No Pain, No Gain

Hello everyone! Before I begin, let me just say that if you haven't checked out my relatively new Facebook page, you should strongly consider doing so! You could even "Like" it if you wish. https://www.facebook.com/jamesdelbertanderson

Now on to business! Heather Lake is a popular hike, for good reason, but be warned that, in terms of pure mileage, a clear majority of the hike is rather lousy. The trail is quite rocky, particularly for a lowland forest trail; when it's not rocky, it's rooty, or has some awkwardly placed steps. Much of the hike passes through second-growth forest. And this isn't one of the nice second-growth forests, like those along the Goat Lake trail or in some other places. This one consists of large areas of uniform conifers with little in the way of understory or mossy branches to break the monotony.

The upshot of that is that, despite the interesting trail conditions, you pass through it fairly quickly, getting to the last stretch in less than an hour. And on this trail, it's that last stretch that you came to see anyway, and it's worth it. (Note that the Lake Twenty-Two trail, immediately nearby, has similar scenery and is much nicer, with old-growth forest most of the way, a crashing creek, and better views along the way. If you can only do one, do that one. If you have time, though, it's worth it to try both).

The last half mile or so passes through lovely old-growth forest. The transition from dark, uniform second-growth conifer forest to a brighter, diverse old-growth forest with a much fuller understory is very stark along the trail and a neat experience in and of itself.

The first image features an old-growth cedar in the background; I liked the way its mossy branches drooped down. I included the young hemlocks in the foreground to add some balance and depth. This is probably one of my favorite landscape images to date that uses an old-growth forest concept. Essential as it was to have everything in focus, I used f/29.

Below is a fern (lady fern?) growing on one of the old-growth trees. I used f/18 to get everything in focus; at 0.8 seconds, it took some patience to wait for the fern to be still. Even this isn't perfect; a few of the fronds are slightly blurred in places. But this was the best image that had the lighting I wanted (in a few tries, filtered sunlight overexposed some background leaves).

Then you get to the lake itself, in a cirque complete with everything you'd want in a lake so easily attainable - cliffs and crashing waterfalls, avalanche meadows, wildflowers, and a view of Mount Pilchuck.

Below is one of the views from the trail around the lake. I thought that including some of the huge boulders would add some context to the image; below is the best composition I could devise using this idea. I used f/18 to get everything in focus.

Below is a view toward one of the aforementioned waterfalls crashing down the cirque walls. I liked the gnarled, battered trees - perhaps that way due to avalanches? - and wanted to set those against one of the waterfalls. I needed good detail in both elements, so I used f/18. In hindsight, I realize that this image is very green, and the foreground and background don't show much color contrast, at least not in the JPEG. It wouldn't take much tweaking, though, to make it work and give the background the more bluish color cast that it presented to the eye. Otherwise, though, I like the composition.

Below is a Sitka valerian (Valeriana sitchensis) just beginning to open. I used f/6.3 because I wanted the out-of-focus buds and flowers to fall out of focus only gradually.

Below are two flowers on a pink monkey-flower plant (Mimulus lewisii). I used f/4.5 because wider apertures didn't give me enough detail, although I wouldn't have minded more background blur.