I can't believe it took me this long to go through the pictures I took on my way to Spokane almost a month ago... Especially since I don't even have a good photo-editing program and therefore didn't have much actual editing to do. Speaking of that though, if anyone has a nice free/inexpensive photo-editing program that I could download, I'd love to hear about it.
Like I said, about a month ago I was going to Spokane to see Reina and she said that she had to work in the studio on some projects and that I should take my time getting there. Well... I still wanted to get out of Yakima as quick as possible and driving under my normal 79mph was not an option so I decided to take my camera and make a photo shoot out of the trip. It was a pretty good idea if I do say so myself.
When I was attending school in Kansas, I always told people that I think Washington is the most beautiful state in the entire country. It really has everything. I live in a desert, Spokane seems like an arctic wasteland during the winter, there is a small patch of rainforest up near the San Juan's (the only rainforest on the continental US thank you very much), farmland that would challenge that of the midwest, and urban expanses. I love the beauty of this state. Washington was a state highway viewpoints were made for. It is the only state that I ever stop at the advertised view points and look around.
With so much time to kill I put my Sony in the car and vowed to stop at every viewpoint on the way to Spokane and take at least 20 pictures at each one. I figured that doing that would give me at least a few presentable pictures. Fair warning - I'm a very amateur photographer and my skills do nothing to capture the beauty of the landscape. I'm always frustrated at the fact that my camera can never take in every little detail across the human plane of vision. Sometimes you just need to be able to capture everything that the eye is capable of seeing and unfortunately I don't have the photographer skills needed to do that, if it can truly be done. Either way, this is what I got. I hope you enjoy:)
This is the viewpoint along I-82 from Yakima to Ellensburg. Every time I come over Manashtash Ridge and see the Ellensburg Valley I'm blown away. The weather was fairly decent here but I've seen way better, and even when the weather is awful, it still has a sense of beauty to it. One time I came over the ridge and was shocked to see the entire valley filled with stark white clouds. The clouds completely covered the city in a way that if I had not known it was there I wouldn't have thought it any different from a huge empty valley covered in snow. That's what it looked like, a blanket of clean snow. Driving through those clouds was an interesting experience in itself.
While Bertine's coffeehouse in downtown Ellensburg may not technically be a viewpoint, it's definitely a place worth going. A friend of mine, Jason, is an excellent pastry chef and somewhat of a coffeehouse officiando. He stumbled across this place one day and loved it so much that he struck a deal with the owner to make pastries there. Okay... to be completely honest that's probably not how it happened. All I know is that he's working with them and recommended that I go there. Working in a coffee shop myself I was eager to visit a place that got so much praise from my friend Jason. Let me tell you, I was not disappointed in the least! Unfortunately I was there at three in the afternoon on a weekday so it was almost empty save for the barista. Despite that though, it had amazing atmosphere. Artwork ranging from elementary art class projects to local painters hung clothespinned on lines crisscrossing the brick walls as a Synesso Espresso machine (a Cadillac of espresso machines) hissed in the background. Not to mention some really, really good coffee. Needless to say I was really happy I stopped in and am looking forward to when I am in Ellensburg and can find an excuse to get coffee again.
About 25 or so miles east of Ellensburg I-90 brings you to Vantage Bridge. The views from this area are stunning. The Columbia River flows between to two sheer walls of stone and curves away from you on either side. I spent a lot of time here. I knew that it was going to be a good stop because the instant I stepped out of my car I was greeted by a soaking wet Golden Retriever whose owner had been tossing huge sticks into the shallows of the river for him to fetch. Overall, I think I spent about 45 minutes to an hour here. I'm sure that I broke some trespassing laws because the best vantage points for looking up the river was in a fenced area that I couldn't immediately drive my car up to. So I did some fence hopping... This is a prime example of how the camera (in my hands at least) is unable to capture what is really there. The magnificence of it is awe-inspiring. Below are two more pictures that I picked from my time here.
The top picture is the Vantage Bridge I mentioned early. It's the part of I-90 that crosses the Columbia. From the middle of the bridge, if you turn your head to the north the view just makes me speechless. One of these days I hope to walk the bridge so I can take a good picture up the river without my car window and the bridge rigging in the way. I like this picture though because it juxtaposes the beauty of nature with the influence of man. I don't know exactly what it is about this combination but something about it definitely seems powerful; this agreement man has with nature... like we have a choice. Maybe that's the power in it. Your guess is as good as mine.
The second picture is from the exact same spot and I just turned up river. I wanted to try to get at least a glimpse of what the view from the bridge would look like. While it didn't come close to capturing the same essence, it ended up giving me a picture that I really like if only for the reason it looks nice. Kind of a lame reason to like/appreciate a picture, but in my opinion one of the best.
This was by far my favorite group of pictures. This is the epitome of photography in the sense that the best pictures come when you least expect them. The only explanation of how I got these pictures was sheer dumb luck. I just happened to look out my window while I was going down the highway and saw this dust devil ripping through a freshly tilled field about a quarter of a mile away. So, driving 79mph I rolled down my window and stuck my long lens out my window (praying I didn't drop it or it didn't get hit or anything terrible like that) and snapped five or six pictures with one eye down the view finder and one eye kind of on the road ahead of me. These were the results. Rather awesome if I do say so.
Overall a decently productive and definitely enjoyable day of photographizing. Much like hunting; there is never a bad day of photography, some are just better than others. If you want to see any of these pictures better, check out my flickr stream (located on the sidebar to your right). Leave comments, and feedback is wonderful!
-Connor
Like I said, about a month ago I was going to Spokane to see Reina and she said that she had to work in the studio on some projects and that I should take my time getting there. Well... I still wanted to get out of Yakima as quick as possible and driving under my normal 79mph was not an option so I decided to take my camera and make a photo shoot out of the trip. It was a pretty good idea if I do say so myself.
When I was attending school in Kansas, I always told people that I think Washington is the most beautiful state in the entire country. It really has everything. I live in a desert, Spokane seems like an arctic wasteland during the winter, there is a small patch of rainforest up near the San Juan's (the only rainforest on the continental US thank you very much), farmland that would challenge that of the midwest, and urban expanses. I love the beauty of this state. Washington was a state highway viewpoints were made for. It is the only state that I ever stop at the advertised view points and look around.
With so much time to kill I put my Sony in the car and vowed to stop at every viewpoint on the way to Spokane and take at least 20 pictures at each one. I figured that doing that would give me at least a few presentable pictures. Fair warning - I'm a very amateur photographer and my skills do nothing to capture the beauty of the landscape. I'm always frustrated at the fact that my camera can never take in every little detail across the human plane of vision. Sometimes you just need to be able to capture everything that the eye is capable of seeing and unfortunately I don't have the photographer skills needed to do that, if it can truly be done. Either way, this is what I got. I hope you enjoy:)
This is the viewpoint along I-82 from Yakima to Ellensburg. Every time I come over Manashtash Ridge and see the Ellensburg Valley I'm blown away. The weather was fairly decent here but I've seen way better, and even when the weather is awful, it still has a sense of beauty to it. One time I came over the ridge and was shocked to see the entire valley filled with stark white clouds. The clouds completely covered the city in a way that if I had not known it was there I wouldn't have thought it any different from a huge empty valley covered in snow. That's what it looked like, a blanket of clean snow. Driving through those clouds was an interesting experience in itself.
While Bertine's coffeehouse in downtown Ellensburg may not technically be a viewpoint, it's definitely a place worth going. A friend of mine, Jason, is an excellent pastry chef and somewhat of a coffeehouse officiando. He stumbled across this place one day and loved it so much that he struck a deal with the owner to make pastries there. Okay... to be completely honest that's probably not how it happened. All I know is that he's working with them and recommended that I go there. Working in a coffee shop myself I was eager to visit a place that got so much praise from my friend Jason. Let me tell you, I was not disappointed in the least! Unfortunately I was there at three in the afternoon on a weekday so it was almost empty save for the barista. Despite that though, it had amazing atmosphere. Artwork ranging from elementary art class projects to local painters hung clothespinned on lines crisscrossing the brick walls as a Synesso Espresso machine (a Cadillac of espresso machines) hissed in the background. Not to mention some really, really good coffee. Needless to say I was really happy I stopped in and am looking forward to when I am in Ellensburg and can find an excuse to get coffee again.
About 25 or so miles east of Ellensburg I-90 brings you to Vantage Bridge. The views from this area are stunning. The Columbia River flows between to two sheer walls of stone and curves away from you on either side. I spent a lot of time here. I knew that it was going to be a good stop because the instant I stepped out of my car I was greeted by a soaking wet Golden Retriever whose owner had been tossing huge sticks into the shallows of the river for him to fetch. Overall, I think I spent about 45 minutes to an hour here. I'm sure that I broke some trespassing laws because the best vantage points for looking up the river was in a fenced area that I couldn't immediately drive my car up to. So I did some fence hopping... This is a prime example of how the camera (in my hands at least) is unable to capture what is really there. The magnificence of it is awe-inspiring. Below are two more pictures that I picked from my time here.
The top picture is the Vantage Bridge I mentioned early. It's the part of I-90 that crosses the Columbia. From the middle of the bridge, if you turn your head to the north the view just makes me speechless. One of these days I hope to walk the bridge so I can take a good picture up the river without my car window and the bridge rigging in the way. I like this picture though because it juxtaposes the beauty of nature with the influence of man. I don't know exactly what it is about this combination but something about it definitely seems powerful; this agreement man has with nature... like we have a choice. Maybe that's the power in it. Your guess is as good as mine.
The second picture is from the exact same spot and I just turned up river. I wanted to try to get at least a glimpse of what the view from the bridge would look like. While it didn't come close to capturing the same essence, it ended up giving me a picture that I really like if only for the reason it looks nice. Kind of a lame reason to like/appreciate a picture, but in my opinion one of the best.
This was by far my favorite group of pictures. This is the epitome of photography in the sense that the best pictures come when you least expect them. The only explanation of how I got these pictures was sheer dumb luck. I just happened to look out my window while I was going down the highway and saw this dust devil ripping through a freshly tilled field about a quarter of a mile away. So, driving 79mph I rolled down my window and stuck my long lens out my window (praying I didn't drop it or it didn't get hit or anything terrible like that) and snapped five or six pictures with one eye down the view finder and one eye kind of on the road ahead of me. These were the results. Rather awesome if I do say so.
Overall a decently productive and definitely enjoyable day of photographizing. Much like hunting; there is never a bad day of photography, some are just better than others. If you want to see any of these pictures better, check out my flickr stream (located on the sidebar to your right). Leave comments, and feedback is wonderful!
-Connor
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