Flowers at Tom McCall Point

My last post was a landscape photograph from the hike at Rowena overlook hike on the Tom McCall preserve in Oregon. These photographs showcase flowers that I saw on the hike. I really enjoyed all of the purples and blues in the flowers that were blooming.

When I was there last I got to see all of the yellow flowers at their peek which was also magnificent. I hope you enjoy my shots and have a great week!

You can now buy prints and more featuring photographs from this post at http://emilia-brasier.pixels.com/shop?sort=featured I appreciate your support!

Burnt trees and flowers at Tom McCall Hike

For mothers day my mom and I took our cameras out to Tom McCall Point hike at Rowena overlook and spent the afternoon photographing the view and wild flowers of this beautiful Oregon hike.

Purchase this photograph at 

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/burnt-trees-emilia-brasier.html

It looks like there was a fire since I had been there last and there was this beautiful view of these burnt trees surrounded by the wildflowers of spring. These were my favorite photographs from the day.

Lavender Photograph: Part II Prints for Sale

These are the next three lavender photographs that are now available for purchase as prints in my spring collection. I particularly love these three photographs together as a set, but they  hold their own as well. These are a collection of photographs taken in southwest Washington state during spring last year.

I often wander my ne8ghborhood with my camera, especially in the spring when there are lots of new flowers out. On this particular  trip around my neighborhood I had the intention of heading to the local Camas Lily field to take photographs of the purple and blue flowers that were in bloom there, but along the way I got side tracked by the beautiful lavender with the bees working very hard to collect pollen. I ended up spending more time with the Lavender than the Camas flowers I had intended to photograph. 

If you care to see all of the photographs in this spring series now or to go purchase one you can find the link here. To see the first in the series, the lavender at sunset, the first post in the lavender collection here.

Spring Photograph Collection: Lavender Photograph

I have just created a new collection of photographs for spring that are available for purchase through Fine Art America. The theme this time is lavender flowers and the collection includes a very busy bumble bee eating from a lavender plant, a sunset, and close ups of lavender plants in bloom. Through out the next couple weeks I will be revealing the photographs included for sale on on this site, or you can go to see them now by clicking this link. I hope you enjoy the photographs and share them with anyone you think would like them, thank you and happy Friday!

Close Up at Mt. Rainier National Park

I have been really lucky that most years an Aunt and Uncle of mine come from New York out to Oregon to go to the Oregon Country Fair and arrive in time for my birthday most times. We almost always take their visit as an opportunity to head out and go camping in either Oregon or Washington for a few days. This years was no different, except that I was graced with the presence of another one my aunts which was wonderful! This year we drove up to Mt. Rainier National Park in Washington.

We found a great camp site at the White River Camp grounds in Mt. Rainier National Park and then took off to do a short hike before dark. This was a trip where I had my kids along and hiking was enjoyable, but required a bit of, let’s say encouragement from all of the adults to make it past the parking lot. However, I did manage to get a few photographs of various things while on the trip and so for this weeks photography challenge of close up, I am sharing from these photographs.

It was beautiful and there were quite a few wildflowers still hanging around, although in comparison to most other years they were actually very early, we had apparently missed the huge show of flowers by at least a week.

The flowers of course bring out the pollinators and so we got to see several different butterflies however this was the only on I captured staying still.

Of course there is nothing quite like being up close to a beautiful mountain, although they tend to photograph better from a bit further back in my opinion. This was taken at Sunrise on the hike up to frozen lake, which was in no way frozen this trip.

Black and White Photography Challenge: Week 7

A few weeks ago I was scoping out a location for a portrait photography shoot in Portland and was taking photographs along the way to help more create a map of where I would be able to place people that would have a nice back drop.

Of course I ended up finding a patch of Butter Cups (anyone else think of the Princess Bride everyone you see Butter Cups) to photograph. 🙂 I don’t often turn my flower photographs black and white because a lot off what I love about flowers is the color they have, but since I am trying to do more black and white I decided to just try it out. I used my Samsung phone to photograph this time and used the app Snapseed to edit it.

This park, Gabriel Park, in Portland was lovely and has lots of opportunity for great photographs as well as tennis, baseball, skate boarding, and a short hike. I had no idea Portland had this park, but it is really quite lovely. Of course Portland is wonderful for all of the rally great packets of wilderness and parks that it has.

Check out my week 6 black and white photography challenge while you are here and feel free to join along and post a black and white photograph a week for 8 weeks. I only have one more week to go, but I would enjoy seeing what others post. 🙂

Weekly Photography Challenge: Orange

The photography challenge that WordPress chose this week was orange. I decided on using these two photographs that I think have orange as a nice bright wow point. While orange is not the main focus of the photograph in either case, I think the orange creates a lot of interest.

I took both of these photographs using my macro filters. I have really been enjoying the flowers and sunshine that the Portland, Oregon and SW Washington area has been experiencing. Hopefully I will get to keep getting outside with my camera. 🙂

If you want to join the photography challenge just visit the link.

Weekly Photography Challenge: Minimalist

This week the photo challenge is minimalist. I feel like this photograph fit the bill as it is just petals and green background.

If you want to join in the WordPress photo challenge you can here.

Petals of a peony, photographed in Salem, Oregon

Camas Lily Fields Abound

I know, I know I already used a few photographs of Camas lilies for a photo challenge, but I visited three very distinct Camas lily fields this year and so I wanted to share a few more photographs so I could really showcase all that the Pacific Northwest has to offer in the way of these beautiful wild flowers.

Just down the street from my home is a park called Round Lake, it is a part of the Lacamas Trail system which stretches for about 8 miles in it’s off shoots and winding trails that make their way through Camas, Washington.

At the top of Round Lake is an area that every year is covered in Camas Lilies for a few weeks of the year. These flowers make an amazingly short appearance and in the past although I have tried to catch them in bloom, things have gotten in the way. This year I  caught them, not once, but many times. I did not take my camera most of those times, so I finally made my dear friend Susan wait around while I snapped some photographs of the Camas flowers on our walk together. 🙂

As you can tell this is not a Camas LIly, but these were also in bloom on this hill, and are beautiful.

The top of Camas Lily Loop.

There are many other flowers in bloom up at Round Lake at this time of year, including these white lilies shown here, some tiny pink flowers, trillium, and skunk flowers. I have also seen wild bleeding hearts, salmon berries, and some bright orange flowers. It is a walk that is really worth your time.

The second field I, which was actually my first of the year, is down in Salem, Oregon at Bush Park. This is a place I have spent a lot of time in my life. We used to go there when I was child and it hosts the Salem Art Fair during the summer. During the spring this field is gorgeous and is frequently used as a portrait spot.

The last place to highlight is the West Linn Camassia Nature Preserve. This is a short, but lovely walk that really showcases the lilies. There is a trail that goes through the field with a well made path that helps to keep your feet from getting muddy and the flowers from being trampled.

I hope to add these three places to my yearly spring routine (the tulip fields in Woodburn are my other one).

I hope you all have had a good week and are getting out to enjoy spring!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflections

Happy Friday everyone. I am looking forward to these weekend because I get to head to the Coast for a bit. Before I go I thought I would leave you with some photographs of flower. I took these last summer at Lewis & Clark College, where I attended college. I go running at Lewis & Clark every week and last summer I managed to arrive about an hour early.

I almost always find photography to be an outlet and time for reflection and for some reason being at my Alma mater really makes me start reflecting on the past ten years of my life since graduating. During my time at Lewis & Clark I had the privilege of going overseas to Kenya and Tanzania.

While I was there the Twin Towers and Pentagon were attacked. I have to say that reflecting back on that time, I can really see how lucky I was to be where I was during that attack.

I have a completely different perspective than most Americans about that event and the direction our country has taken since.

I like that I get to return to Lewis & Clark often and reflect on my time there and my life since.

Have a wonderful weekend, I hope you find some time for reflection this weekend. 🙂 You can connect up with the WordPress weekly photo challenge also if you want to join in the fun. 🙂