I woke up on Sunday morning well before sunrise. Normally, this would mean a trip to a scenic vista where I was going to try capturing beautiful light on the land. This morning I was after something else as I would be under full tree cover. I wanted to photograph the forest on my own in a very popular park.

    After 8-9am Silver Falls gets very busy especially on weekends when the weather is nice. Its proximity to Portland being right around an hour probably has something to do with this along with the large amount of waterfalls in the park. I wasn’t photographing waterfalls on this trip though.

    My camera only ever pointed at the trees in the park on this morning. It was challenging and refreshing to be looking for things different from what I have been used to photographing. Forest scenes tend to be chaotic and challenging. I don’t think I have photographed anything more frustrating in my life!

    I love the practice of capturing these areas on the back of my camera. The frustration of finding a scene and struggle of properly capturing and editing said scene makes me better. It is forcing myself to stretch my creative muscles connecting with the subject I am photographing. It is different from photographing water or clouds that move and shape constantly in different ways. The forest stays still forcing you to move and understand it.

    After hiking 7 miles around the park with my camera it was 11 in the morning and trails were getting busy. I came back to the parking lot where I had parked alone in the morning to find it filled. Cars filled with hikers were even waiting for me to leave so they could take the spot. Too busy of a park for my tastes in the heat of the day. I gladly went home!