Just Another Photographic Excursion - The Willamette Edition
After a couple of very busy weeks of work (Ann tuning up a new computer for Bill in addition to all her regular work and me writing two appellate briefs) that included working on the weekend, Ann and I decided we needed to get out to photograph. Well, the rains have started in Oregon (I’m not complaining in case those of you in less fortunate parts of the country think I am) so we didn’t have much choice about which day to get out and stay dry - Sunday was the day.
As far as trips go, it was, uh, probably best described as pretty chaotic. We couldn’t really decide where to go and debated several places. It became my call so late Saturday I decided to go back to one of the places we discovered about a year ago - Champion Creek. That meant no real hikes, so we packed up our shoulder camera bags.
Well, I didn’t feel like getting up at 4:30 when the alarm went off, so we bumped wakeup time to 5:00. I started cooking the sausage as Ann was getting other stuff ready. By the time I made coffee, I’d changed my mind. I decided that I wanted to go and photograph the Willamette River. For those who don’t know, we have 2 major rivers that run by Springfield - the McKenzie and the Willamette. I’ve always favored the McKenzie; not that the Willamette is a bad river, but it’s different and I’ve never really been able to find good places to photograph on it. Plus I proposed to Ann by the McKenzie, so it’s special.
Well the change in plans meant that we had to re-pack. I’d found a location in one of my hiking books that sounded promising, so we were doing a hike. That meant moving gear from the shoulder bags to the backpacks. By the time we got in the car to head out, I think I wasn’t the only one feeling a bit discombobulated. Still, even though we were late it was still dark because we’re not off daylight savings time yet.
Driving up the Willamette we could see the pre-dawn sky start to lighten. There were clouds, which was good because photographing in straight sunlight isn’t great. The weather forecast was for clouds until about 10-11, enough for a few hours of good light to shoot in.
As we drove through Oakridge and then turned towards the Hills Creek Reservoir, the sun started creeping up and the clouds got interesting. As we drove around the reservoir they became very interesting. Then Ann said, see if you can find a place to stop that has a view! The several pull-outs we passed had trees blocking the view, but we finally hit a campground/recreation area and I drove as far as I could get - which meant down to the boat ramp.
The light was already changing by the time we got there, but we grabbed our gear anyway, and tried to make something worthwhile from the ever-changing light.
Aufderheide 1 - Sunrise
It was a less than ideal location, given that the reservoir is very low and you can see about 25 feet of dirt on the edge of the reservoir if you look closely, but it was still a beautiful view. I joked that if I’d actually gotten up on time, we would have been passed this spot when the skies hit, so everything worked out! Ann just rolled her eyes.
We drove on to the location I’d scouted out. The Willamette is a slower moving river than the McKenzie, and there are a lot of broader small-rock bars as the river meanders. We were heading to an area that was described as a more “rugged” stretch of the Willamette that was deeper in the mountains.
We found our trail head, parked, then hiked down the hill to the river. Sure enough, the sound alone let us know that this stretch of the Middle Fork of the Willamette River was rougher. As we descended, we hit the trail, which was still tracking fairly high up the hillside from the river, and headed up stream. About a quarter mile later the trail descended. Just what we wanted. Then we hit a stream. A deep stream. With no way across. After scouting awhile and testing all the logs to make sure they were indeed slippery as a snake due to this past week’s rain, we decided to turn around. We’ll just go down stream. So up hill we started.
We passed the fork back to the car and kept on going. Not too much further we started descending. As we approached another creek we saw 6x6s all stacked up. “Hon, looks like they’re replacing the bridge!” I was wrong, there was nothing to replace except a bunch of logs thrown across the creek. Another deep creek. Foiled again. We turned around and hiked back up hill, again.
By the time we got to the car we were pretty dejected. The sky was lightening up and soon the sun would be breaking through the clouds and we had nothing really to show for it other than our not-quite ideal sunrise shots. We decided that we probably weren’t going to get any photographs, but we should still try to make this an effective scouting expedition. So we started pulling off at every opportunity to see if there was good river access or interesting locations to be had (much like we did on Brice Creek to such good reward).
We were getting a lot of nada. Ann had pretty much lost most of her photographic inspiration as I kept stopping and coming out empty handed. Then we stopped at one place. Nice back light shining through some trees and onto an open field - which was odd - open fields along this portion of the Middle Fork? I tried one shot to utter frustration. Drove down the increasingly worse dirt road until we realized it was an ATV trail and turned around. Driving back I saw it again. “I can’t believe I can’t make a decent image out of that light. Something is wrong with me!” I asked Ann if she minded that we stopped again. She said no. So I grabbed my camera and hiked well into a field to get a closer shot of what I was seeing. Nothing great, but not a total flop either.
I wasn’t sure whether it should be black and white or color, but the black and white seems a bit lifeless.I guess I need to work on black and white skills again.Anyway, on my way back to the car I was rewarded with one of my old standbys - tree bark!
Maybe the day was getting better.
Ann suggested we drive up the Aufderheide Highway. It’s a road that runs up the North Fork of the Willamette, along the Waldo Lake Wilderness area, and then down to the McKenzie River. I said sure because I’ve usually driven it in the other direction, which is the wrong thing to do because you drive into the sun. This way, the sun was at our backs and we’d have better views looking down at the river to see if there was anything to be had.
Sure enough it didn’t take long for us to slam on the brakes in the middle of the road and back up and park in a pull-out. We found a nice set of rocks and little falls that could make a great subject. Sure, the sun was blaring down on the far bank so there was no way to get a good shot of the falls (save that one for a cloudy day), but the brightly lit background was creating some beautiful colors on the water, so Ann and I spent quite a while photographing water patterns.
Aufderheide 4 - Water Patterns
Our scouting trip wasn’t turning out so bad after all!
After a while we hopped back into the car and kept on scouting. As we turned a corner we could see a big wall on the other side of the river. We’d read about a “canyon” on the North Fork and this had to be it. We approached a pull-out and decided to see if there was a way down. Sure enough, there was. Pretty treacherous, but there seemed to be quite a bit to photograph down there and it looked like you could work your way along the river (you never know until you actually check it out). We started to go down and Ann asked if we didn’t want to bring the cameras. So we grabbed our gear and climbed down.
Again, one side of the canyon was in shade, the other in sun, and the sun was moving to lighten the canyon. We had a few angles where we could photograph what we wanted so we made some quick shots.
I scouted down stream a bit to see how it looked (there was another photographer with his family and they scrambled well beyond our view, so yes, it can be done!). The sun came out and was intense. I decided to see if I could try to capture that feeling and, at the least, get an image that we could use for reference later.
This is what we have to look forward to when we come back some well-overcast day!
Aufderheide 6 - Sun Rocks
I made my way back up to Ann, as much to get out of the sun as anything else, and made one last photograph as the sun made its way to light up the canyon.
We didn’t stop again until we hit a restaurant by the McKenzie for an early dinner.
So, a disjointed morning, followed by frustration, and then a few rewards and a couple of good spots to return to when the light is right. Pretty much just another photographic excursion! Not too bad for a day out where we were pretty much winging it!