By David Halgrimson
Another workshop with Arizona Highways PhotoScapes, this would be my 20th experience. This workshop is coming up again in June of this year as AHPS presents “Epic Scenery in the Pacific Northwest“.
We started our adventure the day before the workshop, in Seattle where we met with the photographer and finalized our plans and itinerary for the next six days. If you attend this workshop or not, Seattle is a great place to visit and spend some time, be sure to see Pikes Market, it’s a day’s worth shopping and eating.
On day one of the workshop, we met our workshop participants, loaded up the vans and headed to the Olympic Peninsula where we would be spending the rest of our time. We stopped for a break on Ocean Shores Beach where our photographer presented us with some history and information about the area we would be photographing.
We arrived at the Lake Quinault Lodge early afternoon and after checking in we met for the photographer’s presentation. We then headed out for Marymere Falls and Bunch Creek Falls for a sunset shoot.
Our day two started with a flat tire on one of the vans, but quickly fixed and on our way to Ruby Beach. The beach has lots of driftwood that can be used for interesting foregrounds in photos. There are also sea stacks, large rock formations rising from the ocean. Our next stops would be First Beach and Second Beach, unique names I thought.
Our third day would lead us to the Hoh Rain Forest where we would spend the morning. After returning to our home base, we had an image critique and ended our day at Rialto Beach. The Hoh would be a complete change in topography, with tall pine trees, moss growing everywhere and lots of bright greens. Rialto Beach was another wood covered beach with large logs of fallen pine trees. The scene was a drastic change from the bright greens and life of the Hoh Rain Forest. And our photographer had a little fun with a red umbrella.
Sol Duc Falls would be our first destination this fourth day. This would be our first hike of any distance, which was about 1 mile one way. I found too many things to photograph and never made it to the falls, I guess that’s the way of photography.
For our afternoon and evening shoot we headed for Tongue Point and Madison Falls. At Tongue Point there was more beauty, not only the beach and sea stacks but in the small pools of water where creatures unknown to me could be found. Not being a fan of photographing waterfalls, I approached Madison Falls a little differently.
For a complete change of scenery, we visited a lavender farm in Sequim Washington on day five. In the afternoon we traveled to Hurricane Ridge, a mountain with an elevation of 5245 feet. Our final adventure for the day was a boat ride to through the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the New Dungeness Lighthouse
Day six, our final day, we returned to Hurricane Ridge for a sunrise. We climbed above the clouds to see a spectacular sunrise lighting up the top of the clouds instead of from underneath.
If you have never photographed the Pacific Northwest, this workshop is the one for you and it is scheduled for June 26 – 30, 2023. You can check it out further here, Pacific Northwest’s Olympic Peninsula.
David Halgrimson is a Photo Guide with Arizona Highways PhotoScapes
