Awesome Photos

My friend Tom and I took a road trip to Jedediah Smith Wilderness (in California, 10 miles from the Oregon coast.) Our goal was to capture some of the coastal redwoods and Rhododendrons in the mist of this beautiful, scared-feeling forest.  Another personal goal of mine on this short trip was to ask my friend Tom as many questions about photography and gear as possible.  Why?  Because Tom is one of the best landscape photographers I know.   He is my mentor, pure and simple.  A decent amount of what I now know about shooting an image came from Tom’s generosity in sharing with me what I call “secret file” information.  The kind of stuff that, if you know it, you don’t share it with another photographer.   But Tom always did share this stuff with me.  For instance, I now know why the “rule of thirds” is important and also how to maximize depth of field by using the Scheimpflug principle.  These are the GOODS!  So, clearly, to be able to ask him question after technical question for over 20 hours of roundtrip driving time was a dream come true.

When we arrived we set out trekking through the misty, dense and tall foliage of deep greens and grays looking for the prefect shot.  (Have I mentioned that this place is so mystical that they found it fitting for some of the Start Wars movies?!) Surrounded by thousands of Coastal Redwoods and bright pink Rhododendrons, we knew it wouldn’t take too long to find a place to unload our gear.  Tom, who often shoots an 8×10 view camera, had one of his many digital Canons and I had my Pentax 6×7.  After finding some good “Rhody” shots, we came upon a fire road which was said to be the old Highway 101.  If that is true, it’s hard to believe.  A highway 101 in the middle of all these towering ancient trees?  Hmmm…well, if it will take us longer to get home on this old highway then I can ask Tom even more questions.  Let’s take it.