Vacation Photos from the Pacific Northwest

Whoo-hoo! We are so glad to be home after such a whirlwind trip! 11 days, 8 states, four national parks, one smelly cooler, and 4,250 miles, to be exact.

Photographically speaking, I was SO VERY GLAD for my circular polarizer on this trip! It is the one little gadget I've come to absolutely depend on for outdoor shooting (and even some indoor).  It's a little piece of magic that makes the clouds look 3-D, the grass look greener, and lets you look into water instead of seeing a reflection.  If you don't have one, they aren't super expensive but can really add a lot.

With so many landscapes on bright sunny days, I also felt very badly the need for a graduated neutral-density filter. The top part of the GND filter is dark, and the bottom is clear, with a very graduated level of darkness.  Very often when shooting landscapes, I just have to either underexpose the land or blow out the sky, or try to get something in-between. I don't do much landscape stuff around here and never thought to get that filter before I left. It was pretty tricky business without it.


But anyways...here are a few of the photos I took!  You can see some other ones on my personal blog, Moore Than Fine. 

The famous Tetons.

Here's Old Faithful. I loved how the clouds, far up in the sky, seemed to mirror the mist coming deep out of the earth.

Michala's Senior Portraits in Lincoln, Nebraska - Class of 2011!

Some people feel uncomfortable in front of a camera, and their personalities fizzle away when I need them the most. Other peoples' personalities naturally come out in front of a camera. Michala was definitely the natural sort! She posed herself almost intuitively, and clearly enjoyed being in front of the lens. You can really tell through the photos that she loved the shoot. As a result, her fun, sassy, and unafraid personality came through!  Which, of course, makes for a really fun and smooth session.