Have you wanted to create your own web site without using some cheap canned program provided by some web hosts? Maybe you hesitate because you don't know HTML. Well, you don't have to know HTML to build fantastic web sites. Learn more here.

This web site uses a "flash" menu navigation bar. You must allow Java Script for all the special features on this web site to work properly.

I was told by a college professor (photography expert) that I need to remove things from some of my images, such as sticks or logs lying in a stream... (see Wahkeena Falls - top picture on right). But, Photoshopping pictures is not photography, it is an art within its own right. Photography is about conveying images as they are. That is, through the combination of season, lighting, angle and natural occurrence (nature) in time we convey what the human eye sees through the lens of a camera. Photoshopping a photograph conveys a distorted reality.

When a twig, boulder or log falls into a waterfall or stream, the National and State Parks services do not remove it. These things are left where they have come to rest as part of nature's process. Twigs, logs and foliage decay in the water. Through the decaying process these natural occurrences provide nutrients and food to various forms of aquatic life. Falling boulders may, over time, change the course of a stream or waterfall leading to erosion. That erosion causes the continual process of foliage and logs falling into steams providing continual nutrients for aquatic life. What is more beautiful than that?

Photoshopping a nature image creates an unrealistic sterile "Commercial" image. How many times have you seen pictures of the "Greatest Lake Resort in the World" only to find, upon a visit, poorly maintained accommodations that look nothing like the images in the brochure(s)? It's like a good number of the "glamour" models. If you scrape off the caked on makeup, the airbrushing, and special lighting, you find a rather ordinary average person with zits and personality disorders. This is all so very different than using the camera exclusively to create an image.

There is nothing wrong with taking a photograph and editing it in Photoshop, or other programs, and creating a great work of art. I have seen many incredible artistic Photoshopped images that are well worth having in one's art collection. The point I am making here is this. Once a photograph has been altered from its original state, it is no longer a photograph but could well be a piece of art.

That is why I am of the opinion that mechanically altered photographs have no place in photography competition. They belong in art competition.

On this web site you will find photographs that are taken as the human eye sees them and as the camera lens captured them. These photographs are what you might see if you visit any of these locations. The only things that might be different are weather conditions.

I have put together some slide shows for you to enjoy. When you mouse over images on the web site, they will blow up to a larger size.