Mountains and things

Yesterday I paid a return visit to the Lake Ann trail, hoping to enjoy a drier day. I was not disappointed! Unfortunately, the cloud ceilings were too low for good views of Baker or Shuksan from the trail, and the wildflowers are mostly gone. Nevertheless, I found some interesting subjects, and besides that had a fine walk in the mountains.

First, two images on a theme of trees, mountains, and swirling clouds. In the first, taken on the way uphill to the saddle and the lake, a partial sunbreak provided some interesting backlighting that I think adds some depth and interest. The second, taken near the trailhead, is also dramatic but has quite high contrast. It will be interesting to see what I can do with it in Lightroom - particularly whether I can reduce the overexposure in the clouds at the top. The shadows could also be lightened, but only slightly (too much would eliminate the drama of the image).

Next, an image of some corn lily (aka false hellebore) with the cliffs of the valley walls in the background. While the greens of the hellebore don't contrast with the background as much as I had originally envisioned, some tasteful tweaking in Lightroom might remedy that and bring the image closer to my impression on the scene. F/29 to get everything in focus.

Lastly, an image with a similar concept featuring the berries of what I think is a mountain ash of some kind (genus Sorbus). I don't have my plant guide with me at the moment, but that's my educated guess. I think this composition is a bit busy, so I don't know if I'd ever "use" this image for anything, but I still think it's interesting and a cool setting.