We went camping in the cold and the wet
The cover photo is easily my favorite frame from this adventure. Gob happily jumped into his mama’s lap wearing his ridiculous reindeer sweater, and while we were all a bit soggy and weary at that point, we were happily making the best of the conditions, and I felt that this shot captured that feeling for me.
“It looks like it’s going to be wet all weekend.”
We didn’t heed the forecast; and even though it was going to be absolutely beautiful out the weekend after, we already had other adventures planned. So onwards we went. The destination was the Sol Duc Campground (complete with hot springs!) nestled in Olympic National Park.
Gob being unimpressed with the trip from the get-go.
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Being separated by a ferry ride out from Seattle, it feels like you’re going out on a big expedition out into the wild, even though the campsite overall was only three to four hours away. When we finally hit Lake Crescent it felt like things really opened up - all that weather turned out some majestic views. I braved the wind and raindrops for a few shots.
Lake Crescent
Kodak Portra 400; Rollei 35T
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We lucked out when we got to the campsite; there was a bit of a let-up in the rain that allowed us to setup shop and take some photos. On this trip, I had brought a Rollei 35T loaded with Portra 400, and my D300S with Sigma Art 18-35mm f1.8.
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Kodak Portra 400; Rollei 35T
Kodak Portra 400; Rollei 35T
The other frame accompanying the cover photo
Kodak Portra 400; Rollei 35T
The light, though challenging, proved to be very moody through the smoke and mist that hung about.
Kodak Portra 400; Rollei 35T
Kodak Portra 400; Rollei 35T
Unfortunately, on the whole, we didn’t really have much of an opportunity for photography. Staying warm and dry was enough of a challenge. When the evening fire started tailing off and Alex and Gob headed to bed, I decided to try a little bit of astrophotography. I haven’t really gotten into it but it was fun to dabble. Unfortunately the cloud cover was non-cooperative, and I went to bed without really anything to get too excited about.
Nikon D300S; Sigma Art 18-35 f1.8
Nikon D300S; Sigma Art 18-35 f1.8
The night proved to be frigid. Gob jammed his snoot into the hoodie portion of Alex’s sleeping bag, and when that didn’t quite work out, he dove head first into her bag and army crawled in. I contemplated doing the same into my own sleeping bag.
When morning arrived, we were in quick agreement to just pack up and get going. No lazy morning dilly dallying over coffee and breakfast, we were chilled to the bone and ready to go home.
Happy to head out a little early
Kodak Portra 400; Rollei 35T
Raccoons!
A much more welcome alternative to bears..
The journey home was a whole ‘nother adventure, with a stop in Forks and peek-a-boo views of the ocean and stuff. We also made a stop in Port Townsend and caught an old-timey sailboat-pirate-ship looking thing waiting out some weather in town on its way out to Aberdeen.
Nikon D300S; Sigma Art 18-35mm f1.8
Nikon D300S; Sigma Art 18-35mm f1.8
Nikon D300S; Sigma Art 18-35mm f1.8
Nikon D300S; Sigma Art 18-35mm f1.8
Nikon D300S; Sigma Art 18-35mm f1.8
Nikon D300S; Sigma Art 18-35mm f1.8
Nikon D300S; Sigma Art 18-35mm f1.8
Nikon D300S; Sigma Art 18-35mm f1.8
Nikon D300S; Sigma Art 18-35mm f1.8
And if this weren’t enough adventure, realizing that we had probably near 2 hours of a wait to get onto the ferry, we decided to drive the long way down to the ferry further south on Bainbridge Island. It turned out to be a great move - coming in on the ferry, we were also treated to impressive views of downtown Seattle shrouded in a hazy mist.
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It felt so good to be home.