Pacific Northwest Through Florida Eyes

Day One: Getting There (Seattle to Sequim)

I had not experienced the Olympic Peninsula since 1984, when friend Juan Castillo and I had pedaled through as part of a 6,000-mile bicycle trip around the U.S. and into Canada and Old Mexico. Now with the aid of Delta wings, I found myself touching down in Seattle and bedding down in a local hotel. At 4:30 the next morning, my rental Jeep, Nikon D70 and I headed for the Bainbridge Island Ferry.

My plan: to record the wilder side of the Peninsula with old friend and photography mentor Ross Hamilton of Sequim. When I was stationed at Port Angeles Air Station in the 70s, Ross took me under his wing and allowed me to hang out with him on shoots. He used a large format 4x5 camera while I shot with a basic 2-1/4 square format by Yashica.

Now, some 30 years later I had another opportunity to traipse around with the man I reverently call "Sir". He will tell you in the most humble way that he is just a lowly copy boy and that all of the credit for his spectacular images should go to God. In my own humble opinion, I don't think God would mind if Ross took a little credit too. He deserves it.

Ross's web site is Ross Hamilton Photography. For our trip he decided to try out a Panasonic FZ30 8 megapixel of mine while I worked with the Nikon D70 DSLR 6 megapixel. I brought along a FujiFilm FinePix S5200 5 megapixel as a back-up. Our filters were standard polarizers and UVs.

I was also inspired by former Seattle Times chief photographer Josef Scaylea. (Click here.) Tars Miglia was another photographer whose work I admired and respected.

Enough with words. It's on to the Peninsula and let the photos tell the rest of the story!

--Mark Renz