Tag Archives: forest

Another Look at the Hoh Rain Forest

I was recently watching a video of a landscape photographer and he took a trip to the Hoh Rain Forest on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington.  Nancy and I went there on a vacation a few years ago and I posted about it here.  I decided to go back and look at some of the images from that visit and see what I liked.  I had taken a bunch of photos in multiple locations on that trip and I found that I had not really given many of the shots any effort.

I decided to take a look at both those that I shared in the original post but also some “new” ones.  I realized that a little effort made the images so much more interesting.  The rain forest is so lush and there is so much green that it almost seems unnatural.  I brought down the exposures a bit and did punch of the saturation a little.  It does look a little overdone but I assure you it is actually a reflection of what the place is really like.  I think digital cameras tend to tone down greens a bit and, when the place you are looking at is all green, this is a bit of a problem that needs to be addressed.

Oho is about four hours drive from where we are now.  A bit of a trek for a day out but I think a trip over to that side of the peninsula is definitely something we should do again before too long.  We can also check out the coastline over there which is really stunning.

Waterfall Glen

It’s always nice to get out and check out a place that you haven’t been to before. Nancy spotted one of the forest preserves in DuPage County called Waterfall Glen. Despite the name, it isn’t about a waterfall – although there is a small man-made one there. It is actually named after a guy called Waterfall from many moons ago.

The preserve is a sizable area. The middle of it is off limits though. It is the Argonne National Laboratory so I guess they don’t want people wandering in whenever they feel like it. There is a trail that runs all the way around the area and it was part of this that we sampled.

This was a walk and not a photo outing so I only took one camera and one lens with me. There was a fair bit of wildlife around so, if I was prepared to hump the equipment around, I suspect there could be some good shots to be made. We saw a coyote, a deer, many types of bird and a small snake that was right on the path in front of us – good spot Nancy.

However, they were just a benefit on top of the nice walk. The weather was rather warm for this time of year and I was surprised how much color was still in the trees with some still very green. There was also the little waterfall mentioned earlier. A nice spot and one I suspect we will visit again.