Heavenly.

I am home after nearly a month long adventuresome absence and am beginning to settle back in for a bit;  going through the stack of bills that inevitably pile up when you are away, finishing up the mounds of laundry that comes with dumping out suitcases (complete with little piles of sand in the bottom), cleaning house, doing some great Fall portraits with some fun clients and trying to get back into the groove of "regular" life which includes plenty of my to-do lists, of course!  Although there are certainly more pertinent chores to attend to, I couldn't help myself but to download some of my pictures from our Seattle-Olympic Park-Oregon coast trip and I came across this one, from the Olympic National Park, which makes me just sort of sigh... 

I know there must be a heaven...and I kind of like to think this is what it is going to feel like...

 



Indian Beach.

This is Indian Beach.  To get there, you head just a little bit North out of the town of Cannon Beach, Oregon and follow the signs up a windy, forested road to Ecola State Park.  Once in the park, you head down another windy, narrow, steep, forested road to the parking lot overlooking Indian Beach.  It's a nice, quiet cove, usually pretty unpopulated, with a perfectly Oregon Coast rugged, rocky south end...and it has a special place in my heart.  It was particularly lovely this chilly January night, just after sunset.

That's the thing about sunsets...this one, the actually setting of the sun, was kind of unremarkable.  There weren't a lot of clouds in the sky, just a skiff on the horizon, so nothing really popped in the sky...it wasn't an obviously beautiful sunset.  But, if you are patient, and wearing lots of warm layers (because as soon as the sun disappears so does all the warmth in the air)...you might be lucky enough to get this kind of image...a beautiful, calm, vibrant reflection in the low tide.  Worth the wait (and the goose bumps)!

That's the thing about beauty in life, isn't it...sometimes you have to be patient, and really, really quiet, to appreciate it. 

Thanks Mom & Dad. 

I love him!

I love it when kids contemplate.  I love it when anyone takes the time to be reflective, but there is something so pure and sweet and innocent about a child in thought, even for just a moment.  Okay, so maybe he wasn't deep in thought...he may have been thinking about whether he wanted to climb on the nearby log, or chase the cow...or maybe he was thinking about the balloon we just let float away, on accident...which may have led his mind to the impermanence and fragility of life...and how delicately we have to hold on to what we love...  Okay, but likely, he was thinking about the cow!  And maybe how much he loves his mommy!

Photo-a-Day! And...a little message about authenticity!

your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's
life. don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of
other people's thinking. don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out
your own inner voice. and most important, have the courage to follow your
heart and intuition. they somehow already know what you truly want to
become. everything else is secondary.

- steve jobs

Photo-a-Day! Waiting on the early train...

Sometimes the light is just right in a place...especially in the early morning hours...it makes an ordinary place feel a little dreamy...

Photo-a-Day! Happy Easter!

How I spent my winter vacation!

Remember those essays we all had to write at one point or another in grade school…"what I did for summer vacation” or something along that line…? There was always some kind of fabulous adventure to write about…a new bike, a new best friend, a trip to see the grandparents in Chicago, a trip out west to see the Oregon coast for the first time (I grew up landlocked in the Midwest).

It is only now, more than a few years after grade school, that I know…I never really did anything that spectacular during those vacations, though it was surely spectacular to me at the time…never really saw anything that unique…and I know this now because I got to experience a truly spectacular, wonderfully unique place…the island of North Caicos.

I will write about it a little more, in a later post, but here is a visual preview of my “how I spent my winter vacation” essay!

Idaho skies...continued...

Another Sunday drive...

Idaho skies.

Another evening drive...it's amazing how the light changes in the evening...

Sunday afternoon

I love Sunday afternoons, or any chance I get to just meander a bit, camera in hand, in search of great light...different perspectives...something which makes me feel very small, or enormous... Thus was this past Sunday...just a bit of wandering...

Into the Woods.

While hiking in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest we came upon this almost painterly scene...

A bright green summer!

Here is a teaser image from part of a series my hubby and I are working on...any guesses on the title?

Other things I love to photograph!

I love to find color, pure color, in nature. And a sense of dreaminess, places that evoke emotion...