Tacoma Narrows Bridge
So I’ve decided to take that step closer to being able to call myself an amateur photographer- shooting RAW! I read up on the pros and cons of shooting RAW ever since I picked up my dad’s old DSLR in 2010 but have always remained on this side of shooting just jpg mainly because I know nothing about post processing. Often times I wonder how big of a difference does post processing really makes (and spoiler here, it makes quite a difference for me) and debate whether or not it is worth investing time to learn it.
Few days before this sunny trip to Forks, Washington (again), while I was waiting for my lunch order, I wandered into Bulldog News on the ave and a photography magazine on the bottom shelf caught my eye. After deliberating many days if I should toss in some $20 dollars to buy the magazine, I caved and bought it. Mostly the magazine is further consolidating the foundation of basic photography like what buttons on your camera does what and tips on composition etc, but there are a few pages about processing RAW files in various editing software such as Photoshop and Lightroom. So after perusing through these pages and conversing with Ri about the existing Photoshop Element program he has, I feel more confident and ready to try my hand at shooting RAW. So I set my precious 60D to Raw and jpg, brought the tripod Ri bought me for Christmas, bought a giant bottle of Snapple Tea, and jumped in the car with my hubby for our Valetine’s weekend getaway.
We arrived at Misty Valley Inn late in the afternoon having stopped in Port Angeles trying to find something to eat. Almost every single restaurant we yelped is closed, either permanently or for the season, I guess winter isn’t the peak tourist season. Rachel, our always so gracious host at the Misty Valley Inn, welcomed us in and took our breakfast selections for the next morning, and suggested us to go to The Elk Lodge for their special Valeinte’s dinner package with dinner and games. Ri and I enthusiastically accepted this recommendation and went on our way to fill our tummies, only to find out, The Elk Lodge is not a restaurant, it is… how should I put it mildly… a community center/retirement home environment who is serving steaks that are cooked by volunteers to raise money for something. The average age of the attendees is about 60 and the popular attires are plaid and cowboy boots. Just to paint you a picture of the atmosphere.
We were told at the entrance where we purchased our tickets that it’s a steak dinner with salad and a dessert, everyone gets the same thing. The tables were covered by violet colored thin plastic table clothes and there is a bright neon pink heart shape paper marking each of the tables. Among the heart shape confetti sprinkled on the table we found and ate some questionable Hershey kisses because we were SO HUNGRY. I laughed so hard after sitting down. I felt like we were tricked into a nursing home.
A young man about 16 or 17 walked over and said “can I take your order?”
Very puzzled, I said “doesn’t everyone just get the same thing?”
Then he explained “yes, but how would you like your steaks cooked? and what kind of dressing you would like on your (Walmart packaged) salad? I just thought it would be more professional than saying ‘what do you want?’ ”
“Ohh!”
Ohh. We ate our dinner within 15 minutes and left without eating the cupcake that were being strongly advertised by the 80-year-old nice lady up on stage. The icing had slid off the top of the cupcake before I even touched it, and Ri didn’t even touched his. He felt so gypped. I couldn’t stop laughing at this interesting turn of events, and I termed that night “the night we got tricked into eating at the local community center”.
We drove back to the Inn and went outside in the freezing cold to attempt to take some photos of the starry night sky. Unfortunately, those photos turned out to be quite unsuccessful. Something to work on later. Also considering getting a remote shutter so I’m not shaking the camera under the ‘bulb’ option. We retired for the night after not being able to find the stack of money in Monopoly and couldn’t find anything else to play in the living room.
CANON EOS 60D 113MM F/5.6 1/320SEC ISO 1250 LR CROPPED & ADJUSTED
This is my favorite part of the stay. The quiet morning. I was in this exact B&B once before, when I came back to the States to attend Jack and Theresia’s wedding. That year, I woke up, it had snowed overnight so everything was covered in snow in the morning in the sun. This time, I brought my husband, and we woke up to sunshine and gorgeous weather outside. The tree nursery in the backyard have all grown so much since I last saw them. Per usual, I couldn’t finish my enormous amount of breakfast, but hey, this time, I brought my husband, and what’s what a husband is for. lol.
I had done some research for scenic spots around the Olympic National Park that we could go to, like the Sol Duc Rain Forest and Ruby Beach, etc. But for those of you who knows Ri, he is extremely protective of his car. In this instance (and probably all instances since I’ve known him), he refused to drive on gravel, because his tires could get punctured or slashed or whatever. Our deal was, we will ‘try’ to go to these spots, but will turn back as soon as the paved road turns into gravel. I hate myself for agreeing to this, because as it turns out, apparently EVERY SINGLE ROAD TURNS INTO GRAVEL in this part of Washington. I was so frustrated. But then we found this beach you could hike down to and there is a parking lot with NO GRAVELS! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
CANON EOS 60D 45MM F/22 1/2SEC ISO 100 LR ADJUSTED
I could not for the life of me remember the name of this beach. But it is beautiful. We stayed here for a long while, me trying to play with all of my new filters, and this CPL (circular Polarized Lens) turned out so well even before post processing!
As it turned out, Ri’s existing copy of Photoshop Elements belong in the dinosaur age and were no longer usable, so he got me a bundle of 2TB hard drive and Adobe Lightroom 5 for under $100, courtesy of Slickdeals. I would very much like to elaborate on the impact to my photos since we got Lightroom, but for that, please tune in for my next travel blog post about our anniversary trip to Whidbey Island. But just to give you an hint of what’s to come: I love Lightroom.
ps. Also we are experiencing some difficulties uploading photos to this site, roboMak is on it, so hopefully we’ll be able to fix it soon! Here is a link to the rest of the photos for now.