Happy Hallowe’en!

Pumpkins at Daum's Produce Stand, Willamette Valley, Oregon.

Halloween means Jack-O-Lanterns, and the pumpkin patches at farms all over the Pacific Northwest have been harvested for pumpkin sales and displays in stores and at produce stands. The Daum family put together a great Halloween and fall harvest display at their produce stand next to their barn near the town of Hopewell in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

Guanajuato, Mexico

Guanajuato, Mexico historic district at sunset.

Home again after ten wonderful days in Mexico, and now I have hundreds of photos to edit, process, caption, keyword and upload. Visiting the city of Guanajuato in central Mexico was my favorite part of the trip. The downtown area or Zona Centro and surrounding neighborhoods are filled with ornate churches, theatres and colorful buildings that are a photographer’s delight.

Guanajuato is also a very historic city. There are gold and silver mines dating back to the 1500’s, and there are numerous monuments and museums commemorating the Mexico’s fight for independence in 1810, which had it’s start in the state of Guanajuato.

The view above, with the prominent Basilica de Nuestra Señora de Guanajuato on the left, was taken from the viewpoint at the top of the funicular where there is a monument to El Pipila, a hero of the Mexican War of Independence. The view from this lookout is great almost any time of day, but is particularly beautiful just as the sun sets and city lights come on.

To see a few more of my Guanajuato photos, please see this Gallery: http://bit.ly/3rGSnr . Click on “View Slideshow” and then Full Screen Mode for the best view.

Mariachi

Mariachi serenading a couple in a restaurant.

Mariachi music is one of the great traditions of Mexico, and Marachi bands are one of the instantly recognizable images of this wonderful country. The musicians play a variety of string and percussion instruments, and typically dress in fancy charro outfits. This unique style of music originated in Mexican colonial times in what is now the state of Jalisco, and is especially popular in Guadalajara.

The musician in this photo was part of a band serenading a local couple at a restaurant on the main plaza in Guanajuato. He was very serious and intent on his performance with his violin.

I took a lesson here from a recent post by travel photographer extraordinaire Nevada Wier,  suggesting that an approach other than straight on often yields a better photograph.

Guadalajara, Mexico

A charro or cowboy in Guadalajara, Mexico.

On a visit to Guadalajara, Mexico, our SATW group took in a charreada, which is sort of a Mexican rodeo. The charros and charras (cowboys and cowgirls) perform in a variety of events demonstrating their skills in horsemanship.

Autumn is upon us.

Mount Baker from Yellow Aster Butte Trail.

Only a few weeks ago photographers in the Pacific Northwest were still shooting wildflowers in the alpine areas of the Cascade Mountains. With the Autumn Equinox just behind us, we’re now looking for Fall color in many of the same places. I ventured up into the northern and central Cascades of Washington state recently in search of the red, orange and golden leaves that make this season wonderful. My impression is that, just as the wildflowers were a couple of weeks late this year, the warm spell we’ve had in early autumn is causing a delay in the Fall color as well. Most the areas that I visited were just showing the first signs of leaves turning, whereas on a trip to many of the same places two years ago at this time the color was at peak.

I did find some very nice color by hiking the Yellow Aster Butte Trail in the Mount Baker – Snoqualmie National Forest in the northwest corner of Washington. Some of the huckleberry bushes were a beautiful deep red (and the berries incredibly delicious!). Mountain ash with yellow leaves and bunches of bright red berries added to the color. This trail is also great for wildflowers in the Spring and is tops for scenery in any season with views of alpine tarns, Mount Shuksan and Mount Baker.

The first two weeks of October should be great for Fall color in mountain areas all over Oregon and Washington – get out an enjoy it as soon as you can!

National Park Rangers

Ranger Chuck Smith at Rainbow Bridge National Monument

When I was a kid, the Rangers at National Parks we visited on family vacations were among my favorite heroes. Always friendly, they knew everything about the outdoors and wore those ever-so-cool Smokey the Bear type hats. But for some turns of fate, I might well have become a Ranger myself.

These days, as a travel and nature photographer, I find these same wonderful folk to be an outstanding resource for information and help in getting the photos I want and need. Whenever I’m traveling to National Park, National Monument, BLM or National Forest lands, I try to make it a point to check in with the local Ranger District office or visitor center. Over the years, without fail these men and women have repeatedly pointed me to the best photo ops in their territory and provided valuable information. There’s something special about these folk, and I’d like to give them a big THANKS for their help and friendliness.

Mount Rainier Wildflowers

Wildflowers and Tatoosh Range, from the Paradise area of Mount Rainier National Park.

By several accounts, this year has been among the best in recent times for the wildflowers at Mount Rainier National Park. After hearing earlier this month that the flowers had peaked, I was afraid I wasn’t going to find much by the time I was able to get up there, but I was delighted to find that there are still several areas of lush meadows with lots of colorful flowers in their prime.

The always-helpful National Park Rangers at the visitor centers pointed me to the upper areas of the Skyline Trail and the Lakes Trail on Mazama Ridge, and they were right on the money. The photo above is from the upper part of the Skyline Trail, a loop trail around the Paradise area of Mount Rainier that takes in some of the best scenery in the park. Meadows there were filled with lupine, Indian paintbrush, pasqueflower (aka “mouse-on-a-stick”) and a number of other species.

Mount Rainier National Park encompasses a wide range of habitats and diverse eco-systems. The final day of my visit I hiked close to a glacier (rapidly receding due to global warming) and past shady pockets of meadows where avalanche lilies were still in bloom then drove down to lowland old-growth forest where a few vine maple trees were already showing their fall colors – Spring, Summer and Fall seasons within a few miles.

Mount Rainier and Reflection Lake

Mt. Rainier with lenticular cloud, from Reflection Lake.

They say that when a lenticular cloud appears on Mount Rainier rain will be arriving within 24 hours, and that’s exactly what happened last week. The first morning there I got this photo, and for the next several days it was nothing but fog and rain. The Mountain, as Washingtonians call it, didn’t show itself again, except for very brief fleeting glimpses, until yesterday morning.

The soft light of fog was great for close-ups of wildflowers, however, and the meadows at Paradise are spectacular this summer with a profusion of lupine, paintbrush, columbine, pasqueflower and more.

With the clearing weather, I’m headed back up to Paradise today, hopefully to get photos with both flowers and The Mountain.

Mount Adams and Bird Creek Meadows

Mount Adams and wildflower meadow.

I’m back up in Washington state this week, photographing the summer wildflower bloom in subalpine meadows. First destination was Bird Creek Meadows on the southeast slope of Mount Adams. With all the heat in the Pacific Northwest last week many of the flowers in the main meadow areas are done for this year, but there are still some great areas. The photo above was taken just below Hellroaring Viewpoint and one below is at Crooked Creek Falls.

Crooked Creek Falls and Indian Paintbrush.

Blueberry time

Yellow flower spider on blueberries; Willamette Valley, Oregon

Summertime in Oregon’s Willamette Valley and the berries are ripe! We’ve got a wealth of them here – blueberries, strawberries, boysenberries, raspberries and marionberries. The ones from the grocery stores are great, those from farmer’s markets and produce stands are better, and picking them from our own garden is better still.