Discovery Trip

I was recently in Seattle and made a morning trip to Discovery Park. Conditions were excellent - overcast lighting and not much breeze, even along the beaches.

First, we'll begin with a wild rose. I wanted to depict it in its beach environment, so I stopped down to F/9 to make the beach and Sound in the background vaguely perceptible.

Next are the flowers on a black twinberry bush (Lonicera involucrata). I think this is my best image of that bush in flower.

Next is a closeup of a pine - I think shore pine (Pinus contorta var. contorta). I did a similar image last year of shore pine, but I like this better due to the inclusion of the red bits. Are those the beginnings of new cones? I am going to assume that for now.

The next two images depict the lush greenery in Discovery Park this time of year. I did a bit of color tweaking on these in Picasa, but Picasa's tool are obviously limited compared with RAW editing in Lightroom. I've found that images with a lot of green usually need quite a bit of work on white balance and contrast to bring out the different shades of green, and these are no exception. The first one in particular needs some work to differentiate between the sword fern in the foreground and the forest in the background.

Next, some lupine shots from the meadows near the South Beach.

Lastly, I wanted to try a shot juxtaposing some alder trees with the cliff faces as viewed from the South Beach. This one was the best, and while it didn't quite have the depth that I might have desired, it's still interesting, and captures a cool aspect of the park.