This week I had the opportunity to go with my friend Ben to Spain for a week. Ben and I were roommates in college and we’ve been doing various traveling and exploring the world ever since. It’s hard to imagine it’s been 14 years since college! Our last trip was in 2009. Ben lives in Phoenix so these trips give us a chance to reconnect.
We had planned out a very aggressive trip with lots of things to see and photograph. Overall the trip was a success but it was a bit too aggressive. We covered too much distance in too short a time. Our days started at 6:00am and went to 9:00pm so every night we were completely exhausted but the photos were definitely worth it!
The pictures below are all available for sale at:
http://www.arisingimages.com/fineart/00_all/index.html?show=__Spain%202012

Day 1
After delays en route to Philadelphia and then more delays to Madrid, we finally arrived at around 7:00am in Madrid after just a few hours of sleep on the plane.
After picking up our rental car, we drove into the city, parked, and started to walk around to explore the sights.
There were some pretty statues and fountains that had to be creatively cropped to hide all the surrounding traffic.

The Royal Palace was by far the most interesting place to see there, however, walking 5 miles in the city was pretty exhausting.

and right across the walkway from the palace was an amazing church!

With all the walking we did we passed some cool narrow streets and colorful buildings.

We then went over to the mayor’s plaza.

We were surprised at how much graffiti was around Madrid. Also, clearly any anti-smoking campaigns haven’t taken off in Spain yet. It was definitely quite Americanized with a burger king and people dressed as Sponge Bob.
We stopped for lunch in a small cafe and saw lots of people drinking at 10:00am and then as we were walking back to our car, we passed lots of hookers.
Let’s just say that we were not impressed with Madrid as most of our walking was on busy streets with lots of diesel pollution. We were eager to head out of town and hit the small country towns.

We next went to go view a beautiful castle in a town called Manzenares. It was really cool to see but it was surrounded by apartments in a fairly dumpy neighborhood again with lots of graffiti so that took away from the ambiance. However, shooting photos from creative angles hid all the “stuff” nearby and made for some cool images.

Onward to Avila. Avila is a town surrounded by giant stone walls that clearly provided fortification back in medieval times.
It was mid-day with minimal clouds. For any of you that know about landscape photography, this is literally the worst time of day to be out taking photos. The light was very harsh and not good for pictures at all. However, it was still really cool to be there. This is what it looked liked:

By playing with the exposure and white balance, I was able to make it look like evening which I thought was a much more interesting photo:

I also enjoyed looking for some random street images:

A few hours later we arrived in Segovia which I was super excited about. Segovia had a huge aqueduct that used to bring water to the city. On the western edge of town, there was a gigantic beautiful castle. By the time we arrived in Segovia, we were exhausted from a long day. Unfortunately there was some road construction in the city which caused us to have to take a long detour to get to the view of the castle. After getting an idea of where the best light would be at sunset, we wanted to find a hotel and get some dinner. We drove a long way back around to the city to find the hotel that we had looked up on the GPS. Unfortunately that hotel must have gone out of business because we couldn’t find it. We found another hotel that was on the road that was closed for construction so we decided to go back there and park, and find the hotel and hope it was open. It was!! We then went to the nearby bar to try to get some dinner but after much difficulty with the language barrier, we realized that they didn’t serve dinner until 8:00 which was still an hour away. That meant that we had to drive all the way back around into the city again and find something to eat. We did that, headed back around again to the castle for some evening photos. Even in the evening, it was definitely harsh angular light with no clouds, but it was still incredible.

We went back to the hotel for sleep as we knew we were going to start the next morning very early.

Day 2
We started the morning with some more pics of the castle and town. It was a breathtaking sight. It was a cold clear morning but well worth getting up early for!

At the viewpoint overlooking the town, there was also a pretty stone church behind us.

Next we headed to Coca to view another majestic medieval castle. On the way, we were driving down an open country road. The sun was low and provided some beautiful morning light coming through the trees.

When we arrived at Coca, the castle was difficult to photograph due to the harsh sun but still amazing. The castle was open to walk around in. It was crazy to think about people shooting bows and arrows off the ramparts to fight off fending attackers.
Now the castle just sat in the middle of town with an elementary school across the street. I think it would be weird to go to school next to a castle that is hundreds of years old.

Next we drove to a town called Burgos to photograph the cathedral downtown. This turned out to be a frustrating experience as it was very difficult to navigate the narrow streets in the city and find a place to park. We finally found a REALLY tight parking garage and managed to get a spot but soon found out that you had to be a guest at a hotel to park there. It took a long time to maneuver the car out of the parking space and after that we were not able to find another parking spot so we eventually just drove out of the city and viewed the cathedral from a distance on the highway. We were not able to get any pictures of it.
We stopped for lunch, then drove through Vittoria and on to a sleepy village named Arroiabe. There was an incredible church on a hilltop and if you drive around to the backside down the farm roads, it provides an incredible view.

Just a few minutes up the road is a small town called Ullibari-Gamboa which could be viewed from across a nearby lake.

Next we drove up to Bilboa which is home to a Guggenheim museum. We wanted to photograph it in the evening but wanted to make sure we knew where to go and where to park so that we didn’t waste time when the evening light was perfect. After getting the lay of the land, we headed farther north to view another medieval castle named Butron. It was another majestic medieval castle, however, it was difficult to get a good view of it and the harsh afternoon light made photographing it a challenge. Using some HDR photography, I was able to bring out the blue in the sky and get a cool shot.

We then headed to the north coast where we wanted to find a hotel for the night so that we would be on the coast for sunrise photos in the morning. We spent about an hour exploring some of the coastal lookouts and got some amazing views of the ocean.

After finding the hotel, we drove back into Bilboa, got dinner and then waited for the perfect evening light at the Guggenheim. It was truly an amazing sight. It’s probably the most unique architecture that I’ve ever seen. Personally I found it even more unique than the Sydney opera house, or the Eiffel tower. They even had jets of fire that shoot out of the water every 5 minutes which was pretty cool. I imagine it would be a little terrifying if you didn’t know they were coming though! The best view was from up on the bridge over the river which was easily accessible by walking.

One thing that was common pretty much everywhere we went in Spain was lots of graffiti. We figured we might as well use it for a portrait:

We went back to the hotel in Sopelana on the north coast for the night.

Day 3
We woke up early again to photograph the sunrise on the coast but being on the north coast with the sun rising in the south eastern sky, the morning light with no clouds did not provide an interesting scene. We hiked down to the ocean to shoot a few photos of the water breaking over the rocks. Long exposures and some creative editing made for some interesting pictures on an otherwise dull morning.

Next we drove farther along the coast to Gorliz but by the time we arrived, the sun had risen too much and the harsh lighting made taking unique photos almost impossible.
We then drove to Lekeitio. It was a beautiful drive through windy mountain roads through a heavily forested park and past hundreds of people riding their bikes for what looked like practice for a big race. The town itself reminded me a lot of Honfleur which was a town in northern France that Cheridy and I visited in France many years ago. Again, the harsh sun and no clouds made photographing difficult.

We then followed the coast to a town called Deva. The drive itself was very similar to highway 1 in California with twisty cliff top roads and a beautiful coastline below but there were very few pull offs on the road to stop and enjoy it. The ones that we did find provided some beautiful views.

We continued driving on to Biarritz in France. When we crossed the border, the security didn’t look at our passports but they did give the front end of our car some really odd looks. We later realized that at some point we had hit a bird while driving and by the looks of it, we had been driving a long time with a dead bird on the grill.
Biarritz had a beautiful little lighthouse on the coast. Today we were expecting 50-60 degree weather with rain, but instead it was 80 without a cloud in the sky.
We were so exhausted from driving so much we decided to sit here and relax for half an hour just to enjoy the sunshine and watch the surfers trying to catch the miniscule waves.

We continued on to Pau which is a town with an old white castle which lead to a lot of cheesy White Castle Hamburger jokes (thanks Ben). Once again the town was difficult to navigate and the castle was hard to photograph in the harsh afternoon sun but I still came away with a few pics that I liked.

We then drove to Lourdes where they have an amazing gothic cathedral. The drive itself was fantastic as we could see the beautiful snow-capped Pyrenees mountains to the south. Seeing those majestic mountains was really exciting and we knew we would be driving right through them tomorrow! We again had a huge amount of difficulty navigating the streets and finding parking in Lourdes. We must have driven around for an hour trying to figure out how to get to the cathedral. While driving around, we got a nice view of the hilltop castle.

It was already pretty late and we were hungry and tired so we decided to stay the night here. However, it’s the off season and almost all of the hotels and restaurants were still closed for the season. We found a hotel that was open and they were having some type of Ferrari convention. There were Ferrari’s everywhere! It was pretty crazy. There was also no shortage of Ferrari owners who were mostly middle-upper aged men wearing cheap cologne who were really proud of their cars. They even wore Ferrari shoes and Ferrari shirts. I felt like I should be having a mid-life crisis to hang out there.
We found a little street corner cafe where we got to eat some terrible pizzas and then walk over to the cathedral to photograph it in the evening.

Day 4
Today was going to be our longest day yet with LOTS of mountain driving. We woke up really early, got all packed up and ready to go and then realized that the time on our phones was different than the time on our watches. Apparently they went through the daylight savings time change last night so our phone alarm actually woke us up an hour too early. It took us a long time and a lot of confusion to figure out what happened and try to understand why the sun wasn’t coming up at the right time. We at first though that there might have been some kind of time shift between Spain and France with one acknowledging daylight savings time and the other not but with help from our friend Google, we figured it out.
Our drive started out with some beautiful views of the Pyrenees mountains covered in snow.

Around each corner the views kept changing and getting better.

We unfortunately realized that the mountain pass that we had planned to take to cross from France back into Spain was still closed for the season. This led us to an extra hour of driving to get around to the next road which was open. We were already anticipating a long day and losing an hour in the morning due to the time change and then losing another hour due to the re-route was not a good thing. Either way, the drive through the Pyrenees national park was fantastic with some incredible views.

After crossing the mountain pass and heading back into Spain we drove down to a much lower elevation where it was very hot and dry. Within a few hours we arrived at Torla which had an old stone chapel with large cliffs as a backdrop. It was an incredibly beautiful day and the smell of clean fresh air was exhilarating.

Later we arrived at a town called Ainsa with old ruins on the hilltop. We quickly realized the ruins themselves were not very photogenic from close up but while looking over the edge of the ramparts, we could see a path up a hill across the river which would give us a much nicer view of the whole town with the snow-capped mountains behind it.

This was then followed by hours of fairly dull mountain driving. The constant twists and turns and elevation changes gave me some occasionally nauseous moments. I have no idea how Ben stayed awake and focused with all that driving.
As the sun got lower in the sky, it led to some beautiful views of the mountain ridges falling away into the distance. There were also some stunning cliffs looming over the mountain valleys.

We found a spot with a very serene location with a reflection of an old house over a lake.

It was getting late and we were still a few hours from where we were hoping to make it tonight but it had already been close to 14 hours of mountain driving today.
The nearest town was St. Lorenc de Morunys. Thankfully we were able to find a hostel that was open in the off season. The only restaurant/bar that seemed to be open wasn’t going to serve dinner for another hour. Those Spanish folks like to eat really late! We walked around and found a place that said we could order pizza. Once again, we had a really bad Spanish pizza and then crashed for the night.

Day 5
We once again woke up really early and drove down to the lake we had seen the night before. It provided an amazing location for sunrise photos. There were a few clouds over the mountains and the lake provided an incredible mirror reflection. It was one of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve ever seen. We spent nearly an hour there photographing it from different vantage points as the light was changing.

Next, we drove a few hours to a town called Olot. Just outside is a village built right above a huge cliff called Castellfollit de la Roca.

We then drove to a medieval town called Besalu which had an old stone bridge leading to the medieval city. There were lots of young kids on field trips out there. I thought it was amazing that for a history field trip, these kids get to go to where history was actually made. When I was in school, the only field trip I remember was going to the salt mines in Detroit.

Next we drove out to the east coast where we came to a beautiful Mediterranean town called El Port de Selva. The white buildings on the blue water were really pretty. It had already been a tiring day so we parked the car on the beach and sat for 10-15 minutes to just enjoy the smell of the sea (and eat potato chips).

Driving up the mountains behind the town, it provided an amazing view of the seaside town down below:

At the top of the mountain we arrived at an old church and monastery.

We then drove to another tourist town on the peninsula called Cadaques which was also a pretty town with white buildings on the ocean. Parking was difficult and we decided to just move on and head out after a few quick photos.

We drove to Tossa Del Mar which was another coastal town a few hours away. We were supposed to drive in to Barcelona tonight but we were totally exhausted so we found a hotel near the coast. We decided to leave our cameras in the hotel room and go grab something to eat and just relax. This was a tourist town so it was probably the first place we went where anyone spoke enough English to actually communicate which made things much easier for us.

Of course the day we decide to leave our cameras in the room, we got a beautiful evening sky on the ocean. I ended up shooting this photo with my iphone.

The restaurant that we stopped at was…interesting. Our food experience in Spain hasn’t been great. The green salad that I got had all sorts of funky things in it that I am not used to and they didn’t provide any dressing. When I asked for dressing, I was offered ketchup, mayo, or fish sauce…pass!

We stayed at a 4 star hotel tonight although we quickly realized that the star rating is very different in Europe then it is in the States. The 4 star hotel was pretty much on par with a motel 6 but for how tired we were, all we really needed was a bed to sleep in and a shower!

Day 6
Today we woke up really early because we wanted to head in to Barcelona to beat the rush hour traffic. We had picked a spot right downtown to stop at that had some old gothic buildings. However, we did NOT beat rush hour and the traffic to get downtown was crazy. Since we had already seen tons of old gothic buildings, we decided to skip that stop and go to Segrada Familia which is an amazing landmark in Barcelona. Driving in big European cities is very nerve wracking so it definitely had Ben on edge. We found a place to park and walked over to the cathedral but the construction cranes, scaffolding and bad light didn’t leave for any good shots. I just shot a quick one with my phone.

As we drove around Barcelona, we saw lots of garbage and graffiti which was a common theme in Spain. Some areas stunk as bad as the industrial section on I-94 in Detroit. We were relieved to get the heck out of there in a hurry! About 45 minutes from the city and up in the nearby mountains is the Monsterrat Monastery. We loved the drive and views of the mountains in the morning.

The monastery itself is a HUGE structure built right into the cliff walls. It was impressive to think about how they could have possibly built it. However, the structure itself was really not pretty as it was just huge blocky buildings that were overrun with giant tour buses, a giant cafeteria, and plenty of people setting up tables surely to sell overpriced memorabilia to all the tourists.

My favorite part about it was some stone archways overlooking the mountains.

We decided to use those for a goofy portrait.

And then I had Ben shoot another more artsy one with my phone.

We then went three hours west to a city called Saragossa which has a huge cathedral right on the river. The cathedral was STUNNING. Probably one of the most beautiful that I’ve ever seen.

The mid day light was harsh so some creative photography and editing were needed to make some really unique pictures.

It was another beautiful day so we decided to stop here for lunch.
We really had no great plan for the rest of the day. It was another three hours back to Madrid which we really had no interest in going back to. We decided to pick a direction and just drive. We picked a little mountain town called Medina de Aragon which had a huge old fortification on a hilltop.

Next we drove through a nearby National Park called Alto Tajo. On the way, the drive was really pretty. We had some decent clouds for the first time on this trip so we took some photos of open fields and white puffy clouds and such. It was super peaceful!!

On our way back towards the expressway I spent some time looking for some cool trees to photograph.

We drove a few hours over to Guadelajara which is a city right off the expressway that we would take back to Madrid the next morning to catch our flight. Parking in the city is always super difficult and we were grateful to find a hotel right off the expressway with parking and a restaurant. Well…we were grateful until we realized that the hotel smelled like feet and had beds with sunken mattresses before we even lay in them but…it was another long day and we knew we would sleep.

The next morning it was straight back to the airport for a long flight home. Finding the rental car drop off was very frustrating as there were no signs so we spent half an hour driving to all 4 terminals until we eventually found it at the last one we tried.
I’m writing this blog post on the plane and overall, I’m looking forward to being home with Cheridy and the boys and just relaxing and watching TV!!
I’m glad we came home with good photos but, we’re very tired!!! Overall, it was a great experience and I’m glad to have spent that time with my friend Ben, but we tried to do too much in too short a time and didn’t factor in extra time for delays caused by construction, parking issues, language barrier issues, etc.

Let’s just say it’s good to be home!!!

It may not have been the snowmageddon that everyone thought but it sure was pretty!
Don’t get me wrong, I like a warm winter like anyone else who’s not a fan of the Michigan winter but when the snow comes down all soft and fluffy, I think it’s beautiful.
I stopped to take some pics by the Paint Creek trail in Rochester this morning.

We have two landscape and travel photography workshops that we are excited to announce. Both workshops are meant to teach you the fundamentals of travel photography and better understand light, time of day, and how to plan properly to get the best photos.

1) In March of 2012 I will be taking a group to photograph the canyons of the southwest in Arizona and Utah.
Some of the highlights will be Zion Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands, Mesa Verde, Canyon de Chelly, Monument Valley, Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, and the Grand Canyon.
More information for this southwest travel photography workshop can be found here:
http://www.arisingimages.com/learn/travel_workshops/201203_arizona_utah/index.htm

2) In November of 2012 we will be going to Northern Spain to explore the mountains and historic cities.
Highlights include Madrid, Barcelona, Coca Castle, medieval towns and structures, the Bilbao Guggenheim, Castle Butron, sunrise on the Bay of Biscay, the Pyrenees mountains, old monestaries, harbor towns, and much more!
More information for this european landscape and travel photography workshop can be found here:
http://arisingimages.com/learn/travel_workshops/201211_spain/index.htm

2010 was an amazing year for us and I put together a collection of images shot throughout the year that includes photos and paintings from weddings, landscapes, babies, high school seniors, etc.
These images were created through a lot of hard work, but we feel blessed to have been a part of all these things and hope you enjoy this video slideshow.

Two weeks ago I went on my annual fall road trip. This year I decided to fly out to Seattle and start the road trip from there. I’d been out there on one of my first backpacking trips with my friend Ben probably about 11 years ago when I was just starting to get into photography but didn’t know much about it yet. We saw a lot of great places but didn’t come home with very many good photos. This trip was more of a driving trip with just some short hikes mixed in.

Day 1
The flights were smooth and even landed 30 minutes early however things started on a bad note when my luggage didn’t show up.
I had to spend a few hours driving around Seattle waiting for the next flight to come in which would hopefully have my bag. When I do these trips, I typically camp in my rental minivan. I have NO idea where I’ll be from one day to the next and don’t have an address for the airline to ship luggage to so I had no choice but to wait for the bag as I really needed my sleeping mat and bag.
While driving around, I hit some highlight spots including gasworks park along with Golden Gardens Beach Park which provides a nice view of the Olympic mountain range.

Then I drove all around to try to find a nice view of downtown Seattle with Mt. Rainier in the background. I was not able to find the view I was looking for so I headed back to the airport through rush hour traffic to get my luggage which thankfully was there. I then drove to an area where I thought I would get the view I was looking for. It was still the wrong angle but I ended up shooting a 150 megapixel panoramic shot of the city.

I continued to look for “the spot” and realized I needed to head up Queen Anne street into a hillside suburb that reminded me a lot of San Francisco. I got there shortly after sunset so I missed the evening light hitting Mt. Rainier so I waited for the sky to turn a deep blue and shot a whole bunch of city shots.

It was beautiful seeing Mt. Rainier looming behind the city.

It got dark at 7:00pm and I new I wanted to start the day in northern Washington so I drove for a couple hours north to Bellingham where I got dinner and spent the night. The next morning I woke up at 4:00am to drive into the mountains via highway 542. It was a roughly 1.5 hour drive up to Mt. Shuksan and Mt. Baker. The road ends at Artists Point. I arrived at the end of the road well before sunrise. It’s been many years since I’ve seen such a beautiful and clear night sky. Stars were EVERYWHERE. I waited for the first hint of light and then started shooting some long exposure star photos which gave some cool star trail shots. I thought I was looking at Mt. Baker but it was so dark, I was disoriented and realized later that I was actually looking at Mt. Shuksan.

Prior to the sunrise I started exploring around Artists Point and found this beautiful pool of water to shoot a mirror reflection of Mt. Shuksan.

I then turned the opposite direction where I had a beautiful panoramic shot of Mt. Baker with the first morning light hitting the glaciers. It took an HDR shot to capture the light in the foreground and background.

Looking yet another direction, there were some beautiful clouds off on the horizon which were being lit by the first sun of the day.

By 8:00am I realized I had already been up for 4 hours and hadn’t eaten breakfast yet so I went back to the van, had some cereal and then shot a few infrared photos near Mt. Baker.

I started to head back down the mountain and took a few more photos of Mt. Shuksan with the morning sun. Mt. Shuksan is better viewed in the afternoon when the sun hits the mountain but that wasn’t going to stop me from shooting some pictures.

As I headed back down the mountain, I stopped for a quick look at Nooksack Falls which is an incredibly massive 100 ft high waterfall that is easily accessible to get to the viewpoint.

I spent some time exploring the river and woods nearby.

At this point it was around 11:00am and time to head into the cascades. As I was driving across US-20 to head into North Cascades National Park, I stopped to photograph a few scenes near the side of the road.

Driving through the cascades, I was not that impressed. Although pretty, the whole park is a massive hydroelectric project. One of the highlights is Diablo Lake where the view is also tainted by power lines that run around the whole edge of the lake. I planned to have lunch enjoying the view but it was INCREDIBLY windy so I sat in the car and ate (3:00 pm).

Next stop was Rainy Lake on top of Rainy pass. This was now outside of the park. It was odd that the landscape actually got more beautiful as you left the park. The top of rainy pass was quite…well…rainy. It was grey and overcast and didn’t provide much of a scene at the lake itself however, there were some nice photos along the way.

The highlight of this area is definitely Washington Pass which provides an incredible panoramic overlook. I took a nearly 150 degree panoramic image made up of 12 photos that I stitched together.
The dramatic sky provided the perfect opportunity to sit and wait for the drama of sunset.

After the sun went down I drove a few hours to the old west styled town of Winthrop, WA where I stopped for dinner and for the night.

Day 2
The next morning I woke up early to do more star photography but it was overcast with just a few stars showing through. I started the drive down towards Lake Chelan and made sure to stop as the sun was coming up.

As I continued down highway 153, I found a few nice spots along the way for some pictures.

As the morning progressed, it was very hazy and foggy which created some eerie scenes which are always fun to get pics of. This was along the river by highway 97 just north of Chelan.

I drove to Lake Chelan but it was a massive lake that was pretty built up. The clean and pristine areas are farther north but not as accessible and the light was not good for photos as it was now nearly 10:00am. I continued on to a Bavarian village called Leavenworth where they were getting ready for their annual Octoberfest. People were dressed in Lederhosen and the building were all adorned with flowers on the balconies just like in southern Germany.

I then decided to drive towards Mt. Rainier. I love it when the GPS takes me through some country roads as it provide a lot more photographic opportunities than if I was on the expressway.
On the eastern side of the cascades, it is very dry and almost desert like. There are lots of vineyards and the landscape and trees reminded me a lot of Tuscany in northern Italy.
I saw some beautiful little steams, farms, ranches and horses, etc.

This is when things started to get interesting.
The GPS was showing that I was roughly two hours from Mt. Rainier. The roads were nice country roads driving by ranches and farms. Then the ranches turned into cottages and the paved road turned into gravel. Then the cottages grew sparse and the gravel road turned to dirt. Then the cottages ended and the dirt road turned into a REALLY potholed crazy dirt road. It was extremely narrow, hilly, and definitely not the kind of road to be driving a two-wheel drive rental minivan. I looked on the map and there really was no other way to go to get to Mt. Rainier without a major detour. I figured that I was probably going to be on this road for a short time until connecting with another paved road. I drove for about 6 miles which took nearly half an hour due to the road conditions. I started to get freaked out and realized that if I broke down out here, NOBODY would find me. I also realized that this forest road was going to take me over the mountains and I had roughly 30 miles to go before getting to a better road. There was also a concern that at any point, the road could become un-driveable or I might have to do a river crossing or who knows what else. I made the UN-macho decision to turn around and take a nearly 2.5 hour detour back to the main highway and around the mountains to get to Mt. Rainier. This was not a fun decision as I would now have VERY little daylight left by the time I arrive in Mt. Rainier and there was 2 days of storms coming so today was pretty much it.
As I got closer to Mt. Rainier National Park, the natural beauty was everywhere. I came across this peaceful scene of a couple guys fishing on a small lake with a mirror reflection of the trees.

I entered the national park from Highway 12 and as you come around a bend you get an ominous view of Mt. Rainier. The clouds were starting to come in and collect near the top of the mountain.

As you drive closer to the mountain, it becomes so big that it fills your entire windshield. The size of Mt. Rainier is just incredible to see.
I drove up to Tipsoo Lake which is near the intersection with highway 410. It provided very peaceful mountain scenery.

Driving up to Tipsoo Lake, was only a mile or two from the Mt. Rainier loop road but it has some serious elevation gain which provided an incredible view of the surrounding area.

One of the highlights of Mt. Rainier is the road to Sunrise Point. The road has switchbacks up through the trees until you get above the treeline and get panoramic views of the whole area. At 6400 ft. and above the trees this place provides one of the most amazing sunrise locations in the world. This was actually the location that I wanted to propose to Cheridy but when we were out here in 2001, it was a rainy snowy day and the road was still shut down due to heavy snowfall and it was so cloudy you couldn’t even see the mountain. That’s a whole different story.
Unfortunately I was there at sunset this time instead of sunrise. I would have spent the night and waited for sunrise but a storm with 100% chance of rain was coming any minute. Mt. Rainier was already starting to be shrouded by the rain clouds but with the sunlight backlighting the clouds and the mountain, it still provided for some amazing pics.

I started to head back down the mountain and stopped for some other incredible views.

My goal was to try to find the location that I actually did propose to Cheridy. I knew it was along the southern edge of the loop road. Unfortunately sunset had already happened and I was losing the light of day and I was hoping to get one more shot of Mt. Rainier from Reflection Lakes. I tried to find the proposal spot but there were just too many similar turnouts and I didn’t have the time to stop at them all so I had to keep going. I got to Reflection Lakes just as the rain was starting. By this point the rain clouds had completely enveloped Mt. Rainier and it was interesting to watch as they collided with the massive mountain.

With the rain here and the light of day gone, any more photo ops were pretty much done. I stopped for dinner and to sleep for the night. With two days of heavy rain in the forecast, there wasn’t much for me to photograph so I decided to head down to Oregon to visit my good friends Eric and Shawna Anundi.

Day 3

The next morning I started driving south and stopped at a few locations before first light to capture the misty rain clouds hovering on the pine forests of southern Washington.

Before getting to Eric and Shawna’s house I stopped off at the amazing Multnomah Falls along the Columbia River. It was raining VERY hard when I got here so I did my best to keep my camera gear underneath a small umbrella while I setup my tripod to do some slow exposures of the waterfall. Waterfalls are one thing that are still great to photograph in the rain.

As I got closer to their home, I drove through lots of farms which always make for interesting photos:

The rest of the rainy day was spent catching up with Shawna and Eric, watching football, and relaxing.

Day 4
Another day of rain was forecast but I knew that most of the day would be spent doing the 5.5 hour drive into the Olympic mountains in northwestern Washington. The weather was TERRIBLE until I got near my destination. Once I arrived at the Olympic Peninsula, the rain was just starting to clear which is always an AMAZING time to be out photographing in the mountains. There were some spectacular scenes with the clouds rolling through the hills.

My goal was to head up to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park to watch the sunset. At 5200 feet, Hurricane Ridge sat right in the middle of the breaking clouds which was one of the most magnificent scenes I’ve ever witnessed. The wind was blowing so the clouds were moving quickly and with each passing minute the light and the landscape looked different. I sat for almost an hour just watching the beams of light travel across the mountainside. Here are a few images shot from the top of the ridge.

With the position of the sun and the clouds, I was not expecting a great sunset from Hurricane Ridge so I decided to do the two hour drive out to the ocean to watch the sunset. Unfortunately this meant blazing through the park and barely having any time at all to appreciate the pristine beauty. I passed by the amazing Lake Crescent but only had time to stop for a few quick photos.

I had to hurry to make it to the ocean before sunset. There were a few locations that I had picked out which had dramatic rock formations and sea stacks. The one I chose to try was Second Beach.
What I didn’t know was that when you park for second beach, it’s nearly a mile walk through the woods to get out to the beach. I had to run through the muddy trail to make it out there before the sun went down. When I got to the beach, I was NOT disappointed. It was an incredible place. Unfortunately there were not dramatic clouds to make a dramatic sunset but that just required shooting and editing the pics a bit different to take advantage of the location.

I waited for the sun to go down so I could capture some of the dramatic evening light.

This was shot with a 6 second exposure of the crashing waves which is what makes it look like mist around the rocks.

The difficult part about waiting until after sunset was that I now had to hike a mile back through the woods in the dark. Once you get under the canopy of trees, the evening light pretty much disappears. The path was really muddy and a few times I sunk in to my ankles. Thankfully I had a pocket flash light with me to help me get back to the car.
After getting back to the car, I drove the few miles around to Rialto beach which I found was MUCH more accessible. I wish I had known that a couple hours ago!!
When I arrived, the moon was just about to set behind the sea stacks so I got one more picture before going to find some dinner.

After dinner I decided that since the weather was clear and sunny, rather than staying near the beach for sunrise, it made more sense to camp by the Hoh Rain Forest on the southwestern side of Olympic National Park that way I could get up and explore the rain forest at first light. Once the sun comes into the forest, it creates very spotty light that is difficult to photograph.
While driving out there, I decided to find a clearing to do some more star photography. Unfortunately I had to drive nearly an hour to find a good opening in the trees but it was well worth it!

Day 5
I woke up early to find that I was the ONLY one in the Hoh rain forest. There were NO cars or people anywhere…it was kind of creepy. I got my camera out and did the short walk around the Hall of Mosses trail which provides some really unique hanging moss. This is where I decided to shoot a quick self-portrait.

After that, I headed back out to the ocean at Ruby beach along highway 101. By the time I got to the beach, the light was very uninteresting so I only took a few documentary photos that weren’t worth much. However, walking back to the car, the sun was coming into the forest and lighting up the undergrowth and it was really beautiful.

I had a choice that either I could drive back into the main section of Olympic National Park OR spend the day relaxing. Most of this week I was going nonstop from very early in the morning to after dark and driving hundreds of miles every day. I was TIRED! As much as I would have liked to see more of the park, I decided to park the van overlooking the beach, kick back, read a book, and take a nap. It was very peaceful listening to the waves crashing. I then headed back to Seattle, found a hotel where I could clean up and organize my gear for the night and then I headed back to my lookout point overlooking the city to get a few more night shots.

Here’s a map showing the whole route which was roughly 1800 miles:

The last few days I’ve been working hard to create beautiful paintings from some of my travel photos. I’m really excited to show the latest pieces.
In a few days, I’ll be offering a service to take YOUR vacation photos and turn them into one-of-a-kind masterpieces.

This first one will go in our living room and it is a 55″x100″ canvas wrap.
If you want to be able to zoom closer to see all the detail and brush strokes, click here:
http://arisingimages.com/painting/amalfi/amalfi.html

Town of Amalfi along the Amalfi Coast in southern Italy.

Here’s the original:

This next one will be a 55″x183″ canvas wrap that is split up into 3 panels. This will be by far the biggest piece that I’ve ever printed and it will go in our living room.
It is a photo of Cliff Palace which is an ancient Anasazi Indian cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde National Park in south western Colorado.

Here’s the original:

As many of you know, I go on a fall trip every year for the goal of getting out and photographing for myself. It’s a time of reflection and refreshment. This year, my trip ended up getting planned too late to take advantage of the fall color in the areas of the US that I still would like to explore. My friend Ben who is the one that I used to do all the backpacking with was also available so him and I decided to team up and go to Italy for a week. I was able to use frequent flyer miles so the free flight was quite nice!

Day 1
The trip started out pretty rough. Our goal was to rent a car and drive into Rome and spend 2 days there. We knew that traffic and driving would be difficult in Rome but we didn’t account for parking being nearly impossible. We drove around Rome for 3 hours and couldn’t fine a place to park. Frustrated and exhausted, we decided to get out of the city and come back later.

Our first stop was a mountain town called Norma which was built on the top of a steep cliff where a number of paragliders were effortlessly hovering back and forth hundreds of feet above the ground.
The town itself didn’t have much but it looked really cool from far away:

We then stopped at an old medieval village called Ninfa but it was closed for the day. Our next stop was another old town called Sermoneta where we spent an hour wandering the steep streets and just in awe of a different way of life:

Our goal was to drive to Naples to stay the night, but we didn’t realize that it would get dark at 5:00pm and driving on the roads after dark while being tired wasn’t a great idea. We ended up stopping at a city called Caserta where we got a “great price” (which I think in Italian means “I’m going to screw you over you dumb tourist”) on our room and meal where they ended up charging us nearly $55 for some of the worst spaghetti I’ve ever eaten at a fairly dumpy hotel/restaurant.

Day 2
The next day didn’t start too much smoother. We drove into Naples and ended up having the same luck for parking as we had in Rome. We eventually realized it was a lost cause but the streets are setup in a way that it is very difficult to turn around and combining that with the sheer volume of traffic, it ended up taking us nearly half an hour just to turn around and head the opposite direction to get out of town.
We left Naples and headed for nearby Pompeii which is where an ancient city was left in ruin after being buried in ash from Mt. Vesuvius. The city itself was absolutely enormous and ended up taking a few hours to explore. It was amazing to see although after a while, seeing ruined structure after ruined structure got a bit old.

one of the most unique things about Pompeii is the body casts. The ash from the volcano completely buried the city along with whatever people where in it. When they dug out the city, in one area they found a number of people laying there including mothers and children and were able to create body casts from the remains.

After leaving Pompeii, our next stop was the Amalfi coast which is known for having towns built right down the sides of the mountains which was an amazing thing to see. We were able to find a hotel and get settled in with enough time to find a perfect sunset location overlooking the town of Positano.

Day 3
Unfortunately Day 3 didn’t start out much better than 1 and 2. We woke up at 5:30 am to go photograph the sunrise and found that we were locked in our hotel which apparently locks up between 4:00am and 6:30am. We had no choice but to go back to bed. Our day today was going to consist of going to the island of capri. We left Positano in the morning and I was able to shoot a fun and colorful shot of the buildings on the cliffside:

We drove to Sorrento where we caught a ferry to Capri. The main harbor had lots of fun and colorful buildings that were hoping with tourists trying to figure out where to go and locals trying to sell those tourists pretty much everything under the sun.

One of the main attractions on Capri is the Blue Grotto which is a water cave where light comes through the bottom and lights up the water. The blue is a color that seems magical, unnatural, and mesmerizing. To get to the Blue Grotto, you have to take a boat to the cave entrance and then get into a rowboat where you get to row in the tiny entrance and duck to get through the opening that’s only a few feet high. The whole experience is unbelievably commercialized to the point where you really can’t enjoy the experience or the cave, but if it wasn’t commercialized we probably wouldn’t have gotten to see it.

The main boat that took us around to the Blue Grotto continued around the rest of the island where we got to view and enjoy the beautiful limestone cliffs and the turquoise water.

Unfortunately the schedule of getting there and back along with the length of the Blue Grotto excursion did not leave us much time to explore the rest of this beautiful island so we went back to the main dock and wandered around until our ferry was there to take us back to the mainland. While at the dock, I was able to capture a few scenes that I enjoyed a lot:

One of our reasons to rush off Capri was that we really wanted to catch the sunset on the Amalfi coast again and I’m really glad we did as it was one of the most spectacular coastlines I’ve ever seen. This was about a mile west of Positano:

That night we stayed in a little town called Praiano.

Day 4
Another early day for us. We woke up around 5:30 and headed out super early to catch an Amalfi coast sunrise since yesterday we missed it from being locked in our hotel.
It definitely did not disappoint. Here is a view of the coastline with the lights from Positano showing in the distance.

A few miles down the road was the larger and more well known town of Amalfi. We still had some incredible morning light to photograph the marina.

After Amalfi, we headed inland and up and over the main mountains that lead to the Amalfi peninsula. Our goal was to make it back near Rome but we wanted to take a round about way that would bring us through some really picturesque areas. Once again, today did not go smoothly. The first town we were visiting was called Opi which is an old village buried in the mountains in one of Italy’s national parks. We plugged Opi into the GPS, did a quick check and saw that it was in the park and then drove the 4.5 hours to get there. We were surprised at how NOT big the mountains were and Opi didn’t look anything like the photos we saw. When we plugged in our next destination which was supposed to be close by, we wondered why it was 1.5 hours in the wrong direction which is when we learned that there are TWO villages called Opi that are both in central Italy and both located inside large parks. We picked the crappy one in the GPS…AAAARRGGHH!!! So Opi along with our next lake town destination of Scanno were now in the wrong direction. Thankfully on the way to the wrong Opi, we did pass a couple of cool scenes.
The first is the town of Acciano:

We then came across the town of Beffi and I loved this simple scene with these ruins:

Looking in the opposite direction was a really moody sky with beams of light coming through that looked incredible with the infrared camera:

Since we had driven significantly out of our way, most of the planned locations were the wrong direction so we skipped those. Our next stop was Tivoli which had a number of villas and cool places to see. It was already 3:30 and with it getting dark at 5:00, things were bound to close. Our guide book suggested Villa Adriana as the place to go. If you like LOTS of ruined buildings, then it is definitely the place to go. After seeing hundreds of them in Pompeii, I was pretty much done with that especially since the bright sun and no clouds didn’t provide any help for photographic opportunities. I only photographed one scene in the whole complex and that ended up being one of my favorite photos from the trip.

We planned on going to Rome for the next two days so we decided to stay in a hotel close to the airport and a train station so we could park and take the train in to the city. We checked into the hotel to find out that the nearby train station was closed and we now had to take a shuttle to the airport and then pick up the train. The cost for two people to do that was so high, we decided that we would risk driving again…yes…we are idiots!

Day 5
Since we had decided to drive into the city, we got up super early and skipped breakfast and drove in and parked before anyone was there. It was pretty cool to walk through some nearly deserted streets downtown. Our first stop was the famous Trevi fountain. However, it was so early in the morning that the fountain wasn’t running so I just took pics of the statues.

Next we came across a really cool building that wasn’t on our nifty tourist map so I don’t know what it is but I liked it.

Next was the Pantheon which is an impressive structure but it was still too early and closed and the photos of the outside didn’t make my blog cut. Next was the incredible Piazza Navona which had amazing statues, fountains, and architecture.

We realized that we had already seen a number of the major attractions and it wasn’t even 8:30am. We decided that we could probably see Rome in one day so we headed for Vatican City which was the furthest walk. On our way we passed a number of really cool street scenes:

Vatican City was so incredible with the dome of St. Peters Basilica along with the columns that surround the main square…AMAZING!!

The fountain in the main square was so pretty with the morning light that I have to post two photos of it.

St. Peter’s Basilica was…ridiculously amazing!! The size and ornateness of every surface was unbelievable.

Next we walked through the Vatican Museum which led to the Sistine Chapel where the famous paintings by Michelangelo adorn the ceilings.
I first took a photo of the famous scene that everyone knows at which point I was yelled at for taking photos. I’m sure they don’t want photos so the flash doesn’t ruin the paintings and I don’t shoot with flash.

I then took an overall shot of the whole ceiling which shows how large and amazing the whole thing is at which point I was told again to not take photos.

Upon leaving the Sistine Chapel, there was an amazing ramp that led down to the exit:

The next few hours were eating lunch, walking down the wrong road for a LONG way and seeing some less than awe inspiring locations which didn’t make the cut.

After that we passed by the Campidoglio and then the Monuemento a Vittoria Emmanuel II which was a HUGE building but unfortunately had a lot of scaffolding which didn’t lead to any pics.
We then passed some really impressive buildings and ruins but had our eyes on the prize…the Coliseum!!

By this point, we were totally exhausted and were hoping to get back to the car to get our tripods and do some night photography. We ended up passing through the Trevi fountain area again and this time it had water…along with about a billion people. We wiggled our way to the front and I was able to get a great photo.

Our car was parked near the Spanish steps but the area was so overrun with people that we didn’t even try taking any photos. After walking 10 miles around the city and seeing pretty much all the major attractions, it was time to go back to the hotel and sleep.

Day 6
Since we did Rome in a day, we had an extra day to kill and nothing planned. We decided to drive into southern Tuscany and photograph the landscape and scenery. I’m SOOOO glad it worked out this way as these turned out to be some of my favorite photos. The first half of the day we went to a few cities that weren’t very good from a photographic perspective so we kept moving along.
The trees and vineyards were bursting with yellow fall color leaving us a number of beautiful scenes most of which were near Montalcino.

One of my favorite stops was at the Abbizia di St. Antimo which was a beautiful abbey amongst the rolling hills and rich fall color:

As the evening sun got lower and lower, the light across the valley was exquisite.

Then one last parting shot with Ben:

Overall I was able to capture a lot of unique scenes and great images, however, Ben and I really struggled on this trip with lots of people and situations that provided unnecessary challenges around every corner. It was hard being away from Cheridy and Mayz and I am definitely glad to be home!! My eyes are closing as I type this because I’m so tired…time for bed.

Yesterday was a day of photo shoots for students of Cranbrook academy. The grounds at Cranbrook are usually amazing, but yesterday they were even more spectacular with the fall color. Here’s a shot overlooking Cranbrook Lake. We feel very fortunate to be on their exclusive photographers list!

Mayz, Cheridy, and I spent the last couple of days out in Grand Haven for a little R&R. We stayed at our favorite place which is The Looking Glass Inn. It’s a fantastic bed and breakfast right across from Grand Haven State Park which has been rated as one of the top beach spots in the US.

One of my favorite sites is watching the sailboat head out for the sunset cruise:

We spent our first day driving there and then doing pretty much nothing on the beach all day. We bought our first beach umbrella and are now wondering why we didn’t do that years ago since Cheridy+sun=lots of redness. Anyway…in the evening we had a nice dinner downtown and then watched the Grand Haven Musical Fountain which is one of the big attractions. Sadly, it wasn’t as impressive as these photos might have you believe. For anyone that’s been to the Bellagio in Vegas, you should probably pass on this one. This picture was taken with the longest zoom I own as the fountain is actually on the other side of the waterway.

The weather was supposed to be terrible while we were out there, but it ended up being fantastic and we got to see some beautiful sunsets.

Mayz had a good old time playing in the sand:

He always makes a goofy crinkly face when you ask him to smile. What a great photo of my beautiful wife and goofy boy!!

Chillin like a villain:

Quick family pic:

For anyone looking for a place to stay in Grand Haven, we strongly recommend The Looking Glass Inn. Norma and Howie Glass are fantastic hosts and Norma cooks up an awesome breakfast every morning. This is our second time going there and we already made reservations for next year. After chatting with them, we’re actually going to be making them a cool new website which will be online soon at www.LookingGlassInnMI.com
Here’s a quick shot of their balcony which shows the view of the beach on Lake Michigan:

Before leaving New York, we had the pleasure of getting to watch one of the most impressive displays of fireworks in the whole world. Our friends Jeff and Angela have an apartment in the city and we were able to watch the fireworks from the rooftop which is at around 40 stories. This year the fireworks were on the Hudson River side in honor of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson.
We watched the impressive show and then I took a few more pics from the roof showing some city scenes:

On Friday I had a mini art show as part of the Eyes on Design Show at the Chrysler Museum in Auburn Hills. It was an event that focuses on automotive design but this year they expanded it to include, a fashion show, live museum, and other types of art. I was able to have a number of fine art pieces on display in the VIP lounge along with a few others around the main part of the museum.
It was a really interesting dynamic for me since I used to work at Design Center at GM. Seeing all the car models and concept cars really brought me back. I even ran into a number of people I used to work with back in the day. Being there reminded me how much I’m glad to not be working in the automotive world any more.

If anyone is interested in purchasing any large framed or canvas wrapped art work, please see our fine art page at www.arisingimages.com/fineart.

I spent some time walking around the museum to check out some of the cool displays.

Cheridy brought Mayz up to hang out for a little while:

I am really excited to say that this month, an article I wrote was published in Rangefinder Magazine which is one of the premier monthly magazine for the professional photographers all around the country.

The article is about the buffalo roundup in South Dakota that I photographed last fall.

The entire article can be seen in the April 2009 edition of Rangefinder magazine or an online version can be viewed here:
http://www.arisingimages.com/blog/images/2009-04/rangefinder_article.pdf