Washington Beaches

[dpetersen]

I just returned from a trip to Washington state with some days at Olympic NP.
Weather was very nice with ni rain-I'm told this is their "dry" season. We had a little time to visit Olympic while in the area and I thought I would la=eave some impressions.
Hurricane Ridge-the road was being resurfaced so the trip included a lot of waiting time that kind of threw off our time table. The views from the top were first rate, but for photography get there early AM or late PM. We were there about midday and photos did not have shadows and came out pretty flat.
Beaches-WONDERFUL We were only able to make it to second beach and stayed until sunset. On my next trip I will stay in Forks for 2 nights at least and explore the other beaches available. If they are as good as second beach it will be time well spent. Actually, I think one could easily spend a week chasing different lighting, etc.
Hoh rainforest-Perhaps it was the time of year, but I was disappointed here. We walked about a mile up the main trail and I returned with very few photos. It was bright and sunny-perhaps a more overcast or foggy day would be better.
Sol Duc-My oreinteering skills were absent this day. We got off on the wrong trail and never did make it to the falls. I'm told the waterfall is quite nice. Good to leave something for the next trip-that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Seattle area:
Go to Pike's market-a wonderful but crowded place. Take your digicam(no room for tripods) with a wide angle lens. We were there on Sunday and some kind of a festival was going on also so it was double crowded, but I enjoyed the market very much. If you go to the Seattle center for the Space Needle, check out the building just to the West. It's a museum for science fiction and the building is metal clad with all kinds of curves to it-great for abstracts.

I'm shure I missed lots of photo opps, but these are the ones I got to.

Dick Petersen.

P.S. since I was "travelling light" no LF gear, just a pinhole and a digicam. TSA was OK during the trip except for Chicago (go figure)

[Walter Calahan]

Chicago is full of pinholes. Grin.

[don12x20]

I just returned from a trip to Washington state with some days at Olympic NP.
Weather was very nice with ni rain-I'm told this is their "dry" season. We had a little time to visit Olympic while in the area and I thought I would la=eave some impressions.
Hurricane Ridge-the road was being resurfaced so the trip included a lot of waiting time that kind of threw off our time table. The views from the top were first rate, but for photography get there early AM or late PM. We were there about midday and photos did not have shadows and came out pretty flat.


Did you take the dirt road off to the SE from the parking area? It has exceptional views - better than from the visitor center.

[Terence McDonagh]

My two times at hoh have been the sunny days as well. Disappointing in the sun. But my friend who accompanied me the second time assured me it's amazing on a cloudy/misty/rainy day. Of course he lives on Kitsap Peninsula and can go whenever he wants . . .

[dpetersen]

We wanted to take that road, however it was blocked with paving equipment. One of the workers told me that was their "staging area" and full of rockpiles, etc. so no soap for that. We did walk around a little bit and the views were great but the light not so much.

BTW the walk back fron second beach (in the dark) was....interesting

[Brian Ellis]

I too was disappointed in Hoh - massive numbers of tourists making it difficult to set up a tripod and bad lighting. But when I mentioned that here I was told I didn't walk far enough into the forest. Hurricane Ridge was o.k. if you like vistas. I made one photograph there that I liked but the sun was fairly low in the sky so I had some interesting shadow shapes in the picture. I don't remember which beach I went to in Washington but it too was o.k. However, after living in Florida and Oregon it would take something really special about a beach anywhere else to really impress me.

FWIW, over the years I've found that I seldom make my best photographs the first time I visit an area. It's almost always the second or third trips that result in the best photographs because by then I have an idea of what works and what doesn't and where to go, what time to get there, etc.