Hike to Talapus Lake and Olallie Lake

Hiking has long since been one of my favorite hobbies. The feeling of being away from it all and the peace that comes from getting to a mountain lake or to the top of a high peak is always a great way to refresh the soul. The fact that my hobby of photography gets intertwined with hiking is an added bonus.

The hike to Talapus Lake and Olallie Lake was an excellent hike. I would recommend the hike to anyone as the round trip is only a little more than 6 miles. I would recommend if you are traveling with little ones that you only go as far as Talapus Lake. Olallie Lake is a bit more of a stretch of the legs and most of the groups we ran into with little ones had or were stopping at Talapus Lake. Because of this fact Talapus Lake was a little crowded. Continuing on to Olallie Lake, the hike becomes a little more difficult but worth the extra effort. As there are fewer people on this part of the trail you get to hear more of nature and enjoy the peace that it brings.
The trail offers many opportunities to stop and enjoy the view of small waterfalls, rushing stream, giant old trees and everyone once in a while a peak at mountain tops. Both lakes are picturesque and are surrounded by tree covered peaks. Once you reach Olallie Lake the trail continues on the west side of the bank that offers several different views and chances dip your hands and feet into the cold mountain water.

Talapus Lake

Olallie Lake

More information about the hike can be found on the Washington Trail Association site and more photos from the hike can be found in my flickr album Hike to Talapus and Olallie Lakes.
-Jeremy

Public Market in 5 Minutes

Took a quick walk through the market with my point and shoot. Here's the shots I took.

 



 

 

onOne Software's Photo Suite

Once I'm done shooting my processing workflow starts with Adobe Lightroom. For the majority of my photos I do all the processing there, but when I want to be a little more creative with processing a photo the tools in Lightroom are not enough. Since photography is one of my hobbies and not my job, buying Photoshop is not really in the budget. Also I would rather spend that money on a lens. The solution (or the one I use and like) is onOne Software's Photo Suite. Current version of the suite at time of this post is version 6.1. The Suite includes seven different tools:

• Perfect Portrait 1 - A great tool for cleaning up portraits.
• Perfect Layers 2 - This tool allows you to use layers to combine photos.
• Perfect Effects 3 - One of my favorite tools. This tool allows you limitless creativity to style your photo. The tool allows you to apply the an effect to the whole photo or just select parts of the photo by painting in or out the effect.
• Perfect Mask 5 - This is an excellent masking tool because it is easy to use and fast.
• Perfect Resize 7 Pro - Do you print your photos on media larger than 8x10? This is the tool you need.
• Focalpoint 2 - This tools is another one of my favorites. This tool allows you to create selective focus on your shot.
• Photoframe 4.6 Pro - Apply cool frames to complete your creation with this tool.

All of these tools can be accessed directly out of Lightroom (Aperture and Photoshop) or as standalone applications. For a better description and more information check out onOne Software's website.

Bellow are some of my photos I used onOne Software's Photo Suite with. 

Perfect Effects 3

Perfect Layers 2

Focalpoint 2

View the whole set on flickr.

Woodland Park Zoo

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View the rest of my images at Woodland Park Zoo here.

The Market

The Market, originally uploaded by f1crazed.

Taken during a day spent hanging out at Pikes Place Market . One of the best places to go if you are visiting Seattle or even if you live in the area.