I just returned from a short trip to Vancouver, WA, for the sole purpose of getting some snowboard time in at Mt. Hood Meadows.
One word: AWESOME.
This was definitely one of the better personal trips I’ve taken. In fact, I was having so much fun that I didn’t want to come home. Great people, great mountain, great food, great scenery… Couldn’t have asked for more. (Well, maybe a tiny bit of fresh powder would have been nice, but I’m not complaining.)
I did manage to get a 360 degree panorama from about 7,000 feet up Mt. Hood, but it needs a little bit of massaging before I can post it. Keep an eye out for it next week!
Eaglecrest held its annual Winter Spectacular last evening, complete with a torchlight parade and a fireworks show that rivaled July 4th’s! The weather looked like it might rain on the parade, so to speak, but it held off long enough to not make the show completely miserable. I didn’t get any shots of the torchlight parade, but I did get ideas for next year… Just wait.
A few months ago, I bought these little shot glass-shaped silicone molds that let you make shot glasses out of ice. Naturally, I thought about how this could be made into a photo… Well, I ended up making it into a series of about 110 photos, shot once a minute, then compressed down into a 20 second clip. The result? A real Jägerbomb! I was a little unsure exactly how the shot of Jägermeister was going to make its way through the ice, but found out about halfway through – it was a quicker escape than what I thought it would be. It was a fun little project in any case and I’ll be doing more with this idea in the future.
First Alaska post of the new year! I spent a beautiful afternoon at Eaglecrest watching brave skiers and snowboarders doing crazy things that would likely land me in the hospital… I’m content to snap a few photos. Of course, Pittman Ridge is an awesome place to see something you just can’t see from Juneau – the other side of Douglas Island. It’s amazing to be at a spot where you can see Admiralty Island and beyond on one side and the Mendenhall Valley on the other. Definitely reminds me why I love living here.
December 30th, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s 2009 were spent in Seattle, WA, wandering around and enjoying the last little bit of my holiday break before heading back home to Juneau. Seattle is an awesome place for street photography and the Public Market Center at Pike Place is always full of color, patterns, and interesting people. It was definitely a great place to punctuate 2009 and usher in 2010!
I spent Christmas with my parents in Tumtum, Washington. It’s a town of about 200 people located 45 minutes northeast of Spokane, WA. Basically, it’s out in the boonies! There’s a lot of land to explore, but being that it was cold out and I wasn’t in a very adventurous mood, I stuck pretty close to the house. It’s amazing being so far away from city lights just how much more of the night sky you can see – this is evident in some of the night shots below.
Nearly as soon as I saw the lineup for Outside Lands 2009, I had tickets in my hand. It had to happen and it was very worth it. San Francisco is a blast in itself, but to also see a ton of bands I love made it even more of a blast!
I only spent a few days in Oklahoma City, but it was a nice city, minus some confusing driving situations! I stayed downtown at The Skirvin Hilton, ventured out a couple of evenings, and visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial – as you can see below, it’s a very serene and peaceful memorial.
This was a fun project. I setup my camera on a tripod inside my condo (too cold outside!) and had it snap a photo every five minutes over several hours. The results are pretty nice and actually pretty interesting – we get big tides here and this video is a good example of that. Note the level of the boats and buildings in the harbor from the beginning of the video to the end. Quite the change!
Juneau has a great trail and cabin system within a short driving distance of pretty much anywhere in town. In the winter, reservations for these cabins are easy to come by and getting out to one is a great way to spend a wintery weekend!
The Peterson Lake trail is about 4.3 miles each way and is relatively flat. I’d brought snowshoes with me for this hike, though you really don’t need them for the trail. They’re fun to have once you get to the cabin if you want to explore the lake, however. This particular trip didn’t start so well: I reached the trailhead, parked, and when getting everything together, I realized I’d forgotten all my water. I figured I could make it the length of the trail without water, which I did with no difficulty. Once at the cabin, I did need water to cook with, so I used a hatchet and cut a hole in the ice over the lake at the end of the dock – it wasn’t too hard since someone had done it previously, so the ice wasn’t very thick. I then spent the evening reading in super quiet solitude… then cranked some music. Ah, ALASKA!
