So far this November, I've gotten out twice for photography hikes, so I'm going to condense them both into this post. This time of year, the weather is fickle, so I'm grateful for all the hiking I can get!
Cougar Mountain
Early this month, I hiked some trails on Cougar Mountain and lucked out with both warm sunshine and lots of fall color holding on. The bigleaf maples were particularly impressive. First, a view looking up at one of these colorful maples. This picture suffered from some distortion due to the wide angle, but the strong linear elements help distract from that. F/14.
Next, an image from a different spot with an almost identical concept. The leaf shapes don't quite pop as much, and the colors aren't quite as bright, but I find the trunks more interesting and the sense of height/scale more pronounced. F/14.
Shooting in the forest in bright sunshine is tricky, so I didn't get a lot of other pictures, but I do like this next one despite the high contrast. It helped that the foreground maple leaves were only partially lit, so they didn't overexpose. F/16.
Middle Fork Snoqualmie
More recently (yesterday), I hiked the Middle Fork Snoqualmie trail, and had a dark and cloudy but dry morning, with just a bit of nuisance drizzle in the afternoon - which, frankly, is great weather for late November around here! Most deciduous leaves are now on the ground, but I found a few remnant patches of fall color. First, some salmonberry leaves moistened by a bit of that nuisance drizzle. I liked how the colors were still vivid despite the leaves looking a bit weather-beaten. F/5.6.
Next, a fun mushroom/fungus find along the trail. I know nothing about identifying these, so you'll just have to enjoy the way it looks. I like how the additional elements (fern, moss) came together in this one. F/5.6.
Here are two very similar images from a vantage point on the river. Again, I'm unsure which I like best. In the first, the way the branches spread throughout the frame is more interesting. In the second, there's a bit less distortion, and I like the reddish hues on the left side of the picture. F/16 and 3 seconds for the first, F/14 and 2.5 seconds for the second.
Lastly, some remnant fall color framed in a fun way by mossy trees and a mossy log. F/16.
