Blogs from Oregon, United States, North America - page 131

Hi. You should come look at this when I leave. I'll try to be good about it. ... read more

This morning, while Marc takes Alan to a secret coastal destination for a sunrise photo shoot, I blissfully sleep in. Alan meets Marc at a state park where they don headlamps and scurry beneath dense vegetation before scrambling down a steep slope to a narrow ledge overlooking the Pacific Ocean far below. Their destination? The cauldron. “If I had seen the trail in the daylight, I might have declined,” Alan says. They continue their journey, finally reaching the rocky shore. Alan makes it safely down only to slip on a rocky tidal pool meaning he spends the morning shoot in wet clothes. Luckily, his camera suffers no damage. From viewing the photos that Alan took, I can see the trip was worth it. Unfortunately, he is shooting in RAW format so no photos on the blog ... read more

When Alan arranged a one-on-one photography workshop with landscape photographer, Marc Adamus, he told him, “take us off the beaten path.” Marc took the comments seriously. Marc uses a 5.4-mile hike on the Nature Conservancy’s property at Cascade Head near Lincoln City to get acquainted with us. Although it’s Alan’s workshop, Marc graciously agrees that I can tag along. While Alan and Marc discuss photography, Marc judges our fitness level. When the hike begins on a downhill slope, I make a mental note that the uphill return will be a killer. The trail is shaded by new and old growth forest. We walk on a path cushioned by evergreen needles until it is necessary to negotiate mud puddles or large tree trunks that have fallen across the path. Marc points out an elk track in the ... read more

Deidre and I are packed and bound for Europe; Cologne, Germany to be exact. Towels in hand. Our flight leaves at 0730. We make a brief stop in Newark, New Jersey and fly over the Atlantic pond. Upon our arrival into Cologne, we go to the Dom Cathedral. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Europe's largest cathedrals. It is an excellent display of gothic architecture and contains both a 42 ton pipe organ and supposedly the remains of the Three Magi in a shrine in the east apse behind the alter. After a brief climb to the top of one of the spires, we head south to Koblenz to drive by (and possibly take a tour) of the Koblenz Castle. This castle sits upon a island in the middle of the Rhein ... read more

We drove to Oregon Coast today to do another optional activity, which everyone participated in, a Sand Dunes tour. We arrived at our campsite to find they didn’t really have anywhere for us to camp so they threw us in the corner near the storage sheds and tractors. It wasn’t a big deal, we set up our tents and got our gear ready for the Sand Dunes. Jon warned us that if we do take our camera, to put it in a bag because sand is going to get everywhere, he wasn’t kidding. We arrived at this fun park place which had things like mini-golf, boat rides etc. We bought our tickets for the tour and had to drive down the road to the starting point. I was so excited this was going to be awesome. ... read more