It’s been requested that I post a photo of something warm since most of us are experiencing winter in some fashion this week.  Sounds good to me. This is from our recent trip to Mexico. In fact, its the same tree as the sunset shot I posted a few weeks ago. For the most part the grass on the plantation looked like crab crass from a Dr Seuss book. I liked this one palm tree though because for some reason it was surrounded by a patch of  soft green grass. I shot at a low angle to get the horizon in the middle 3rd of the frame as well as to create a siloette of the tree in front of the sun.  The key to the shot though is the meter reading and subsequent exposure. If taken on the grass or tree the sky would have been blown out and if it was taken on the sun the detail of the grass would have been lost. I spot metered the shot just above the sun and brought out just a touch more highlights from the grass in post processing. I like the shot because your eye follows the shadow through the grass, to the tree, and then the palms point you across the fame.    

f22 1/160th sec @ 24mm

Greetings all, I haven’t posted an entry lately because I was vacationing in Mexico. My wife and I rented a house with her family on an Eco-Friendly beach 70 miles north of Puerto Vallarta. The area is called Playa Las Tortugas and it is one of Mexico’s leading Sea Turtle conservation camps. We were allowed to help realease Sea Turtles almost nightly. For lack of a better word;, amazing… I processed nearly 300 photos today, so trust me; I’ll post more later.

 
It was a beautiful weekend at the coast in Oregon. My dad and stepmom were in town to visit so we took off for Cannon Beach on Friday. These are the weekends you deeply appreciate as an Oregonian. October is the swing month when it comes to weather. The average temperature on October 1st is 71 degrees while the average temperature on October 31st is 58 degrees. I guess it’s a “get it while its hot” mentality in terms of weekend recreation. I love the Cannon Beach area, but I’m ready to travel to the central or southern coast soon. The beaches are rockier and you’re much closer to the crashing surf, which also makes it a better area to go beach combing. That being said, I think Haystack Rock is one of the more amazing formations on the coast. You can click here for my past photos of it.
 
**UPDATED**
 

It kind of sucks posting these photos of our beautiful weekend from last week while it is (and has been) pouring outside.  The rest of these have more of an “abstract” feel to them. Most were taken at the Chinese Gardens in China Town.  The photo of the tree has been turned upside down to really mess with the eye. If you can’t tell from the lily in the bottom of the shot, it’s actually a taken as a reflection in the pond. It’s kind of interesting  that the rocks in the bottom of the pond serve as clouds in the sky too.  

I submitted the Haystack Rock photo to the Oregonian and to my suprise they ran it online today!

www.oregonlive.com

Ashley, Ellie, and I went to Cannon Beach on Sunday. We got one of the last hotel rooms due to the first cloudless day that Oregon has seen in months. We relaxed, played on the beach, and I got the shot of Haystack Rock that I have always wanted.