Dog Mountain Wildflowers

Dog Mountain - Columbia River Gorge, Oregon 5/2014

Gorge is Gorg

Columbia River Gorge - Stephenson, WA 10/19/2013

We had a ridiculous fall this year. This picture was shot with my phone while I was getting driven across the Bridge of the Gods... I was dangling out of the window as my friends were making wise-ass remarks about what I would do if I dropped my precious iPhone5 into the river. The consensus was that there might need to be a rescue mission. It's almost cheating to use an instagram filter, but that's pretty close to what it looked like to the naked eye, at least that's how I remember it. OCTOBER IS THE BEST MONTH.

Storm Sunbreak

Walton Lake - Prineville, OR 8/23/2013

Summer sunset in central Oregon during a weekend camping trip with good friends. The weekend was sprinkled with thunderstorms, one of which sent half of our crew into a crippling panic and the others into a mad dash to save the beer...

South Sister

 

Our base camp at Moraine Lake - South Sister, OR 8/9/2013

Moraine Lake

Final rock/sand scramble to the summit

Middle and North Sister in the foreground with the rest of the Cascades in the background

 

After a few training hikes, we made it to the summit of South Sister. Marcus, Missy and I left Moraine Lake around 6 am, after one of the worst night's sleep I've ever had. Seriously. Who was the idiot that didn't bring a real sleeping bag or thermarest? This girl. Not my brightest moment, but rest assured I'll never make that mistake again. I think I thought to myself, "I always overheat and I love sleeping cold, how bad could it be?" Bad. I should have just tried to summit instead of going to sleep.... would have had an awesome sunrise!

Either way, it didn't ruin my trip. It felt awesome to reach the summit and I'm glad I did it. Next up? Mt. Adams.

Dog Mountain

 

Summit of Dog Mountain - Columbia River Gorge, Oregon 7/13/2013

Late season wild flowers on Dog Mountain

Final stretch to the summit

This was one of our final training hikes before our South Sister adventure. The entire loop isn't that long (6.9 mi round trip) but the elevation gain will get ya (2,800'). There was also poison oak everywhere... The views once we broke through the treeline were pretty fantastic. Again, my iPhone5 was much lighter than lugging my SLR around.

One of my friends (TRENT) complained the entire hike up, and once at the top his mood changed drastically. After taking in the view and swatting away the insane population of gnats/flies/bees at the summit, he frolicked and skipped the whole way down. And then promptly decided he was not going to hike South Sister. Man down!

Cinco

Cinco de Mayo BBQ - Portland, OR 5/5/2013

I took a million pictures at this Cinco de Mayo shin dig, but most were of debauchery and more debauchery.  Nothing beats a guacamole competition (I would be remiss if I failed to mention I was the winner) and polish horseshoes. My award for the winning guac was a terrible framed piece of art (a b&w unicorn) acquired from the local Goodwill... it is now "on display" in my hall closet.

I digress... My beautiful friend Allye unknowingly struck a model pose and I happened to snap it. Sometimes I think my photography is more likely a success because of the subject, not my skill. This is one of my favorite candid portrait shots.

InstaMaui

Old Lahaina Luau - Lahaina, Maui, HI 4/21/2013

Hana Hwy - Maui, HI 4/19/2013

I took an insane amount of photos on my first trip to Maui, and unfortunately most of those were taken on my cell phone. Instagram to the rescue! My sister and I had an absolutely stunning sunset for one of our last nights in Maui. We were dining at the Old Lahaina Luau and couldn't have asked for a better way to close out the trip.

The bridge is another story... we had planned to spend an entire day driving the Hana Highway with its seemingless unlimited amount of hairpin curves and one-lane bridges. Unfortunately a tree fell early in the AM and blocked the road completely, so we had to turn around after only an hour or 2 into our drive. Luckily, there were plenty of opportunities to stop and take pics!