Wet, Cold, Gray, Beautiful

For I think the third time this winter, I took advantage of relatively cold temperatures to make a snow level exploration. The snow level was not quite as low as I would have liked - the snow at the Middle and Upper falls was still rather slushy - but it was still nice to see some. The problem was nonstop precipitation. Thus, I hardly took any pictures. Still, the falls were very beautiful, even with rain, snow (eventually) and slush from the trees cascading over me. I made it all the way to the upper falls and contemplated continuing up to the logging roads and Wallace Lake. This, however, would have required a bit of off-trail travel in about a half-inch of slush and some steep sections. After about twenty feet I wound up on my hands and knees.........so I decided it wasn't worth the trouble. Wallace Lake isn't that pretty, and the route goes through second-growth forest that isn't very picturesque. (Note that the logging roads can actually be nice in the summer because they are covered with oxeye daisies and foxglove).

Although Wallace Falls is a fun place to visit as it is, I find myself wondering what it would have looked like before it was logged. It must have been just as spectacular, with cascading waters and huge mossy trees, as the rainforests on the Olympic Peninsula. It would put the Boulder River trail to shame, and send the even the West Fork Foss trail home crying about its inadequacy. Unfortunately, the forests are relatively uniform and second-growth.

I do, however, desire to return to Wallace Falls State Park in the spring. I noticed this time that there are a lot of salmonberry bushes growing along Wallace River and the North Fork Wallace River. Potentially, I could get some nice shots juxtaposing them against the rapids.

So, here are the two pictures worth posting. They both need some contrast enhancement...but of all digital post-processing tasks, adding contrast (even to just part of a picture) is one of the easiest to do. I also want to cool down the colors a bit; I left the white balance setting too warm on my camera. Editing from RAW, of course, that's not a problem.

The first one I owe to a kind hiker who held his umbrella up over me as I took the shot. Not having some covering would have resulted in water getting on my polarizing filter, as the wind was drifting the rain toward me. I would have liked better-defined snow on the trees. Contrast enhancement will help, though.

This second I took at the very end of my hike, when it finally stopped raining (albeit for a few minutes only). I wanted to juxtapose the lush lichen and moss on the trees with the snowy ridge up above. Post-processing will help me make the snowy ridge a bit more defined. But this picture, I think, says it all about winter in the Puget Sound. In the lowlands, winter is wet and lush, with plenty of moss, lichen and evergreen trees keeping things lively. Always looming nearby, however, is the cold and snowy winter world of the Cascades..

Marginal days can really make photography interesting. Days that capture transitions - such as a snow level, or snow on autumn leaves, or just-opening flowers - make me feel as though I am witnessing a truly special event. Today was like that. I felt as though I witnessed what might be winter's last hurrah as it gracefully retreated up into the hills.

...All that said, I can't wait until summer. Partially because of the weather, and partially because I'll be able to visit some proper wilderness. And flowers! Soon.

Lo How A Plum E'er Blooming

Spring has sprung in Discovery Park! The Indian Plum (Oemleria cerasiformis) shrubs are budding, and a few bushes now have coming some flowerets bright. These plants are great; green leaves and white flowers light up the drab forests every February. They are like an alarm clock for the end of winter and the beginning of spring. Native plants wake up and get going right away, even if the local weather, as we all know, hits the snooze button and waits a couple months to get spring going on its end.

Here is my best. The red in the background in the lower third of the picture is from least year's dead leaves and twigs; I knew it would give an interesting color contrast. What I didn't anticipate was how dark the conifer foliage in the upper two thirds of the background would appear. I think that characteristic, though, makes the picture more interesting. I stopped down as far as I could (f/3.8) to minimize any distracting shapes in the background. It might look like I used flash, but I did not.

Here are some buds on another Indian Plum bush. I was so close that I was able to stop down to f/8 while maintaining a mostly solid background; I really needed more definition in the foreground than I would have gotten with a wider aperture; the area in focus would have been to small to form pleasing spots for the eye to lock on to when viewing the picture.

There is also a willow showing some signs of life. Frankly, I'll have to wait until later in the year to identify it. One picture I took turned out; it needs its contrast increased and the colors enhanced (maybe...if the contrast doesn't do the trick). I stopped down to f/10 because I wanted to place these budding branches within the context of the wintry field and branches behind them.

Finally, an experimental shot I took of some Indian Plum flowers. I wanted to juxtapose the new flowers against the bare branches of the surrounding trees. To do so, I stopped down to f/20 so that the branches' shapes would be at least somewhat discernible. It turned out better than I expected, although white flowers and a white cloudy sky aren't the best combination; the green draws all the attention in this photograph. I'll be trying a similar composition next month, hopefully, when the salmonberry bushes begin to bloom.

Before I go, I'll mention that I took a trip to Deception Pass State Park a couple weeks ago. Other than being lost for about 20 minutes of the hike, it was fairly uneventful. I jumped the gun on any interesting plant scenery. Only one picture is worth posting. This is looking west across Lottie Bay from the Canoe Pass Vista Trail; the little headland that I was on isn't named on my map. Anyway, to get all the depth of field that I wanted (f/25), I had to use an exposure speed of five seconds. This turned out to be a blessing because it blurred the water's motion and made it look glassy. Thankfully the air was still enough that the leaves didn't blur. The tree in the foreground is a Pacific madrone (Arbutus menziesii).

Ta ta!