Month: October 2014

Tamanawas Falls, near Hood River, Oregon

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We got to the trailhead at 11:04 and we got to the waterfall at 12:40 so 1.5 hours to go 2 miles uphill, about 560 ft elevation gain but we call that photographers’ time because there are numerous stops along the way to photograph. It was a very nice hike with a few areas that were pretty rocky in the second half of the trail. After you go through the woods, there’s a second bridge and then you follow the creek to the left. When we got to the Falls, we were a little late as the sun was cresting over the ridge and causing lens flare. There’s a way to get up around the waterfall and behind it but we did not go there because it was wet and treacherous. This is a beautiful hike along the river and right now there’s Autumn color everywhere. It’s an hour and a half drive from Vancouver. We plan on going in the winter because it will be great to see the waterfall frozen.

Pioneer Cemetery, Gering Flower Farm and Memory Memorial Cemetery, Washington

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I don’t usually get creeped out in cemeteries and yes, we shoot a lot in cemeteries, why? Because we love the old headstones and the unkept grounds. Some of these headstones are so old they are unreadable and some are just plain interesting.

The Pioneer Cemetery we found as we were just driving around trying to find a good spot to take photos of Mount St. Helen’s one day because the clouds were great. We saw a sign for the cemetery and drove down this little road. It was at the very end of a road and the last 300 yards were unpaved (good job we were in my truck) and there was only a sign that said “smile you’re on camera” posted on an old wooden gate.

The cemetery was giving me the creeps because it felt like we were so isolated, even though there was a home on that same road and if I had whistled someone would have heard me. It was a small dark acre, the trees were really overgrown and huge. It felt really erie but at the same time it was great! The graves were just like we hoped; scattered, unkept, lichen-covered, hard to read, crooked, mysterious and it was a good shoot.

While driving back from the Pioneer Cemetery we came across this lovely flower farm with the flowers in full color and bloom. I love when a shot comes together nicely, like this flower shot.

The Memory Memorial Cemetery is actually right in Vancouver, right on the side of the road and it was well kept but still had some very nice and interesting headstones. It was a fairly large cemetery and I’m assuming it is still used today. There’s something about an interesting gravestone that makes us want to photograph it; a piece of history that won’t be there forever.

When a piece of land holds hundreds of years of past life beneath the soil, it can remind you of how wonderful it is to be breathing and walking around. If not maintained and left to return to nature, these places become a timeless oasis of serenity and become more than graveyards.