A Flurry of Excitement

Today, I took advantage of some snow flurries and a slightly lesser workload (or perhaps more a lesser desire to work) and went on a little jaunt up to Kamiak Butte. While the snow remained on the trees and ground on the summit and the north side of the Butte, the surrounding Palouse had lost all of its snow as the day warmed. This made for an interesting contrast, and the first two images are along those lines. Both were taken at f/29 to get everything in focus.

Below is a view of the forest near the trailhead. I realized that this was a very similar vantage point to one I used this spring; I put that image below for comparison. It's quite a different place in the winter! The snowy one was at f/29.

Here's another snowy forest shot. Have you begun to notice a pattern in my compositions? I have. I like to use snowy branches as a framing device, it seems. Not an inherently bad thing, but it will require some vigilance to make sure that this technique doesn't turn into a creative rut. Anyway, this one was from the West End Primitive Trail, which is very lovely and, as the name hints, the wildest part of the park.

I thought that the snowy clumps of pine needles looked a bit like fireworks, and I wanted to use them in the composition. Below was my best result, taken at f.29 to try to get the needles as well as the trees in the background all in focus.

Below is the trunk of one of the bigger trees I've seen in the park, a Ponderosa pine on the West End Primitive Trail. I usually don't use the crop you see below, but it ended up suiting the image better than the camera's standard aspect ratio. F/25.

Another forest shot from that trail, with aspen in the background:

Finally, a closeup from the afternoon. I made this image at f/3.2 to maximize the selective focus effect.

First Trip of 2015!

Yesterday, I visited the Big Four Ice Caves trail off the Mountain Loop Highway. It's a popular spot, even this time of year, and you can see everyone there - nature photographers, families, college students on break, recorder players. But despite the crowds, and the garbage at the trailhead, the hike was very pretty, and the crowds didn't show up until noon. Snow, frost, and freezing fog had conspired to coat trees and branches. And, of course, there were the mountains looming nearby. That snow and ice also coated the trail; thankfully, I had my Microspikes with me, which made the hike a quite simple affair. Hikers without them or other traction had a more difficult time.

Before we get to that icy landscape, I did a closeup of the ice on one of the branches. The ice crystals aren't quite as distinct as I'd like, although editing might clear that up. Still, I think it turned out well compositionally, and I managed to avoid any distracting shapes in the background. F/5.6.

Now onto some landscapes. The first two overlook wetlands near the beginning of the trail, with Big Four in the background. I think the first one is my favorite; the icy branches make for a closer and stronger foreground. F/22 in both cases.

We'll now move on to some images from nearer the end of the trail. The first looks up at the cliffs of Big Four looming over some trees. I tried a few compositions like this and this one was the best. F/22.

This one is looking more or less northwest, I think; the tops of the mountains and hills in the distance are starting to disappear due to advancing snow and rain. I knew from weather forecasts that a front was coming in; when distant terrain features started to disappear sequentially, I heeded the warning and prepared to head back. I was right - it started snowing shortly after the disappearing started, soon turning to a sloppy mixed snow and rain. It wasn't coming down all that hard - just hard enough to make photography difficult. F/22.

And one final shot looking up at Big Four's cliffs, just as it was starting to snow. The rugged trees in the foreground look the way they do due to the avalanches that come from the cliffs later in the winter and spring. I wanted to juxtapose that idea against the cliffs. This result is a bit busy and thus not perfect, but it was the best along those lines. F/22.

(In case anyone wonders, I didn't end up taking any actual pictures of the "ice caves." There were generally people in or around them, and they're dangerous anyway. If you ever find yourself at this trail, don't go inside or on top of the caves; they can collapse).

Happy New Year!