Pacific Nortwest

I love where I live...Asheville is a special, beautiful place....that being said, if I had to move, it would be to the Pacific Northwest. Washington, Oregon, everything I have seen in that part of the country continues to amaze me. Chris is from Redmond, Wa. and gave me quite to tour. We went through Leavenworth Wa. which is a small Alpine / German village at the base of the Cascade mountains. Lots of great beer and brats....and from what Chris tells me one of the most stunning Christmas celebrations around. It's pretty wild to come off a 2 lane highway and all of a sudden there is this German village in the middle of these monster peaks, every building there has to be built according to the Apline village code, including the McDonalds and the Bank of America.




Outside Leavenworth, we followed the Icicle river over the Cascades back into Seattle on Rte 2. What a road! It creeps along the river until it crests the peak of the Cascade range and drops back into Seattle. Along the way we stopped at Desolation Waterfall and got some great shots that represent the Pacific Northwest really well. The forests are so lush and green, the cedar tress are really spectacular, and what I noticed as one of the main differences, and a fact that Chris explained to me, is the cleanliness of the forest floor. The needles from the Cedars and other evergreens are so rich in acid, that they dissolve everything that lands on the forest floor so quickly that the forest floor is really clear of clutter and debris like we have here.








I have been slowly working on a series of images that I feel are quiet and Zen like. Images that make you slow down and relax when you look at them. Images that almost force you to be quiet and still. At Desolation Waterfall Chris and I found some spots to capture images like that. These images have had only minor corrections done to them, the colors and light are straight out of the camera. Enjoy... (you can single click on these images to view them individually in a separate window)