Dave Morrow Photography: May 2014

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

The Wild Coast - Olympic National Park, Washington

I've been spending a massive amount of time on the Olympic Peninsula lately. Last weekend we backpacked a few days into the rain forest to capture the streams and lush greens that spring brings to this part of the country.

Here is a quick video I took with my Nexus 5 this past weekend while hiking in the rain forest. If you listen closely you can hear a bunch of bird noises in the back ground. Click 1080P for best resolution:)


The Behind the Scenes shot shown below was taken from the same location as my Portfolio image ( included at the bottom of this blog post ) after the moon had risen a bit more. This particular weekend the weather was really nice so I threw my hammock in the trees right by the fire. With the waves crashing, and a nice breeze coming off the ocean, it was unbeatable.
Our camp fire burns as the moon illuminates the Pacific waters of Olympic National Parks Wild Coast.
Camping on the Pacific Coast / Taken at very high ISO, hand held, just after midnight.

The Shot
I've been scouting this location for a while, trying to get something new and unique as there are a ton of great shots from the beach seen in the foreground. This time of year The Milky Way rises in the South late in the evening. This still wouldn't really give off enough light to illuminate the awesome landscape of the Pacific Coast.

Just the right soft light was necessary to show off all the small details and sea stacks cover the coast in this region of the country. After an attempt early in the year with a crescent moon there still wasn't enough light.

Going back to the same location again with a 96% moon seemed to do the trick. As the moon rose from the East ( just out of the top left corner of this photo ), it lit up most of the landscape and threw some amazing shadows over everything else. The colors were soft, and a light fog / mist from the ocean's surf started to cover the coast line. Multiple exposures were taken to experiment with exposure time, and the effect that these exposure times had on the color and feel / texture of the water.

Finally everything came together... an almost silvery moon glow coming off the ocean in the immediate foreground, a soft haze rising from the coast as it fades into the background, and the over all dreamy feel that the Pacific Coast provides at night, under a nearly full moon. 

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Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Painted in the Sky - Lost Lake, Oregon

I have a ton of new stuff to share with you all that I've been working on for the past few weeks including some magazine article & cover features along with a few new photos and some hiking / traveling tips for trip planning that I found to be really cool.

Recently, I had the pleasure of working with David duChemin & his team over at Craft & Vision on a photography interview which is included in their latest issue of Photograph Magazine. Along with the interview there are a bunch of Milky Way and star photography photos included as well. If you're interested in picking up a copy you can click here to purchase Photograph Issue No. 7. There are a bunch of other good articles in the issue as well that prove to be good reads.

I've also recently collaborated with Washington State Magazine to provide them with the front cover of their Summer 2014 Edition.

This time of year is really exciting for me because all of the great mountainous locations in the Pacific Northwest, Montana, and Canada are starting to open up providing unlimited photography and travel locations. Pouring over maps every day I've been able to nail down a bunch of good stuff to add to my Summer To Do List.

Paul Weeks & I are headed to Glacier National Park to hike 4 days in the back country along with 3 more days exploring some of the day hikes that the park has to offer. GNP ( Glacier National Park ) is a massive region and almost impossible to navigate with out expert help or hours upon hours of research.  After a few days of research I was feeling pretty overwhelmed by the entire trip, until I found the Hike734 website which is run by Jake Bramante. When it comes to planning an awesome trip in GNP's back country look no further than this website. Using some topographic maps and the videos and info he provided I was able to nail down an awesome 4 day excursion in the middle of no where.

Summer Star Photography Workshops Update
After the last update nearly all of the workshop spots sold out. I now have 3 open spots left for the Friday August 29th Star Photography Workshop @ Mount Rainier National Park. After these are gone no I won't offer any other workshops til 2015. These will go very fast, so grab your spots ASAP if you're interested.

The Shot
For night photographers this is the time of year when the Milky Way starts to come back into view in the Pacific Northwest. Last weekend I was able to take a one on one workshop participant to Lost Lake to capture some of the amazing star action that's going on. After scouting out exactly where the Milky Way would rise we set up our tripods and started to shoot. The night ended up turning out in our favor, along with some amazing clear skies with an added cloud here and there for good measure which I think added some nice detail. Although most of the time was spent teaching and enjoying the scenery, I was able to sneak one shot in before we packed up and called it a night.

You can thank Smugmug for the small photo resolution seen below. They seem to be having some trouble with their website that they are not able to fix at the time. Hopefully I'll be back to posting in 900px wide as soon as possible:)
from www.DaveMorrowPhotography.comI've been wanting to get up to Lost Lake to shoot the Milky Way for a while now. After a few failed attempts in the past with clouds covering the sky I finally got a few shots I liked this past weekend.There were intermittent clouds, so I waited and waited and waited until the Mount Hood ( approx 11,000 feet ) and the Milky Way were visible to click off my shutter.In this photo I really wanted to convey the soft light and color tones that the stars leave on the water and surrounding landscapes when there is not much ambient city light to ruin the scene. After standing there long enough, and letting your eyes adjust, the stars twinkle brightly in the water.Thoughts, critique and comments always welcome!This is a single exposure processed in Lightroom & Photoshop.

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