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).

Stars at Breitenbush

Last weekend I went camping with my family up at Breitenbush River. When the campfire was slowly dying, I jumped in my gold car and drove up to the bridge and with my Canon, widest angle lens, and tripod, I set up my gear and got ready for some long exposures.

These were taken with my 18-135mm lens (set at 18mm) with a 30 sec exposure, f-stop 3.5, and 800 ISO. I'm still working on perfecting my astro photography and I played around with some light painting.

What is "light painting?" I learned this from listening to the Improve Photography podcast on Stitcher (phone app) and it's where you use a flashlight (usually) and shine the flashlight on something while you take a long exposure in the dark. So, with the help if my husband and his dad's GIANT flashlight, I was able to get the photograph of my car and the stars on the third try.

Well, enjoy these photos and get outside this weekend and look at the stars yourself.

Laura and Brandon | Wedding

Three and a half years ago was the last wedding I was at and it was my own wedding. It was a whirlwind of family, friends, and starting a new chapter in my life. It was in early January and the days leading up to it there was flooding and snow in Oregon, but on the day we were married it was a bluebird, sunny, slightly warm, January day. I know how overwhelming it can all be; you want to visit with everyone, your cheeks hurt from smiling, you want to dance the night away, and when it's all done you're exhausted from happiness.

This all happened again yesterday, but it was my cousin and her husband who celebrated their new chapter of marriage. Since mid-June it has been 80-90 degree weather, so unbearably hot. But yesterday it was an overcast cool day in the middle of July, no threat of rain for their outdoor reception. Her nieces adored her and she adores them (and Brandon adores them, too), everyone was smiling, the look in Laura and Brandon's eyes was misty with love, and looking through the photos I took of their reception just affirm the love they have for each other.

Now, this is the first time I've taken photos at a wedding, be it just the reception part, but I really look for all the little details (the artist in me) and wanted to capture them for Laura and Brandon. I wanted to take candid shots which was perfect since they were busy with a professional photographer who made sure they got all those taken care of. 

It's the little moments like these that I love. I hope you love them, too.

All these photos were taken with my Canon Rebel T3i with my 85mm 1.8 lens. It's my favorite lens and I shot everything in manual and the only editing I did to these was lightening the exposure as needed. 

There are no filters needed for love.

Sunset Horses

While I was out taking photos of Legend, I went out in the big field and took photos of some horses and donkeys. I had a lot of fun learning more about my camera and its settings.

I hope you enjoy some of my "experimentation" photos!

Happy Friday!

Legend at One Month | Drum Horse Colt

On Monday evening I went out and visited Legend, the newest HyTyme Drum Horse, and he is one active little colt. He ran around so much, and unfortunately, a lot of those photos came out blurry (what do I do with blurry photos? I paint from them!) and some of these may be a little blurry, but they are still cute.

I also captured a couple images of Legend with his mom, Star, a Clydesdale mare.

Enjoy!