Again, many of the images captured from this trip are what I would call “unprofessional“. This was a little more of a challenging shoot, and wasn’t as successful as the last trip. I did have a couple of fair shots, but they were not to the standard that I would hold myself to today. The Pacific northwest is a very beautiful location, perfect for vacationing photographers. Just like the last trip, I still struggled to focus on composition or I didn’t take advantage of the best possible light. Looking back at the results of this trip I would say to myself…”What were you thinking?!?!

Olympic National Park, Washington

Ruby Beach is located in the Olympic National Park in the state of Washington and is located 27 miles south of the town of Forks. Ruby Beach is known for it’s black pebble beaches, driftwood, and towering sea stacks.

During this time I was enamored with silhouettes. I used to think it was so cool to see a pretty background with totally blacked out subjects. Looking back, my first thought would be; “What were you thinking?” I guess it was just a phase, because today I really hate silhouettes. They look so unnatural and I would rather see some detail, even if dark.

I remember having the idea of shooting a sunset through the hole of this rock. I set up and waited until the sun hit the horizon to take my shot. Right then some lady came and stood directly in front of my camera, and took their shots until the sun set. Of all the beautiful places to shoot, she had to park her behind in front of my camera. Needless to say, I didn’t get the shot I imagined and I was very pissed at how inconsiderate that woman was.

Rialto Beach is a rocky beach with giant drift logs and views of offshore islands (also known as ‘seastacks’). The beach is very dark and made up of black pebble, like Ruby. This was the only shot I had taken from this beach.

The Hoh Rain Forest (pronounced “Hoe”) gets it’s name from the Hoh River that flows its way from Mount Olympus and towards the Pacific Ocean. The name “Hoh” originates from a Native American language, possibly a Quileute word “Ohalet”, meaning “fast moving water”, or “snow water”. The foliage here is a rich color of green which is the result from an average of 140 inches of rainfall each year.

While driving through the rain forest, we noticed an area of lush green mosses, ferns, clover and trees. Each of us picked out an area to photograph. I stumbled across this log, covered with moss and clover. I set the camera close the clover and taken this shot. This was probably one of the most creative shots I had taken on the trip.

Throughout the forest, there were huge tree stumps that were harvested some time back and they were sprouting up new trees from within. It is a testament to how life is so resilient.

Hurricane Ridge is a mountainous area inside of the Olympic National Park.  The elevation here is at 5,242 feet and is approximately 18 miles south of Port Angeles, which is the northern most town before entering into Canada.

From Hurricane Ridge, we drove to Port Angeles and stayed a couple of nights there. We were walking the beaches there, looking in the tidal pools for starfish. This area is supposed to have the most colorful starfish in large numbers, but on this trip we didn’t even find one. That was a disappointment, but we had to move on.

Madison Creek Falls is only about 10 miles from Port Angeles and was a very easy hike to get to. The rich lush greenery was all around this beautiful 50 foot waterfall and it was definitely worth the hike. The image below is my favorite shot from the this trip.

Sol Duc River
The trail to Sol Duc Falls is a wide, well-maintained path through a dense lush green forest. At about 0.8 mile there is a historic shelter and a waterfall. Just after the shelter is a bridge that crosses Sol Duc Falls. The image below was taken just before the waterfall on the Sol Duc River.

Oregon

Heceta Head Lighthouse is on the Oregon coast between the towns of Florence and Yachats.  Built in 1894, the lighthouse is 56 feet tall and sits atop a 205 foot headland.  The light is visible for 21 nautical miles, making it the strongest light on the Oregon coast. 

Cape Blanco Lighthouse was constructed atop the bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean in 1870. This lighthouse is the oldest lighthouse in Oregon.

The weather on the morning we visited this lighthouse was cold, windy, with misting rain. I had only taken a few shots when I decided I was going to go back to the vehicle to warm up. This shot was taken on print film, Fuji Reala 100.

Crater Lake is a caldera located on top of a volcano named Mount Mazama in south-central Oregon. The lake was formed by an explosion or a collapse during a volcanic event that took place about 7,700 years ago. Crater Lake is 1,943 feet deep which makes it the deepest lake in the United States, and the 7th deepest lake in the world.

We had driven up to the top of Mount Mazama to the parking area near the lake. There was about 12 feet of snow all around the area, and steps were carved into the snow so you can walk around above. You had to be careful not to walk where there wasn’t any foot traffic from before, because you wouldn’t know if there was ground beneath you or not. The lake was a beautiful blue, and this was one of the times that I wished I had a wide angle lens. This shot was taken on slide film, Fujichrome Astia 100.

The Fall Creek Falls trail is about a mile long and it leads to a multi-tiered waterfall located in the Umpqua National Forest. The trail passes through a narrow crevice in a large boulder, then climbs alongside the creek through old-growth Douglas-fir. After a short hike, the trail reaches the base of the falls, where you can view the largest, bottom-most tier tumbling over a mossy rock cliff, this waterfall is about 50 feet in height.

When we finished photographing this waterfall, we thought we would take a short cut back to where we were staying. Driving the road through the Umpqua National Forest we noticed that there wasn’t any traffic at all. We found out why there was no traffic, the road was covered in a huge snow drift making the road impossible to travel. The above image was taken on Kodak UC100.

Conclusion: There were other areas that we visited on this trip that are not shown here. One of them was an abandoned derelict fishing boat covered with green moss on Gold Beach. I searched for the film of that subject but was unable to locate it.

This was a fun trip, although my photography skills at the time wasn’t as good as it is now; a return trip to this area would be exciting. That kind of trip right now is on my wish list. Thank you for visiting my website

---

Cameras used on this trip: Canon Elan 7e, Canon EOS 1n 35mm film cameras

Family photography trips taken
2005 – Utah and southwest Colorado (Durango)
2006 – Northwest (Washington and Oregon)
2008 – Colorado (Rocky Mountains)
2010 – Utah (Capitol Reef National Park)

---

Click here to follow me on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/MichaelMellenPhotography

©2022 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED