Lake County

Do you shoot for the stars? As I mentioned earlier I DID NOT sleep on this trip, literally! It seemed that the weather is moving in and out according to our desire and all I had to do is to actually be there and try to capture these beautiful days and nights to the fullest. After capturing the range of light for the lighthouse that evening I left the camera to shoot the star trails just so I can combine them later in post to get this final result. What do you think?

• John Muir.

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Fort Rock was also a missed location from our first Oregon trip. We had planned this time almost perfectly and reached just before golden hour started and had the whole area just to ourselves, well except for 3 young kit foxes. I saw them watching me while I was taking this shot, but disappeared into the bushes before I could get a shot. I first thought they were coyotes but their ears were unusually large, which upon further research fit more closely with the appearance of a young kit fox.

Fort Rock is a volcanic landmark called a tuff ring, located on an ice age lake bed in north Lake County, Oregon, United States. The ring is about 4,460 feet (1,360 m) in diameter and stands about 200 feet (60 m) high above the surrounding plain. Its name is derived from the tall, straight sides that resemble the palisades of a fort. The region of Fort Rock Basin contains about 40 such tuff rings and maars and is located in the Brothers Fault Zone of central Oregon's Great Basin. Essentially it’s a large lava bubble that burst under an ancient lake.

• William Wallace.

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After getting the classic mountain landscape shot of Maroon Bells and their reflection in the morning light, we drove to the flatter half of Colorado. We took highway 82 through independence pass to Salida for the night. My plan was to get to twin lakes and then capture some beautiful fall shots before the sunset. As we got there, I parked at the lot and we set about exploring the impromptu trails along the lakeshore.

I was trying to find a composition that would be relatively free of human developments but will still provide me with a view of the lake as foreground and Mountains as the main subject. This location is known to be windy, so the lake was choppy, and I doubt even during the morning the water would be still enough for a reflection shot. Finally, I found a spot from which it looked the view would be perfect but I had to cross a gulch to get there and it was not a dry gulch. But I decided to brave the ankle-deep water and get to the other side and that’s when I heard it, the unmistakable sound of a rattle. As I got close to the gulch the rattle started to get louder. Even after looking carefully everywhere I couldn’t find the danger noodle anywhere and that made the situation even scarier. I don’t know If I will be able to describe the feeling here. I was not sure if moving would warrant a bite, I grew up in part of the world that has a lot of snakes and I know the basic rules to follow when encountering a viper but seeing the snake is kind of important first step in all those rules. Finally, after staying still for what seemed like an hour but in reality probably only a few seconds, I decided to trust the volume of the rattle and slowly stepped towards the way I came and the rattle progressively became quieter. So I didn’t get the shot I wanted but learned an important life lesson that day and went back to the trail to get this shot.

• Leo Buscaglia.

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On our first trip to Oregon, I had the Fort Rock in North Lake County as a possible spot to visit in my list. But unfortunately, we couldn’t find a time slot to fit in a sunset shoot at the rock. So, when we planned a second trip to Oregon, we made the Fort Rock location a must visit spot. On the first day as we reached Bend after checking in to the hotel, we drove straight to North County and to Fort Rock.

From the little information I read at the park this whole area was an ancient lake bed and fort rock formation happened when a lava bubble formed and burst under water. When standing in a sage bush sea it's almost unbelievable to think that this used to be a lake bed 100,000 years ago.

As for this shot, I wanted to make an image to emphasize fore on the sheer size of the rock cliffs. This is the spot from where which Fort Rock appears the narrowest and after a fair bit of walking around the bushes and encountering three coyote puppies, I managed to take this shot.