Winter Begins

On Tuesday, the first day of winter, I visited one of my favorite off-season hikes: Whistle Lake and Sugarloaf in the Anacortes Community Forest Lands (I accessed these destinations in a single hike from the Whistle Lake trailhead). The trails around Whistle Lake offer plenty of lake views, and the Sugarloaf summit features sweeping vistas in multiple directions. The forests in between aren't so much the highlight of the hike, but there are a few old-growth trees, madrone groves, and other pretty features to keep things interesting.

First, the most unique image of the day: hair ice, spotted on the forest floor. I've seen it before around western Washington, and have taken it for granted, but it's actually pretty special. Apparently, hair ice only grows on dead or rotting wood, because there is a certain kind of fungus (Exidiopsis effusa) whose presence causes the ice to crystallize in this way. Hair ice also only forms at certain latitudes. So, I'm excited that I got a decent picture of it! I knew there was a reason I've kept carrying that macro lens around even after wildflower season. F/6.3.

Next, Whistle Lake. When I hiked past the lake in the morning, the air was quite calm, meaning that some fun reflections were visible on the lake's surface, and I tried to depict that in the next two images. In both of these compositions, I included madrone trees in the background. Their colorful reddish-orange trunks don't stand out as well as I had envisioned, but I still think they add something to the scene. Both F/18.

Lastly, the view from Sugarloaf. I like how the gnarled branches on either side frame the vista. F/14.

That's all for now! Generally, when I've visited Whistle Lake and Sugarloaf, I've done so under overcast skies, or at best filtered sunshine. It would be fun to do some photography there under truly clear skies - even though the higher-contrast lighting would obviously be challenging to work with, distant mountains would be much more clearly visible from Sugarloaf, and the directionality of sunlight would be interesting to experiment with there and at the lake.

First Winter Walk

Over the weekend, to celebrate the long-awaited lowering of snow levels, I went on one of my favorite winter hikes/walks: the closed portion of the Mountain Loop Highway (after Deer Creek) to the Big Four Ice Caves area. You can't get to the ice caves right now, but the marsh trails have excellent views, and there is also a path down to the river. The snow at this relatively low elevation tends to melt and refreeze through the winter, creating the icy walking conditions I've dealt with in the past, but the snow on Sunday was fresh and easily walkable.

First, my favorite image from the day - a view of what I think is Mount Dickerman, with some valley mist floating around. F/16.

Next, Coal Creek from the road. F/14, 0.4 seconds.

Here's a shot of the South Fork Stillaguamish River and a hill beyond, also from the road. The sky on the left-hand side got a little washed-out/overexposed (also affecting the image quality of the tree), but I like the look of the snowy trees on the hill. F/14.

Next, the South Fork Stillaguamish River at the trail's current end. I was hoping the polarizing filter would have an even stronger effect on the water, reducing the surface glare and revealing the rocks underneath even more clearly. That didn't quite happen, but I do like the vivid blue color that was reflected. F/16.

Finally, Hall Peak. I'm not happy with the way the sky turned out; some further tweaking in Lightroom will probably be in order. My polarizing filter affected the sky unevenly, and the colors seem a bit faded or washed out. Interestingly, I had similar sky issues when I took a picture from almost the same exact vantage point last year (second photo). This year, at least, I got a composition that works at a more standard print size (8x12). There's not much you can do with a square shot. F/16.