I get this question quite a lot. In my world, and I would suspect in other nature photographer’s too, there are times when we go on the HUNT for photos. Sometimes they start with a desired outcome, not to imply we get it, and others we select a location to explore. This weekend … I went on a Jenuine Photo Safari and I am excited to share!

This safari for the vast majority did NOT go as planned. I created the opportunity to leave out Friday morning, to camp for two nights, and instead I got REALLY sick … literally could not get out of bed Friday and the weather all over the state forecasted rain. So what started out as a multiple day adventure, turned into a day trip!

Rather than fight the rain, I chose to embrace it and created the possibility of raindrops on wildflowers … sweeeeeeet! Only to get to the top of Mt. Rainier to find mostly sunny skies and NO wildflowers … no joke!  Wildflowers will be popping in two weeks … DOH! Not to be thwarted, I stalked many early bloomers, along the side of the road … much to the amusement of tourist passerby’s, and considered the day a success.

When the clouds overtook the mountain at Sunrise, as shown in the video below, I danced in the rain!!! Shortly later, I hopped back in Grace (my Subi) and headed home off the mountain. When at the edge of the park, darkness nearly upon us, I spotted a waterfall along side the road and BAM … inspiration hit. In no less than 100 ft of tarmac it dawned on me, those filters I had been thinking I needed to step down the light for the slow shutter speeds necessary for flowy water … didn’t apply in the DARK!!! This is the point when the adventure began, I stopped, whipped Grace around, and directed her headlights upon the water. To make even more of spectacle of myself, it turned out my hand-me-down tripod wouldn’t allow me to get close enough to the grass … what did Jen do? Why use my daughter’s booster seat of course. My mentor told me to use a bean bag and I figured a padded seat counted … right Ron?

Well, the end result is today’s share … I promise to share the wildflowers later. And, for the perfect ending to another amazing Jenuine Photo Safari … as I descended the rain landed on all the campers, I left it behind as I passed through Enumclaw and got to sleep in my cozy bed for the night.

PERFECT!