Weekend Trip to Port Townsend

Karyn and I spent the 4th of July weekend in Port Townsend. We stayed at the Ravenscroft Inn. The innkeepers, Tim & Gay Stover, where very hospitable. Their home is just a few blocks from downtown Port Townsend, so we would walk down to the waterfront in the mornings and explore the town.

One of the interesting parts about Port Townsend is the nearby defunct military base, Fort Worden. We drove there several times, and visited the Artillery Museum there. One night I convinced Karyn to come with me to the lighthouse to “watch” (read: shoot) the sunset. My friend John Vicory has reintroduced me to landscape photography — I had decided that it was boring many years ago. There was a fence around the lighthouse, but for some reason the fence stopped once you walked around the lighthouse, so I was able to walk right up to it, and go behind it for the silhouette shot.

On our last day we decided to drive to Hurricane Ridge. I pulled out my iPhone and routed our trajectory. “Unverified location? Bah! Google Maps is always right!” We ended driving up a road that turned to gravel and then dirt, and kept getting more narrow/steep/curvy. At this point, Karyn wasn’t too happy. But we made it to the top, where we could see Hurricane Ridge on the next mountain over. we were on top of Blue Mountain, near the Deer Park camp grounds. You could see everything from Victoria to Marrowstone Island.

Photo Lesson

No real photo lessons on this trip. It did remind me that when I travel with Karyn, I cannot let the trip become about photography, I have to find a balance between enjoying the trip with my wife and getting photos that I am happy with. So I guess that can count as a lesson: Plan trips specifically for photography if you want to be able to focus on that. Make sure the people you are with know that’s your goal. If the trip is not about photography, then don’t make it a high priority. You will enjoy yourself more if you don’t lug all your gear around.

More photos available on my Port Townsend Flickr set