The Nightmare called Ruckel
I had the opportunity the past two months to have many of my images pitched for a very big project for Canon in Japan. As part of this presentation I was asked to remove the images that were being pitched from my website and Flickr. I got news today that the project is not moving forward this year and as a result, I need to slowly work these images back into my photostream. These were some of my favorite images and to be honest, I am glad I get to bring them back, so if you see an image and think, hey...that looks familiar then that is probably why. I learned quite a lot during this experience about exclusivity and had to go on a mission trying to find where on the internet my images were being used and get those removed as well. One image, that I will share later, had actually made it's way onto a well known website where they offer images for download for the purpose of editing or adding to them creatively. You can imagine my surprise when I found one of my favorite waterfall images, right here on flickr, with a mermaid photo-shopped onto one of the rocks in my foreground. At first I was pretty pissed, but in the end it was funny and before I made them remove the image, I downloaded it for a future post. :) Anyway, if you have not seen this image before and you are wondering about the title, I have placed the original story down below for those of you that want some light reading. Happy waterfall Wednesday!
So here's the story: :)
Before this weekend I had not visited this PNW gem, Ruckel creek falls. It's no secret that I won't be trying out for any fitness weekly competitions this month but I can keep up on most hikes with the best of them. Just because I SOUND like a asthmatic horse who just tried to compete in the Kentucky derby doesn't mean I am actually getting my ass kicked. Besides...I recover quickly. :) I met up with Don, Zeb, Dani, Matt, Kathy and her husband Wayne for a early morning hike and as usual forgot my water. I realized this about a half mile into the hike when the incline of the trail went from Wahkeenalike to WTF in very short order. Halfway up the trail Zeb proclaimed it to be the last of the switchbacks. 10 more switchbacks later and we finally reached the top. I took a few breaks to make sure everyone was doing okay. :) I didn't want anyone to get too tired.
When we finally reached the top, no one knew where the trail was. Kathy pulled a picture out of her pocket of a mossy rock and said this was the marker for the trail. I did a quick sweep of the area and saw at least 7 or 8 mossy rocks. We're screwed I thought. Zeb ran around for about 10 minutes with the rock photo in his hand before finally finding the trail. Earlier on the trail we had discussed and spotted poison oak along the sides of the trail. Now we had to cross an entire field of it. No problem. lol
It was at this point that the effects of Poison oak were explained to me. Now, I had always thought it just made you itch really bad. Okay I thought, I can deal with that if I have too. Unfortunately, ignorance is not always bliss and I was told that poison oak actually creates boils that fill with fluid and fester. What? A freaking fluid filled boil is bad enough...then is has to freaking fester? Oh hell no. I made it through the field and didn't fall down. I did however get my tripod all in the poison oak. Great.
Finally we make it to the top of the trail. We get to go downhill now! Wait a minute....that means we have to come back up! The trail down in comprised of two things...loose rock and slick clay. It sucked, but we made it. Everyone told me not to touch my face or arms after touching my tripod but I was sweating buckets when I got there and there were flying bugs everywhere. This area is also known to have a decent amount of ticks and I hate the thought of getting a tick so I was constantly wiping my head face & neck. I couldn't help but think about how freaking sweet it would be to have festering fluid filled boils, severe itching and blood sucking bugs burrowing into my skin all at the same time.
Fast forward to after we made it out of this nightmare..... After saving Don from a tick just as it was about to have lunch on his neck, I got on my phone and started looking at boil images. Nice. When we got back into town we stopped and bought a scrub to treat and eliminate poison oak oil. I drove 100mph to Zeb's house so I could hop in the shower. One of the ticks made it all the way to Zeb's house but didn't get either of us. Sorry Wendy! :) I didn't even bother to read how much of this scrub I was supposed to use, I just used it all. I don't know if I have ever been that clean. I mean, I had to have gone through at least 4 layers of skin.
2 hours later we started our workshop and about an hour into it my entire head, face and neck was on fire. The midday sun was playing tricks on me and I could swear I saw a rash developing on my thumb. In the end, I think it was a combination of the sun, the medicine and my own paranoia because halfway through the workshop the sun went down and I began to feel better.
I am still not completely comfortable though and hope I dodged a bullet. I don't want festering fluid boils!
Check Out My Profile for information on prints, licensing & workshops.
To really see it, just click it. :)
Please do not use my images on blogs, personal or professional websites, or any other digital media without my explicit permission. Thank you.
The Nightmare called Ruckel
I had the opportunity the past two months to have many of my images pitched for a very big project for Canon in Japan. As part of this presentation I was asked to remove the images that were being pitched from my website and Flickr. I got news today that the project is not moving forward this year and as a result, I need to slowly work these images back into my photostream. These were some of my favorite images and to be honest, I am glad I get to bring them back, so if you see an image and think, hey...that looks familiar then that is probably why. I learned quite a lot during this experience about exclusivity and had to go on a mission trying to find where on the internet my images were being used and get those removed as well. One image, that I will share later, had actually made it's way onto a well known website where they offer images for download for the purpose of editing or adding to them creatively. You can imagine my surprise when I found one of my favorite waterfall images, right here on flickr, with a mermaid photo-shopped onto one of the rocks in my foreground. At first I was pretty pissed, but in the end it was funny and before I made them remove the image, I downloaded it for a future post. :) Anyway, if you have not seen this image before and you are wondering about the title, I have placed the original story down below for those of you that want some light reading. Happy waterfall Wednesday!
So here's the story: :)
Before this weekend I had not visited this PNW gem, Ruckel creek falls. It's no secret that I won't be trying out for any fitness weekly competitions this month but I can keep up on most hikes with the best of them. Just because I SOUND like a asthmatic horse who just tried to compete in the Kentucky derby doesn't mean I am actually getting my ass kicked. Besides...I recover quickly. :) I met up with Don, Zeb, Dani, Matt, Kathy and her husband Wayne for a early morning hike and as usual forgot my water. I realized this about a half mile into the hike when the incline of the trail went from Wahkeenalike to WTF in very short order. Halfway up the trail Zeb proclaimed it to be the last of the switchbacks. 10 more switchbacks later and we finally reached the top. I took a few breaks to make sure everyone was doing okay. :) I didn't want anyone to get too tired.
When we finally reached the top, no one knew where the trail was. Kathy pulled a picture out of her pocket of a mossy rock and said this was the marker for the trail. I did a quick sweep of the area and saw at least 7 or 8 mossy rocks. We're screwed I thought. Zeb ran around for about 10 minutes with the rock photo in his hand before finally finding the trail. Earlier on the trail we had discussed and spotted poison oak along the sides of the trail. Now we had to cross an entire field of it. No problem. lol
It was at this point that the effects of Poison oak were explained to me. Now, I had always thought it just made you itch really bad. Okay I thought, I can deal with that if I have too. Unfortunately, ignorance is not always bliss and I was told that poison oak actually creates boils that fill with fluid and fester. What? A freaking fluid filled boil is bad enough...then is has to freaking fester? Oh hell no. I made it through the field and didn't fall down. I did however get my tripod all in the poison oak. Great.
Finally we make it to the top of the trail. We get to go downhill now! Wait a minute....that means we have to come back up! The trail down in comprised of two things...loose rock and slick clay. It sucked, but we made it. Everyone told me not to touch my face or arms after touching my tripod but I was sweating buckets when I got there and there were flying bugs everywhere. This area is also known to have a decent amount of ticks and I hate the thought of getting a tick so I was constantly wiping my head face & neck. I couldn't help but think about how freaking sweet it would be to have festering fluid filled boils, severe itching and blood sucking bugs burrowing into my skin all at the same time.
Fast forward to after we made it out of this nightmare..... After saving Don from a tick just as it was about to have lunch on his neck, I got on my phone and started looking at boil images. Nice. When we got back into town we stopped and bought a scrub to treat and eliminate poison oak oil. I drove 100mph to Zeb's house so I could hop in the shower. One of the ticks made it all the way to Zeb's house but didn't get either of us. Sorry Wendy! :) I didn't even bother to read how much of this scrub I was supposed to use, I just used it all. I don't know if I have ever been that clean. I mean, I had to have gone through at least 4 layers of skin.
2 hours later we started our workshop and about an hour into it my entire head, face and neck was on fire. The midday sun was playing tricks on me and I could swear I saw a rash developing on my thumb. In the end, I think it was a combination of the sun, the medicine and my own paranoia because halfway through the workshop the sun went down and I began to feel better.
I am still not completely comfortable though and hope I dodged a bullet. I don't want festering fluid boils!
Check Out My Profile for information on prints, licensing & workshops.
To really see it, just click it. :)
Please do not use my images on blogs, personal or professional websites, or any other digital media without my explicit permission. Thank you.