Washington Waterfalls

As a veteran the next best thing to being with family on Veterans Day is to hike to some beautiful waterfalls and partake in the serenity and beauty of nature. That is just what I did today. I happened to be in Tacoma, Washington so I took the opportunity to head over to the Gifford Pinchot National Forest which is close to Mount Rainer National Park to grab some photos of the falls in the area. A nice peaceful mile hike through the old forest and along the Covell Creek brought me to some nice waterfalls. I am a bit confused on which falls I say because the the website http://www.waterfallsnorthwest.com/ shows the major falls pictured below to be the Covell Falls and a sign leading to the falls indcated it was Angel Falls. Either way the hike and falls were breath taking ( yes there was some up hill climbing and boy am I out of shape). Please enjoy the photos below and as always you can see more on my photo site http://www.mikedugganphotography.com/

Colorado Road Trip

Sunday 8 Nov 2009, What a day for a drive throught eh Colorado Country side. We started out in the morning with a trip to Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. The sun had just risen and there was an overcast sky. After hiking through the Garden of the Gods we headed west just to glimpse the mountain enjoy the beautiful day. Driving along highway 24 to 50 and I do not remember the rest we we presented with the majestic beauty of the Rockies. Along the way home we saw a few cars pulled to the side of the road so we joined them to see a small heard of Big Horn Sheep. The canyon we saw them in was named Big Horn Canyon. All in all a beaufitul day. Please enjoy the few photos below and visit my website at http://www.mikedugganphotography.com/ to see the rest of the photos.

Rocky Mountain National Park

The beauty of the Rocky Mountain National Park never dulls. The last time I was at the the park was over 13 years ago and it is still a spectacular and inspiring park. Every where you look you see majestic mountains, crystal clear lakes, and streams and waterfalls. Below are a few photos from the trip. To see more please visit my website at http://www.mikedugganphotography.com/

Aw Pikes Peak

Well here are two more from beautiful Pikes Peak. I took three different exposures from this one location and created a High Dynamic Resolution (HDR) image. Have the main exposed photo with the HDR for comparison.

Pikes Peak, Colorado

We flew into Colorado from El Paso, TX today. It was a bright sunny day with unseasonably warm weather. Arriving in Colorado Springs early morning it was a great time to take a journey up Pike Peak "Americas Mountain" and enjoy the beautiful scenery. Below are a few of the photos from the drive up the mountain. We were not able to reach the summit due to high winds. Please enjoy the photos.

Good Eat'n in El Paso, TX

Ok so I'm behind on the blog so bear with me. On Monday, 2 Nov 09 we went to eat at Cattleman's Steakhouse at Indian Cliffs Ranch just outside of El Paso, TX. A really nice place that I would highly recommend to anyone that is in the El Paso area. I had this whopper of a steak that weighed in at 2 pounds (before cooking). It was the best steak I have ever had. Here are the before and after photos.

Cross Country

It’s been a little while since I posted anything here on the blog so I thought I would talk about the Cross Country meet this past weekend. Now as a photographer you sometimes have to step out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself to try something new. Now some of you might be saying shooting a sporting event is nothing new for me but in truth every sport offers different challenges and perspectives. This was my first cross country meet ever. Now since I did not know how the whole thing works I was lucky enough to find one of my co-workers whose son was running in the event. This was an opportunity to learn about how the course was going to be run and where the best vantage points to capture the action would be. I was able to jump around to 4 or 5 different spots within the course and see the race from different angles. Getting from one location to the next on the course was a matter of moving my feet and walking quickly to try and catch the runners that I knew in the race. I’ll give the runners some credit I walked to the spots and they ran the 5k course and made me work to get the shots I did. Overall, it was a wonderful experience and I am a fan of cross country racing. Check out some of the photos from my website at: www.mikedugganphotography.com/sports