Category: Photography

These are comments and pictures that I make while trying to improve my photography skills.

A Trip to Northern Idaho – Part 2

by Michael

Our second adventure day was to see another mountain, this time east of Coeur d’Alene named Silver Mountain. Unfortunately, we got there and it was just like Wally World, closed. They weren’t opening the gondola rides up the mountain until the next weekend, after we were to leave. Oh well, time to improvise another adventure.

On our way to Silver Mountain, we passed Old Mission State Park, so we decided to stop and see what it was all about. This was a mission that was set up to minister to the local Native Americans in the area. This is noted as being the oldest building in Idaho, being built between 1850 and 1853 by Roman Catholic missionaries and members of the Coeur d’Alene tribe. The Sacred Heart Mission served the local community for many years and featured the chapel, the priests’ home, and a school. The school burned down in 2011.

Sacred Heart Chapel

Next door to the chapel was the house in which the priests lived. While certainly sparse by today’s standards, 150 years ago, I bet this was living pretty well. Here is a 360 view of inside the clergy house.

Back outside, being from Texas, we found it interesting that there were blue bonnets growing here on the grounds. I guess they were trying hard to make this place feel closer to heaven. 🙂

Blue bonnets in Idaho? Who knew?

After spending the day looking for adventure, we had dinner and parted with our friend Janice for the day. I then decided to hop onto Facebook and see if there were any local birding spots. I got a reply from someone connected with the Coeur d’Alene Audubon Society who recommended we try Fernan Lake. We decide that would be our first stop of the day tomorrow prior to picking up Janice. You see, we love Janice, but she’s just not into birds. 🙂

The next day we do just that. After waking up and eating breakfast, we head out to Frenan Lake to see what it is all about. We were not disappointed. While there is public access at various points around the lake, it is also surrounded by houses and private property. Some of the houses were pretty amazing.

Houses overlooking lake Fernan

We found at the south end of the lake, one of the occupants was an osprey. It was there nearly every day, just waiting for us to catch it and take its photo. Karen got this one.

Osprey on branch

Spend enough time watching an osprey around water and sooner or later it is going to get something to eat. It apparently caught this small fish around the corner because I did not witness the catch, but it did honor us with this fly-by.

Osprey with lunch

There were also several families of Canadian geese in the lake. We saw groups of just a few to one with about 15 little ones in tow. This is one of the families of medium size.

Canadian geese family

And what kind of birding place at a lake would it be without an appearance of a great blue heron! These huge majestic birds make flying look easy. I mean if these huge lanky things can fly, why can’t I?

GBH fly-by

Near the north end of the lake is a patch of water plants with beautiful yellow flowers. It was a very peaceful spot to relax before heading out on another day of adventure in Idaho.

Water flower

And that ends part 2 of our Idaho adventure! Say tuned for part 3!

Michael
Sharing God’s Creation, One Click at a Time

All words and photos copyright 2019 MHampton Photography
Equipment used: Canon 5DS-R, Canon 1DX II, Canon T6S, and various Canon lenses and Insta360 One X

A Trip to Northern Idaho – Part 1

by Michael

These posts have been a long time coming. Karen and I took this trip back in May and I’m just now getting around to posting this. It has been a crazy summer with me trying to get my portrait business off the ground and at the same time forcing myself to learn new photo management/editing software. After using Adobe LightRoom for years, I finally decided to make the jump to Capture One. After trying several other competitors I found it the best at giving me everything LightRoom had, plus a little more, but without the monthly license fee. I do not mind paying for software, but to have to pay every month… forever? But, that is a story for a different post. As a side note, all photos in these posts have been processed using Capture One Pro software.

The main purpose of this trip was to visit our long-time friend Janice. We have known her for many years. We attended the same churches and were in a small Bible study group together. She moved from the Dallas area to Coeur d’Alene ID shortly after we moved from the Dallas area to Overton. Karen and I had talked about going for a visit for several years and finally decided it was time to just do it.

We knew very little about the area up there before the trip, and truthfully, due to the timing of the trip, coming right on the heels of Karen’s very busy tax season, we didn’t do a lot of research beforehand. All we knew was that our friend was there and it was supposed to be a beautiful part of the country. That was enough for us.

So, we flew into Spokane WA and met up with Janice for lunch. Our first day was spent getting settled and fed. Janice had a few places picked out to show us over the next few days so we could hardly wait.

For our first day of adventure Janice guided us up Schweitzer Mountain, a nice resort area north of where she lives. The first thing we noticed was all the beautiful mountains in the area, and yes, there was snow! (We haven’t seen much of that in our neck of the woods the last few years so yeah, we were a little excited.)

Entering the Schweizer Mountain Resort area

Taking the drive up the mountain we had to pull off on several overlooks to “look over” the beautiful country. It seemed like every turn opened up a new vista for us to enjoy!

Overlook from Schweitzer Mountain

As we continued up the mountain we wondered if we would see any wildlife. After seeing signs warning of bears we were hopeful of seeing some of those beautiful creatures. Not much farther up the road we did see some wildlife–not bears, but deer. Not as exciting as bears, but just as beautiful and we certainly stopped to enjoy them.

Deer along the road on Schweitzer Mountain

Once we made it to the top of the drive (not the mountain) there was the resort area and lots of condominiums, and a family of bears, or at least as close as we would get to bears on this trip. Of course, Karen made me stop so she could take a few photos. I’m glad she did. 🙂

Bear family hanging out at the condo

Once at the top we took the obligatory selfies and other photos and enjoyed the cooler air. It was pretty cold up there, and I did not bring “cold weather” clothing with me. I dressed more for 60 degree weather, it was closer to mid 30s and windy up there so we didn’t tarry very long. (Note, I’m still trying to figure out how to control 360 degree images in WordPress.)

After poking around up top we headed back down the mountain, only to stop at more overlooks. The scenery was truly breathtaking, from the snow-capped mountains, to the lake, to the dynamic clouds.

Coming down Schweitzer Mountain

At one point we were able to see a couple of small towns at the bottom of the mountain, which I believe are Ponderay (on right) and Kootenai (on left), along with Kootenai Bay on Lake Pend Oreille–at least if my Google Earth skills are not failing me.

Towns at the bottom of Schweitzer Mountain

A little lower down and we can enjoy the true majesty of the mountains as they reach into the sky with the boiling clouds. Very much a sight to behold!

Mountains reaching for the sky

That concluded our first adventure day, but there are several more to come!

Stay tuned!

Michael
Sharing God’s Creation, One Click at a Time

All words and photos copyright 2019 MHampton Photography
Equipment used: Canon 5DS-R, Canon 1DX II, Canon T6S, and various Canon lenses and Insta360 One X

Changes Are A-Coming!

by Michael

As the saying goes, the only constant is change. That change has finally caught up with me and my photography. In fact the first change is that it has been so long since I’ve updated this website, the editor has changed and I have to learn how to use it. Shame on me!

For many years now my photography has been focused (pun intended) strictly on nature with the exception of the occasional family portrait session for my family and friends. I have resisted people photography with the excuse that it was too hard to “please everyone”. That is all about to change. No more excuses!

Now for those of you who have been following my nature/bird photography, I am not giving that up. Rather I will be adding portraits to the mix. I still love being in nature and making beautiful photographs of what I see to share. That is a big reason why Karen and I moved out here to East Texas! But the time has come to do more for others.

Thanks to an on-line satirical personality, Missy Mwac (by the way, MWAC stands for “Mom With A Camera” but Missy is MUCH more than that), I have slowly come to understand that photography is about more than just sharing a pretty picture and getting likes on social media. It is about capturing a moment that can be cherished for generations, especially if that photograph is printed! This is never more poignant than at the loss of a loved one. Many times, photos are all someone has left to remember the face that they will never see again in this life. This is brought home even more-so if you have ever seen someone suffering from dementia, clutching onto their box of photos (memories) because they physically can’t remember one day to the next. It was this thinking that made me want to get out of my comfort zone and stop being stubborn about not doing portrait work.

On top of this, I have already been doing sports work for the local paper as well, which actually came first and had a hand in planting this seed in my mind. I realized that my photography meant much more when it was preserving memories of events in the lives of people.

So, as the days proceed, look for more activity here, as well as more variety in that activity as I will be sharing more from all of these interests. Join me on this journey. If you live near me, hit me up and we’ll preserve memories for you and your family.

Michael