Matt Burris

The Sinking Wreckage

It was storming severely enough that I had to dig my tripod into the sad to keep the wind from blowing it over when I arrived at the shipwreck. It was a magnificent sight on an otherwise cold, stormy day. This half-sunken wreckage of the Peter Iredale which ran aground on October 25, 1906 near Fort Stevens on the Oregon coast. This is all that remains of the wreckage, the rest having sunken into the sand.

Seattle Before The Storm

The Winding Road Through Washington Park

Washington Park is one of my favorite places in Portland, especially in the fall. It's full of scenic roads and trails that wind in and out of the beautiful forested areas. It was cold out after a heavy October rain, but I had to pull over to get a longer look at all the fall colors. This was taken on a fall day shortly after a heavy rain.

Spring in Oregon

The Fall Storm Over The Lake

I drive by this lake all the time. I've lived near it for years now, but I guess it became sort of ordinary to me because I never explored it with my camera until just recently. It's one of dozens of small lakes in western Washington that's easy to pass up if you're not careful.

The Thawing Rapids

I'm very lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the United States. This is the tailwater (which, apparently, is the word that describes the flowing water coming out of a dam) from a small dam thawing out after a big freeze. If you look closely you can see the bits of ice and snow along the edges of the river. Camas, WA

The Halogen Cathedral

The Old Grist Mill

This is the Cedar Creek Grist Mill, not far from Vancouver, Washington. It's apparently about 140 years old. This was one of those times where as soon as I set up my tripod to take a photo, someone rushed into the frame. I decided to roll with it, though, because the guy poking his head out the window sort of gives some scale to the whole scene.

The Heinz Chapel

The Air Ducts

The Environmental Studies building at Western Washington University in Bellingham has these amazing air ducts that span the length of the atrium for five or six floors, backed by this neat reflective glass. I read a report this year that proposes removing them because they aren't up to building code, though, and apparently have "no substantive basis." But if I was a student I'd hang out in this building all the time!

The Neo-noir Christmas Tree

This photo might be a little misleading, as it was actually taken after Christmas. The tree had this projector that displayed this spinning light pattern on the ground while playing some distorted Christmas songs. It was a little surreal.

The Desert Storm

Deserts are such fascinating environments. I was fortunate enough to be in Las Vegas during one a rare summer rain, so I headed out to Red Rock Canyon to take some photos.

The Rocky Shores of the Lewis River

These neat rock formations are just downriver from Lucia Falls. This place was packed when I arrived, full of people taking photos of the falls themselves. The falls were nice, but I spent most of my time exploring these rocks just down the river. They sort of remind me of something you'd see in Iceland or Norway.

San Francisco's Lavish City Hall Building

San Francisco has one of the most ornate city hall buildings. At night it's lit up by these brilliant spotlights that make it much more beautiful than most government buildings.

Sunset On The Columbia

This does not seem like a typical Pacific Northwest scene, but it is. The common perception is that it's all rain and clouds up here, but we get breathtaking sunsets like this one all the time. Once the rain clears up it usually leaves some interesting cloud formations behind. This is the Columbia River after a heavy storm that left the water oddly calm just before sundown.

The Ancient Angel Oak Tree

Some estimates put this tree at 500 years old, while others claim it to be over 1500 years old. I'm not sure which to believe, but it's truly a magnificent sight. Oak trees are all over the Charleston area, but this is by far the largest, with branches trailing in every direction. Even with a wide-angle lens it was difficult to capture most of it. Outside the frame of this photo, the tree's branches disappear into the surrounding bushes.

The Bending Trees

I saw this cluster of odd, stringy looking trees on a hike near Lake Chabot in northern California. Most of the surrounding area was dead grass and brown leaves, but this patch of green caught my eye.

The Foggy Castle Gate

This isn't really the entrance to a castle. It's a park in Portland that was apparently constructed with the remains of a county jail that was demolished in the 1930s. It looks sort of eerie on calm foggy days like this one.

The Empty Tracks of Tillamook

Sunny Seattle

The Sunken Trailer at the Salton Sea

I usually get weird looks from people familiar with the Salton Sea when I tell them it's one of my favorite places to visit. I'm always dying to go back. It's a post-apocalyptic wonderland in Southern California created from an engineering mishap diverted the Colorado River into the desert. Today all that's left is a handful of small communities and an abundance of abandoned properties and rusted out cars. It's a photographer's dream.

Inside the Rusty Hull

Pittsburgh At Dusk

The Eastern Shores of the Salton Sea

Despite all of the rusted out cars, broken down buildings and dead fish, the eastern shores of the Salton Sea can actually be pretty scenic. On a nice afternoon I stopped by one of the beaches to watch the birds fly around over the sea. The sea has this neat phenomenon where a neat mist settles over it in the afternoon.

Winter Shores On The Columbia

The sun becomes somewhat of a luxury during the middle winter months in the Pacific Northwest. This sunset was the first visible one in eight or so days when I took this photo. Bald eagles apparently enjoy the brief lapse in rain, as I saw two of them just after I got my tripod setup to take this photo. I spent over an hour milling about on the beach while the two eagles sort of watched over the park. They didn't move once the whole time I was there.

The Old Guns of Fort Sumter

It's amazing to see the old, crumbling bricks at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. I took this on a cold, rainy day in Charleston. During the first battle of the Civil War in 1861, Confederate troops fired on the fort for 34 hours straight. It's remarkable to see how much of the original structure is still there.

The Space Needle