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Photo’s from out standing on some rocks at Mackenzie beach, a little south of Tofino, on Vancouver island, British Columbia. You know you’re at a cool place when the signs on the beach aren’t warning about pollution (southern California) or Waves (northern California), but of bears, mountain lions, and wolves. My 6 and 10 stop neutral density filters were some of my best friends up in the north.
Parliament Building, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Second Beach, Olympic National Park, Washington.
Typical gray sky of the the Pacific Northwest.
For the last 10 days I was away on a road trip up to Vancouver Island, Canada. It doesn’t look so far on a map, but it took many long days of driving to get there and home again, plus a couple detours. Most mornings began before 5am and didn’t end until late in the night. Made it as far north as Tofino, Vancouver island before heading back. Weather was hit and miss, zero rain though. I seem to have been cursed by ‘hazy blue sky’ weather lately. While it’s nice weather to travel and ‘do stuff’ in, it is probably about the worst I can think of photographically; I even prefer fog. A couple good sunsets presented themselves anyhow and a I spent an amazingly warm and sunny day cruising around the streets of Victoria, quite a wonderful town – which means a lot from a person who generally dislikes cities.
Most of the trip was along the coast, covering the entire coasts of Oregon and Washington, but only the northern part of California.
Sunset Cove, Oregon.
Today (Friday) at noon was the annual Fiesta parade here in Santa Barbara. It is mostly an equestrian parade riders from different organizations from around the area taking part, many dressed in traditional Spanish or Mexican costumes. Only a couple photos for now. I’ve made a Fiesta photo gallery: HERE, which I’ll add photos to during the next days.
La Fiesta Pequeña ( the little Fiesta) On Wednesday night marks the beginning of Santa Barbara’s Old Spanish Days, otherwise known simply as ‘Fiesta.’ Fiesta occurs every August here in Santa Barbara and is the biggest festival of the year. Traditional music and dancing combined with open air markets and parades attract thousands of people from the world over. I’ll be out and about taking photos during the next days…
Images from tonight of dancers on the steps of the Santa Barbara mission at La Fiesta Pequeña:
Coastline near Stamsund, Vestvågøy on a rather cold and dreary evening. Lofoten islands, Norway
For perspective, I’m 1.83m (6 ft) tall. Redwoods are some big trees. Bad self portrait, I know…
Three years ago out on the coast near Kvalnes. Unsuccessfully hunting the midnight sun with a German and two Norwegian’s. We were a day or two too late in reality, had there been no clouds. The cool thing about this time of year in the north: you can shoot sunset, sunrise, and then go to sleep for the night and not have to worry about setting your alarm.
View from the top of Stamsundheia above Stamsund, Vestvågøya towards the village of Henningsvær and mountains of Austvågøya. The mountain peak in the center of the photo is about 16km away. The second set of mountains behind that are about 35km away. The Furthest distant peaks are the Norwegain mainland (Hamarøy I think) about 65km away, sperated by the mighty Vestfjord.
The night arrives slowly this far north due to the low angle of the sun. In the weeks prior the the nearly 2 month long “day” of the summer months, night never really properly arrives, just a few hours of twilight. Though here in March the night eventually comes, delayed enough that one has enough time to walk off a mountain after sunset with relative good visibility.
