Too Bad It's All Second Growth!

...Well, not all of it is. But much of the Goat Lake trail runs through areas that were logged at one point. Even though the term "second-growth" is sometimes used derisively, these regenerating forests have their own special attributes - pretty groves of alders, meadow flowers, and other scenic things.

Since I was there with my mom, it was more of a hike hike than a photo hike. Because of this, I was unable to finely match lighting conditions and location like I usually do, and found myself in the forest with harsh sunlight. Still, I got a few halfway decent pictures...but they definitely don't represent my best output, so please keep that in mind.

This first one comes from one of the historically logged areas, looking up among some alders. I used my wide-angle lens and tipped my wide-angle lens up; I even retracted the back legs of the tripod so that it was all just barely balancing. The lighting's a bit harsh, as I said, but I think it's okay. The sky doesn't seem too horribly blown out.

This one looks up at a big ol' tree that comes during one of the old-growth sections of the trail. I had to hold my lens in place since gravity kept causing the heavy thing to zoom out!!

Again from one of the second-growth alder glades (the leaves are devil's club, or as Noah puts it, "dinosaur plant"). Since the foreground leaves were shadowed and the lighting in the background was coming from the side, I was able to minimize the consequences of the harsh forest lighting.

This one was a bit risky, but I think it's kind of interesting. I think the bright splotches in the background maintain enough blue definition to keep this picture from looking too gross. But I couldn't get a very narrow depth of field, so the background looks too cluttered, I think.

And from the lake itself. The problem with lake hikes of any length is that it's difficult to avoid arriving at the lake near midday if you don't want to hike in the dark - unless you're unbelievably focused and don't stop anywhere along the way on at least one of the directions. I didn't manage to do this. Still, the upcoming shot of the leaves was all right. I don't like the bare branch in the top third - but that could possibly be cloned out in Lightroom with a bit of effort.

Maybe I'll have to start backpacking. I could start at a lake like this right at dawn. But solo backpacking would be basically out of the question - there'd be too much stuff to carry if I had my photo gear along! So who knows if it'll ever happen.