Oh Fall How I love Ya!

Fall is my time. I have friends who live for the Summer, I live for the cool, crisp nights of Fall that are followed by bright sunny days.

I'm especially happy this year to welcome Fall as I have the memory of sweating my butt off while taking a Landscape Photography class Thursday nights in July and August. Every Thursday it felt like it was the hottest, most humid day of the week and there I was in some woodland or beach area trying to move slow and keep the "it's hot" exclamations to a minimum. Because really, saying it doesn't make it any better and there is a point where you just have to resign yourself to the fact that you are in it, be in the moment and you'll take a nice long shower in AC later. Because really, is there anything better than a long, cool shower after spending hours in the heat, swatting at bugs and applying layer after layer of bug spray? Not in my book, no. 

I have to admit, I resisted taking this class for a while now. Not because of the fact it's in the heat of the summer but because I thought I would get bored of landscape photography after a few classes. I learned something though while taking this class. I have more stamina that I expected to deal with heat, humidity and bugs and landscape photography can be very Zen. It forces you to go slower, see things in complete and really take your time to make your best images.

And one of the most surprising things about the class was experiencing places that I've never been to in this area. I've lived in southeastern Massachusetts my whole life and thought I knew all the most interesting spots. But I was so wrong. I visited woodlands I never knew of, areas of the coastline I didn't know existed - it was fun to discover new places in my immediate area. 

So I feel like the theme of my "what did I learn this summer?" essay is this... push yourself to do those things that you least feel like doing, don't let a little discomfort stop you and be in the moment whenever possible.

Visit my website to see my top 4 images from my summer of landscape. 

2013 Summer of Landscape

And if you can, come to the "Earth, Sky & Sea" show on October 5th. Details below.

Mountains, Lakes, Grizzlies... Oh My!

Did you ever have a really amazing vacation, come home super refreshed and for some reason, maybe about a week later have a bit of a let down? Well, that's been me the last two weeks. After seeing the amazing, seriously jaw dropping grandeur of Glacier National Park in Montana and seeing the otherworldly Mt. St. Helens in Washington, things around home, well, seemed a bit blah. Don't get me wrong, I'm an East Coast girl, I love almost everything about this part of the country that I live in. But really, we don't have anything that looks like Glacier around here. There's no active volcano sitting locally ready to blow at any moment (there is still a "blast zone" around Mt. St. Helens ... seriously!).

So it's taken me a bit to get back to what is my normal routine; sleep, work, photography classes - you know, life. And part of the funk is feeling that while I wanted to share my pictures, somehow keeping them to myself felt like the experiences were still just mine. But that was a silly thought and sharing is caring, right?

Here is one of my favorites of all that I took. This is Bowman Lake at the upper west part of the park. I followed the map to this spot, driving a half an hour down a one lane, rutted dirt road to reach it. The whole time I was literally talking out loud to myself; "why did I do this?", "how far have I driven!?", "oh my god here comes a pickup and there's no where to pull off?!?". I was starting to worry about the state of this poor little Nissan Sentra I had rented and wondered how much coverage I have on my own personal insurance if I go off the road into a ditch when I finally made it to this spot. I wasn't the only one there but it was still a peaceful spot, everyone just seemed to be enjoying the beauty and stillness of the area. At one point I spotted a Bald Eagle flying overhead, out over the lake. I sat there for almost an hour, soaking it in, letting the stress of the drive wash away and taking a picture of the lake every few minutes.

Bowman Lake, Glacier National Park, August 2012

Another favorite might be more about what it took to get myself to one of my other favorite places in the park and the worry that around the next corner would be a Grizzly. Seriously, everywhere in the park are these signs...

Scary right? So you'd be a bit leery too if you were trying to get to a spot off of the super twisty road know as Going to the Sun Road while it's still dark (4:30am), having bats fly out of the rocky mountain walls at your headlights (one bounced off the car!) to reach Logan Pass, the midpoint and what feels like the highest spot on the road. I wanted to be there for sunrise and I was but what I realized quickly is that I was pretty much the only one there. I then got a bit wussy and only went so far down the trail because, well, I was by myself and there were more warnings not to hike alone, threat of bears and oh, a new one, mountain lions! I'm happy though that I got to see the view from up there and how the light was coming across the mountains while the moon was still visible.

Logan Pass, Glacier National Park, September 2012

Overall, there is something I realized when I was leaving Glacier. It's a destination that I'll be choosing again and again over the rest of my lifetime. Exploring beyond the Sun road, going deeper down those trails (Grizzlies or not!), taking a ride down the rivers and paddling the lakes. It's nice to know and I think safe to say, that a place that has been there for a thousand years will be there a thousand more.

For more pictures of my time at Glacier, please go to this gallery @ http://www.malundquist.com/Travel/Glacier-National-Park/25713215_gdpNZp 

p.s. I actually DID see a grizzly, from a nice safe distance (300 feet), kind of cool.

Grizzly, Many Glaciers Entrance, Glacier National Park, September 2012

Michelle's Manic Adventure

It has been awhile since my last blog, a year almost. It felt right to kick it back off while on vacation in Montana, right outside Glacier National Park. My goals are simple, see it all, photograph it all. This might be a photographer's Mecca.

I've been thinking of this trip for what feels like forever but its more like four months and the time leading up to it both work and personally was nothing short of chaos and madness. But it hit me recently that while I feel like everything is out of control it's all good. Work is crazy but I have a good job that challenges me and offers me a lot of opportunity. Personal is busy as well but of my own making as I try to continually learn more about photography though it means a lot of my free time is spent taking pictures and working them through an editing process. With all that though, where is the problem in any of that really? 

This vacation overall is a bit of getting lost and found and lost again. Something I think I'm doing everyday but at least the outcome here will be some great pictures (she says hopefully...)

RANDOM PICTURE ALERT: Driving out of Spokane on Wednesday, my colleague and I stopped by our clients Alpaca farm. Here is one of the cria's (babies) I met. So cute!