fourpointedstar

Every journey starts somewhere, and while I’d taken some baby steps, my photography journey started with Don Frisque. Way back in 2005, we spent many evenings together. I would teach him how to use his iMac, and he would teach me how to use my camera.

Don was a well regarded and award winning member of the Wisconsin PSA, and honestly, I owe much of my technical knowledge of photography to an excellent foundation that he set for me.

Don’s interest in photography did not wane even as his health did. Every few months, I’d get an email from one of his sons “my dad really likes seeing your photos” and there’s not really a better compliment than that.

That’s a life goal, right? …to make sure that the people that you spend time with know that you love who they’ve become.
Thanks Don.

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Our human sense of scale is often inadequate for what is around us; that tugboat is huge, longer than a semi truck. But that tugboat pales in comparison to even the small “lake” that it’s floating in, Lake Union.

Kerry Park was on several Youtube “must see” lists for Seattle, and you can see why. It offers a wonderful view of the skyline, and, on a clear day, a pretty great view of Mount Ranier.

However, don’t plan to spend an afternoon there! 🙂 There’s only street parking, and I think there are maybe 10 benches to sit on. Sarah and I had an afternoon planned for this park; oh well, it gave us a chance to see other sights instead!

This series of falls reflected an incredible decrease in elevation. This is the last segment of large falls, but there is significant series of rapids and cascades even further down the stream and the entire area is filled with incredible sights and scenes.

As we drove out of the woods, I realized that we could park alongside the road and see a part of the falls. Then once we walked to the bridge over the stream, you could see a walkway under the bridge, so of course, I climbed down to the walkway to capture this photo!

Before our October 2024 trip to Seattle, I bought a “Washington Waterfalls” book and picked out a couple of sets of easy hikes. Our first waterfall adventure was to visit a few that were along Hwy. 2, and at our first stop, the parking lot was closed. After looking at the map, I realized that there may be a different way to see the falls. Technically I was right…technically. As we drove up the dirt road, it got increasingly steep and less likely to lead to an accessible path.

We parked precariously, and I clambered down the hill to see if I could get a photo. The water was a crisp bluish-green, and since it was raining that morning, I was not comfortable with crawling all over the rocks like normal, but even from my vantage point, the scene was incredible.

Just fair warning, if it has rained recently, and you decide to walk downstream at Matthiessen, your feet will get muddy or you’ll walk in the streamed itself. And maybe both…

My daughter and I visited Matthiessen back in 2018, and we walked upstream that time. So this time, we visited the main waterfall area; then we walked downstream this time – all the way to the Vermilion River. The Devil’s Paintbox is right by the main stairs down to see the main waterfall area, and honestly, it’s not that exciting except for the copper colored stream that was very slowly flowing out of the alcove.

Not only did we find a waterfall in Dellwood Park along Fraction Run Creek, we found two! This waterfall is probably widely known – it’s right on the frisbee golf path; the other waterfall is a little harder to get to. There are likely more drops as well, but they would only be accessible by walking through the stream.

I’ve written a few times about “what is a waterfall”, so I would ask – Is this 1 cascade or 30+ individual falls? 🙂

While I was visiting Sagawau in Cook County, one of the park employees mentioned that there may be a waterfall in Dellwood Park in Lockport.  Since I have a client in Lockport, I already knew that there was a stream in a valley in Dellwood Park, and I was disappointed that it hadn’t occurred to me that there was likely to be a waterfall in that valley.  So, the next available weekend, my oldest daughter and I went on a hike to see if we could find a waterfall along Fraction Run Creek…

Film Scores are meant to make you feel a movie scene more deeply, to tie you into a character, emotion, moment, or plot point in a way that facial expressions and dialogue may fail. The best film scores can stand on their own without the movie, and I listen to film scores as my background noise during work and often while I drive.
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For years, I have wanted to travel to Europe to see Hans Zimmer conduct a concert live; he’s truly one of the best film composers of all time and perhaps can be compared to John Williams in influence.
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When Hans Zimmer announced his North American tour, Sarah said “let’s go see him for your birthday this year!” He was performing in Chicago, but we both noticed that his Seattle performance was on my birthday – and Sarah has wanted to take me to Seattle because she has enjoyed that town so much.
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I was giddy, and honestly, Seattle helped build my excitement; we had a fantastic time; I think I could spend a week in Pike Place Market just enjoying all of the vendors, and I could probably spend another two days photographing the Ghery designed Museum of Pop Culture. There’s no “opener” for Hans Zimmer, you sit in your seat waiting…
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I loved all of it, from the opening vocals from House Atreides, to the Wonder Woman suite, to the Pirates suite and everything in between; Hans has 30-50 different musicians on stage at a time to perform the various pieces. It’s part symphony orchestra, part vocal virtuosos, and part rock band – and each musician has been selected by Hans.
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…But as the Man of Steel suite played – it moved me. The intensity and build of that score and the climax was an emotional experience for me; I was almost in tears. It was simply incredible – in a way that I can only feel through music.
Oh, and the last performance (before the encore) is a Lion King medley. You have not experienced the Lion King until it is performed live by Lebo M with a chorus.
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(No, I don’t have a photo, no photo could hold a candle to the concert.)

Oh man, where to start? This was “the story” from this trip; I saw so many very cool waterfalls, but this one, this one was interesting to find. My only directions for this location were that you turned down this particular forestry/logging road, and then “when the road forks, take the right side; the left side is VERY muddy after it rains. Once you cross the bridge, there is a pull over on the right side…” Well, it had just rained, so as I started down the glorified two-tracker, I watched for the fork in the road.

As I drove along it got muddier and muddier, but my Traverse has all wheel drive, so I wasn’t too concerned. Then I crested a hill and there was a small pool of muddy water at the bottom. Since there were tire tracks through it already, I assumed that there wasn’t anything dangerous in the water and I proceeded down the hill, through the mud, and then up the hill. As I crested the other side, there was another depression with more mud but just a little bit wider with more mud. Over the next 3 or 4 hills, each mud hole was a bit deeper and a bit wider.

As I crossed the 6th or 7th hill, the valley below was less of a small pool or muddy water, and almost a pond. It was at this moment that it occurred to me; not only have I travelled farther then the guide indicated, but now I have to turn around and head back through all of those increasingly deep mud puddles that I just made ruts in. Using my genius intellect, I assumed that the best way to avoid being stuck was to go as fast as possible through the puddles. There was one puddle where I felt the rear wheels gripping, but not the front wheels; but in each mud puddle, the Traverse came through.

So how did I find the waterfall? As I drove back on the two-track, I saw the “bridge” … a series of railroad ties laid across the road that I’d missed because I was looking for the fork in the road first.

And yes, my wonderful white Traverse was a bit of a mess for the remainder of the trip. 🙂