For several years I used a large Bogen tripod and an Arca-Swiss ballhead. This combo did a good job of giving me sharp photos, and was great for shooting in the studio or at drive-up locations. Hike-friendly it was not, and forget about backpacking it or dragging it around all day when traveling.

I saw that a great many pro travel and nature photographers were using Gitzo carbon fiber tripods. These are pricey items, and it took me a while to justify the cost, but I finally bought one and have found it to be one of the very best investments I’ve ever made in camera gear. I soon added a Really Right Stuff ballhead, which has also proven to be an excellent investment. They have both now outlasted several models of the cameras they support.

The new Gitzo + RRS combo was quite bit smaller than what I had been using. I bought it because it was small and light enough that I could put it in a suitcase, bungee it onto a bike rack or strap it onto a day pack for hiking. I was surprised, and delighted, to find that despite the smaller size and lighter weight, my new set of legs was just as sturdy as my Big Bertha (Bogen-Arca) combo. Even with a 300mm telephoto lens at slow shutter speeds.

The ballhead that I opted for is the medium-sized BH-40 LR.  Really Right Stuff makes bigger and smaller heads with a similar design, but I like this one because it’s small enough and light enough that I’ll carry it, but also plenty strong enough to support a full size DSLR with a moderate telephoto lens. The “LR” model has a quick release lever which makes putting the camera on the tripod and taking it off a snap. Like the other features of the ballhead, the lever is extremely well designed and I have never had it accidentally open. It wasn’t available at the time I bought mine, but if it was I would have gone for the LR II model, which has a built-in spirit level on the clamp.

Operating the controls on this ballhead is easy, and the precision machining makes all the movements very smooth. A separate pan-locking knob means that you can level out the tripod and head for a panoramic shot and just swivel the head without having to loosen the ball mechanism. A really great feature: the main locking knob is spring-loaded and can be set for different positions, so the operation is quick, easy and solid no matter how you orient the head.

The Really Right Stuff ballhead and Gitzo legs have been with me on a lot of trips now, and have definitely proven their worth. I try not to abuse my equipment, but I don’t baby it either, and, well, accidents happen. A slip on wet rocks or a stumble over a root on the trail and down goes the tripod, head crashing into a rock, falling into snow or coming up with dirt in the works. My gear has also seen its share of saltwater ocean spray and blowing desert sand.

And it has never let me down. Even when, somehow, I lost the knob that sets the drag on the ballhead. Soon as I discovered the loss, I contacted Really Right Stuff about getting a replacement knob. Turns out it’s not a user-replaceable item, and I needed to ship the head to them for repair. The head still worked fine even without the knob, and with a loaded schedule of assignments and trips, I waited for months before finally sending the ballhead to RRS. Which is when I found that not only does Really Right Stuff make excellent equipment, they back it up with great customer service. Even though by that time it was beyond the warranty period for my BH-40, when I explained the delay in getting it to them, RRS took care of the repair and had the head back to me in a week. Now that is a company that stands behind its products and takes care of its customers. Really Right Stuff now also makes tripods (as well as a bunch of other really cool stuff), and if my tripod ever needs replacing you know where I’m going to start my search for a new one.

A rainbow of tulip blossoms

After months of gray skies and dreary weather, the sight of daffodils and tulips popping up in gardens, fields and farms is a delight here in the Pacific Northwest. The colorful flowers are fabulous for photography, and several of the biggest bulb growers in Washington and Oregon open their fields for photographers.

Field of flowers at Tulip Town

Tulips start to show their color in March and the blossoming continues into May, with the big fields usually in their prime around the second and third weeks of April. To celebrate the season, the two major bulb growing areas in the northwest hold annual events, the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in northwest Washington and the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Click on those links for information about the festivals, field locations and updates on the bloom.

Rows of pink tulips at RoozenGaarde

Tulip Town in the Skagit Valley is a photographer’s favorite due to both the extensive and easily accessed fields and the neighboring red barn. Nearby RoozenGaarde also has acres of tulips to wander through, as well as a landscaped garden of other northwest flowers. Washington Bulb Company, which owns RoozenGaarde, has several other fields in the Skagit Valley, some of which may be open to visitors.

Double rainbow over tulip field at Wooden Shoe Bulb Company

In the Willamette Valley, Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm near Woodburn is Oregon’s biggest tulip grower and their fields are also open during the annual festival. In either location, I recommend that photographers get there early, before the crowds arrive and while winds are light and the angle of the sun low. You may not actually be able to get into the fields before 9 AM, but you might find some good photo angles from roadsides along the fields, and you’ll get a parking place close to the entrance and not have to drag your gear through acres of cars.

One of the things that makes photography in the tulip fields so fun is that you can use any and all of your camera equipment to get great photos. Wide-angle lenses, telephotos to zoom in on and isolate a single blossom, and macro lenses for super close-ups. I used a variety of techniques for the photos above. In the lead photo, I got down to ground level at the edge of a field and used a very wide-angle lens to look up to the flowers and clear blue sky. One advantage to this angle is that you can’t see the many other photographers and visitors that were all around this same field. For the photo with the barn, I stopped my lens aperture down to about f/16 to get enough depth of field to have everything in focus. The rows of pink tulips were taken with a telephoto zoom, also stopped down, from the roof of my truck. The close-up of the yellow flower was taken with the same tele-zoom, this time using a wide aperture at the closest focusing point and maximum zoom setting on the lens so that just one blossom was in focus and the rest were just a soft mass of color. I also composed this photo for backlighting, which often works really well with flowers, and used a collapsible reflector to bounce some light back on the shadow side of the bloom. All of these photos are processed pretty much “straight”, but you can sure have a lot of fun with digital processing for a variety of effects with these flowers. One more tip for photographing the tulips: the fields are often muddy or at least damp, so wear shoes and clothes you don’t mind getting dirty (nylon rain pants work great), and take something like a plastic trash bag to set your gear on while you work.

Have fun in the fields, and if you like these photos or find this post useful, please leave a comment, share on Facebook or send out a Tweet.

Cherry trees blossoming on the University of Washington campus

It’s cherry blossom time and the trees are blooming all over the country. In Washington State, Seattle residents and visitors look forward each spring to the beautiful sight of big old cherry trees covered in delicate pink flowers on the University of Washington campus.

The annual bloom is certainly an event for photography, and on a sunny, spring day there will be many people at the campus Quad, almost all with cameras, using everything from a cell phone to a large format view camera to record the glory. In composing the photo above, I chose an angle looking up into the trees and framed the scene to eliminate all the other visitors.

The cherry tree blossoms are initially a very pretty pink, but as the flowers age the color fades so ideally you want to get there right when the best color appears. Finding an angle where the blossoms are back or side-lit usually results in much better photographs.

The peak of the bloom is typically early April, although it can vary greatly depending on late winter weather. When the trees do bloom, don’t procrastinate about going to see them – the flowering only lasts for a little over a week. This year, peak bloom is predicted to be March 30-April 5.

Cherry tree on Azalea Way in Washington Park Arboretum

The UW Quad isn’t the only place to photograph cherry trees. There are many more blossoms in nearby Washington Park Arboretum. Azalea Way, one of the main paths through the park, is lined with cherry trees. Check with the folks at the Visitor Center for specific locations and to find out what else is blooming when you’re there.

]]> http://gregvaughn.com/blog/2013/03/31/university-of-washington-cherry-trees/feed/ 1 http://gregvaughn.com/blog/2013/03/22/washington-state-parks-anniversary/ http://gregvaughn.com/blog/2013/03/22/washington-state-parks-anniversary/#comments Sat, 23 Mar 2013 00:16:26 +0000 Greg Vaughn http://gregvaughn.com/blog/?p=1064 [read more ...]]]>
Washington State Parks – Images by Greg Vaughn

 Washington State Parks celebrate their centennial this year. Created in 1913, the system now includes over 100 state parks.

Many of these parks are fantastic for nature and landscape photography. Among my favorites as photo destinations are Cape Disappointment, Steptoe Butte, Palouse Falls, Columbia Hills, Steamboat Rock and Deception Pass.

As part of the centennial celebration, all Washington State Parks will have free admission on March 30th. There are also events scheduled throughout the year at many of the parks. Click this link for a calendar of events.

Like government funded parks all over the country, the state parks in Washington have had to deal with severe budget cuts in recent years. To help alleviate that problem, the Discover Pass program was instituted, requiring user fees for all state recreation and wildlife properties. Information on the daily or annual passes is available at www.discoverpass.wa.gov .

In addition to the official website for Washington State Parks, there is now a handy official smartphone app, that includes maps and features of the parks. The app is free and available for both iOS and Android systems.

Have some great Washington State Parks photos of your own?  Post a link to your website or your Flickr, 500px or Instagram page in the Comments.

February 14 is not only Valentines Day, it is the anniversary of Oregon Statehood.
Please enjoy some of my favorite images of this wonderful state,
and let me know which are your favorites.

To view this slide show in a slightly larger format,
or to purchase prints or licensing rights,
click on this Oregon Photo Gallery link.

Backpacker Magazine cover , March 2013 issue.

It’s always great to have the cover of a magazine feature your photo, but even more so when that publication is one of your personal favorites and always a cover-to-cover read. So it is with the March 2013 issue of Backpacker Magazine, with my photo of hikers on the Sahale Arm Trail in Washington’s Cascade Mountains.

Sahale Arm Trail is an extension of Cascade Pass Trail, one of the most popular trails in North Cascades National Park. If you’ve been there, you know why this hike is so popular. In my opinion, this is one of the absolute best trails, for both day hikers and overnight backpackers, in the Pacific Northwest. The scenery at the trailhead amazing, and the experience just continues to get better as you climb through forest and wildflower meadow to Cascade Pass. Those who continue a couple of miles higher on Sahale Arm Trail are treated to outstanding panorama vistas of jagged, glaciated peaks. Wildflowers abound in summer, as do huckleberries in early autumn. The berries draw black bears, and rocky, talus slopes are haven to pikas and marmots.

If you’d like to hike this wonderful trail yourself, check out the trail info on the Washington Trails Association website, or pick up a copy of Day Hiking North Cascades by Washington hiking guru Craig Romano.

Additional note: this photo also won the Bronze Award in the Natural Scenic Category in the Society of American Travel Writers‘ 2013 Bill Muster Photo Competition. You can see more of my images of this beautiful area in my online gallery of North Cascades photos.

The Skagit River in northwestern Washington state vies with Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge on the Oregon-California border for the highest concentration bald eagles in the lower 48 states. A few eagles inhabit the area year round, but each winter, hundreds of these magnificent raptors come to the Skagit River to feed on the salmon that swim upstream to spawn. The eagles (and the salmon) arrive in late November and stay through January, with peak numbers from Christmas until mid-January.

The annual Skagit Eagle Festival takes place each weekend in January, with information stations at several locations along the river in some of the best viewing spots. Volunteers set up spotting scopes and answer questions about the eagles. A variety of family-friendly activities are scheduled at various venues in the area.

The best places to view the eagles with easy access are:

• Howard Miller Steelhead Park in Rockport (look for signs on WA-20 near the junction with WA-530). Best viewing is from the bridge, looking upstream.
• Milepost 100 Highway 20 Rest Area at Sutter Creek. Gravel bars on the south side of the river are a feeding area and the eagles roost at night in the trees on the mountain above.
• Milepost 101 on Highway 20. Great viewing right from the road. The river makes a big bend here with the angle being just right for good winter sunrise photos.
• Marblemount Fish Hatchery (cross the Skagit River on Cascade River Drive, turn right on Rockport-Cascade Road).  Also check the area around the Marblemount Boat Launch, just over the bridge.

A very enjoyable alternative to the viewing sites listed above is a river float trip with one of the local outfitters.

Photographers need some long glass to get good photos of the eagles here. A 300mm lens on a 1.5x crop factor DSLR camera is just about minimum to capture good images from river side viewing areas. Eagle experts say that the birds tend to stay up in the trees on blue sky sunny days, and spend more time down on the gravel bars on overcast days.

For more information about bald eagles on the Skagit River, visit www.skagiteagle.org

Cannon Beach, Oregon

Wishing you Happiness, Health, Love and Peace in 2013. It’s going to be a great year!

El Castillo at Tulum Maya ruins, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico.

The Maya calendar predicts not the end of the world, but the end of a cycle, which also means the beginning of a new one. Any culture that could build a complex such as this at Tulum, without the aid of modern machinery and technology, obviously knows a thing or two. Let us look forward to this new cycle with hope that this will become an era of peace, understanding, and caring for the natural environment.

The Japanese Garden at Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle.

1. Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle
The City of Seattle and the University of Washington jointly manage 230-acres of beautiful botanical gardens on the shores of Lake Washington. Areas particularly good for fall color are the Japanese Maple, Asiatic Maple, and Mountain Ash sections on the northeast side of the park, and, best of all, the Japanese Garden on the southwest side of the park.

Hall of Mosses Trail, Olympic National Park

2. Hoh Rainforest, Olympic National Park
Bigleaf maple trees abound on the Hall of Mosses Trail. Huge maples festooned with moss are also seen along the road leading from Highway 101 to the Hoh Rainforest Visitor Center and campground. The resident herd of Roosevelt Elk adds to the attraction of the area for nature lovers.

 3. Chinook Pass and the Naches Peak Loop Trail
An easy 4-mile hike around Tipsoo Lake and Naches Peak on the east side of Mount Rainier National Park offers a combination of multi-colored huckleberry bushes and some of the very best views of The Mountain.

Alpine larch trees and Perfection Lake in The Enchantments

4. Alpine Lakes Wilderness
Spectacular mountain scenery and brilliant yellow Alpine larch trees reward hikers who tackle the trails in this rugged section of the central Cascades. The jewel-like lakes of The Enchantments are high on the list of northwest backpacker favorites. There is also plenty of fall color around Leavenworth and the Icicle Creek Canyon on the way to the trailheads, and at nearby Lake Wenatchee.

Red-osier dogwood and aspen tree trunks, Tumwater Canyon

5. Stevens Pass
Part of the popular Cascade Loop, the Stevens Pass Greenway/National Scenic Byway crosses the Cascades between Monroe and Leavenworth, following the Skykomish River on the west side and the Wenatchee River on the east. It is particularly good for fall color in the Tumwater Canyon area between Lake Wenatchee and Leavenworth. Aspen trees join bigleaf maple and vine maple for a range of color from lemon yellow to crimson red.

Lake Ann, Heather Pass, Corteo Peak and Black Peak

6. Lake Ann and Maple Pass
Just west of Washington Pass on State Route 20, the North Cascades Highway, the 7-mile loop trail to Maple Pass and Heather Pass in North Cascades National Park is a fall favorite when the alpine larch trees turn golden, highlighting the spectacular mountain scenery. Lake Ann sits in a forested bowl, with dramatic Cascade peaks rising all around. Nearby Rainey Lake and Blue Lake offer shorter, easier trails.

7. Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge
Large stands of aspen and cottonwood trees around the town of Glenwood turn golden in a landscape that includes majestic Mount Adams rising above Camas Prairie and the wetlands of the Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge. The oak trees down in nearby Klickitat Canyon to the east have more muted colors but are also a visual treat.

Western larch trees at Sherman Pass in the Kettle Range

8. Pend Oreille River Valley and Little Pend Oreille Lakes
This little-visited far northeast corner of Washington has some of the state’s best fall color, with larch, cottonwood and aspen all turning bright yellow in autumn. Travel there via Highway 20 over Sherman Pass and you’ll be treated to panoramic views of the Kettle Range mountainsides covered with western larch (also known as tamarack) in the Colville National Forest. Add the Lake Sullivan loop tour from Ione for even more fall color.

Cottonwood trees along the Methow River

9. Methow River Valley
Brilliant yellow aspen and cottonwood trees line the rivers and streams in this part of north central Washington just east of the Cascades. Make a day or weekend loop trip from Seattle over Washington Pass to Winthrop, head south to Leavenworth and return via Stevens Pass.

Vine maple in autumn at the edge of Indian Heaven Wilderness

10. Indian Heaven Wilderness
Extensive fields of huckleberry are found in much of this part of Gifford Pinchot National Forest in the southern Cascades. A hike on the Bird Mountain Loop Trail will also get you great views of Mount Adams. Nearby, colorful stands of trees add to the already very scenic views of Mount Adams in the Trout Lake area.

In years with typical Pacific Northwest weather, the fall color starts when vine maple and huckleberry begin turning in late August at mid- and high-elevations. Late September to mid October are usually the best in the high Cascades and eastern Washington for maple, aspen and larch, with late October being prime at lower elevations like Puget Sound, rainforests on the Olympic Peninsula and in the Columbia Gorge.

Whether you’re thinking of a day trip or an extensive statewide fall foliage tour, now’s the time to make plans and get out to enjoy this wonderful season.

There are many more great places for fall photography in the Pacific Northwest. Follow this link for more of my photographs of fall color in Washington.

Please leave a comment and let me know your favorite places for viewing and photographing fall color in Washington.