Also, the images are sequenced based on the file name so the locations will jump back and forth through the collection.  Hopefully this will keep it from getting too boring.

Lee Peterson is a terrific photographer, a scientist, a digital guru, and has been kind enough to tolerate my bringing students to his studio.  I have known him now for about 8 years and we have had lunch and dinner together but still, it surprised me when he asked if I would be interested in accompanying him on a trip up the coast into Oregon.  The occasion was a rare position of the moon's orbit that brought it very close to the earth.  So close, in fact, that it appeared 15% larger and 30% brighter than normal.  Of special interest to him because of his deep knowledge of and interest in all things oceanic, were the expected huge tidal movements that would accompany the additional pull from the moon.

So on Thursday, January 8, at some obscene hour in the darkness, we left his place and headed north.  Over the next few days we managed to get as far north as Coos Bay, Oregon (there was continuing heavy rains and flooding further north) then wound our way back south down to Morro Bay.  Due to some unplanned business issues for Lee we had to get back earlier than we had originally planned so in a state of high frustration had to drive by many places we would otherwise have stopped to photograph.  But in addition to the coastal areas we also drove down the Avenue of the Giants to photograph among the Redwoods.   I can only speak for myself, but I already know of several places I really want to return for more shooting!

You will see a shot of a large root hollow.  In fact if you came from my news page to here you saw a shot of me taken by Lee at the same root as I was taking the shot in this collection.  In his shot, because of the fisheye lens used to photograph me, it did not seem so large.  Here is a shot I took of Lee when he was working with the same root (what is fair is fair...). You can easily get a sense of its real size.  It was sort of creepy, like a giant mouth, so the image of mine is edited to try to portray that eerie feeling about it.  As a general rule I'm more interested in creating photographs that convey what I felt and less about just what I saw.

The photos in this current collection were all taken with a Canon 1Ds MkII.  Sometimes we shot both as we headed north and then again coming back south so the lighting may vary quite a bit even for a given location.

OK, enough chit-chat, let's get to the images.