Sorry Folks

It has been far too long since I've updated anything on here. Getting into the swing of a new job, a new house, making new friends and somehow fitting in time in the outdoors has squeezed photography into my periphery. The good news is that it's back! Even though I wasn't doing much with them, I've continued to shoot and more importantly enjoy the outdoors here in the Pacific Northwest. I've also been fortunate enough to spend some time along the coast in Nor Cal, in the Canadian Rockies outside of Banff, and even some time back East down at the shore. Now back to the bad news, my computer is hitting the fan. Which obviously happened right as I was getting back into the swing of editing and reveling in photography. As you read this I'm waiting for a new battery and then it's back in business! In the mean time enjoy this photo I took on a recent climbing trip in the Enchantment Lakes Zone of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in the Central Cascades of Washington. More to come.

Enjoy,

Tyler Gates

Good Life Photography

Dragontail Peak and Asgard Pass at Sunrise

Trees in the Clouds

Creek

I've been experimenting a bit with black & white. Although this is a digital conversion, I've been thinking about getting some B&W film for my old 120 camera. With a little bit of equipment and chemicals I could start developing my own film again and scanning the negs. There's something about pinning all your hopes and ideas onto the right mixture of solutions. It's like magic, loading film in the dark and pulling wet images out of a canister a half hour later.

Desolate

I recently had two days off, after working a solid 9 day stint. I knew I had to get into the outdoors, and fast. I had loosely planned a trip to the Mt St Helen's National Monument and the surrounding Gifford Pinchot National Forest. I had decided on my adventure being in the Northwest corner of the park, in the Coldwater Lake area. It was close to Olympia, seemed remote enough to not warrant many crowds, and bordered on National Forest land(free dispersed camping!) I arrived Thursday morning to discover many things, two of the most important being that the forest land in that part of the park is maintained by Weyerhauser and therefore doesn't allow camping, and that all of the Monument's back country sites were all well under snow and down officially closed trails. Devastating. My closest camping option was a state park about 45 minutes back where I came from. On top of this the mountains were covered with quickly moving storms that brought downpours, sunshine, and repeat. Being pretty bummed out, I rationally decided to drive 2 hours to Mt Rainier National Park. If I was going to pay for camping, it might as well be somewhere awesome, not some lame state park near a popular lake for boating. Before taking off I of course checked out a few of the shorter trails, and snapped a few photos. This little gem is of an area that has been left off limits to people since the blast, so that we can study the land as it recovers on its own.

Enjoy
-Tyler Gates
Good life Photography

This is what life is for

George Mallory Said It Best

"What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life is for.”


This was part of George Mallory's many responses to the question of "why climb everest?" I hope it inspires you as much as it does me.

Joshua Tree National Park

It's not all about the trees.

Indian Creek Utah

Indian Creek National Recreation Area is a rock climber's wet dream. The canyon walls surrounding Indian Creek rise up from the ground on all horizons like looming monuments. It is a sight that is unbelievable until you've been on the walls. Hiking up the talus slopes puts you at the base of innumerable cracks that seem to go on forever into the sky. Climber or not, if you've never been there, I highly suggest you put it on your list. At the Southeast corner of the Utah's Canyonlands National Park, it is only about an hour South of Moab and extremely accessible. Get there.

Oak Creek Canyon

Like A Dream

Although I've wanted to live out West for as long as I can remember, it was a trip to the Grand Canyon that really gave me the kick in the butt to get out here. Even with all the crowds and buses right along the South Rim of the National Park, it is still magical. There is nothing like watching the sunset over the Canyon. It's an entire education on light in about a 45 minute period.

This was a quick snap I made as we were running to catch the sunset. It's also one of my favorite shots of the Grand Canyon, despite the lack of canyon in the frame.

Enjoy,
Tyler Gates
Good Life Photography

Reflections

For a long time now, my eye has been drawn to reflections. There's something so natural and yet alien to reflections, a sort of natural photo manipulation. When they're photographed they usually cause the viewer to pause. The image looks normal, and yet there is something that makes you look at it for a second longer. I stumbled upon this beauty when I started shooting underwater. I used the premise for my senior thesis in art school, and my eye has been drawn to it ever since. Some of the images can be seen here.

Santa Catalina Mountains

This is my old backyard. I'll always remember the canyons, pinnacles, saguaro forests, and the miles and miles of rocky unforgiving mind blowingly beautiful trail.

Gates' Pass

Since I haven't really been doing anything with my photography over this past year, I've been really enjoying shooting with my old Ansco Ventura. The camera is from the early 1950's, is completely manual, shoots 120 medium format film, and folds up to fit in my pocket. I love it. In Arizona I probably shot about 10 rolls of film, and scanned the best out of most of them yesterday. Since moving, I've shot about 6, now I just need to get them developed. There will be more of these coming soon.

Enjoy
Tyler Gates
Good Life Photography

Above the trees

In an avalanche chute on Mt Ellinore, in the Olympic Mountains. If you're interested in details of the climb check out here.

More Trees

I've apparently been really drawn to the trees out here. Something about their dense vertical lines, and the stark contrast of light and shadow, just pulls me in. Maybe it was the year and a half I spent in the desert. Either way...


Enjoy,
Tyler Gates
Good Life Photography

Reflections

not photoshopped

Welcome to the rainforest.

The Chandelier Tree

Quite the tourist trap, but still a must see. There are several of these giants in California that have carved out for travelers to drive through. I have to admit I've been to this one twice. I'm not sure what the allure is. I feel like it's one more chance for us to assert our assumed dominance over mother nature. I do know that as an East coaster, I will never get tired of seeing nature in truly massive scale.

San Fran

Yosemite

On the Road Again

So we're on the road again. We left Tucson behind and we're on our way to Olympia, Washington. Although we will definitely miss Tucson and all the wonderful people that welcomed us into their lives there, we are really excited for Olympia. Goodbye sunshine, hello green-ness!

We packed our whole life back in my Jetta and hit the road at dawn on our way to Yosemite National Park. Before I was a climber I dreamed of seeing Yosemite, now that I'm involved in climbing, it's like the Promised Land for me. Due to our time frame we only had a day to stay in Yosemite, so this was just a taste for me. Our friends drove from San Francisco to meet us for camping and hiking, before we all headed back to San Fran. All I can say is that I can't wait to go back.

Many, many photos to come soon, so keep checking back!

-Tyler

Mini-Micro-Adventure

So I've been following a blog by a man called Alstair Humphrey, in London. He's been involved with several long distance adventures through Europe and Asia, now back in London he has dedicated this year to the "Micro-Adventure," reasonable adventures close to home that anyone can get into. Well in that spirit I've been trying to up my single day adventures, longer day hikes, adventuring off the main trail on my mountain bike, and the like. Yesterday I decided to link up a few dirt trails between my apartment and work, turning my 8.25 mile commute into 10.9 miles.Well little did I know, but my adventure was about to get more interesting. I broke the 15mmQR to 9mmQR adapter on my front wheel, something I need to order to replace. Either way I ended up deciding to run home. I followed the Rillito River trail and then headed up Swan. It was a lot of fun running through the night in a bubble of light from my bike's headlamp. This adds one more night time adventure to climbing at mid-night in Cochise Stronghold a few weeks ago. I'm on my way to a 36 hour epic mountain climb.

Goodbye Tucson

So if any of you actually follow this blog regularly, you may have noticed a severe lack of posts, and I apologize. Although there isn't any real excuse, I've just been really lazy with my photography, I will blame it on the fact that two weeks ago I found out that I'll be moving two weeks from now. I am leaving the desert for the complete opposite, the rain forest of the Pacific Northwest and the Puget Sound. Conveniently I also had a reason/excuse to go through a lot of my images, including a few rolls of film that I hadn't done anything with. Anywho, enjoy this scan, shot at the Grand Canyon. Being a half day's drive from the Grand Canyon is definitely amazing, and although I'm bummed that I still have never been down the the bottom of it, the list of things I'd like to do in the Southwest is too long to get bothered too much by any one thing.

My new life resolution is to be more active with my photography and therefore this blog. I've let photography slip into the periphery of my life, and that needs to change.

Enjoy,
Tyler Gates
Good Life Photography

Christmas in Sedona

So I spent the 4 days around Christmas this year camping and mountain biking around Sedona, Arizona. If you've never been there, words can't describe the spectacular beauty of the place. The contrast of red and white rock, against the green conifers turns every view into an aesthetic dream. Fortunately the only things better than the view are the trails, so I didn't take too many photos. Here are just a few of my favorites.

Enjoy,
Tyler Gates
Good Life Photography

I'm in a slump

I haven't been shooting much lately. Don't worry, I'm bummed about it to. After shooting and shooting and shooting and not doing much with it, I lost the motivation to carry all that gear around with me. I have been shooting a little bit of video and many crappy 5mp shots with my GoPro and cell phone cameras. Just trying to keep the eye sharp.

Keep checking back, hopefully there will be more soon. In the mean time some video can be seen here.

Enjoy
Tyler Gates
Good Life Photography