Butte Creek Falls

On Saturday, the first rainy day in what seems forever, I went on a drive with my husband down to Scotts Mills in search of the elusive Butte Creek Falls. 

Elusive? Yes. Especially on horseback, a couple years ago I started on a trail ride that the destination goal was Butte Creek Falls. Yeah, that never happened, in fact we got snowed on that chilly February day. After finding the falls and looking on a map, I realized that it was a lot further from the starting point than I originally thought and maybe the "elusive falls" wasn't this specific set of waterfalls.

As always I used my favorite hiking website to get directions to Butte Creek Falls. We only had to turn around on one gravel logging road before we found the right one. It was a short hike and since my hubby came along he carried my tripod in his day pack while I had my big black camera bag.

The first one we stopped at was Lower Butte Creek Falls which falls into a deep pool. Since it was rainy, the soil was pretty soft and it was quite a (sliding butt) climb to get closer and without any gear (like a long, strong rope) , we decided to set up my camera on the ridge that overlooked the falls.

Then we went to Upper Butte Creek Falls which was a lot easier to get closer to and we had fun finding different perspectives. I hope you enjoy these photos and maybe get out and see these falls for yourself and they're a lot closer to Salem than to Portland. It was very pretty even on an overcast, drizzly day (I can see why my cousin was proposed to there!).

Screen Printing Decisions

Last month I learned screen printing. This month I've decided that I'll keep doing it, but keep it to limited editions. What does that mean??? I'll make a design on a screen and post when I'm accepting orders for t-shirts, and there will be two chances for you to order your very own shirt. I will also be printing a handful of tea towels. So, both the t-shirts and tea towels will be very special. Once my two calls for ordering t-shirts are up, the screen will be reclaimed (aka design will be destroyed), so very limited edition.

My first design is of Gracie and Tuesday of Serenity North Farms in Florida. It's a very sweet, cute design of two Gypsy Vanners, nose-to-nose. If you are interested in a shirt of your own, please follow me on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, or you can subscribe to this blog or my monthly newsletter, because I'll be posting on all those sites when I release a new design and when I'm accepting orders. So, like I said ... limited edition, special, hand printed, and designed by me!

I have a couple tea towels on my website right now.

Gypsy Vanner Tea Towel from Western Rose Studios

Zig Zag Falls | Photography

On Friday I got out of town and headed up the mountain (Mt. Hood), and found Zig Zag Falls.

It was at least 10 degrees cooler up there and a welcome change from being in the city all week. The hike is very short (a mere 0.5 miles to the falls) and really easy for any age to hike. There are lots of little riffles over rocks and logs in the stream. I photographed one of the little stream riffles as a warm up before I got to my destination, Zig Zag Falls.

Once I arrived at the falls, I did a little log hopping (always make sure it's safe and none of them will roll on you) and I found a spot in the middle of the stream below the falls and tried a couple settings and compositions until I found the perfect combination. Then I followed a little trail to the top of the falls, carefully pulled out my tripod and camera, and took a couple shots looking down.

I hope you enjoy these photos and maybe go out and visit this place yourself if you're in the Portland area.

Foxgloves

A couple months ago I was up in Corbett on a dead end road out in the country. I walked up this logging road during the last part of the golden hour and pulled out my tripod. I played around with exposure time and focal length.

I hope you enjoy some of my favorite wildflowers, foxgloves (and a couple of daisies).