wa fresh stock

as it turns out, i have ended up with a fresh stock of wa photos. i selected a few for three more upcoming posts to celebrate the occasion. they all feature the olympic peninsula.

--- google blogger has started auto-optimizing some of my photo files at random before posting. i notice this unwelcome effect especially while posting black and white photos. the tones in this photo were carefully crafted and any google optimization algorithm just gets in my way. at this point, the result here is satisfactory considering the principle purpose of the medium. as you were

don't forget me!

there were other words i had strung up for this entry at some point. a few wrong clicks later*, select-all, and blogger auto-saved the changes that now included a blank page...the post was as gone as a long unsaved email. there were some important thoughts on the wenatchee river and a snow bank blocking the parking to this location, all on my way back from the namesake lake to ellensburg; my blog-regular rant on the beautiful washington and how i was on top of it to seize it all. yawn. cracked rock and more trees across the river --- *as i was winking at the screen, rubbing my nose, bitting my lower lip, crossing my legs and hitting my ankle against a table leg and finally trying to scratch the itch inconveniently located under my mouse-operating-hand shoulder blade...

spring at irene

i used to run in irene frequently. one fine day while i was catching my breath and shielding my eyes from the low afternoon sun this shithshow of young branches and glistening water appeared before me. the spring of 2011 had been gaining momentum. trotting along i thought how nicely this scene captured the playfulness of the spring going strong. it was scheduled to be my last spring in irene. i already said a farewell to the winter with even less blog-fanfare. i still remember my first day in irene three early springs ago. i was like a dog carefully sniffing my new photographic playground, unaware but hopeful that one day she would see me write a contrived farewell blog post. frankly, the first time my friends took me there i was made aware that park over by the neighborhood was named dogtown and that both were prone to flooding. i never thought i'd be relearning photography in this place. but i did know where not to rent an apartment. spring branches by the sparkly yakima

winter-night spotting

how long is my shadow?

red tucked in green

i've been waiting to post you for a long, long time. i think i've been waiting for your context to arrive. still nothing. i will now set you free. unfenced frontyard, central wa

snoqualmie pass hike

before it turns a year and half since the snoqualmie hike i must press on with yet another follow-up post. yes, the hike was that long. i can't recall much of the trail impressions any more but looking back at the photos sure reminds me of at least two things: 1. i was very happy you came to see me 2. washinton is beautiful and suits you well if you turn your back on me one more picture i will have to buy another camera, one much faster to catch up with you. that red backpack you got for me and i packed full with iridium-enriched lead obviously didn't do the trick.

a snoqualmie-pass trail, second introduction

this has been the case for a while now; i am blog backlogged. i can immediately think of 10 other, worse things i could have been. i am not counting the photos i'd taken before i started photo-blogging. how important is this? it isn't. what's important is that this gorgeous hike was amped up by tina's visit while i was in e-burg. the hike is one of my first hikes on a sun-less day. these hike types, i came to know, are as exciting as the ones tina and i did in the peak of summer traversing snow patches to reach the end of trail. it's been a year since we hiked this little gem. i am planning a follow up post since there are some snow-melting shots i'd like to share. what really needs to be planned is a follow up hike. superflous photo descriptions never bothered me here so i mince one again; there isn't an end to what washington keeps on disclosing to the curious eye and the connected soul even when you aren't there. i get to share that with that red smudge in the middle of it :D. it's hard to visit you only.

textures of palouse falls

basalts of central WA

two random days of snow cover

when i end up with multiple takes of the same scene a mediocre post sees the light of the blog. it's the end of august so contextually, i forgive myself for enjoying the soothing virtual white dipped in the scorching reality of the summer white. left. a new layer of snow is about to fall out from the gray sky. right. the late afternoon sun just behind the hill sets the power lines glowing white. a hill side cast in shadow and the spotty blue skies team up to give the photo an august-welcome chilled feel.

wild, steel horses

where steel roams free, central WA

i totally see the petrified monkey!

i have a ton of these. i just can't say no. i always see something abstract worth photographing in arrangements of tree trunks. when i start questioning myself too much about it i just stop and reach for another roll of film and high-capacity memory card. rich colors of the autumn sun captured by the silver halide and other molecules rich colors of a very cold, winter afternoon sun captured by camera e-circuits

rainier, artsy-fartsy, ii

well, the fourth post on mt. rainier! but do you know how many volcanoes there are in the cascades? ok then. these are from as we descended the thing. i am happy how the tones of the landscape are captured in the photo. as wonderful as digital is, i am even more impressed when the tonal range recorded turns out to be this sweet. i am compelled to go on about this photo but we can just enjoy it instead. mt. adams in the horizon. as empty as it may seem i like the abstract feel of this snap. prepared a little less than a year ago, today we celebrate this july post in the month mt. rainier let us stroll up and down its mighty slopes.

twinkle, twinkle little burg, e-burg

a cute little town reflects menacing light in early morning hours of january. i am there to capture it safely in a little plastic box with a photo sensor.

an evening at irene's

mt. si

this piece of elevated rock west of the cascades has been on my hiking list for some time. tina pointed out the forest growth at some point and said it had been a nice hike. the view was all the hike was about, she added. i made my deal with the orogeny last time i was midway going from seatlle back to e-burg. i took this cell-camera photo from the inside of the idling shuttle bus in north bend at dusk. i climbed mt. Ψ one lovely sunday and found myself in the clouds. ivo u oblacima. there weren't any clouds that day. if you have ever hiked with an amateur photographer, or if you are one, then this is a hike to make a group populated with avid hikers survive it. with photo challenges tucked away safely in the woods your only way is a switchback-y 4-mile hike up. i reached the top of 1270 m swaggering the last half hour through partly melted snow. 1 km taller than the tallest (wo)man at the trail-head, i rested for about least 10 minutes feeling tall. # of photos taken? 0. i started to worry a little. i hadn't taken a hike photo in more than a coupe of weeks. what i worried about was what if i just couldn't see the beauty anymore and have become ungrateful. eventually the nature cleared her throat and said: i am here and i am gorgeous! shoot me! i felt like i was back in the balkans, ha,ha! where is that lens now i left at home? mountain peaks at one km above ground are of such nature, helped by the sweat of the steep, long hike, that i often think of how one (me) could digitize the scale of it(her). well, then i realized that all i had was a camera and mediocre photo skills. now i started to worry. if i only had a more expensive camera. so i snap away a few of the cascadia to the east. the west is too hazy to offer an uninterrupted view of settle, the puget and mt. rainier. now i am only half worried. thanks hazy western skies. there is a lot of people on the mountain today. i am guessing that i don't see this many people even in the food court of any particular shopping mall of my choosing. a girl sits down trying to devour a sandwich to compensate for calories lost on the challenging hike. the last mile was all snow, well-groomed by a horde of hikers shoe-skiing down the mountain. a bird all chirpy and fluttery makes a few round-abouts and plunges straight for a bite. the girl is pissed and her boyfriend and i look at each other and start giggling as obnoxiously as only two guys who don't know each other can. so point my camera at the bird while she/he/it was eyeballing another bite. the aperture is left somewhat closed which is where i had it while shooting landscape at infinity a moment ago. i worry the bokeh will be poor. i can't believe the af (not a nikon!) locked in on the birdie through all the twigs. arrested by a quizzical expression on my face after a series of lens (and hood) exchanges i tuck away all the gear and start my descent. i've had better photo-hikes but this one felt just hike-good right. i felt good. my legs are to be sore. i start skiing my way down the groomed trail. sections at the top are quite steep and slick. i wouldn't want to go up or down this trail when it gets below freezing. with jack-tracks installed perhaps. i have them (at home) but i am too much of an intelligent and independent photo-hiker to be comfortable and safe. i think how to photograph the groomed trail. i stop at two places and wait for people to pass by me so i could frame them in. everyone is nice and lets me wait for them. oh, no, i am good, please go on... i'm just...trying to...get something here...aperture...priority... i set the aperture to f/1.4, something i shy away from doing in daylight. such a poor experimentalist(-ator) i am. i want to isolate a section of the groomed trail with the shallow depth of field. you with pocket-able digital cameras: fuggedaboutit! convenience gives you just that. a pocket with a camera in it. if you want to do the stuff, you've gotta carry the stuff up and down the hill. not easily in your pocket. a hiker grooming the trail. this is who you curse as you skid backwards trying to climb the trail i get to the car, eat my 90-calorie dark-chocolate granola bar and drive away towards the pass, away from the sunset. and what's it really like on the top of the mountain, you ask? near "normal" perspective from the top of mt. si looking east towards the cascades

fast birds in mid-flight

the birds can be easily mistaken for dirt on the sensor

crisp washington apples in very late november

a manastash trailhead

so what would a manastash trailhead parking lot look like if you never left the spitting radius centered around one's beloved mazda? i am asking rhetorically since i understand the vacuum of the cyberspace doesn't transmit screams. i don't have any pictures of my car here! what kind of a boy am i? again rhetorically, since we know, dear cyberspace vacuum, that my age places me outside the boy bracket. taken at dusk after a hike. .

naturally occurring, partly thawed ice-cream sandwich