Current condition: Snow at Heather Park and above ~5,000′. Pass near Second Top has spotty snow with a campsite nearly melted out. A few down trees still on upper part of trail above ~4,000′.



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Steve and I headed up the trail at 12:00 on Saturday, with Jake following us about an hour later. We rested at Halfway Rock (2.2 miles up trail), ate a snack and received a more recent trail report from two hikers coming down the trail. Shortly after we proceeded up the trail with stunning vistas popping through the trees at higher elevations. At around 5,000′ we started hitting patches of snow and then hit the snowline at Heather Park which sits at approximately 5,200′. Steve and I waited at Heather Park for Jake so we could decide as a group whether to camp in the snow at the park or climb higher to the Second Top pass where there was a reported break in the snow, enough for a camp site. Jake arrived 45 minutes later, and with a fresh “trail” report from a couple coming down the mountain, we decided to head up another 300′ to the ridge line.

Because Heather Park was covered in snow, so was the trail, which required some route finding and snow travel. Nobody had any snow or ice tools, but the snow was pretty wet and provided enough traction given a few good kicks to make a foothold. Climbing the 300′ with a 35lb pack and breaking snow was exhausting, but exhilarating. It felt good to get off the trail and rely on skill to find a way to the top. Playing in the snow was a bonus.


We hiked about halfway up the snowfield on the left and then cut across the grove of trees to find the pass.


We reached the pass at around 16:00 and scouted for the best camp, out of the wind and snow. The location we chose is the same one I stayed at years ago with my Dad and brother when I managed to convince them that hiking was fun (hasn’t happened since). Steve, Jake and I set up camp and then explored the hill adjacent to Second Top. From the hill we had stunning views of Mt. Angeles, Mt. Olympus, Hurricane Hill, the Bailey Range, Victoria, Mt. Baker and more.


Mt. Angeles to the left, Mt. Olympus in the background




Mt. Olympus – background left, Hurricane Hill – Foreground Center, Bailey Range(?) – Background Right

We ate dinner and watched the sun set, a perfect end to a great day. In the morning, we had planned on watching the sun rise, but an early and heavy rain kept us in the tent past actual sunrise. Steve and I were up by 05:15 and back on the hill-top to check out the views for the last time before we came off the mountain. After a quick breakfast and some snow melting for water, we started our trek back down the mountain, taking a different, less hazardous route that more likely followed the actual trail.

All-in-all, it was a great trip. We had the mountain to ourself and the views were stunning. This was the best hike of the year so far. I can’t wait to get further into the back country, but with 12′ of snow at High Divide, it will probably be a while.

Hiked up to Lake Angeles this last weekend (6/19/10 – 6/20/10), the trail is clear of snow and trees. Also, the lake is now 100% thawed (frozen a bit a few weeks ago). I’ve had a cold this last week and so hiking up the 2500′ was pretty brutal as my body was already tired from fighting this cold. At the lake, all the campsites were thawed out, though a few still need to be cleared a bit. Weather was a comfortable 55F average with clouds moving in and out.

On Sunday, we woke up at 04:00 and hiked up the western ridge line over the lake to watch the sunrise. Once the sun came up, the rain came down, so we walked back to the lake to eat breakfast and hike out.

All in all, it was a good hike and it felt really good to get up high with some alpine views. The snow is slowly melting and soon more trails will be open and void of snow. The next hike will probably be Heather Park, but we’ll see how fast the snow melts and what the conditions warrant.

Lake Angeles – Images by Jeremy Johnson



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Lake Angeles, Olympic National Park
Port Angeles, WA

The problem I have is that I need to do things all the way or not at all.  I love photography, and I love the powerful responses that some of my images give me.  I also enjoy being able to evoke responses from people through my photography.  The problem is that the kind of photography I really want to do takes complete dedication and hard work.  I just don’t have that kind of time with two kids and a highly technical job that also takes full dedication to be proficient.

I don’t know where this takes me, but for now, I’m taking a break while I figure things out.  I’m not selling off cameras or writing off photography – it means too much to me.

In the meantime, I’ll be playing with my phone’s camera, and a “flip” video camera to shoot some video occasionally.  No projects, just random.

This is a test from android app wptogo

She looked at the table towards my Leica M6 and said, “anyone who owns and knows how to handle a Leica should have my father’s camera.”

I’m starting a new photo project, and for this project I have been looking for a medium format camera to shoot some very detailed portraits. I had a Hasselblad for a few weeks, but sold it to finance a much needed computer upgrade.

Last week, at the Marine Corps Ball, the Leica came along for the ride. I set it down on the table with a half-assed intention of making some photos. The wife of a retired Gunnery Sergeant, noticed the camera and began making conversation about how she used to work at a camera store and how her father was a photographer.

In between conversations, a few of us at the table thought it would be fun to share a bottle of wine, so I ran off to find an overpriced bottle of wine to share between three Marines over a steak. When I returned, the Gunny’s wife offered the camera to me, mentioning that she’s had it for years and hasn’t used it. I didn’t know what to say, except, “thank you” over and over. I had been looking for a larger format camera, to cost me between $500 and $800.

The camera, a Mamiya RB67, is a monster. The thing is huge and weighs a ton. RB stands for Rotating Back, and 67 means 6×7. 6×7 is a medium format film size that is 4 1/2 times larger than 35mm. Included with the Mamiya was a 65mm lens (wide angle), a 90mm lens (“normal”), and a 180mm lens (telephoto). Also included were four film backs, 2 for 220 and 2 for 120 film.

One thing about this camera, its HUGE. I mean, the pictures don’t even do it justice and it weighs like 7 pounds. I’m still learning how to properly use it and am finding that a tripod will be necessary in most cases. The downsides are actually upsides though, I was looking for a big camera with a big negative for image quality and a technical requirement for me to slow down and think about the image.

Something I’ve come to realize, a lot of photographers call the Leica their “sketchbook,” after lugging this Mamiya around for two miles on a hike the other day, I can definitely see how a Leica could be considered a “sketchbook” compared to this monster.

Speaking of Leicas, the other thing I’ve known for a while, and keeps being reinforced, is how much I really enjoy shooting with this camera. I think with the setup I have, I could pretty much photograph everything that interests me. Would I miss some photos due to manual and slower focus? Sure. Would I miss some photos due to extreme low light and/or missing ttl? Definitely. In the end though, like I said, everything that’s really interested me in the last year or two could be shot with a Leica, and a 35mm or 50mm lens with Tri-X pulled to 200 or pushed to 1600 ISO.

I <3 my Leica(s)

Last year I decided to stick around the Olympic Peninsula for a while and mostly shun any international photo projects. The trip to Vietnam awakened an understanding that I had been missing. While traveling internationally on all previous trips, I did everything I could to get off the beaten path, the tourist traps. Vietnam took me deep into the Mekong delta to stay with a family in a village that sees perhaps 3 westerners year-round. Being so far off the tourist track, I saw the parallels between rural Vietnamese life and rural western life.

When I returned from Vietnam, I vowed to stay stateside until I better understood my vision. The beginning of my self-discovery began last winter and then was promptly derailed. Finding a balance between my work as a computer programmer with a major side of network security expertise and the creative world of photography and artistic vision is a huge struggle for me. I often feel two distinct personalities, each one developed and fully capable of succeeding with enough nurturing. Programming and security satisfy my monetary and professional needs, photography satisfies my philosophical and spiritual needs.

Finding a better balance recently, I’m getting back on track and have earnestly started working towards a new photo project.

The project is essentially contemporary art of the Makah. I’m hoping to open a window into the world of contemporary art of the Makah in order to challenge common stereotypes, educate my community and provide a “moment in time” of the Makah art tradition for the Makah Cultural Research Center. This project will be done primarily on black & white film using my Leica and a Mamiya RB67 medium format cameras.

Research for the project has led me down several fascinating roads. I recently finished “Voices of a Thousand People,” by Patrica Pierce Erikson, which details the history and “why” of the Makah Cultural Research Center. Voices has answered many questions and given me a good cultural platform to begin with. Just starting this project and nailing down a “what” was daunting as I didn’t want to make assumptions (which I initially did anyway) or be offensive. We “white” guys have a really bad tendency to box Native Americans into quaint little boxes that fit our preconceived ideas. Necessarily throwing away all previous notions left me with a blank slate, but with a blank slate there was no way I could define a project. The first step required feeling out a direction, and for that I turned to Dr. Jeff Mauger, an important anthropologist who worked with the Makah on the Ozette dig. Between Dr. Mauger and Voices, I was able to begin writing a new perception, one grounded in fact and cultural understanding.

Also, “Indian Artists at Work”, by Ulli Steltzer is a beautiful photo book that provides a visual insight into art and craft being performed in western Canada. Many of the photos detail the production of native art and the people who were making it in the 1970′s. “Indian Artists at Work,” also gave me several ideas on what to expect.

I’ve been in contact with Janine Bowechop of the MCRC and have received positive confirmation on the project. I’ve also had several discussions with Dr. Mauger and he’s been and invaluable resource.

This is going to be a long project, but I’m glad for that. I’m hoping that the span of time will allow me to reflect on each session and tweak my direction or vision so that a healthy body of work emerges at the end. Once this body of work emerges, I will share all of it with the MCRC and hope to have gallery presentations. Peninsula College will probably be available for showing and I’m trying to understand how the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center works for submissions. After that, who knows?

Finally developed a few rolls of B&W Arista Premium. These photos are from activities that led up to the march through downtown Victoria. There was a press conference and several staged street performances mocking the Olympics.

The final activity was a Good vs. Evil wrestling match pitting popular Anti-Olympics Activists against members of Canada’s government and the International Olympics Committee.

Last month, Lindsay and I took the family on the Clallam County farm tours. Throughout the day the weather changed dramatically from windy and rainy to warm and sunny. The first farm we visited was the Bekkevar family farm on the east end of Sequim:

The last farm we visited was the Dungeness Valley Creamery:

I arrived home earlier from Victoria where I photographed the beginning of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics Torch Relay. Starting early at 8:30 I arrived at the Parliament building with plenty of time to spare. My day didn’t end until 9:30 PM. The morning until 11:30 was spent photographing the Torch Relay ceremony at the Parliament Building. The afternoon, from 2:00 PM until 9:00 was spent with the protestors of the Olympics.

I got the feeling that most Canadians weren’t entirely unsympathetic to the protestors. The final dollar amount is looking to be close to $6 billion, and the complaints are that the money could be better spent.

The Torch Ceremony was very well organized and attended. As for the protest, it was fairly organized with about 350-500 people participating. One thing I found very impressive was the restraint and professionalism Victoria and Vancouver police showed towards the protestors. The protest had no permit for any of it’s activities and shut down several intersections from a few minutes to a full 30 minutes in the case of an intersection in front of the Royal Bank of Canada, which is an official sponsor of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

While the protest did nothing to stop the Torch Relay or the Olympics, it did manage to force the relay to detour and shorten much of it’s route, disappointing hundreds of spectators. After forcing the detour, the protest made it’s way to Parliament, where the Police made a weak stand to stop the protest. The truth of the matter however, is that the ceremony was open to the public, and the police acquiesced. By this time the rain was pouring and I walked away, tired and starving.

More photos: http://www.photoshelter.com/gallery/Victoria-Torch-Relay/G00009U06kEI2PGs

Downtown Port Angeles at the White Crane martial arts center. Joe Jenkins, a Seaman in the Coast Guard, helps build a pile of newspapers that will later be used for a cutting demonstration.

Photo was taken with Kodak’s BW400CN, which is a monochrome C-41 process film. After reviewing two rolls, I hate the film. Very muddy lifeless negatives lacking contrast. I’ll stick to Tri-X thank you very much. The C-41 process is what tempted me, which means I can have this film processed at any photo lab. The drawbacks are apparent and I’ll be sticking with traditional silver-based film for now.