Mt. Hood

I still take it for granted that I grew up so close to Mt. Hood, literally in the foothills. When Mt. Hood is your backyard it's hard not to take it's amazing-ness for granted. On Sunday, the weather was still looking nice so I headed out to Mt Hood/Hood River for the day. I was hoping to hike to some falls, but ended up hiking some other trails with some friends from Hood River. They were on skis and unfortunately, I wasn't equipped to keep up with them so I took some pictures of them and we went our separate ways. It was such a beautiful hike though. I'm always amazed at the stillness and beauty in nature...it was truly refreshing to get outside and enjoy the activity and the stillness.

Columbia River Gorge

It's so amazing to be living in the Pacific Northwest again. To be 30 minutes from amazing beauty and wildness...Southern California seems like years ago after living here for a a half a year.
Today I was feeling stir crazy while Amanda was at work. The weather was beautiful (i.e. no rain and clear skies), so I decided to take a drive into the gorge. After driving around and looking for some fun places to hike around, I found a little trail next to the Columbia. It was super quiet (no wind), ice still floating in the water, and the sunset was beautiful. These pictures were actually taken after sunset with longer shutter speeds. They came out pretty good in my opinion...

Hood River

Hood River has to be one of the most beautiful cities in Oregon. Of course I'm partial because I grew up there. I took a little drive out to Hood River last night and took a couple more photos. The new tripod has been a blast--the next thing on the list is a "cable release" since it really stinks standing in one place trying to hold the shutter button for 15 minutes. With the wind of Hood River, it's really cold too...

Portland at Night

It's been too long since I've gotten the chance to put up a new post. Life's been very busy: from work travel to out of town vacations, it feels like this last month has been a blur. This past week was my birthday and Amanda got me an amazing new tripod which I had to try out for the evening. Portland is really an amazing city especially at night. This is attempt number one with Amanda of photographing the city of Portland.

Tree

One more picture from our recent romp through Hoyt Arboretum...

Hoyt Arboretum

It's hard to believe that it is almost the end of October and the weather is still amazing in Portland. Tom came up for Southern California to visit his sister for her birthday on Friday. On Saturday, Tom came over to hang out with Amanda and I. We ended up going to Hoyt arboretum for a little lunch and meeting up with Brooke. It was a blast walking through the forests on all the trails and laughing at funny facebook jokes. I also had a blast trying to do motion shots. Most of these pictures were taken while walking. It's kind of fun to have the appearance of moving in the picture....

Dog Mountain

So Amanda and I hatched this cool idea this week...A backpacking trip over the weekend. We were planning on leaving Saturday morning and coming back Sunday afternoon. The hike was supposed to be an easy hike--supposedly rated a 2 out of 10 (10 being the most strenuous). Needless to say the person who rated this hike was off his rocker. The climb gained 3000 feet of elevation in a little over 3 miles.
There wasn't really anywhere to camp on the trail so we just did the whole loop in a day: 6.5 miles and 6000 feet of elevation change. Here are the pics from the trip. I think the one of Amanda hiking the trail in the mist reminds me of Scotland--which is a place we'd like to visit someday.