After we got towards the end of the Redwood forest something astonishing happened, the forest incredibly opened up to the Pacific. Vast vistas of ocean for as far as the eye could see. The water even looked blue, which was a novelty because where I live the water looks black. This little stretch of civilization is called Crescent City. It is home to the only drive-thru Subway. We bought sandwiches and sat on the beach and ate them, even though it was not as charming as it may sound.  It was cold and windy, not something you want when you are eating your lunch on a sandy beach. My husband was tired of driving, but refused to let me drive. He kept saying if I drove it would take three times the amount of time to get to our destination.  I drive the speed limit, always, never will you see me go above it.  My husband thinks if we aren’t going with the flow of traffic that it’s dangerous, I say let the other cars speed, there is a reason speed limits are marked.  I also am not good with driving on the highway and I can’t see at night. So those are the reasons I wasn’t allowed behind the wheel of my own car. It was fine by me, I could take more photographs.

This is all I have of the vast expanse of land called the Redwood Forest.  I think this river may be called the Smith River, but to be honest by the time we got to this point in our adventure I was seriously queasy from all the curvy roads. I am not the most ideal person to road trip with. I have been getting many emails about how I am getting the images so crisp.  A lot of it has to do with my lighting conditions.  In Portland the city has a beautiful diffused light almost all the time because of the clouds which makes it pretty easy to take a good shot. In my last Foto class so many people rued the gray days but I say hooray!  That’s some of the best light you can get, no harsh shadows, great detail and there’s a lot more light than you think.  The Redwood Forest has pockets of open shade where you can get beautiful light, granted there were also a lot of areas that made the daytime feel like evening, just masses amounts of tress everywhere.  I tried to get some shots of the trees, but again my lens choice was not conducive to landscape photography.  I couldn’t get more than 3 trees in the frame, let alone convey the enormity of them. We’re leaving for North Carolina next week and I don’t know what I will see there so I don’t know what type of lens to rent. Any suggestions?  I am super excited about stopping in Savannah, Georgia, I am sure there will be tons of great photo-ops there. To be continued…

When we left Portland it was clear and the sun was out, the drive down to California proved to not be as welcoming. I could not believe the skies, they looked like abstract oil paintings. I’m from Southern California so I never have had an opportunity to witness anything like this at home. On our most stormy days the sky does not look like a painter took his melancholy rage out on his canvas, I was quite enthralled.  The craziest part is the next set of photographs I will be uploading, riding through the California border the sun comes out and dances across the Redwood forest and the winding Smith river like it never was hidden behind these angry skies. Looking at them now I can appreciate them much more than being enveloped by them in a small car with two naughty dogs and a neurotic husband.

I have to start this out by saying that if you plan on taking photographs at the zoo be sure to bring a camera or lens that has some sort of zoom capability. I brought my 50mm lens, which is not a zoom, it’s a prime lens meaning my legs are my ‘zoom’. Being that I couldn’t run into any enclosures I didn’t get very many good shots of other animals. The large cats and elephants were out of the question, ditto for the giraffes and zebras.  I am not going to cry over spilled milk, I knew I was going to Portland and I knew I was going to the zoo, I should have been better prepared.  The last photo is my favorite, I only had one opportunity to shoot the hippo and it was right up against the glass. Shortly after I released the shutter a group of kids came barreling around the corner and the hippo quickly retreated. I am sure that will be the last time I will ever be that close to a hippo in my lifetime.  Beautifully constructed exhibits like where the hippo was is what made me fall even more in love with the Portland zoo. There was the illusion of closeness to the animals, yet their was a safe distance for both the animals and the patrons. It’s a really interesting place and hard to imagine it was started by a pharmacist that used to house the animals in back of his store. Yes,  you read that right.

Yes, the Portland Zoo was my absolute hands down favorite spot in all of Portland.  It’s a mere 10 minute drive from the heart of the city, but feels a million miles away.  The grounds are landscaped so well that you feel like you have stepped into a remote forest instead of a city zoo. The bear exhibit was the most impressive, you really felt like you were standing right next to a bear, so much so that when a bear came sidling next to the glass inches from me I let out a swear word and had to profusely apologize to all the parents around me (for those of you that don’t know me that well, it takes a lot to get me to use a swear word).  As far as I could see there were no bars in the entire zoo, which as both an animal lover and photographer made my heart sing. I know there are many people that eschew the zoo, my husband kept repeating that it was such a depressing place.  As someone that studied at one of the most prestigious zoo’s in the country I can tell you that it is even more depressing to think what would happen to a lot of these animals if they were in the wild.  Unfortunately, there’s a lot of poaching going on for the most fanciful of things, rhino horn which is supposed to be a cure all, is made up of nothing more than keratin (same stuff as your fingernails), the saddest part of this poaching is a rhino’s horn can grow back, but the rhino is often killed for his horn.  Talk about a bunch of stupid enterpriser’s, why not just grow some rhino horn? But back to the beauty of the Portland Zoo, I loved it.  I have one more set of photographs from the zoo to share soon. I didn’t take nearly as many photos as I would have liked.  It was raining off and on during our visit to the zoo and I didn’t have any protective covering on my camera. If I lived in Portland this would be a place I would visit on a regular basis.