The North Fork Skokomish valley is one of my favorite locations in Olympic National Park. It used to be the closest to my home, when I lived in Olympia. It’s a little farther away now, but I still try to make several trips per year. It’s a low snow year when you can drive up to the Staircase Trailhead in December (unlike this year).
The Holga cameras are a fun diversion. They are inexpensive to purchase, shoot 120 film and have a single lens similar to the Kodak Brownies of old. Since the lens has just one element, you get a very soft focus. The panorama version of the Holgas uses two frames of the 120 film … so you get 6 shots per roll. Developing is where things start costing money … well, after the $10 per roll of film, that is. There is an extra charge for processing the panoramas … so it you get high res scans, the cost comes in about $40 per roll for the processing … which brings the total to close to $10 per shot. Almost enough to make me want to start processing the film myself. Almost.
The above view is of the lighthouse at Point Wilson on Fort Worden from the dock of the Marine Science Center. Below is the view in the opposite direction showing the driftwood that has accumulated along the beach.
One of my regular exercise routines is walking the trails at Fort Worden. And I’m always carrying a camera … especially if it is sunny in winter. In these images (taken with a Nikon F6 on Portra 400 … except for the bottom image which was taken with an iPhone), the afternoon sun warmed the colors. The image below shows the Point Wilson Lighthouse and just above it, (in the haze) Mount Baker.
The trees below show what happens when you clear cut old growth and trees grow back too close together. They end up being skinny and tall from a lack of sunlight.
I have been looking through my library to find photos related to water. I found this one that shows moon jellyfish in Budd Bay in Olympia, Washington. I liked the reflection of my kayak paddle to give some sense of scale to the cloud of jellies. In the summer, the moon jelly population can explode … a result of stagnate water, I believe.
I was recently at the Fishermen’s Terminal in Seattle having some fish and chips for dinner. (It’s fresh!!!)
After eating we walked a bit along the docks. It was night and I took a couple photos to see how the cameras would do. One is captured with my cell phone the other with my Nikon Z7ii. There’s not much difference at this magnification … and I was surprised at how well each did, considering it was dark and I was hand holding the camera/phone.
