I just got home from a ten day photography scouting trip at the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. During my time there, I visited Olympic National Park along with multiple state forests and beaches. In addition, I hiked loads of trails through beautiful rain forests and even squeezed in some time for Thai food. It was great!
I had a lot of help from many of the members of the Olympic Peak Camera Club, most notably; Marian and Michel Bodart, Roy Kropp, Jim Hagen, Laurence Smith, Ken Kennedy, Bruce Fryxell and Lori Moilanen. Each of them opened their hearts and shared many of their favorite spots as well as much of their time and resources to assure a great scouting trip for me, so thank you all very much. I know I have made some life-long friends on this trip.
So back to the peninsula and the photography! The place is an enchanted forest on steroids. There are literally thousands upon thousands of photo opportunities for the taking. It can be a bit daunting when you first arrive, however you quickly become accustom to the ever changing light and shadows that can help to create dramatic images. Chaos-well…yes, but you need to “embrace the chaos” and “fear no light” as my new photo buds on the peninsula would say.
Below are several of my favorite images from the trip. I have just scratched the surface but these give you a good idea of what I saw while I was there. We had zero rain, but I have to tell you I was hoping for a little. I wish I had more time out there; I really enjoyed the variety of subjects. I haven’t even looked at my sea stack photos yet, but many of the stacks have trees growing on them!
In a weeks’ time I head back to Patagonia for some Puma and landscape photography. I will be there for a week before heading out to the Palouse. Stay tuned for an announcement on my upcoming Olympic National Park Workshop 2020, 6 spots are already taken so I imagine the trip will fill quickly-if you are interested shoot me an email or mention it in the comment section below. It should be a five day workshop starting on June 8, 2020 but not confirmed yet.
I saw the poem below on one of the trails, it really touched me and I wanted to share it here.
“The night is darkening round me,
The wild winds coldly blow;
But a tyrant spell has bound me
And I cannot, cannot go.
The giant trees are bending
Their bare boughs weighed with snow.
And the storm is fast descending,
And yet I cannot go.
Clouds beyond clouds above me,
Wastes beyond wastes below;
But nothing drear can move me;
I will not, cannot go.”
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