[4][5]

The area became part of the Siuslaw National Forest in 1908. In 1914, the United States Forest Service cut a narrow road into the cliff around Cape Perpetua and constructed a wooden bridge across the Yachats River, opening travel between the small community of Yachats and Florence, Oregon to the south. The wooden bridge was replaced in 1926 with a steel structure. The Cape Perpetua section of the Roosevelt Memorial Highway (now Highway 101) was built in the 1930s.^[3][4]

In 1933, a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp was built at the foot of the cape just north of Cape Creek near where the Cape Perpetua Visitor Center is located today. The CCC constructed Cape Perpetua campground, a network of trails, and the West Shelter observation point near the top of cape. During World War II, the West Shelter observation point was used as a coastal watch station and a large coastal defense gun was temporarily installed.^[1][4][6] An SCR-270B radar was installed at an undetermined location to take advantage of the height of the promontory.^[7]

The Cape Perpetua Shelter and Parapet were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.^[2]

When I first started out shooting pictures it was with black and white film. At first I had someone else processing my film for me and as time grew on I started doing it myself. One of the amazing things with Black and Whites is the lattitude you have for control over your images. I loved messing around with different developing times. Some of the film I would push up to 3 full stops and some I would pull down to 2 stops. One gave a nice contrasty look while the other left the images dull with a very somber mood.  Since I have made the switch to digital I have not found a great way to convert images from color to black and white. I recently downloaded the trial version of Nik Software Silver EFex Pro and I am loving what it can do. It really gives you unlimited control over your images. I have not sprung for the full version yet but I plan on doing so in the very near future. Although the images you see here on my blog are a not nearly as clean as or clear looking as they would be in print you can get a good idea of how the conversion process can really add mood, atmosphere or feeling to an image.

This image is more that just a shot of an old building, it represents a great day out with 2 other photographers as we explored the lesser know parts of Oregon. Getting out of your comfort zone is hard to do for a lot of photographers including myself. The major body of my work is Sunsets, Sunrises and Waterfalls. Although I do love to shoot these old buildings I find them hard to shoot and get the right feeling in the final image. Since my love for black and white still is in my heart today, I plan on working more on them this year and creating a new body of work for clients to choose from.  In the past I have been pretty disappointed with some of my conversions and now I feel I will have the correct tools to make an image attractive and print worthy in the Black and White medium.

Also new in 2011 is my blogging. I was really bad about it last year and many people probably decided to not follow me anymore. I can’t blame you, I don’t follow people who don’t post on a regular basis either.  This year is gonna be different. I plan to blog here more about the images I post over on Flickr and my website. I also have a few longer blogs to write up about the Oregon Coast, Columbia River Gorge and Mount Hood. I will be including images and history about each one and how it came to be today and why I love to photograph them.

So here’s to 2011, I wish you all the very best in the New Year!

Cheers, Darren

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Today was an amazing day for myself and my daughter and I thought I would give you a little rundown of our adventures here in the northwest. If you are not from the Northwest and want to follow along, grab a map and turn to the State of Washington page and follow as I describe our day!!!!

Springtime is the time when all the wildflowers bloom around here. Right now is peak season in some places and I wanted her to experience the beauty that surrounds us. We got up at 2:30am and were out the door by 3am. From Battle Ground, Washington we drove down 205 and connected to I 84 and headed east past The Dalles and crossed back into Washington via 197. Heading east on Hwy 14 we found our way up into the Dalles Mountain Ranch unit where the wildflowers were growing in abundance!!!

Nikon D300, ISO 200, F/13 @ .5 seconds. 3 stop soft grad. 

After shooing the wildflowers for an hour or so after sunrise, we made our way back across the river via 197 and headed west on I 84 to Exit 76 and then proceeded up to Rowena Plateau where there are also wildflowers growing like crazy. At this point Lexi, who just turned 2, needed to get out and stretch her legs a little. There is a really nice trail that takes you all over up there so we walked for a while and she soon realized that some of the groups of flowers were the same height as she was. Lexi stands 3 ft tall and some of the blooms were almost at eye level with her….For some reason she kept trying to kick the little ones….not really hurt them but kick them to watch them move around. She must not have found it amusing because she quit before I had to tell her… This is a shot of her as we began our hike.Nikon D300, F/10 @ 1/20th sec, iso 100, fill flash used

Here she is totally content in a nice grouping of Balsamroot Wildflowers

Nikon D300, F/16, 1/10th second, iso 160, fill flash, 3 stop soft grad

On our way back out we found a place to do a self timer shot and were able to get both of  us in the shot…a memory I will keep with me forever. I am gonna have this one printed up and hung in our home!

Nikon D300, F/10, 1/15th sec, iso 100 

By time she was done walking and ready for daddy to carry her back to the truck. So with camera and tripod in one hand and her in the other, we made our way back to the truck where we got her freshened up and ready for the next leg of our trip. Mount Hood!!!!!!  I can honestly say that my 2 year old daughter has been up to Mount Hood more than most people I know. She is fascinated with the mountain. In fact a couple months ago we took a little trip up there to give her mom a break after a busy day at work. It was late and when we got up there the sky was crystal clear with billions of little stars. I think it was at that moment she fell in love with the night sky as I took this image!

Nikon D3oo, F/10, 664 seconds @ iso 100

So we take off from Rowena and follow the road down to the little town of Mosier and then back onto I 84 headed west to exit 63 where we stopped for gas and some supplies….ya know, chocolate milk for her, and a power bar for me!

Then we headed South on 35, wandering around in the hills of the Hood River Valley looking at the mountain from various vantage points….

Nikon D300, F/9, iso 100, 1/100th sec. 

Next stop, the mountain itself….Mount Hood. It looked like they were doing some practice training on the hill to the left. What Lexi and I were both focused on was the amazing clouds that were flying by over the mountain….

Nikon D300, F/8, iso 100 1/400th sec.

We didn’t stay too long up near Timberline because of the massive amounts of people walking around carrying skis and snowboards….The parking lot was full and it was very crowded…. We drove back down to Hwy 26 and proceeded west to Still Creek where I was happy that the road was open for a little way and not blocked with snow. We only had to drive over one tree that was laying in the road and we made it up passed the first bridge before running into too much snow and having to turn around. I did find a little place for is to relax next to the river. 

Nikon D300, F/8, 6 seconds @ iso 100

We enjoyed that view near a little camping site for a while before heading back down the road onto Hwy 26 and heading west into Portland where we connected to I 84 and continued west to 205 north and then back home to Battle Ground, Washington.  I love photography and I love my daughter with all my heart and the fact that I was able to spend the day with her doing what I love and showing her the amazing things nature has to offer was just the best way I think I could have spent today!!!!  Thanks for taking the time to read about our day!