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