Friday, August 21, 2009

Too Much Time on Dry Land

Recently took a drive up to Washington State to shoot and hike around Mt. St. Helens.
The weather had other plans that day. The mountain was completely obscured by clouds. I was able to shoot a few shots of misty trees and things (I may post in the future) but no volcano vistas.
With Plan "A" down for the count, I moved on to Plan "B" which was to include a trip to a nearby Wolf Sanctuary.
This is where I would post a really nice shot of a wolf and tell you all how wonderful this place is. Then I would recommend it highly and give you the name, address and phone number so you could go visit it yourself. Of course I would also suggest giving generously to help care for the wolves.
Well I would do all that, if I had planned better.
The reason there are no photos is because I was not allowed to shoot any. I brought a 400mm lens and was all ready to shoot some wolves and praise the place for its work and pay for a tour and donate some extra cash to help out a bit. But the management had other plans.
I could have called ahead to arrange a photo pass or something of that nature, but since I only found out about the place the evening before in the hotel lobby, after a 13 hour drive from Elko, I skipped a call ahead. Lesson learned.

Plan "B" gone to the dogs I gave up shooting for the day and went to the beach for a picnic. After that I drove off to see David Gray at the Mountain Music Festival in Redmond. Two words, "Great show!" I can hardly contain my excitement for the November 2nd show in Salt Lake.
Day 2 (Plan "C")
Drove west on highway 4 down the Columbia River to see if I could salvage the photo trip. It did not take long before I came upon a small picturesque town called Skamokawa. It had everything I love to shoot. There were boats (old and new), bridges, water, old churches, rusty farm machinery, green meadows, wildlife and a run down boat house that just stole the show for me.
The above photo was taken at the old boat house.
Well I quicky ran out of time and had to start driving back.
I am going back for the upcoming three day weekend to do some camping and shoot more of that town. I will also go out to the end of the road and see Long Beach and Astoria. Stay tuned for the photos.

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For the wolves I will say that if you have a chance to go to Wolf Haven in Tenino, Washington, you should go. Here is a link to the information that would have been useful for me had I had more time to plan it. Maybe on that three day weekend... who knows.
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3 comments:

Stefan Jansson said...

That's life for you. Never know what might happen. David Gray has done a few good songs so I'm glad you enjoyed the concert. Skamokawa sounds like an interesting place.

Silvia said...

I love boats. To me, they have the strongest symbolism now. So I see a boat in the grass, wishing to sail away, to be set free. Beautiful. Thank you.

Hilda said...

Sorry to hear about all your plans going awry. I hope you have better luck on your next trip.

This is a beautiful photo nevertheless. And really weird seeing so many plants having grown around the boat. Poor thing. ;)