There are things in life that keep your spirits low, making this stressful life, worse . Then there are places that lift your spirits and fill your heart with joy. For me, places like Hurricane Ridge, Olympic Mountains and Stehekin in the North Cascades have that effect on me. They take me away from all my problems and bring peace of mind. I find myself on cloud nine.
Over this last weekend, I got to take a trip to the Northwest Trek in Eatonvillle. I had never been to the Northwest Trek before. I have wanted to go for a while, being so interested in wildlife all my life. I thought I would make my first time as special as I could. I choose to take the photo tour then a normal tram and brought Ali Lockwood along with me. I could have not chosen a better way to practice photographing wildlife. As much as it would have been better if I had gotten these animals out in their nature living quarters, I don’t have the time or money to track them down at the moment with school. Animals such as elk, black tail deer, mountain goats and big horned sheep are some of the wildlife that we can come across on out trip to the Cascades were there at Northwest Trek same with gray wolfs, coyotes, black bears, bobcats and cougars. Unfortunately, while we were at Northwest Trek all the predators were sleeping and hiding. The other animals were out and about in the acreages of land they have for them to roam.
We got up at 4:30 a.m. to get ready and left at 6:00 a.m. to get to the park by 8:00. We were 2 out of 10 photographers there. We got on to the tram about 8:15 and off we went. The cool thing about being part of the photo tour is the tram stops when we want it too and we can have the driver move forward and backwards if need be. It was all about us getting great shots.
Which is what I did. I got some great photos. Animals are hard to shoot. They move whenever they like and don’t care what you are trying to do. I find the difficulty of not being in full control of the situation to be exciting. To be so close I could touch the animals is thrilling. When I got to shoot the mountain goats at Hurricane Ridge a few years ago, I was amazed with how much I loved it, even though I was kicked off the mountain by them. It is this obsession with mountain goats and shoot them as much as possible to get that one shot. I have made it my goal that I get a shot of a mountain goat thats perfect and inspiring. Being able to shoot all three of the mountain goats at the park was such a great experience. I feel so much more confidante in my wildlife shooting abilities. I can't wait to see what I can bring to the table when are on our trip. I know am looking forward to running into as many spieces of animals as possible but I am really looking forward to seeing mountain goats again. Nothing beats photographing something that sparks life into the photographer.
-Heather
Over this last weekend, I got to take a trip to the Northwest Trek in Eatonvillle. I had never been to the Northwest Trek before. I have wanted to go for a while, being so interested in wildlife all my life. I thought I would make my first time as special as I could. I choose to take the photo tour then a normal tram and brought Ali Lockwood along with me. I could have not chosen a better way to practice photographing wildlife. As much as it would have been better if I had gotten these animals out in their nature living quarters, I don’t have the time or money to track them down at the moment with school. Animals such as elk, black tail deer, mountain goats and big horned sheep are some of the wildlife that we can come across on out trip to the Cascades were there at Northwest Trek same with gray wolfs, coyotes, black bears, bobcats and cougars. Unfortunately, while we were at Northwest Trek all the predators were sleeping and hiding. The other animals were out and about in the acreages of land they have for them to roam.
We got up at 4:30 a.m. to get ready and left at 6:00 a.m. to get to the park by 8:00. We were 2 out of 10 photographers there. We got on to the tram about 8:15 and off we went. The cool thing about being part of the photo tour is the tram stops when we want it too and we can have the driver move forward and backwards if need be. It was all about us getting great shots. 
