Western Holga Shots

Happy weekend! This is my first Memorial Day weekend that I don't have to work in 4 years! I am very much looking forward to it. And the weather is lovely.

Here are some more Holga shots from out west.

A much better shot of the pier at Orcas Island. I think the last one I had it on bulb. Sometimes I like that, this time I didn't as much. I think the subject is a bit to "solid" to use for a bulb shot. Good thing I shot two!

I caught a shapeshifter on film!

I kid, I kid..... it is just Dan running down a path to a waterfall on Orcas Island. This I used bulbs and it worked and, incidentally, is one of my favorite Holga shots from the trip.

The Skagit River in the North Cascades National Park. It was dusk and the light turned out perfect. Much better than digital versions of the same scene.

Hiking on Orcas Island

Rocks on the beach

Sunset on Orcas Island. Usually I dislike sunset shots, but I enjoy this because of he colors.

Icicle River in Washington

Home on the range

Once again: Western view from Orcas Island

Visiting a tower on Orcas Island. This is my sister, I made her pose. So, I suppose this is a photo illustration. I was worried it would be too blurred because she was walking quite quickly.

Dan and Sam checking out the view

I have a few more Holgas to post, but the scanner hasn't been working properly. Have a super weekend!

A few plastic landscapes

Yes, more Holga photos for the western road trip. I may need to edit better, but I am going to assume there is infinite space on the web for my photos. These are in no particular order...

The Badlands

The Range

Eastern Washington , near the Columbia River Valley

Mountains near Leavenworth, Washington

Pine trees in Montana

Orcas Island, Washington

Scrubby land, I think this is in the Columbia River Valley

A mountain. 

Hill country

Hopefully I will get the rest scanned sometime this week.

Since I have been feeling slightly saturated with landscape and nature photos, I was thinking about doing this challenge on Holgablog.com. It is a self portrait project. I am not a fan of self portraits, that is part of the reason I prefer to be behind the camera. I haven't taken self portraits since college and it was really painful - like awkwardly self conscious and self aware. I was so trying too hard. Ah, the life of an art student... Perhaps it would be good to revisit the idea and see what I come up with. I should be up for a challenge... If anyone has seen any intriguing/cool/emotional/ self portraits online, send them my way. I would love to see some photos!

Western Holga Photos

My Holga film was finished developing today! A week was a long time to wait, I am impatient.  I have 8 rolls, so it will take me longer to scan, spot, and tone the images. For now, here are a few images that I had time to clean-up a little.

The Badlands National Park at sunrise

Waterfall on Orcas Island

Pier on Orcas Island

Please forgive the scan lines on the photos, especially the one above. I don't have a 120mm film scanner, so I have to get the photos developed and then scan them with an HP flatbed scanner. The quality isn't the best and it isn't very cost-effective. If I have a lot of time, I try to remove the scan lines... but that really can take hours. I have never had that much patience with post-processing.

If anyone knows where I can get a 120mm film scanner, let me know!

A few final photos from my road trip

After this, I am finished posting photos from my road trip... I think. At least until I get my Holga's back!

Montana camp fire. I didn't take many photos in Montana. I think I was getting tired at this point or shooting more with my Holga. It was nice in Montana, we stayed near Missoula, which is a pretty laid-back town. Lots of people watching and lots of very good beer. We had some from Kettlehouse, an amazing ale. Since the mountain biking was pretty epic out there, my plans to mountain bike across the west got thwarted and redirected to beer sampling across the west.  Which was fine by me!

Dan is an expert pancake flipper. One of the best things while camping is breakfasts! My favorite is pancakes with peanut butter and maple syrup. Then you won't have to eat again until dinner.

North Dakota sunset. I never would have thought North Dakota would be so beautiful! I was humming "Home on the Range" for a long time.

This is kind of out of order, but these are the mountains in Wyoming as we were driving out west.

Washington State Photos

Once again.... more photos from the "Western Road Trip". At some point I will be done with them.... I don't mind though, I haven't shot much here that has been exciting. I will have a lot of Holga pics too, I shot about 8 rolls, except 2 may have gotten a bit exposed.  I should go on road trips all the time!

Skagit River in the North Cascades National Park.

A pile of rocks that were on the shore of the Skagit River. The river is a spawning place for salmon. It was really really clear and cold.

Flowers in our campsite on the Skagit River.

Liberty Bell, a mountain in the North Cascades. We were going to hike around here, but the snow was still over my car. I think they just opened the road and the pass the week before. We should have brought our snowshoes!

Dan pointing which rapids he could run and where he would die on the Class IV and V rapids on the Icicle River near Leavenworth.

The Icicle River

A hike near Leavenworth to an alpine lake. It started out really nice, but the further up the mountain we got, the more snow there was. At one point, we were falling through the soft patches of snow up to our waists! The temperature was really warm still, so we were comfortable in our shorts.

Beers at Uncle Uli's in Leavenworth after the hike.

These photos are all while we drove to Spokane on Highway 2 through eastern Washington. The light with the clods  was superb, so I kind of went crazy and took a ton of photos.

Washington State: Orcas Island

After visiting in Seattle for a few days, we went Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands.

 We took a ferry from Anacortes to Ocras Island. I was hoping to see some whales, but I didn't. The scenery was superb though.

We rented cabins on the water, from where we could watch the sunset and wander down to the beach.

We spent a lot of time on the deck watching the sunset and enjoying wine and beers.

Dan also put up his slackline. I'm pretty bad at it, but my sister and her husband and my mom all got to take a try. 

Sunlit beach rocks on... a rock!

We were close to Canada.

The pier on the west side of the island. I would love to go back and paddle around there, it reminded me a lot of the Apostle Islands, but with larger, taller islands.

Seattle Pics

We got to Seattle and spent a few days there, which were full of wedding celebrations and family-ness. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of the happy couple, I decided to leave that up to everyone else, and enjoyed myself at the wedding.

We didn't actually go up the Space Needle in Seattle, we just walked around it while my sister an her family checked out the view. We didn't do many touristy things in Seattle, since I spent a summer there as a photo intern at Seattle Weekly.

 Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle

A WWII airplane at the Boeing Museum of Flight. It was pretty interesting, I could have spent a lot more time there.

 My sisters posing for "glamour" shots at the wedding. Tasty Mai Tais were in hand!

Flowers at Pike Place Market

I didn't eat this fish at Pike Place Market, but I did eat a lot of delicious other food, like smoked salmon chowder.  The Market is a good place to wander around eating and watching people. Two of my favorite past times!