2019 was a bit of a rough year. I did manage to get some images that I'm very happy with, but the last half of the year was really overshadowed by the death in May of our beloved dog Bailey. And on top of that, at nearly the same time I found out that she had cancer, I found out I too had cancer. Bailey's cancer meant that we needed to let her go. Mine, on the other hand, was insignificant in comparison.
My cancer was prostate cancer. And it was caught early and was low grade. It took no more than removing my prostate to remove that cancer from my life. But Bailey's is still with me.
So 2019, for me, wasn't the best of years.
But like I said, I still managed to make some images that I'm really happy with. And I'm glad I had a chance to make them, as the process certainly was a welcome distraction from the other things.
One of my favorites came from a place I've been to more times than I can remember: the Sol Duc River trail. Usually we stop for a short time at a stream that's along the trail to or from Sol Duc Falls. Last May the bridge over Sol Duc Falls was closed for repairs so there was no point in going that far up the trail. Instead, we had a wonderful time exploring this little stream that's found about halfway between the trailhead and the falls.
Because Bailey was no longer with us and I would no longer feel guilt for leaving her home alone during my workshops, I left a day early for my Palouse workshop, just so I could spend the night at Palouse Falls State Park and photograph Palouse Falls at sunset and also with the Milky Way above it.
Once I got to the Palouse, I also got to photograph a few locations that were new to me. This actually happens every time I go. But it's even nicer when you find new places you want to get back to.
Another place I like getting back to is Yellowknife, in Canada's Northwest Territories. I'm rather addicted to the auroras, you see. I was actually a little worried about the 2019 trips. Because we need to shoot around a new moon, for 2019 that meant visiting in late September to early October. So that's when I scheduled my back to back tours. What worried me was the weather. I thought there might be a chance of bad weather hiding the auroras. And while that did happen on occasion, we also had some of the best aurora displays I've seen since I started going there in 2014. .
The Yellowknife trip was the beginning of approximately five weeks on the road. I was home between trips for only a day or two before leaving again, and part of that time was spent visiting the doctor and hospital in preparation for my prostate surgery.
From Yellowknife I was off to Silver Falls State Park. The color was decent but the water levels were a little low. Better than 2018 though.
Directly from Silver Falls I went to Newport to teach at the Out of Chicago event. What a great team they assembled. There I met, among a bunch of other nice people, Sean Bagshaw, who is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. He's also a Photoshop image processing guru, probably best known for his tutorials on using luminosity masks, specifically using Tony Kuyper's very popular TK panels for Photoshop.
Upon returning from my travels I bought Tony's panels and a couple of Sean's video tutorial series'. Highly recommended. In fact, I used one of the techniques Sean teaches to easily clone out a tripod shadow from an otherwise fine image.
After Newport was another autumn trip to the Palouse. If you've seen the Palouse in the spring and summer, you really owe it to yourself to plan an autumn trip. The only logistical problem to an autumn trip is football. There are two universities in the area and lodging can become scarce during football weekends. Best bet is to call the hotel you want to stay at and see what they advise.
When I was done with workshops in late October is was finally time to have that cancerous prostate removed. This was rather anticlimactic.
I'd envisioned a couple of weeks of post-operative convalescence whereby I'd be rather unable to do much of anything other than catch up on tv shows and watch movies in surround sound. This didn't work as plan since I actually felt pretty good and wasn't all that sore (unless I did something stupid….) so I really didn't have much of an excuse to indulge myself in “recovery mode.”
I should first say that everything went well and I am cancer free. Kinda forgot that part there for second in all the self-pity over missing out on my planned laziness
So that was 2019 in a nutshell. Maybe a coconut shell. It was rather wordy.
So sorry to hear about Bailey, but glad yours was caught early! I love your photography, thank you for sharing them! Happy New Year!
Thanks John. Happy New Year to you too!
May you have a healthy year in 2020, spurred on by wonderful Bailey memories!
Thanks. She was a special little girl.