What is the Pacific Northwest? And where is it?

The Pacific Northwest, geographically referred to as Cascadia, is the northwest region of North America, and is bound by the Pacific Ocean. It encompasses all of Washington, Oregon States and Northern California, British Columbia Canada, and Alaska. It is an area of vast beauty. Here you will find multiple climates and topography, from the highest mountains on the continent, to many thousands of miles of coastline, and globally rare inland seas.

The Pacific Northwest from Space

—> PACIFIC NORTHWEST IMAGES  <—

Schooner – Shaw Island

Schooner Shaw Island

“Schooner Shaw Island,” was the first picture I ever took inside of the San Juan Islands of Washington. In 1974, after quitting my job at a camera store in order to temporarily become a “sailing bum,” I sailed a small sailboat from Gig Harbor in south Puget Sound up North through the San Juan Islands, then back again. After sailing in pre-summer weather in June, flirting with capsizing conditions, enduring a thunderstorm, then approaching the Shaw Island ferry landing, I took this image with a telephoto lens. I have not been able to identify the ship but it appears to be a schooner.

The telephoto lens exaggerates cumulous clouds far behind the ship. Appearing to be night, this was midday. I used a blue filter and underexposed the exposure in order to achieve the appearance of night. The camera was a Nikon “Nikkormat FTn” 35mm, the telephoto a Nikor 200mm f4 fixed focal length with Kodachrome slide film. Taken hand-held from a sailboat.