Downtown Hood River, Mt. Hood, and the Columbia River

On a gorgeous day, June 28th 2009! I love it here and am absolutely blown away every time I go outside. This photo is shot from Highway 14 in White Salmon, Washington.

First sunset from our deck (Time-Lapse)

First sunset from our deck (Time-Lapse) from blaine franger on Vimeo.

This is a little time-lapse clip of a sunset, viewed from the deck of our new house. It's not the most interesting clip ever but it's a little sentimental to me because it was the first sunset I witnessed at our place. :)

The deck is one of my favorite features of the house and I'm sure there will be a lot more of these coming in the future.

Please excuse the abrupt ending... I don't even attempt editing films!

Been busy, forgot I had a blog!

It's been a while since my last update! I basically forgot I had a blog! Oops.
The big news in our life is that we bought our first house! If you are my facebook friend you probably know this already but thought I'd share it with my blog followers too, if any are left! :)
Here are a few pics I'll post here, but check out the full tour at the gallery here (you don't need facebook to view it)-
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=85682&id=502014824&l=61a03d4eed

Lightning over Hood River and the Gorge

We've had a few days of cool weather in Hood River that was screaming lightning storm, but in the end, it was just a big tease! Lightning is rare in this part of the state and it's one of my favorite things to shoot, so if there is even a possibility of it, I'm out there no questions asked.
This was 2 nights ago when I cruised my dirtbike up to a good viewpoint and was hoping to get Mt. Hood with some lightning, but there wasn't any striking around it. There was a few bolts far off over the hills of Washington, so this is the only decent shot I got.

What you see in the shot is the Westside of Hood River Oregon on the bottom right, then the Columbia River with the Hood River Toll Bridge going to the towns of Bingen and White Salmon, Washington.

Camping at Kingsley

A few nights ago we did a quick night of camping at good ol' Kingsley Reservoir in the hills of Hood River. Kingsley is known as the spot where high schoolers go to party, and also where the hicks hangout to 4x4, good times. Luckily we had a nice quiet evening up there almost alone.

Our friend Amos had his sister and brother in law in town from Oklahoma and they were great people... we all hope to climb a mountain or two together in the future.

Anyway I didn't shoot much, but here are a few shots I took between eating sausage dogs and drinking Busch beer, in true Kingsley fashion. :)

Morning after, we all look mucho cansado (very tired).

Mt. Hood and Lost Lake

Shot a few nights ago...

Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams and the Columbia River Gorge aerial photos

This was my second time (see the first time here) taking a flight over the Gorge with Ken and this time Bethany came too! She was pretty nervous because she has a healthy hatred for small planes (you'd never know by seeing her skydiving blog post!), but Ken did a great job of putting her at ease and taking it easy. :)

We started off flying over the Columbia River. These two shots are looking east right past Mosier. Everything is so green in the spring!

We then flew around Mt. Adams in Washington, which is incredible! So much open country out there. I'd see dirt roads and trails everywhere and wonder how I could get to them on my dirtbike.

Mt. Rainer was even out on this super clear day. Mt. Adams in the foreground, Rainer in the back-

Rolling hills and a lake in Washington-

View into a convex mirror on the plane-

Columbia river at Cascade Locks, and Bridge of the Gods towards the bottom-

Mt. Hood in all it's glory! We flew around it 4 times I think... so lots of different angles! I LOVE LOVE LOVE this mountain!!! 11,239 feet tall!

Gorgeous sunset-

If you have any favorites in particular let me know!

I feel so blessed to live in this amazing place and all of this beauty is right in our backyard. If you couldn't tell, I love Hood River. :)

Thanks again for an amazing time Ken!

A view down the Columbia River Gorge

Night sky, my favorite spot!

Coyote Gulch preview

Where have I been lately!? No posts since May 6th! I'm beginning to think I'll never catch up!
We just recently returned from a sweet trip with good friends. First was a couple days in San Diego to see family and friends, then a road trip out to Utah to go backpacking with good friends from college.
We ended up backpacking the Coyote Gulch near Escalante, Utah. What an incredible area!
This is the only pic I've done so far. It's shot inside the gulch where we camped for 2 nights. The rock walls are 300-500 feet tall... huge! The North star was perfectly lined up in the opening and made for a great long exposure.

30 minute exposure @ f/2.8, ISO 100. Canon 5Dmark2 16mm lens. Lit with our little campfire. :)
More to come later!

My favorite spot, again

I just came across these images on my computer that I shot a couple weeks ago, and didn't remember how cool they were.
This was an unusually warm and super gorgeous evening in Hood River. I was up exploring on my dirtbike and stopped at my favorite spot during sunset, and shot these images. The crazy thing is that these are all taken basically from the exact same place, it's just a matter of turning the camera in a different direction! Talk about incredible views! I love this place...

Mt Adams to the North-

Mt. Saint Helens to the North West-

Mount Hood to the South East-

I really enjoyed these UFO like clouds-

I stayed till it was dark and did this 30 minute exposure on my Canon 5DMark2-

The next day I took a flight with our friend Ken, and shot these same mountains in the same light, but from a plane! Got some amazing images... not enough time to work on them now though!

2009 Starvation Ridge 12 Hour race photos

Last year I photographed the Starvation Ridge 24 hour race and it was an absolute blast! I got some really great images and also had a great time riding the track as a "sweep rider" which means I'm just riding around looking for any kind of trouble and helping out, etc. You see those pics here.
I decided to head out for this years 12 hour race and be a sweep rider again, and hopefully shoot some photos too. The weather wasn't anything amazing (lots of rain) and the good light for photos lasted about an hour total, so I ended up doing a lot more riding and hanging out than shooting. It was fun though. I wasn't even going to post these images but friends and people from the race have been asking where they are... so I figured I'd throw them up!
Thanks to the event organizers Scott and Debby for putting all this on year after year, and letting me come to sweep ride and shoot photos.
Also thanks to the Team Watson guys for letting me hang out in their pit out of the rain and bug them with dirtbike questions for the technically impaired (ME)...


Scott giving a little talk before the start-

Next 8 shots are Wiley Watson, he's a ripper! Son of moto performance & suspension extraordinaire Tom Watson.

Other random guys-

Some nice landscapes with the wind farms!

Richard Hallman came out to shoot for the day too, he's an amazing photographer in Hood River. It was getting dark and windy right about this time, and he was freeezing in his shorts so I gave him a ride back on my bike.

I stayed till dark and played around with some night photos, but didn't get much of anything good... here are a couple...

Photo gear!

One of the most common questions Bethany and I get asked is "What kind of cameras and lenses do you use?"
I've never compiled a list of our cameras and lenses except for the insurance policy... but we just recently joined Canon Professional Services and had to list and add the serial numbers of all our gear. For those who are curious- this is the whole list of our Canon camera and lenses. We use the Canon system for 99% of our work because it's amazing gear and shoots just about everything really well.

We also own a medium format Contax 645AF camera with a 80mm lens and 140mm lens. I still use this camera for super long exposures of star trails. It sees about 1 or 2 rolls of film per year, so it's always a surprise when I get that film developed! :)

I also still own a couple Nikon cameras and a few lenses, including my first ever SLR camera the "Nikon FA" which still works great for long exposures because it doesn't use batteries on the bulb setting.
I still own my original Nikon F5 as well because it's very sentimental to me! I put thousands and thousands of rolls of Fuji slide film through that camera. That thing was a workhorse! 8 frames per second, and 8 AA batteries... shooting sequences of snowboarding and wakeboarding it would burn through a 36 exposure roll of film in less than 5 seconds! At 7 bucks a roll for film, and 8 bucks for processing, that was expeeeeeensive! Starting off with film definitely gives you a whole different appreciation for the digital age.

We of course have tons of accessories and random little things, but that's a whole other blog post. :)

I don't have photos of the Contax and Nikon cameras right now, but here are all the Canons! Feel free to ask technical gear and camera questions in the comments, I don't mind at all and would be happy to help out with any opinions.

My favorite spot

This is currently my favorite spot to cruise to on my dirtbike and take photos. I can get there in about 20 minutes by dirtbike...
I think the elevation is probably about 4,600 feet and it's such an incredible view from there. Mt. Saint Helens, Mt. Rainer, and Mt. Adams are all in this shot, a little hard to see though because it's with a super wide 16mm lens. Mt. Hood is directly behind me.

We don't get too many clear days in the spring so I've been trying to get out and shoot every chance I get when the weather is good. I shot this last night along with some film as well.
20 minute exposure @f/4, ISO 100, Canon 5D Mark2, 16-35mm lens.

Mt. Hood aerial... a little preview!

Sorry I'm falling behind on my blog again! I've been pulling some long hours at the office trying to get caught up (is that ever going to happen?) after all the traveling the last couple months.
Good news is that I've been able to shoot a ton too! I have so much to post here and no time to do it!

Here is a little preview of some photos I can't wait to work on. Our friend Ken took Bethany and I flying on a gorgeous spring day last week. I shot many great images of the mountains... more coming later! :)

Hanging my 5D mark2 and fisheye out the window while going about 150MPH... brrrr.

3 of us having a great time putting around in the sky!

Many more images coming later!

woohooo!

My blog isn't hacked anymore! When all this started about a week ago I was pretty frustrated at Google, just assuming that they were totally wrong about my site having malware and being hacked... but they were totally right! It was indeed hacked and contained malicious files. It amazes me that they are able to detect that, and prevent as many computers from getting it as possible.
When I cleaned up the files, I had to "request a review" from Google so that they could verify there wasn't malicious files anymore, and they actually did the review and removed the warning the same day. Pretty amazing if you ask me. Thanks Google!

To celebrate here is the one and only shot from the Kilauea Volcano that I've done so far. Hopefully I can get to the rest sometime this decade...

Malware fixed.... waiting on Google now

Turns out my website files indeed were hacked by some crazy Ukrainian hackers! I was up from 1AM-7AM this morning working to fix it all. I was able to delete every single website file on my web server, then re-upload them from a backup that was 2 months old. A little tedious getting everything synced up and running right, but it's all good now. No more malware files! So if you're reading this now, no worries about any damage to your computer even though the message is still on there.
Now it's just a waiting game for Google to review my website and lift the warning message that everyone is seeing. Hopefully that happens sooner than later!!!

Freakin malware

Sorry everyone if you're seeing a message on my blog/website about Malware and harmful this harmful that...
I don't know what happened but apparently it's some type of virus in my website files. I'm trying to fix it! This is sooo LAME! Why are some people so stupid!? Don't you have ANYTHING better to do with your time than hack people's websites!?!? GET A LIFE!

Sea turtle in Kona, Hawaii

I love these creatures... swimming with them is so much fun! I was photographing them with our underwater housing "dome port" which is a huge clear bubble looking thing so you can see in & out of the water at the same time. The turtles were really curious what it was and swimming right up to it!
I have lots more shots but here is my favorite so far-

WOW

I just finished 2 back to back days/nights shooting the worlds most active volcano- Kilauea on Hawaii (the big island). EPIC to say the least.
I'm going to save the talking and photos for when I can think straight... I'm going on 2 nights without sleep and heading to the beach with Bethany to take a nap. :)
For now, here is an awesome photo Bethany took of me yesterday on "the bench" above the outflow of lava into the ocean. Incredible...

Kilauea Volcano

More coming soon...

self portrait with a friend

What rental Jeeps are made for

Bethany and I are in Hawaii now. We had back to back destination weddings, so that has been fun. :)
Last weeks wedding was in Riviera Maya, Mexico and this weekends wedding was in Hawaii. You can check out both of the slideshows here: http://www.blaineandbethany.com/slideshows/

Whenever we have a destination wedding we like to extend the trip so we can explore on our own too. The first 4 days in Hawaii we rented a bright blue PT Cruiser which was fine because we were busy with the wedding, so only had to drive on the roads. But on Monday I switched it out for a 4x4 Jeep Wrangler... now thats what I'm talkin about! This thing is pretty much unstoppable. Awesome.

I conned Bethany into taking some photos of me having some fun... so here are a few. More to come later... videos too!

Oh ya... When I asked the rental company about taking the Jeep offroad, they said- "The contract says your not supposed to, but we know everyone does! So basically if it breaks down, you're on your own."
Sounds like a green light to me. :)

Isla Mujeres lightning

I was lucky enough to see two awesome lighting storms during my time in Isla Mujeres. The first storm started right after dark and I was walking back home from a long session of snorkeling. I knew there was a storm coming just by the way the air felt. Suddenly huge winds picked up and the air temp plummeted in a matter of seconds. Next thing I know, I look up and see a full on "Tornadic waterspout" that was about 300 feet tall from the water! It's like a tornado over the water... very cool. Greg got to see it too, but we rushed back home to get the girls and show them from the roof, and it had vanished. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera either. :(

But here are a few other photos I shot-

Thunderheads forming at sunset:

When it got dark this cloud over the ocean was striking about once every 5 seconds-

Big bolt of lighting striking the eastern side of Isla Mujeres-

Underwater images from Isla Mujeres, Mexico

I've been having such a fun time in the warm Caribbean waters with my underwater housing from Del Mar Housings. I have a custom housing for the Canon 5D but I've been talking with Erik a bit about getting a new housing for the 5D Mark2... so we'll see!

These are all images from the past couple days. It's so fun to swim around out there and just shoot whatever you happen to see!

I realized I could use the 100mm macro lens in my 16-35mm port, so I gave that a try. Super hard to focus on stuff, so images were mostly all crap... but good to know I have that option. This Barracuda was hangin around for a bit so I got a couple shots of him. During one dive I actually had about 200 Barracuda circling around me (no camera)! I could barely see through them! After some research I found out they hang around snorkelers because they think we're out there hunting, so they want to feed on the scraps of what we kill, haha. Sorry Barracudas... I'm just pokin around taking photos.

These little stingrays are everywhere. I pet lots of them and they seem harmless... although Bethany seems to think they can still sting?

See the Barracudas?

Surge in the water looks really cool with ripply sandy bottoms.

This is the largest Morey Eel I've ever seen. I never saw his entire body but I think he was approx 8 feet long. He's shy but I managed to get a couple shots of him.

Another Barracuda-

Starfish and curious onlooking fish-

Cool arches. I love the way things look underwater!

A couple times I swam out to the very end of Isla Mujeres, which is the Easternmost point in all of Mexico. There are two bodies of water that meet and it creates an insane tip current that shoots off the tip of the island, with big waves and turbulence. I hung out in the midst of it all for a bit. :)
It took every ounce of strength and energy to be in control of where it was taking me. The only way I could shoot this photo was by diving down 20 feet and grabbing onto a rock, so the 15mph current didn't take me out. This is a wave passing overhead. I love experiencing the sheer force water can dish out... I'm sure any extreme kayaker or surfer would agree.

More fun with the waves hitting the rocks, then draining out and creating large waterfalls before the next wave comes in.

Round two of photos from Isla Mujeres, Mexico

Here are more photos from Isla Mujeres. We're still having an awesome time! Tomorrow we're leaving for Playa Del Carmen and checking into a resort for the wedding we're photographing on Saturday.

Random people selling random things:

Chicken heart soup? Bethany ate it! (not the heart, but the soup)

Seagull eating a fish-

Misc beach photos-

Natalie and Bethany relaaaaxing-

Greg showing us his backflip skills-

Beautiful sunset-

Boats-

Another nice sunset!

Sunrise at the eastern most point in all of Mexico-

Next photos coming soon will be lightning storms and underwater images!

Iguana attack!

The title is pretty misleading, because I am actually the one who attacked the iguana. I'm weird because seeing cool reptiles is never enough. I always have to try and catch them to have them in my own two hands. It's just so much better that way! Here is an old post when I caught a baby alligator.

Here in Isla Mujeres there are iguana's everywhere ranging from teeny to giant. After a bit of trickery I had a nice medium sized iguana in my hands. So fun to see them up close. :)

Turns out they have pretty sharp claws, and they like to bite. He never got a bite of me, but his claws did get me pretty well. But it's all good, I deserved it... and they'll heal quickly. As I always say and Bethany makes fun of me... BATTLEWOUNDS!!! haha

Snapshots:
First I was feeding them mango and papaya peels leftover from breakfast. They loved it!

New friend-

He didn't like the camera all up in his face, as you can see!

BATTLEWOUNDS! haha

wonderful morning

This morning was so fun in Isla Mujeres. Greg, Natalie and I (Bethany likes to sleep in) woke up early to walk down to the the eastern most point in all of Mexico. It's only a 15 minute walk from their place. :)
The sunrise was sooo incredible. I haven't looked at the photos yet though. Now I'm just sitting here on their balcony wondering how I can get my hands on a piece of Isla Mujeres beach property. :)
I always forget my Macbook has a camera on it! Here is the view from the balcony.
Crystal clear water and Cancun is across the way about 8 miles.
Such a sweet little island.


Then I got a little distracted and took a few photo booth shots, haha.

First day in Isla Mujeres, Mexico

These are some images from our first day in Isla Mujeres, Mexico. We're down here to shoot a destination wedding on April 28th in the Mayan Riviera area and thought we'd extend the trip to visit our awesome long time friends Greg & Natalie Snider who moved here from Oregon about 1.5 years ago. It's been so great to spend time and stay with them in their sweet condo overlooking the crystal clear Caribbean waters. A 30 second walk out their building is beautiful white sand beaches with amazing snorkeling. All the underwater pics are right in front of their place... good times.

Here are photos from yesterday, our first full day here.
Ferry from Cancun to Isla Mujeres is 30 minutes long and a gorgeous little ride-

We were starving from a long day traveling so first things first... cerveza and fajitas a nice beachside restaurant-

These guys play a song as you're eating for a little tip-

Greg obviously enjoyed the song mucho. :)

Sunset-

These 3 are from the balcony... amazing view of the water and Cancun 8 miles off in the distance.

Adopted fat cat snuggling with my Chacos-

This guy has to be French. They always seem to have interesting bathing suit choices. :)

Various snorkeling shots with Greg-

Natalie and Greg... loving life and still madly in love after 30 some years of marriage. Awesome. :)

Misc sunset shots-

The four of us enjoying sunset-

Mmmm, tacos at the local taco joint. Soooo good!

Some adorable kids at a little carnival we walked to after dinner-

This was hilarious! A couple guys were playing this arcade game out on the sidewalk. So random-

Thats it for now... more photos I shot today coming later on!

Flying over Hood River, Oregon... My first attempt at aerial photography

A couple weeks ago I was sitting on a train in Thailand chatting with Ken about photography and he asked if I've ever done aerial photography. I said I've always really, really wanted to but I just don't know any pilots, so I've never had the opportunity. Ken says, Well I'm a pilot, you want to go fly with me? ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? I about crapped my pants!!
I had no idea for the 2 weeks I had been traveling with Ken (and the rest of our group) that he was a pilot... with his own plane nonetheless.
So Ken told me... anytime you want to go, just call me and we'll go! I definitely took him up on that offer and will be taking him up on that offer until he's sick and tired of me calling every time the weather is beautiful.
Yesterday we had a clear day in Hood River and we went for a 66 minute flight. I cannot even express how cool it is to have that freedom to explore the skies with your own plane. I've flown a lot, but not exactly on the type of plane where I could just tell the pilot what to do and where to go!
I can't think of a more beautiful place to cruise around than the Columbia River Gorge area (home!). We started off flying over the East Hills of Hood River, then around Mt. Hood (incredible!), over to The Dalles, then back to Hood River while flying directly over the Columbia River the entire time. So much to see! I even flew the plane for a while, which was super cool and surprisingly simple... of course I didn't do anything but steer left/right up/down, haha. I think landing and taking off would be just a little harder. :)
Shooting aerial photography is a lot harder than I thought it would be. The ride wasn't really rough at all, but the plane vibrates from the propeller, so you have to use fast shutter speeds. Lesson learned!
I definitely shot lots of blurry photos but got some really nice sharp ones too... here are some of my favorites.

Ken's Cessna plane at the Hood River airport before we took off-

Takeoff! Columbia river looking east towards Mosier-

Hood River looks a lot larger from the air!

Mt. Saint Helens in the distance-

Mt. Hood in the foreground and lots of beautiful hazy mountains ridges-

Mt. Hood and the plane wing-

A very windy ridge on Mt. Hood-

The peak of Mt. Hood-

Another windy ridge-

Peak of Mt. Hood-

Peak of Mt. Hood with Mt. Saint Helens in the background-

Peak of Mt. Hood with Mt. Adams in the background-

Crazy ridgeline of Mt. Hood-

Wide angle views of the west-side of Mt. Hood (the side that faces Portland)-

Peak of of Mt. Hood-

Another crazy ridgeline of Mt. Hood-

Windy ridge on Mt. Hood-

The Dalles Damn and Bridge:

Hills in Washington across from Rowena-

The small town of Lyle, Washington and the Klickitat river-

Highway 14 detail-

Looking West, Hood River Toll Bridge-

Highway 14 and the infamous Syncline-

White Salmon River, Washington-

Looking west on the Columbia River. Interstate 84 in Oregon (left), and Highway 14 in Washington (right)-

Looking West over Hood River-

The pro pilot on the right, and the wannabe on the left-

I have no idea what all that stuff does-

Not bad for the first flight! Can't wait for the next one... Thanks SO MUCH Ken!

Perfect day at Mt. Hood Meadows - 3-10-09

We had the most perfect day of snowboarding at Mt. Hood Meadows on Tuesday! Lots of new snow overnight and clear skies, crisp cold air too, so the snow stayed dry and light!
I headed up early with a buddy Jacob Hase and got there before the lifts opened so we got lots of fresh tracks. Nothing compares to fresh tracks in dry snow! Ahhhhhhh.

I of course brought up my Canon 5D mark2 and a few lenses and did some shooting. The light in the morning was so incredible. It was really hard to choose between riding seriously or shooting seriously, so I settled somewhere in the middle and did both at the same time. You'll see below. :)

Waiting in line for the first chair to open up. Those tracks are from ski patrol! They always get the first lines down!

Jake getting fresh tracks!

My track on the left, Jakes on the right-

Riding up Mt. Hood Express-

Upper Elevator & Mt. Hood-

This is when I couldn't decide between shooting & riding, so I did both at the same time. 15mm fisheye lens makes it all possible! Sorry there are so many, I couldn't decide on any favorites. :)

I'm actually in the air over a little jump on this one... hard to tell though.

Slashin!

Dropping off a cornice, love the shadow-

This is so funny... somehow my camera clicked during a crash! I'm totally tumbling upsidedown if you didn't notice.

Heather canyon lift viewed from Shooting Star-

This is an area I haven't been to before, but have always wondered how to get there. Thanks to Jake for showing me. I guess it's called "God's Wall".

Jake planning his line down the steeps-

At the top of the cliff I ran into a bunch of new & old friends, some that I haven't seen for years!
Luke Hil from New Zealand, and Miley from Hood River-

Phineas England (Finny!) from Hood River-

I still have lots more images coming from the recent Asia trip... just gotta find time to post them!

Khao Sak National Park - Surat Thani Province, Thailand

I'm back home now from the 1 month trip to Asia but will continue to update the blog as I catch up on the photos!

While down in the south of Thailand in Phuket, we took a 3 hour bus to Khao Sak National Park to stay there for a couple days. The area is known for it's lush rainforest and large variety of animals, insects, and birds. Apparently there are wild tigers that live in and around that area, although it's extremely rare to actually see them. I was always keeping an eye out though while hiking through the rain forest. :)

We arrived in the afternoon and went for a quick hike to check out some of the rainforest. Although we didn't see much wildlife or birds, you could hear them everywhere. The bird noises were incredible! We saw a bunch of monkeys swinging from tree to tree and I got some video of that, but no decent photos. Those things are so hard to photograph!
Of course love finding spiders and here is one of my favorites. With his legs spread out he was about the size of my hand! I'm having a hard time identifying him. All I can find is that he's some type of "orb spider" but can't find his exact species. Help me out of you happen to know!

Bethany's shot of me holding him on a stick-

Another spider in his funnel web on the ground-

A frog that I spotted during dinner at an outdoor restaurant. The light behind is from the restaurant light-

Bamboo in the forest-

The highlight of Khao Sak was definitely a day trip to Chiaw Lan Lake. The lake is an hours drive from the National Park headquarters where there is accommodation, so most people choose to book a tour which includes a van to the lake, then pack onto a boat with dozens of other people to tour the lake. Bethany and I are always trying to do things differently and avoid the normal tourist way of doing things because it's nice to have more freedom to get the best photos, and also avoid the crowds. So rather than just taking a tour, we rented a scooter and found the lake ourselves. It's always fun trying to navigate though roads in Thailand with the signs in Thai, and no English speaking people to ask directions. Many times we found ourselves laughing with the Thai's as we would try and communicate what we were trying to find by acting out things like swimming, lake, boat, water etc. Good times.
After an hour on the scooter and super sore butts, we found the lake and then began the negotiations for a boat & driver. We paid about $40 for a longtail boat with the driver, for about 3 hours. The price seemed high at the time because it was a National Park, but now that I'm back in America and think about it, it's so cheap!
Most all the tourist boats were just coming in when we were going out, so that was great. We were on the lake past sunset and had freedom to tell our driver when to stop and where we wanted to go. Awesome.
The lake is surrounded by HUGE beautiful limestone cliffs. It was very similar to Guilin in China and Lake Powell in the states.
Photos-

These are floating bungalows that are only accessible by boat. You can stay in them for about 10 bucks a night, and that includes breakfast. We're definitely doing that next time! All the tourists there were actually Thai people out seeing their own country, which is always nice too see.

Next up on the blog will be Cambodia!

Phuket!

We are in Phnom Penh, Cambodia right now... but I'm trying to catch up on images from our time in Thailand! When we landed in Bangkok we weren't exactly sure what our plan was going to be. The tentative plan was to spend some time in Vietnam but the visa takes too long to get (3-5 days), so it would have wasted a lot of time.
We ended up opting to head down the the South of Thailand because during our last trip, we absolutely loved it... and we never got to visit Phuket. We found flights from Bangkok to Phuket round trip for about $115 each, we booked the tickets and flew down for 7 days.
We spent 5 days exploring the island of Phuket on a moto-scooter, and and 2 days north of Phuket exploring Khao Sak National Park, which is basically a giant rain forest with lots of cool animal life. Khao Sak photos are coming later... but here are a handful of images from beautiful Phuket!
Phuket is extremely touristy but we managed to find some cool beaches and bungalows tucked away from that craziness. Bethany spent a lot of time laying out on the beach frying in the sun, while I cruised around on the scooter finding fun things to photograph.

Here are the images!
Our awesome little bungalow at Ya Nui beach-

Longtail boats & full moon-

When you go to the beach at night and turn on a flashlight, you realize these hermit crabs are EVERYWHERE! They are so cute.

Misc nice beach photos that are going to make everyone in the US jealous in the middle of winter!

This guy sells grilled corn to tourists on the beach-

Sirinat National Park has some amazing tidepools with amazing creatures hidden in the rocks!

I tagged along with a local Thai family who were happy to show me how they hunt clams and fish for their dinner-

I love these cute crabs so much!

Beach landscapes at sunset-

This is a Tokay Gecko that I caught in our bungalow, they are such gorgeous little creatures! Feisty though too!

More beach landscapes-

This was my moto taxi driver who was a little camera shy :)

This is the home of a little crab who digs sand out of his hole, then rolls it up in little balls, and throws it outside. I have a video too, it's quite amazing to watch the little guys work!

You always see some interesting sights when at tropical beaches-

When I lay out in the sun with Bethany, I get bored really quick... so that boredom resulted in these images-

This was a really cool island that I trekked out to one morning at sunrise. I was neck deep in water, holding the camera bag above my head. :) There wasn't any sand at all... it was entirely dead pieces of reef and shells!

The airport strip is right on the beach, so you can stand there and watch the planes fly right over you. So cool!

Another sunset in paradise, with my best friend. :)

Let me know what you think about the images and if you have any favorites... I always appreciate comments! :)
Next up is photos from Khao Sak National Park, and then onto Phnom Penh, Cambodia where we are right now... so check back soon for more. :)

Bangkok Floating Market Photos

While in Bangkok we made a day trip out to the Floating Market which is one of the top things to do while in Bangkok. It's about a 3 hour bus trip outside the city, but totally worth it. It was so relaxing and almost mesmerizing sitting at a restaurant eating noodle soup and sipping on Thai Tea with milk, just watching the boat traffic slowly float on by. After that wonderful meal we shot some photos, then hired a boat to take us around through the canals. It costed about $4 for an hour (with some good negotiation skills... because they of course start the price at $10 or $15 just to try and see if they can get it out of the tourists), and we tipped her $1 too. Not a bad experience for 5 bucks.

Here are a few photos I shot throughout the day-
A couple long exposures I shot to try and show the movement. I used a polarizer with a 10-stop Neutral Density filter. Turned out cool!

Iced Thai Tea and Thai Coffee made fresh when ordered... they are both SOOO GOOD! And cheap, about 40 cents for one of those huge cups. I drank a few that day!

Cute girl-

There are so many boats with full on kitchen setups on the boat, and they'll make just about any kind of Thai food you want! So wonderful!

Adorable old boat ladies, trying to keep cool and protected from the sun-

Cruising through the canals at mach speed! Not really... I just made it look that way with a tripod and slow shutter speed. :)

My best friend and I, she also happens to be my wife... lucky me!! :) Remember to check out her blog too! She's ahead of me right now on photos... so it will be a spoiler for what is coming next...

A week in Bangkok... lots of Photos!

I’m finally getting some time to work on my first week of photos from Bangkok! It’s so hard to keep up with my blog while on the road…. sorry! Some friends of ours from the Brooks days in Santa Barbara are in Bangkok working on The Blind Project, check it out... Chad, Anthony, and Liem started the project together and are doing amazing things to help out with the horrible issue of children being sold into the sex trade. Heavy stuff!
Those guys are going to be here for 3 months, and they rented a sweet apartment in the middle of Bangkok that they were so kind to offer us to stay at while they were traveling up in Northern Thailand. It was sooo nice to be in a different part of the city than KhaoSan Road. KhaoSan is the backpacker/travelers mecca of Bangkok. There are tourists flocking in by the thousands from all over the world. The streets are chocked full of everything you can and cannot imagine for sale, and you’re constantly harped at by touts looking to make a buck of anything and everything. Basically KhaoSan is fun to see, but miserable to stay at because it gets annoying really quickly. So it was soo nice to stay in the “Sathon” district of Bangkok where there are few tourists (if any) and you get to see some of the real Bangkok. Bethany and I did lots of exploring and we feel like we actually got to see a good part of the city. But in reality we didn’t see anything because this city is GIGANTIC and it would take a lifetime to see it all.
So here are some photos with little descriptions from the first week in Bangkok:

Night shots from the roof of our Hotel-

This dog was totally insane… the owners had trained it well to do tricks, it was so hyper! It looks like it was half bear cub too. Videos coming later…

One of the best ways to get around in Bangkok is by a boat taxi on the Chao Phraya River. Hop on, pay about 13 baht (30 cents) and choose your stop! Lots to see during the rides too-

Love the mailboxes… “other places”

Scrubbing down on his boat house-

Some snaps from a walk through a park-

On the boat taxi again-

This guy selling a bhudda shirt on Khao San Road was adorable. I think he should sell shirts with a photo of himself on it-

Building detail-

One evening I went out by myself just before sunset to shoot images while Bethany was napping. I love these images of a really busy intersection in the middle of Bangkok-

The Chao Phraya River runs through the middle of Bangkok, with lots of boat traffic, hotels, and buildings to add to the scene-

Soi cowboy, one of the main streets where tourists come to in Bangkok to pick up Thai prostitutes at the bars. They call them “sex tourists” and it’s extremely common, you see western white guys walking around with Thai women everywhere. It’s almost more common than seeing married and boyfriend/girlfriend couples who are traveling together-

Full moonrise over Bangkok, and it happened to be a Bhuddist holiday so we went to a temple where they where the Thai’s were celebrating in various ways-

Exploring the alleyways and streets of Bangkok you come across some random stuff! This was a performance with about a dozen actors who were soooo incredibly dressed up and had intense makeup. There was also a big band of instruments. A full on stage, amazing lighting… everything… and it was just in a random alleyway with about 15 people watching. So random! I have videos too that hopefully I’ll get around to posting someday.

That play was so loud you could hear it from a mile away, and through it all, this guy was snoozing away!

Taking a tuk-tuk ride back to the hotel… good times. :)

I hope these images inspire you to travel abroad… getting outside America is one of the best things you can ever experience. You’ll learn so much about other cultures, yourself, and also learn to appreciate home too. :)

BTW, all these images are shot with my Canon 5D mark II and it’s doing an incredible job. The files are so crisp, beautiful, and detailed at 100%, I can’t wait to make some huge prints from this camera!
I have A LOT more photos coming soon from the floating market, and beautiful Phuket too! (where we are now)

Phuket is pretty cool!

We've been in Phuket Thailand for a few days, and it's actually really enjoyable. A lot of Phuket is incredibly touristy... like tenfold of anywhere else I've ever seen! But we rented a motor-scooter and did some exploring, and managed to find a little beach bungalow place perched up on a hill, overlooking a beautiful ocean cove, and totally secluded from the touristy madness! It's called "Ya Nui Beach" and it's on the very south western side of the island.

Here is a photo of our bungalow. It costs about $25 a night, which is usually a lot more than we'd typically spend, but totally worth it... especially when you think about what kind of place $25 would buy you in America. :)

I'm hoping to work on lots of photos today and post them later, so check back soon!