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.