Author: Wasim Muklashy

This is going to be a short one. In fact, I won’t even go past these few intro sentences, as there’s not much introduction that a sunset at Joshua Tree National Park really needs. I just happened to be in Southern California at my folks house getting a few personal matters in order, and my girlfriend decided to come down and help, so on Valentine’s Day weekend, we figured we’d take a little break and head out to Palm Springs for a few days, one of which we spent at Joshua Tree.

Here’s a slideshow of the resulting images (with a couple of panoramics afterwards).

Hope you dig…

Also, if you’d like to purchase any of my prints to bring nature into your home since we can’t really get out into nature ourselves these days while she rehabilitates herself, check out my brand spankin’ new purchase page on my site (also still a work in progress) for canvas prints, art prints, and even greeting cards: the purchase page. During this time of weirdness, 10% of all proceeds will be split between Global Giving’s COVID relief fund , and Ecology in Classrooms & Outdoors (ECO), the non-profit I sit on the board of that brings ecology education to kids in underserved communities.

And to follow along with more of my shenanigans, check me out on Instagram.

Ok, so this wasn’t planned. And by this, I don’t just mean these images or even this trip to Smith Rock State Park in Oregon, but when life hands you ice and snow, you make, eh…slushies?!

I know I’m a little late on this one, being as how these images were taken over Thanksgiving of 2019, but, well, my procrastinatin’ booty figured I couldn’t post this before my Peru trip posts, because, well, it’s sorta connected. What Peru posts am I talking about? Precisely!!! They’re coming…I promise…I promise…DAMNIT I PROMISE!! But as a kick in the gotcha to motivate me to finish those buggers, since there’s been a few adventures since that don’t warrant as many words as the Peruvian saga, figured I may as well share a few of those images before they’re no longer relevant!

Anyhow, it’ll become a bit clearer in due time, but essentially, if weren’t for the wonderful people I met on that Peru trip, specifically one of the tour leaders, Amanda, who happens to be a worldwide alpaca expert judge/breeder/seller/rancher/do-gooder/lover and one of the attendees, who was also an alpaca farmer who had me at hello the day I showed up in Peru that, well, let’s just say, to my delight, became a MUCH bigger part of my life than I could have ever imagined, this particular set would never have happened.

In a nutshell, I was invited to spend Thanksgiving with aforementioned superwoman alpaca judge lady’s family in Bend, Oregon. How do you say no to that? You don’t. You go.

So I went.

The plan was, my new girlfriend (who I also met on that same life-changing Peru trip), who lived in Northern California, would fly up to Portland, and we’d drive to Bend together.

So that’s what we did.

What we didn’t account for was a freak random out-of-nowhere cyclone blizzard that started to hit with heavy snow and absolutely no visibility in the midst of our journey as we were making our way through the Mount Hood Pass in Oregon.

For most from this region, this is no problem.

But being as how I’m still in my junior year as a Pacific Northwesterner, I was driving a Nissan Altima with standard-issue “what’s the cheapest you got” tires, so, this, for me, was a problem!

We finally made it through, white-knuckling the thing the whole time at a riveting -8.5 miles per hour, doing my best to follow in the quickly disappearing tire tracks of whatever vehicle, now long-gone, was in front of me.

Once we got to the hotel, I should have just left the bugger parked there the entire time.

But I didn’t.

We were in Bend for chrissakes.

Plus, part of the purpose of the trip was to give my girlfriend a chance to check up on her alpacas that were being boarded by Amanda on her various properties.

So on a day that we were expecting more snow, I peered out the window of our hotel, saw a singular patch of blue sky, and made the perfectly logical choice to forgo the offer from Amanda to use her all-wheel-drive-snow-tire-equipped truck, instead opting for my Altima.

Smooth move.

Especially while we hit patches of icy road and unforgiving snow in the late afternoon…

I shall offer no more words on the subject, but after a harrowing day of a few near misses and many missed heartbeats, I finally just parked the damn thing at the hotel and left it there for the remainder of our stay.

Anyhow, on the drive back to Portland a few days and several inches of snow-melt later, we were driving by Smith Rock State Park just as the sun began to set, and who and HOW can anyone with a camera addiction possibly resist a snow scene at Smith Rock.

Here are the resulting images from that pit stop.

And yes, I’ll spare you the details on the trip back, including completely botching my detour to try to get around the snow and ending up right back on that same pass from day 1.

Might be time to consider a Subaru…

Also, if you’d like to purchase any of my prints to bring nature into your home since we can’t really get out into nature ourselves these days while she rehabilitates herself, check out my brand spankin’ new purchase page on my site (also still a work in progress) for canvas prints, art prints, and even greeting cards: the purchase page. During this time of weirdness, 10% of all proceeds will be split between Global Giving’s COVID relief fund , and Ecology in Classrooms & Outdoors (ECO), the non-profit I sit on the board of that brings ecology education to kids in underserved communities.

And to follow along with more of my shenanigans, check me out on Instagram.

So I’ve started to build quite a pleasant relationship with Mike & Julie Safley, the founders of Oakwood Gardens, after first being assigned to photograph one of their cottages for Airbnb more than year ago. I’ve written about it before, so I won’t get too deep into it here, but for the full alpaca-fueled story, check out this post.

In any case, one of the things they’ve been hiring me for has been to photograph the spectacular garden that lives on their property – 7 acres of ever-changing landscapes, scenes, plants, and animals that demonstrate the beauty, fragility and resilience of our natural planet.

When I got the call early December that they wanted their garden photographed in the winter, my initial reaction was ‘huh!??’

This is, after all, the Pacific Northwest, and, well, there isn’t much vibrancy and life across the gardens of this region during this time of year.

But, well, who was I to say no? It was a job and a chance to see the Safleys again.

Once I started walking around, it didn’t take me long to understand the allure of what, at first glance, seems like nothing but dead plants and trees. The colors, the patterns and the subjects began to make themselves clearer the closer I got to them, and appreciating the beauty in this decay is only elevated when you stop to remind yourself that the very decay itself represents not death or the end, but rather the early stage of germination of new life.

In other words, as cliche as it sounds, once you’re standing there, especially after seeing the same scenes across the seasons, this decay is not the end, it’s the beginning.\

Anyhow, here are a few scenes from that winter-y stroll through Oakwood Gardens.

And feel free to go back and check out what the gardens look like in the summer.

Finally, go book yourself a room on their alpaca-laden grounds, and buy some alpaca stuff from Alpacas.com. Proceeds go to Quechua Benefit, the non-profit they founded in 1996 to help break the cycle of poverty amongst under-served communities in the highlands of Peru (which, speaking of, I recently got to spend 2 EPIC weeks in the Peruvian Highlands with Quechua Benefit…that story, and images, coming soon…)

Hope you dig…

I don’t have much to say here…perhaps because there isn’t much to say. This one is purely show and tell. This series of images was from a recent morning here in Portland, Oregon. I woke up, saw the fog, grabbed my camera, and ran up the street to Hoyt Arboretum in my pajamas. What was meant to be a quick picture or two ended up being 3 hours of wandering through the forest fog.

And these were the results…

Ok…now find me on Instagram: @wasimofnazareth. You know you want to!

“Have the train go back one more car-length.”
“See that S-Curve over there? Wait for me to get around that lake and then get it to start around that bend and behind those trees.”
“Oh, and give me smoke. Lots of smoke. With color.”
“Aaaaaand why not – blow the whistles.”

It’s not everyday you get to direct a historic Union Pacific steam engine (or two) to do what you want it to do up and down a stretch of authentic narrow-gauge rail in Gold Rush country, but, well, this wasn’t an every day.

And no, this wasn’t a movie set either.

This was the Sumpter Valley Railroad Photographer’s Weekend, an annual post-season event hosting photographers (or simply history buffs and train enthusiasts) to a weekend designed to cater to their every reasonable (and often-unreasonable) whim.

We basically had our run of two century-old steam engines – a 40-ton Heisler and a 90-ton American Locomotive Company 2-8-2 – that ran along about 7 miles of track between McEwen and Sumpter stations in the Sumpter Valley region of central Oregon, much of which was donated to the region by Union Pacific Railroad in an effort to help preserve and promote its history here.

Essentially, what would happen was, the conductors knew some spots, and if a photographer saw a spot they liked, the train would stop, let us all off, and we can run around to find position, set up, and shoot. And if we didn’t like what we got, we could tell the train to do it all over again.

Yes, tell the TRAIN to do it all over again…

As the conductor said “we’re here to make sure everyone gets the perfect shot, so don’t be shy.”

This was insane.

But I digress.

Fall.
Pacific Northwest.

Being as this is my 3rd autumn here in Portland, Oregon, I am now quite familiar with the incredibly short period of time in between the leaves beginning to change and all of them ending up on the ground, to the dismay (and glee) of property-owners across the region.

Peak autumn color happens fast. VERY fast.

Well, this year, I was just returning from a work trip as the leaves began to change, and was wrapped up in local gigs as they were beginning to peak, and I knew I’d be out of town on another gig as they were at full peak, so while I knew that I’d be missing the height of the color and the season, I knew I had to get at least SOMETHING.

So when my cousin hit me up and told me he needed a little vacation and decided to come to Oregon for a weekend in mid-October to rent an RV and cruise around with no particular agenda in mind, I saw my opening.

HE may not have had an agenda, but I sure as heck did…

Being as this was my only window of opportunity to try to capture something, ANYTHING, to do with Fall color this year, I immediately pulled out my running list of autumn photo opportunities in Oregon. Now it was a matter of steering my cousin in that (or those) directions…

We had 4 days, and we were ready to make the hot damn best of them, so we immediately loaded up the beast, and headed out of Portland, along the 84 through the Columbia River Gorge, about 250 miles towards our first stop – Pendleton, Oregon for our impromptu matching flu shots – naturally…

After we adequately satisfied our hypochondria, we continued on to our ‘planned’ first stop – the Wallowas in eastern Oregon, right along the border of Idaho.

We rolled in super late, so didn’t get to see much of the range on the way in, but woke up the following morning and decided to hike around the lake and up into the hillside above the town of Joseph to get a solid view of what we were surrounded by. It was appropriately stunning, and overwhelming. While we thought we were in the midst of it, we looked across what is apparently Hell’s Canyon, North America’s deepest river gorge, to the other side, where an even more impressive range on the Idaho side stared us in the reality-check. We weren’t going to make it there, that was for certain, and we had to be in Sumpter Valley by 6am the following morning to hop aboard the aforementioned train, but, well, at least we got a taste.

Fall color wasn’t yet near peak, but we chose to take another little hike before we got on the road and I was able to capture an image or two just to prove I was there.

Next stop: Sumpter Valley, for what was the centerpiece of this particular road trip, and the details of which I already described above. Needless to say, for history buffs, train buffs, travel buffs, landscape buffs, and, this particular weekend, photography buffs, this experience is a hidden gem that is well worth the trip out to the middle of nowhere-Oregon. It isn’t highly publicized and I would have never even known about it had I not been Googling specifically for fall photo opportunities in Central Oregon. No doubt, if they spent more efforts marketing this experience, it would quickly become a much sought-after destination for photographers, but lucky for us they have yet to realize the gold they sit on, so there were only about 15-20 people on this particular day, giving us the run of the rails.

Do be aware, there’s a fairly disturbing story behind this valley. You’ll see in the gallery below images of a massive dredge. Well, this valley was completely dredged for gold from one end to the other in the first half of the 20th century, which essentially devastated the entire region. You’ll see dredge piles everywhere (as well as a few remaining working gold camps) and it doesn’t take much imagination to understand what that process did to the local ecology and environment. Luckily, it seems that the valley is in the midst of a fruitful recovery, and we did hear stories of native species making their return home in recent decades.

Anyhow, on our final day of this mini road trip, once the train dropped us back at the station, we decided to hop aboard the RV and book it out of Central Oregon and make our way back up along the 84 to the Columbia River Gorge in the direction that led us back towards Portland.

In keeping with the train theme, as night fell upon us just west of Hood River, we unknowingly parked our RV on a site that literally butted up against the railroad tracks. The sights and sounds were fantastic earlier in the day when we were awake and running around with our various photo stuffs and whatnots, but they were not NEARLY as intriguing at 2am. And then 3am. And then 4:30am…

The theme of the final day was the ying to yesterday’s yang – rather than man made madness, we went for nature in all her awe-inspiring facets – a 7 mile hike up and around Multnomah Falls through the forest, along the river, by 4 different waterfalls, and back down the other side at Wahkeena Falls, two of the Gorge’s most spectacular sights.

And that’s where we close the book on this one – 4 quick days discovering more stunning corners of this beautiful state.

Here are the images captured in and along the way…

Finally, if you’re finanglin’ for more stuffwhats and thingynots, find me on Instagram: @wasimofnazareth

It’s that season again!

Summer is over, and the Chambers of Commerce and destination marketing organizations of America are no longer questioning their life choices after dealing with the annual throngs of sun-searching tourists escaping their own monotony by crazily descending upon various regions to patronize their businesses and attractions. They’ve had a slight chance to recuperate, shore up their 2020 budgets, and complete their efforts to capture media assets to help promote their respective locales to next year’s crop of escapees.

And this is where I come in.

Recently, I found myself on the road again for a client that I always enjoy working with, Miles Partnership. They’re the ones that had me shooting for the Kentucky State Parks, Visit Wichita, Oklahoma’s Chickasaw Nation and Colorado’s Grand County over the past year or so. This time we’re working with the county of San Luis Obispo, California.

For those unfamiliar, this is the stretch of Central Californian gorgeousness that lies on the coastal Pacific Coast Highway between Los Angeles and Big Sur. We were here to capture images, both traditional stills as well as 360 photos to help bulk up the Google listings of various locations, businesses, State Parks, regional parks and landscapes across the region.

Over the course of this glorious week, we were able to cover a shot list that included dozens of locations from Rugged Point, the “Portal to Big Sur,” all the way down to Morro Bay, and everything in between, from the ranch town of Atascadero to the charming quaint coastal enclaves of Cambria, Cayucos and Pismo Beach. Needless to say, a lot of miles even more frames were captured during those various jaunts.

Being as I’m a University of California, at Santa Barbara graduate (Go Gauchos!!!), I spent a lot of time in this region during those years, as well as the years after, in which an almost-annual journey up the coast towards Big Sur became a self-imposed tradition. So to be back here, in an area I have fallen in love with many times over, was an absolute gift, especially since it came as the weather began to turn in the Pacific Northwest. I was glad to put aside the puffy and the beanie for an extra week…

Anyhow, while I can’t show you all the shots, as those are for the client, here’re a few scenes from the week on the coast:

And if you’re still jonesin’ for more o’ dat’ Wasim, holler at me on Instagram: @wasimofnazareth

So this is pretty darn rad! The non-profit I work with, Ecology in Classrooms & Outdoors (ECO), just had our 3rd annual Garden Party and it was our most successful yet, “with donors stepping up to create 23 new scholarships for hands-on ecology lessons, after school programs, field trips, and outdoor summer camp!”

We also got to announce and introduce our new Executive Director, environmental non-profit veteran and rockstar, Alex Earl. Y’all know Whale Wars and the Sea Shepherd? Yeah…that’s on his resume and somehow we managed to snag him!

Click this link to check out the re-cap and the pics (by yours truly) and read about the very tangible work the team is doing to educate the next generation of Mother Nature’s stewards.

This school year, we will reach over 6,000 K-12 students over 14 school districts. That’s almost 3 times as many as just a year before.

Ecology education? We got this!

“Ecology can change my life by knowing what I can do to make the environment a better place” – a 4th Grader at Bilquist Elementary School

“ECO opens our eyes to the fact that a lot of kids have no prior knowledge or exposure to ecological education. This program is motivational for both students and teachers. It unites communities and expands our limited vision of nature around us.” ~Teacher feedback from Kelly Elementary School

“Nature makes me feel free!” ~ An excerpt from a letter to nature written by a student

Click here to find out more about Ecology in Classrooms & Outdoors. We’re doin’ good things!

Rae Lakes Loop – We came, we saw, we didn’t conquer! Kinda…

Ok, we needn’t get into the finer details, but the one silver lining of our failed attempt to backpack the entirety of the Rae Lakes Loop in Kings Canyon National Park was that we got to spend the week in Yosemite National Park’s Tuolumne Meadows instead – a rare case when the consolation prize turned into the Grand Prize!

It started off innocent enough – the group that I completed the High Divide Loop in Olympic National Park a few years ago, wanted to do another backpacking trip and how was I to say no? This time, we decided on the Rae Lakes Loop in Sequoia Kings Canyon National Park, a popular backpacking loop in the Sierras.

We spent a few weeks planning and preparing and hyping and training (OK, maybe not the training…), so once the group met up at the Kings Canyon Campground and we secured our permits, we were ready. We were ready to do this. So let’s do this!

We had our final ‘real meal’ at the campground lodge, hoisted our 40 pound packs on our backs, and hidey-hoe’d our way through the first 2 or 3 miles quite painlessly.

And then the real trek began…

As we proceeded deeper into the canyon, the elevation gains became more and more apparent and as we meandered alongside South Fork Kings River, brushing by waterfalls like Mist Falls and the subsequence cascades, we covered roughly 1700 feet over the next 4 miles or so. The scenery and surroundings were absolutely fit for gods, however, the scorching midday sun bouncing off the white granite walls surrounding us was more fit for devils.

We made it to the Middle Paradise campground for our first night just in time to set up camp and stoke a fire as the final rays of the days sun slithered away through the pine canopy.

The next morning began a ‘come to Jesus’ moment. Originally, we thought we’d be able to cover more mileage per day, but a combination of ridiculously idyllic spots to stop at, pools to swim in, pictures to set up for and be had (sorry…it’s an addiction…) made us quickly realize if we tried to cover as much as we thought we’d be able to each day, we would have no time, energy or wherewithall to stop and enjoy it all.

Being as we were looking at two back-to-back days of over 2500 feet elevation covering about the same distance ahead of us, we had some thinking to do…

Could we have done it? Sure.

Should we have done it? Maybe.

But the discussion centered around the fact that we see each other maybe once a year, perhaps every other year, so did we want to bond through treachery and pain simply to satisfy our pride and egos, or was the point of this to enjoy as many moments of the few days that we had together?

As everyone began packing their packs, it seemed the tide was tilting towards the latter.

As soon as I uttered the phrase “well, if we do decide to turn back now, we’re only a couple hours from Yosemite, and Tuolumne Meadows is open this time of year…”, it was over.

Being as how Tuolumne is only open 3 to 5 months of the year, there was little chance we were going to pass on seizing that opportunity.

So we packed our packs, headed back down the 8 miles we came, got into our cars, and made our way out of Kings Canyon and a couple hundred miles north to the next National Park in the Sierras, Yosemite National Park.

We made the obligatory stop at Tunnel View, and drove the valley loop just to show it off to a couple of Yosemite newbs in the group, and then left the circus that is the summer crowds of the valley behind as we made our way up Tioga Road, which just opened for the season a few weeks back. For those unfamiliar, Tioga Road is the route that takes you from the western side of the Sierras into Tuolumne Meadows at the top of the valley, and this is the part of the park that’s only open a few months of the year. The rest of the time, it’s snowed in.

For a quick primer, Tuolumne Meadows and this northern upper ledge of Yosemite National Park is the source of the waterfalls that cascade down into Yosemite Valley, including the famous Yosemite Falls themselves. It’s also at the final (or first) leg of the John Muir Trail (JMT) begins, (or ends, depending on which way you take it).

After failing to secure a campsite the first night and taking a nap in a motel in Lee Vining, just outside the eastern entrance to Tuolumne, we were at the ranger station a few hours later at 5:30am the following morning and were able to secure a site once the first-come-first-serve batch began processing at 8am.

We set up camp, and began our Tuolumne adventures. Over the next 4 days, we explored nooks and crannies and trails and lakes and rivers and mountains and meadows and wildflowers all throughout this alpine-level northern ledge of Yosemite National Park.

And it was glorious!!!!!

Everything we had asked for and hoped for came to fruition here in Tuolumne.

Do I wish we had finished the Rae Lakes Loop instead? One the one hand, yes – it would have been nice to finish what we set out to do. On the other hand, absolutely not. The time we got to spend in Tuolumne Meadows is time none of us will ever forget. The conditions were perfect, the environment was, well, YOSEMITE, and it was beyond evident that none of us regretted it.

And selfishly, I’ve wanted to return to Tuolumne Meadows, a region of the park that’s only open a portion of each year, since my first, and only time there 6 years ago, when I only had an appetizer – a single day – and have been craving the main course ever since.

Would I have been able to sit and wait for a deer to walk into the perfect sliver of fading sunlight as she drank from the banks of a river? No.

Would I have been able to marinate on the shore of an alpine lake for hours and watch the clouds drift by as those sunset rays draped the trees and mountaintops in the distance? No.

Would I have been able to lie on a slab of granite for an hour while a Park Ranger gave me a tour of the cosmos? No.

So while I didn’t get to cross Rae Lakes Loop off my list (this time), I still got to cross a proper and comprehensive trip to Tuolumne off my list – and to be fair, that has been on that list for much longer…

In any case, here’re are a series of images captures over the week from Kings Canyon Seqouia National Park as well as Yosemite National Park.

Hope you dig…

Aaaaaand…there’s always more where that came from on the Instagrams: @wasimofnazareth

The strawberry moon. That’s what they called this one. And that strawberry moon gifted me the opportunity of a lifetime.

But let’s start at the beginning.

About a year ago, I first met the founders and owners of Oakwood Gardens when I was assigned to photograph one of their cottages for Airbnb. When I drove onto that property, I did NOT expect to be greeted by a field of alpaca.

Alpaca have long been one of my favorite animals simply for their uncanny ability to coax a smile, and often an out-loud-laugh, out of me, no matter my mood or condition.

They just do that.

Apparently, Michael and Julie Saffley are some of the foremost experts on alpaca, being amongst the first to bring them to the states back in 1984. Since then, they have helped build the now thriving alpaca industry and started charities such as Quechua Benefit, in Peru to help the disadvantaged and poverty stricken indigenous peoples of the Peruvian highlands (which I have a feeling we’ll be hearing more about as there are a few projects involving Quechua we are currently discussing).

In any case, during that shoot, I asked the owner if I could come back one day and shoot the alpacas in 360 video (Virtual Reality) and she agreed.

Well, that didn’t happen immediately, or even soon after, as Oregon sees actual seasons and wet winters aren’t exactly the best time to try to take expensive optical electronics out into a pasture.

As luck would have it, a couple of months back I was assigned to shoot another one of the Airbnb units, this time a converted barn, and best of all, the season was Spring.

Perfect! The reunion hath be upon us!

During that shoot, Julie Safley indulged me and put me in the midst of a pasture of alpaca to capture the Greatest 90 Seconds Of 360 Virtual Reality Video In The History Of Life – Alpaca Therapy at Oakwood Gardens.

And it was glorious!!!

Which brings me back to the strawberry moon of June 17, 2019.

It was during that shoot that Julie asked if she could hire me to stay the night on the property, in that very converted barn I was now familiar with, to spend the sunset, strawberry moonrise, strawberry moonset, and sunrise shooting photos around her impeccable gardens.

Some things you just do NOT say no to.

While we were a bit unfortunate in that the moonrise and moonset were mostly obstructed by low-lying clouds, the light was still incredible and had me meandering excitedly around the 7-acre gardens to play and shoot and pet alpacas and play and shoot and feed alpaca and do it all over again.

Here are some of the images captured during that night & morning.

And click here for more information on the VR video.

Finally, go buy some alpaca stuff from Alpacas.com. Proceeds go to Quechua Benefit, the non-profit they founded in 1996 to help break the cycle of poverty amongst under-served communities in the highlands of Peru.

It’s all good.

All of it.

And for more all the things:
instagram: @wasimofnazareth 

I have no idea how it happened, when it happened, and if it wasn’t for these images as proof, if it even ever happened at all. It seems like just yesterday I packed up all my stuff and migrated to Portland, Oregon. But apparently it was many many yesterdays ago. So just for documentary’s sake, here’s the evidence of my third consecutive Spring in the Pacific Northwest – some of my favorite images from the past few months here. Hope you dig’.