Fern

I love love love the texture in this image. The greens are gorgeous. Interesting fact: The ferns that look fernier have their seeds on the bottom. (My husband pointed this out.)

~FF

Mushrooms

These were interesting. It seems like they are designed to catch water or food in the cup on top. It was neat because they were about 3 feet from our tent. I am not sure if they grew over night or if we were just lucky yo not set the tent on top of them.

~FF

l plant

I am not quite sure what to say about this guy. Jim pointed him out to me for my photographing letters project. I think he is goofy. If you look closely their are spirals coming off the big spiral.

~FF

Spikey Plant

This plant is another example of the detail that went into creation. Who would have thought to put spikes all over the stem and the leaves? These plant had large pricklies growing out of the tops and bottoms of the leaves where the slugs were found on other plants.

~FF

Life & Death

Forest fires and rotting wood don’t seem like positive aspects of nature, but they are often the most gorgeous areas. When hiking through a burn area there are often gorgeous golden banner and fireweed. Fires help keep a forest healthy and show signs of new life. Dead trees often become covered with their own eco systems. This image is of a bright green plant popping through a fallen tree that has been rotting for some time.

~FF

Painted Leaves

A reoccurring theme throughout our trip to the ocean was the incredible amount of detail that can be seen in both large and small aspects of nature. The mountains are gorgeous, the trees are huge (the largest Redwood in the word), the tiny orchids and other wild flowers and these leaves.

I don’t know what these leaves have on, or in, them but they seem to be painted in extreme detail. It seems like a fungus or disease. It is incredible that a disease would be this gorgeous.

~FF

Giant Slug

I have grown up seeing slugs that are about a half inch long. These slugs would hang out in my grandmas garden or in our front yard. The slugs in Washington, both by our house in the dessert, and in the rain forest are mammoth in comparison. This was taken in a small rain forest in Ocean Shores.

Felicia Follum Art & Design

~FF

Spiders

I really like the black and white on the top image.
The shadow on the spider (in the bottom photograph) makes it extra scary to me.

These huge spiders were in the entrance way to a mens bathroom at the campground we stayed at. There were about 9 or 10 spiders in the doorway. I went to the bathroom around 2 in the morning and found these. That is when I decided to take some photographs. It was much more difficult than I expected. It may have been because it was the middle of the night.

~FF

Rock Stacks on Ruby Beach

Here is my version of the traditional (somewhat cliche) smooth rock stacks.
They were all the same value so I soaked every other one to make the dark/light contrast.
~FF

Ruby Beach - Rockscapes

The dark rocks create an interesting contrast with the background.

~FF

Ruby Beach

This beach looked like it was used to film a movie on. It reminds me of landscapes in Hook. The big rectangular rock formations were fascinating.

~FF

Beach # 4 - Anemone Crack

They were all over the place. And this wasn't even low tide.

~FF

Beach # 4 – more starfish

There were so stinking’ many of these creatures. They were everywhere. At one point we counted 22. I really like the way they follow the shape of the cracks on this picture.

~FF

Beach # 4 - Dancing Starfish

This guy was just too cute not to post.

~FF

Beach # 4 – anemones

More from the tide pool… It is crazy to me that animals can have colors this bight. There was a community in Lead, SD where one of the rules was that you had to have natural color houses. I always thought it would be funny to have a house that was a bright color just to make a statement (or a scene). Anyways, I think these colors would have worked well.

~FF

Beach # 4

This beach may have been my favorite. The tide pools were incredible. We were there around mid tide but it sounds like low tide would have been even better. I am not sure what these are but I do love their texture.

`FF

Beach 1

This beach had trees that had tumors and were growing sideways because of the wind from the ocean. I like the silhouette of these two trees and how they fit together almost like a puzzle.

~FF

Seaweed

There were several of these large pieces of seaweed washed up on shore. The bubble at the top is filled with air (or something else that floats). We assumed that the tiny end must be what connects this guy to the ocean shore.

~FF

Seagulls

There are several beaches on the Pacific shore in WA. They all seem to have their specific traits. On the website it talked about how the landscape is not the same for more than 2 miles. This beach was just off of our campground. Its special characteristics were the amount of seagulls and sand dollars. One of the beaches in Ocean Shores is actually a state highway. It was neat being able to drive on the sand. You do have to be careful because of the tides.

~FF

Mount Rainer

This view was on our way home. The forests and mountains in WA are gorgeous. It was neat to be in the mountains some this summer. I felt like I was home. I am curious to see what the area would look like in the fall. The trees in this area are deciduous conifers. They change to all the gorgeous colors in Boulder Canyon. I didn’t know that such a tree existed.

The fogginess is a little frustrating but I think it is what makes WA have such great for sunsets.

This image may need to be turned into an illustration as well.

~FF

Mount Rainer National Park

The clouds wouldn’t move from on top of the mountain. This was a view from Chinook Pass in Mt Rainer National Park.

Boat

Here is one of the boats. I tried drawing this boat. It was quite a challenge. I think I am going to redraw it using this photograph instead of just using what I can see as the boat goes by. Drawing in person was a good challenge because they were moving so fast and I had never seem a vehicle like this before.

~FF

Air Show

The air show was fascinating. I have never seen the airplanes that draw in the sky before so that was fun. There were also jets and other crazy flying objects. The stealth was interesting as well because it was so quiet.

~FF

Hydroplane Crowd

Here is the crowd wading in the water to watch the final race.

~FF

Action Shot

When the races were close it was crazy because you could be in the water about a 100 feet from the boats traveling 200 mph (I think that was the speed – I could be wrong).

~FF

Boat Races

I am not sure what the term is for the water that shoots up behind the hydroplane. I am going to call it a jet stream. Water is fascinating. I had no idea that water could make all of these intricate lines and shapes.

~FF

Reflection

Just a fun one. I love dinking around with the camera when we are driving in the car. My husband always thinks it is funny because I just take pictures of "random things." Some of them end up being pretty good photographs but others, like this image, simply are for fun.

Enjoy!

~FF