Landscapes
Discovering Oregon’s South Falls
On Social Media I see a lot of images of places that I want to visit. Oregon’s waterfalls and geology features are saved to my google maps as “Want to Go There”. A mini vacation, had me driving East to West to visit family and I ticked off Silver Falls State Park off the list. Known for it’s Trail of Ten Falls, a 8 mile loop with many well, um… waterfalls. I didn’t have the time to hike the whole loop but made the short hike to South Falls.
From the parking lot, it’s about a mile, on a well paved path with several vantage points to view the falls. South Falls has a 177′ drop and is the tallest drop fall in the park. Visitors can walk behind the waterfall (if you look really close, you can see some people along the railing.)
For the image, I wanted to show the size of the basalt amphitheather with it’s flowing water cascading down into the bowl. This is 6 vertical photos and stitched together to create a pano.
Images from 2025
It’s been a while, I thought it’s a good time to revisit WordPress and share some of my best images from 2025. Most of my images here are panoramas (several vertical images taken in succession then digitally stitched together to create a long horizontal view of the landscape before me.)
I’ve always wanted to capture a sunset over Hot Creek Geological Site. It’s just past Mammoth Lakes along Hwy 395 in the Eastern Sierra. I decided last minute to drive about 2 hours in the pouring rain from South Lake Tahoe to get to this spot last August. I was fortunate that this particular spot was open and I could back up my car and wait out the passing rain for sunset. The fiery sunset never appeared but the storm clouds made this image just as moody as the weather outside. I guess I’ll just have to come back for that sunset photo.
Emerald Bay Blue Hour
Happy New Year everyone! What a crazy year 2020 was. Here’s to looking forward to beautiful things in the coming year.
It’s been awhile since I posted here. But my energy has been renewed and I hope to rekindle this blog post in the coming months. The photo above was taken early morning in August 2020. I was looking for shooting stars and as usual, they would shoot pass me where the camera wasn’t pointing. I was going to pack it up and call it but in the distance, the glow of the rising sun towards the East called me to stay a bit longer. The results, this pano of Emerald Bay during blue hour.
enjoy!
Trona Pinnacles
I’ve heard a lot about Trona Pinnacles and seen some amazing photos from there as well. I was in SoCal over the weekend and decided a detour was in order for the day. Here are a couple of photos.
If you plan to head out there here are some suggestions. The road out there is washboard gravel. It’s a short bumpy ride, so a passenger car is do-able. (There were rv’s parked out there). Bring water, it’s early April and I was running around in shorts at 3 AM so stay hydrated & don’t forget the sunscreen. It can also get windy so be prepared to have dust in everything. There is one pit toilet and someone had left a lit citronella candle burning in there. Made for one of the most pleasant smelling pit toilets ever.
Boot Arch
Found the lesser known Boot Arch exploring Alabama Hills, CA this weekend. 
Mysterious Landscapes
I pulled one from the archives. This photo was from a Southwest trip in 2010. My sister hired a photography guide and he showed us these ‘off the beaten path’ places. As in the photo below, many locations had usual rock formations set in an other-worldly mysterious landscape.
Merced River views
Drove into Yosemite Valley last weekend for a quick overnight stay. Played tourist and walked and drove to all the well known spots. This view from the Merced River looking towards El Captain never disappoints me.
Sawmill Ridge
Early morning sunrise, looking towards Sawmill Ridge in the Eastern Sierras. As the sun rose the light hit the ridge and lit up the mountain with color. 
Fall in Hope Valley
First fall hike of the year. Went to Hope Valley to look for fall colors but we were stopped by the water flowing in the river. That’s Pickett Peak in the background.
Moon sets
Last week, I scrambled down to the East shore of Lake Tahoe to a spot known as Bonsai Rock. While I was taking photos, I noticed the setting moon nicely centered from my spot on the shore. I used my headlamp to brighten the water below me and the boulders in the water. 
Snapshots by Kats 