Boulder River in winter

On Monday, I visited the Boulder River trail near Darrington, in search of snow-free hiking and, due to the waterfalls and river scenery, photographic possibilities even in this relatively dreary time of year. As it turned out, I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of color I found. Obviously, mossy evergreen trees made for a lot of green. Decaying foliage and dormant shrubs also added contrasting hues, which I was able to use to my advantage in this first shot, my favorite of the bunch. Featured here is the double waterfall maybe a mile and a half along the trail; an obvious side trail leads to this vantage point. F/16, 0.6 seconds. This shutter speed sufficiently blurred the background waterfalls, while still capturing some of the water's turbulence in the foreground; longer shutter speeds blurred the foreground water too much.

Next, a view of the same set of waterfalls, from the hiking trail. I was worried about the high contrast between the waterfalls and the dark trunks, but was able to use Lightroom bring both into an acceptable range. The image quality in the darker areas isn't fantastic, but I think it's good enough. F/20, 1.6 seconds.

Here's a view of a different waterfall, farther along the trail. The waterfall is closer to the center of the composition than I'd prefer, perhaps violating the Rule of Thirds, but the trunk and branches seen here were the most attractive way to frame the falls. F/20, 3 seconds.

Another image from the same vantage point. The sense of depth is not as strong as in the composition above, but I still like it. F/20, 2.5 seconds.

Lastly, a vertical composition from the double waterfall. The image quality here is not as good as in this post's other images, but the image might still be usable, at least at some print sizes. F/20, 1 second.

In contrast to the warmth of my Sugarloaf trip the previous weekend, temperatures on Monday hovered in the upper 30s in the valley - "back to our regularly scheduled January," as my hiking companion accurately put it. Considering that it was dry, however, with good lighting and interesting scenery - not to mention the fact that I didn't make it out at all for photography last January - I'll take it!

Sugarloaf

On Saturday, I made my first-ever visit to the Anacortes Community Forest Lands on Fidalgo Island, hiking to Whistle Lake and then Sugarloaf (continuing from the Whistle Lake trailhead). Whistle Lake is mostly forested with a few rock outcroppings and small clearings; it'd probably be worthwhile to return on an overcast day in the spring, for lake landscapes or to look for wildflowers. Sugarloaf sports some open meadows with views of both the Olympics and the Cascades; also likely worth a return trip.

Sunshine and glare made photography around the lake difficult, but I had one success at Sugarloaf. The composition below looks roughly east, with the Cascades visible. Were I ever to get this printed, the white balance might still need a bit of work, but it's getting close. F/16.

I'm excited to have already made my first photography trip of 2019, as I didn't really make it out last year until March. This time of year, with snow and storm damage in the mountains (plus this year's addition of the federal government shutdown), and bare trees and shrubs in the lowlands, the kind of photography I do can be difficult. So I'm considering Saturday's one post-worthy image to be a success!