To Make Landscapists jealous

[Doyle Thomas]

Within 100 miles of Vancouver Washington: The short list.

Columbia River
Columbia Gorge
Mt. Hood
Mt. Saint Helens
Mt. Adams
North Cascades
South Cascades
Glacier Mounds
Ape Cave

Within 200 miles of Vancouver Washington: The short list.

Mt. Rainier National Park
Olympic National Park
Washington Pacific Coastline
Oregon Pacific Coastline
Oregon Sand Dunes
Oregon High Desert
Smith Rock
Three Sisters
Pugut Sound
Hood Canal
Columba Basin

Within 300 miles of Vancouver Washington: The short list.

San Juan Islands
Crater Lake National Park
Oregon Painted Hills
John Day Fossil Beds
Mt. Baker
Mckenzie Pass
Rouge River
Hell's Canyon
Snake River
Frasier River

Lakes, Rivers, Waterfalls, and Wilderness Trails abound as well as National Forests and protected areas. There are four distinct Seasons to the year.

All are welcome, "Take nothing but Photographs, Leave nothing but Footprints"!

 

[roteague]

and covered in rain, 9 months of the year ......

 

[Peter Schrager]

jealousy

Just open your eyes-there is beauty everywhere!!! even in old grimy NYC
Best, Peter

 

[david b]

Hmmm....what would that type of list look like for Albuquerque NM?

Within 200 miles:
Santa Fe
Four Corners
White Sands
Bosque del Apache (bird sanctuary)
Canyon de Chelly
Ship Rock
Chaco Canyon
Taos
Taos Gorge
Roswell
Carlsbad Caverns

Some of the best sunsets on the planet are here in New Mexico.

Oh, 350 days of pure, gorgeous sunshine.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

It's not like I'm a world renowned photographer or anything, but 95% of my negatives have been exposed within a 10 mile radius of my home, and I am just happy with that. Of course, a trip to Iceland or perhaps Norway wouldn't be completely bad...
Peter is right, you will find beauty anywhere if you look for it.
- Thomas

 

[Roger Hicks]

Within 100 miles of Vancouver Washington: The short list.

Columbia River
Columbia Gorge
Mt. Hood
Mt. Saint Helens
Mt. Adams
North Cascades
South Cascades
Glacier Mounds
Ape Cave

Within 200 miles of Vancouver Washington: The short list.

Mt. Rainier National Park
Olympic National Park
Washington Pacific Coastline
Oregon Pacific Coastline
Oregon Sand Dunes
Oregon High Desert
Smith Rock
Three Sisters
Pugut Sound
Hood Canal
Columba Basin

Within 300 miles of Vancouver Washington: The short list.

San Juan Islands
Crater Lake National Park
Oregon Painted Hills
John Day Fossil Beds
Mt. Baker
Mckenzie Pass
Rouge River
Hell's Canyon
Snake River
Frasier River

Lakes, Rivers, Waterfalls, and Wilderness Trails abound as well as National Forests and protected areas. There are four distinct Seasons to the year.

All are welcome, "Take nothing but Photographs, Leave nothing but Footprints"!

Europe.

 

[mark]

There is this little stretch of road between our house and my parents'. I thought it was the ugliest, most desolate, and god forsaken place until one day, when we left a little later than expected. My wife finally told me to pull over, take in the scenery, then get back in and drive....safely. Unbeknownst to me I had been driving in the wrong lane. I was too busy kicking myself in the butt for leaving the camera at home and rubber necking. It was truly the most beautiful sight I have ever seen.

My point is, who cares where you are. There are too damn many photo opportunities here in the desert SW for me to be jealous of anywhere else.

 

[Ole]

I'm not jealous at all.

I live in western Norway.

 

[Gay Larson]

Sounds like a nice place to visit but don't want to live there.

 

[Kirk Keyes]

Ah, but you have to pay sales tax in The 'Couv. Portland is right across the Columbia from Vancouver and we have no sales tax here AND we get all the same great location benefits.

New Mexico is a great starting spot as well. But it has no ocean nearby like here.

 

[MurrayMinchin]

I live on the edge of wilderness in its truest form

Murray

 

[Dave Miller]

As a resident of middle England, which as you all know is the very centre of the known world, and quite possibly the Universe; all the places so far mentioned are equally remote.

 

[roteague]

As a resident of middle England, which as you all know is the very centre of the known world, and quite possibly the Universe; all the places so far mentioned are equally remote.

Ah.... but, you guys have Roseberry Topping. A fine little mountain, if ever I saw one. I've seen so many pictures of it, it feels almost "familiar".

 

[Dave Miller]

And to think, I always thought that was an alternative to custard.

 

[poutnik]

Europe.

Ha, ha, ha.

That was the best answer. (Almost) everywhere, there are a lot of interesting places/things to take photos of in the 150/300/500km radius. Maybe in Sahara, after some time you get bored with sand, but I am not even sure of that...

 

[Sandeha Lynch]

What was that about the best sunsets?

 

[arigram]

I am so jealous!
Its terrible to live in such an unphotogenic island of the Aegean!

 

[coigach]

Europe.

Very good!

 

[mark]

I am so jealous!
Its terrible to live in such an unphotogenic island of the Aegean!

Good to see you around. Hope the fires were not in your neck of the islands.

 

[JBrunner]

Hmmm... trying to think of stuff around here in Utah...

 

[johnnywalker]

I am so jealous!
Its terrible to live in such an unphotogenic island of the Aegean!

When I was much younger I passed up on the chance to spend three months there laying around in a sailboat. At the time I was unemployed and thought I really should be job-hunting. Always kicked myself for not going, since it would have made no difference to my employment status.

Glad to hear from you Ari.

 

[arigram]

Good to see you around. Hope the fires were not in your neck of the islands.

There were not this time, but I happened to be in the Peloponnese when it burned. I breathed a lot of smoke, my clothes got their share of ashes and the fires reached the village I was staying at. It was quite an unsettling experience. Hope no one here gets to live through something like that.

But, I don't want to discuss such a horrible subject in a thread related to the beauty of nature...

Always kicked myself for not going, since it would have made no difference to my employment status.

Well, Crete is a place that has almost everything a landscapist would crave for, save for lakes and wild rivers,
in a very compact space. I am next to the sea and close to tall wild mountains with plateaus, gorges, rocks and trees and the landscape varies from lush green to desert and rocks in a distance of just some kilometers.
Too bad I am not into landscapes...

Glad to hear from you Ari.

Good to find out that I still have some friends around.
I have more or less left APUG and only have started checking in recently after some months of absence and even then, I don't contribute much anymore, not like I used to.
It just doesn't feel like a community for people like me... But this is off topic as well.

 

[ReallyBigCameras]

Several years ago, I spent five years shooting landscapes pretty much full time. I could have lived anywhere, but wanted to stay in the western US due to the ease of access to so much wonderful, accessible (public lands) scenery. So, I did a little study (made a spreadsheet actually) comparing several cities and small towns in the western US. For each location I listed all the major and minor public sites within an 8 hour drive - places I could drive to and be shooting within a day.

I then weighted those results based on driving distance and a rating of the photographic potential (my personal opinion) and marketability of the photos (I was shooting mostly for stock sales) of each location. I then totaled up these weighted ratings for each location.

Granted, this was all a bit subjective, but I tried to be as objective as possible in my ratings. I'll have to see if I can dig up that old spreadsheet, but I recall from memory that Moab, UT came in first, followed by Springdale UT. Moab won out because in addition to all the spectacular canyons and archaeological sites, the mountains of western Colorado were also within a days driving distance.

In the PNW, most of the places I rated came out about the same. Some were closer to the mountains (as in right in the mountains), some were closer to the coast (or ON the coast). I also considered traffic and ferry delays in my driving time calcuations (otherwise Anacortes, WA probably would have been the highest rated location in the PNW). Ultimately, my location in Beaverton, OR (a suburb just west of Portland) was right near the top of the PNW locations and not all that far behind the Utah locations. While it lacked the absolute quantity of the locations in southern UT, it had more variety (Pacific Coast, mountains, rain forests, waterfalls, the high desert, etc.).

Ultimately, what swayed my decision to stay put, was the overall quality of life and other non-photographic considerations. I had three small kids and they would need access to good quality education options, medical care, etc. I also had a local lab that processed my 4x5 E-6, complete with door-to-door pick-up and delivery at no extra cost, a good local photo store, good local galleries, etc.

I still visit many of the the places on my spreadsheet list and enjoy them all very much. I sometimes wonder what it would have been like if we'd moved all those years ago, but I really have no regrets we decided to stay right where we were. Our kids are older now, but still young. Five and a half years ago, I returned to a job in the high tech industry with good pay and good benefits (an option that wouldn't have been available in many of the other locations on my list). The area around here as grown and the housing costs increased (good thing we bought our house back in 1989 before the real estate boom of the 1990s), but the quality of living is still great (Portland and the State of Oregon take a serious, proactive approach to planning and managing growth - and it shows).

I'm sure there are great photo opportunities everywhere, and I do enjoy traveling to those locations as much as possible - with many, many more to visit, but it really comes down to making the most of where you are.

Kerry

 

[bill schwab]

(sigh)... Stuck here in the flyover. Silk purses from Sow's ears is the name of the game.

 

[jd callow]

Bill keep telling everyone Michigan is a sow's ear so that in years to come I may still visit the western seaboard and have it be as awful as I remember.