First of all, if you live anywhere near the Rowena Viewpoint and you haven't been there to watch an entire sunrise, DO IT. Ok, good talk.


I woke up early Wed morning and did a quick check of the weather.  All seemed well and there were a few breaks in the clouds.  Perfect!  As Jesse has a constant urge to punch all mornings in the face, I went solo just a few miles down the Gorge to Rowena Viewpoint.  It was an awesome morning. Hardly any wind, and I could tell that there was big potential for an excellent sunrise.  I didn't have much time to set up once I got there, so I hurried and set up the camera and began planning the sequence.  Here's an obligatory phone picture of my setup before things started happening.  I sometimes like to bring the GoPro along to snap pictures as well, as I'm often surprised with the results, so that's why you can see it attached to the top of the cam.

This picture is pulled from about 700 that I took in about an hour.  I have yet to process them all, but am pretty hopeful that it will turn out to be a rock-solid sequence.  Only time will tell!

Spring is definitely springing in the Columbia River Gorge, and I couldn't be happier.  Although I truly love the winter season, a little green and warmer weather is always welcome with arms wide open. (Yes, like the chart-topping song)

Me and Jesse had a great trip down the Gorge to a place we've never been, Summit Falls. This is a pretty obscure little falls, and doesn't boast the mind-blowing heights of other more prominent tourist stops.  These types of locations have always been my favorite, and this little jaunt didn't disappoint. Summit Falls has an upper and lower section, and the "trail" is accessed by a service road that most would overlook along I-84 East.  The falls would certainly be enough reason to stop at this location, but there's another pretty impressive draw.  A decent portion of the route to the falls is over an incredible moss covered portion of a now abandoned section of the 1916 Historic Highway.  That's right, a road of moss. I didn't believe it until me and Jesse saw portions of perfect looking pavement between the moss, as well as old highway guard rails made out of stone. This moss has been growing here for over 50 years!  If you want to feel like you're the last person on earth after a zombie takeover, this is a solid choice.

Naturally, with inklings of zombies around every corner, Jesse felt it was appropriate to take up arms and "attack with the north", as quoted from this short clip displaying her sheer strength.

The most impressive part of this mighty charge was how far Jesse ran. Good solid charge Babe!

On to Summit Falls! 
The lower portion of Summit Falls was fairly easy to get to, with just a bit of scrambling down the scree slope to get there.  Like I said earlier, Summit Falls doesn't necessarily have any impressive stats to boast about, but me and Jesse loved our little pocket of solace we discovered, and it was all ours for over an hour.  This was a great spot to get some slider shots and audio for the ongoing project, and of course was a great place to snap some regular pictures as well.  

After we were satisfied with our efforts at the lower section, we trekked our way up the "trail" to the upper section.  We had quite a time traversing and scrambling our way up along the steep bank, but were rewarded with this when we finally made it to the top.

We lucked out with this portion of the falls, as water was flowing pretty steadily.  We especially enjoyed the nurse stump that you can see in the upper right of the picture.  Here we collected more footage and audio, and then started our way home.

With future plans to reopen and refurbish many of the old sections of the Historic Hwy in 2016, I can't help but think that this series of falls is bound to get way more attention in the future.  I also can't help but have mixed feelings about the restoration of this section of the highway, as the ruins and deterioration of what once was provided a pretty special experience. 

It was a beautiful day today, so me and Jesse decided we'd go explore another area of the Gorge.  Slightly east of Hood River on the Washington side, Courtney Rd starts winding it's way up the mountains starting at Look Lake.  Courtney Road is used regularly by Mtn Bikers as they enjoy the Coyote Wall trails commonly known as Syncline.  There wasn't much going on in regards to dynamic weather today, but I knew that I wanted to scout the location before hauling the rest of my equipment up the windy trail.  After hiking a couple miles to the location, we were rewarded with incredible views of Hood River and a perfect straight shot down the Columbia River Gorge!  As  usual, Jesse came prepared with blankets and warm clothes so she could cozy up on a rock while I explored the area looking for the best shots.  Jesse isn't able to make it out with me on many of my wanderings, so it's always awesome to have her be able to come along.  Here's a picture of her demonstrating her technique of staying warm in the great outdoors. : )

Even though the conditions weren't ideal at all for time-lapse, I still set up the camera and let it run so that I can get an idea of how I'd like to shoot the area when conditions are ideal. 

Although not much happened in regards to movement during the time-lapse, it's always fascinating to see how the water carves its way through the Gorge. 

Once the sun came out, Jesse was comfortable coming out of her cozy shell and showing her face!

I plan on shooting this location as a dusk-to-night-time transition. I will be closely watching the celestial data for the most ideal time to do this location justice.  Stay tuned!

Here are some fun facts about my wife, Jesse.  
1. She hates being cold.  Not in a "I'd rather not be cold" type of hate, but a "Me and cold will someday meet on American Gladiators" type.
2. She likes being cozy.  I have learned that being "cozy" doesn't just mean being warm.  It's much more than that.  To be cozy, not only must one be warm, but they also must be wearing pink fuzzy socks and be wrapped so tightly in a blanket that they resemble a newborn in a freshly wrapped papoose pouch.
3. If she's not warm and/or cozy, she has every right to sling belittling one liners my way at an intense rate.  Simply put, a cold Jesse = Mrs. Grumpy Gills. This isn't a problem, it's just a fact that has made itself more clear every day.  If I want to keep my self esteem up, I had better keep the warmth levels up as well.  No problem.
4. Jesse also is incredibly supportive.  She wants to be with me whenever possible and take part in what I enjoy.  I love this, but it creates some problems, as most of the things I like doing include being outside regardless of the weather.  
5. Lastly, Jesse is impressively resourceful. When I asked her if she wanted to trek up to the Rowena Viewpoint with me, I figured that because of the cold, the answer would most certainly be no.  Jesse arrived at a different conclusion.  When I came back into the room, she was proudly wearing this:

Full-Blown "Caterpillar of the Night" adventure jump-suit.  She waddled her way out to the car and we were on our way. 

The Rowena Overlook is a pretty popular viewpoint West of The Dalles, and offers awesome views of certain portions of the Columbia River and its' surroundings.  It's a perfect starting spot to gather footage for the Gorge Project. I eventually want to gather both day and night footage at this location, so we started with our 1st visit for night-time footage.  We were there from about 9pm to 12:30am, and Jesse was happy as can be sitting in the car in her Caterpillar Suit with her reading material as I scurried around taking pictures at various locations.  It was very peaceful.  A light wind blew up the bank as cars painted the freeways down below.  It was a great opportunity to leave technology behind and just sit quietly and listen.

I haven't completely processed the footage yet, but it looks promising.  The cloud cover made for perfect combination of bright stars and smoothly moving clouds.  Before we left, I decided that I wanted to try a light painting experiment with a portion of the curvy road leading up to the viewpoint.  Because no other cars were around, I recruited Jesse to drive the car on a particular portion of road, and I captured the light from our car for about 90 seconds straight.  Jesse's a good painter, and I have proof... Here's the result of our little experiment.

Without a doubt, we'll be back here soon.  After this somewhat successful staging, I got ideas for additional ones.  Perhaps the "Caterpillar of the Night" suit will find a new place hanging alongside our coats and jackets. 

I love having projects.  If I don't have something I'm currently working on, I'll wander around the house aimlessly organizing and re-organizing everything we have.  This is not ideal, and makes Jesse uncomfortable.  Now that we're back in the Columbia River Gorge for a while, I have adopted a huge personal project.  I hope to expose the beauty of the Gorge via another long-term time-lapse photography project.  Along with some of the popular locations, I'm excited to expose and share many of the obscure places off the beaten path.  These places are always my favorite.  I love discovering new areas, and as my wife can attest, I ALWAYS have to see what's around the corner, over the hill, in the pit, etc.  I explore the wilderness like a squirrel pumped full of Mtn. Dew in the middle of a lightening storm.  Unless you know exactly what I'm talking about, you probably don't want to go exploring with me.  Jesse has learned this over and over again, and is a VERY patient with me.  
To me, time-lapse photography is extremely rewarding as well as challenging.  At times, 5 seconds of completed footage is the result multiple trips to the same location for many hours at a time.  If you don't simply love being outside, you won't enjoy any part of serious time-lapse landscape photography.  And that is a full-blown mega-fact.
One of my first more serious time-lapse projects was recently completed in Jacksonville, Florida.  I was out exploring and shooting whenever possible during a period of 8 months.  Although the motivations for my Jacksonville video were much different than the motivations for this project, the end result may be similar.  My Jacksonville project ended up being the compilation of over 20,000 pictures taken at many different locations.  Naturally, this large number of pictures takes a great deal of time to edit and process into the final product.  I estimated that for every 1 second of time-lapse footage in the final video, roughly 3-4 hours of work was needed either out in the field shooting or editing at my workstation.  To others, this may seem a bit insane, but to me, it's completely worth the effort involved.  I met a ton of great people and made great memories.  To find out more of the details regarding the Jacksonville video, click here.

Naturally, as anyone continues to develop a skill, they will become even more proficient.  With some new and improved equipment, lessons learned, and new techniques, i'm excited to see how this next venture turns out, and even more excited to share it with others.  I'll be sure to keep this blog updated by posting pictures of my various locations, setups and experiences.  Naturally, all blog posts having to do with this project will contain "Gorge Project" in the title.