Photographing Landscapes in the Pacific Northwest
June 1, 2016Next to photography, being outdoors and in the mountains is one of my favorite things in the world. Up until a few years ago, I never really traveled by plane which obviously limited the places I could see. After a subtle push from my good friend, Jason, I’ve changed that and have been visiting places I never thought I would see. This past May, Jason and I hopped on a plane (playing Street Fighter 2 & Mario Kart via Super Nintendo emulator the entire time) and headed out to the great Pacific Northwest for another broventure.
I certainly do not consider myself as a landscape photographer. It’s just something that I simply enjoy doing in addition to my normal work of photographing portraits. Being able to pair together my love of photography with the outdoors just seems like a natural decision. Sometimes though, I get so swept away with the urge to be taking photos all the time during these trips, that I have to remind myself to step away from my camera and just enjoy the view.
This trip was the first time that I would be using my Phase One kit, and I was anxious to see how well it would work. 99% of the time, I shot with it on a tripod because of the slow shutter speeds I needed. I quickly realized how much more time I spent to get a photograph than if I were using my DSLR kit, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Slowing things down though really made me think about the photograph that I wanted to capture instead of the ‘spray and pray’ method I tended to use so that I could hurry onto the next thing. After looking at the photos I took during the trip, I’m pretty happy with how well the system worked.
Because I’m taking photos a lot on these types of trips, my amazing wife surprised me with a GoPro a week before the trip so that I could always look back on it and future experiences. I haven’t really done any video work in the past, so I was excited to see what I could do with it. I’m pretty happy that I was able to put somewhat of a decent video together highlighting the different places Jason and I visited.
Overall, the trip was a huge success. We had a blast hiking these locations, and it is sometimes mind-blowing to witness what nature has to offer.
