Because I generally don’t post my income-producing (wedding work) pictures on this site, I sometimes wonder whether folks who read this online journal might get the idea I’m a fellow who doesn’t have a “real” job, a lucky man with a camera who wanders around beautiful, visually stunning areas of the Pacific Northwest photographing mountains or waterfalls or idyllic pastoral scenes. Or perhaps it seems that I’m one of those fortunate individuals who invested in a bunch of Microsoft stock at just the right time, sold it--also at the right time--and retired at the age of 29 to devote full time to my hobby of photography?
Well, “No!” to all of the above. For the record, I spend most of my weekdays staring into a computer display screen, going through (one-by-one) hundreds of images I’ve shot for clients at weekend weddings. I enjoy my work, but it is "work."
This week, however, a friend insisted I take a day away from Mr. Macintosh and hike with her in the high country near Mt. Rainier. Though I try to fit some kind of exercise into my life every day, I hadn’t had a pack on my back or hiking boots on my feet in months. It felt SO good to be in the mountains again.
My friend and I hiked to a high alpine meadow at an elevation of about 6000 feet. Fall color is beginning to show itself up there, and it’s interesting to me how the two photographs I’m posting here, both shot from that same high meadow, look so very different. The color image above feels (to me) like the Cascade Mountains in fall. The black-and-white photograph below reminds me--except for the pine tree--of scenes I’ve shot in the desert Southwest, maybe Monument Valley.
Color or black-and-white, I really don’t care.
Have I mentioned that it was good to be out?
