2025 Year in Review

Hello everyone! It's that time again - time to review what went well in 2025 and ideas for what 2026 might see!

I. Highlights of 2025

1.) Camping trips

2025 wasn't as excellent of a camping year as some prior years have been. One trip, to the Teanaway area, was cut short when a windstorm shattered a tent pole. I had to scrap a later trip I had originally planned for California, and the trip that happened instead - through northern Washington - involved a lot of coping with intense heat. A third trip planned for the end of summer also had to get cancelled. So, not the best camping year I've ever had, but I think I generally made the best of my short time and the tricky weather.

From my Teanaway trip, I got a couple classic flower-and-mountain landscapes on the Esmeralda Basin trail that turned out pretty well:

From my northern Washington trip, here are a couple more flower-and-mountain landscapes from Maple Pass Loop, including the classic view down to Lake Ann. I don't love the harsh midday lighting, but it's what I had to work with:

Fireweed flowers and Lake Ann

Paintbrush flowers

Pasqueflower seed heads

From later that same trip, an quick and easy hike to Cutthroat Lake prior to the worst of the day's heat:

Lastly from that trip, an early-morning landscape from the Bowl and Pitcher area in Spokane. 

2.) Non-floral closeups

I often talk about using my macro lens for subjects other than wildflowers, and this time, I did enough of this to merit a section! My favorite might be this one, of raindrops or dewdrops on Indian plum growth in late winter.

There's also this one from the Boulder River trail, for an alternative perspective on the iconic double waterfall there. Those are vine maple leaves and seeds in the foreground.

Next, bunchberries and bunchberry leaves in late summer and early fall. 

Near Boardman Lake

From the Quartz Creek trail

I also took a few fungus/mushroom pictures! I'm not much of a hand at identifying these, so we'll just have to enjoy the way they look. I think I've started to train myself to see these amid the forest, so hopefully there will be more pictures like this in future years. Might be a fun way to find color in the off-season.

From Cougar Mountain

From Cougar Mountain

From the Middle Fork Snoqualmie trail

3.) Fall in the forest

I didn't really get any opportunities this fall to hike some of the most photogenic open-country fall hikes in the mountains, with red huckleberry foliage in the meadows and such. I did, however have some success photographing the subtleties of fall in western Washington's forests. The foliage is often a more muted yellow, which doesn't always stand out amid all the remaining greens, so finding compelling compositions takes a bit more patience, and sometimes the inclusion of strong visual elements other than foliage.

The upside of fall color hiking in the woods is privacy; the high-country hikes and larch hikes tend to concentrate the crowds. For instance, on one one of my forest hikes, the Quartz Creek trail, we saw only one other hiking party all day. This made it easier to keep the tripod set up for a long time and finesse a shot. It was also fun because, the longer I stayed in one spot, the more sounds I heard from the birds and other little forest animals.

Here are a few fall highlights:

Devil's club along the Quartz Creek trail

Along the Quartz Creek trail

Along the Lime Kiln trail

From Cougar Mountain

Along the Middle Fork Snoqualmie trail

Along the Middle Fork Snoqualmie trail

4.) Wildflowers of 2025

As every year, here's the roundup of my favorite wildflower pictures from 2025!

First, I was really happy with this image of partridgefoot. By keeping the camera quite low to the ground, I was able to bring a lot of depth to these flowers, which are small and easy to overlook while walking.

Near the Big Four Ice Caves

Next, chocolate lily. These are also easy to miss, due to their darker color.

Deception Pass State Park

Another lily - tiger lily. I've photographed these before, but I liked the raindrops on this one.

Near the Big Four Ice Caves

Next, death-camas. The deep blue background color from the distant water is a fun element.

Deception Pass State Park

The camas picture below isn't very much of a closeup, but I liked how the whole composition came together.

Deception Pass State Park

Here's something that was new to me: what seems like a color variant of scarlet gilia (as the name suggests, it's usually red).

Esmeralda Basin trail

Shooting star, also from the Esmeralda Basin trail. I've photographed these before, but this picture adds some fun contrasting linear elements.

Western red columbine, with Sitka valerian out of focus in the background.

Near the Big Four Ice Caves

Next, a couple images where trillium flowers really pop; these pictures also showcase the way trillium petals turn purple as they age.

Along the Perry Creek trail

Dash Point State Park

Lastly, some bunchberry flowers just starting to bloom.

Along the Denny Creek trail

5.) Honorable mentions

Lastly, some pictures that don't fit into any particular category, but are still interesting enough to note in this blog. First, a really fun example of some natural framing, with bigleaf maples framing Hall Peak along the Perry Creek trail.

Here's one that I wasn't sure about initially but that I keep coming back to: a view of the Sauk River through alder and maple trees. Just enough of the river is visible for this one to work.

When I photograph moving water, I usually opt for a longer exposure time to blur the water's motion and get that classic silky look. Here's one where I tried a shorter exposure time - 1/320 of a second - to freeze the water's motion. It's a bit underexposed but I still like the effect:

Along the Oxbow Loop trail

A little waterfall I found along the Quartz Creek trail:

The Middle Fork Snoqualmie river in the late fall. I liked the subtle color variations throughout the composition:

Hawkins Mountain from the Esmeralda Basin hike. I liked the framing from the weather-worn trees.

Lake Evan, off the Mountain Loop Highway, with nice reflections on the still water:

Hazy views of Goat Lake, one of my favorite hiking destinations. The haze, from wildfire smoke, took away some of the detail, but created a new late-summer/early-fall mood that I hadn't photographed at the lake before.

A view out to the Olympics from Deception Pass. I like how the mountains pop in this one.

A spring view from the Oxbow Loop trail. This stage of spring, when the bigleaf maples are a very distinct yellow-green, is spectacular but fleeting, and it was fun to get a picture that represents it well.

Lastly, a view from Heybrook Ridge near Index. I like the clarity of the mountains, and the very subtle color contrast between the foreground trees and the mountains.

II. Ideas for 2026

I'm going to hold 2026 goals pretty lightly; mostly, I'm just hoping to be able to devote a little more time and mental energy to photography/hiking/camping this year. Here are a few ideas, though:

1.) Continue my work with non-floral closeups! This is one of the few areas where I think my work really improved in 2025. I want to keep finding fungi, leaves, little berries, and other subjects that aren't flowers to use my macro lens with.

2.) New travel destination: This was a bust this year, but I'd love to go camping somewhere new, even if it's just part of Washington I haven't visited. I've gotten increasingly curious about some parts of northeast Washington, like the Kettle Crest, have long wanted to check out the Mount Adams area, and also have some new spots on the Peninsula that I'd like to see. We'll just have to see what happens (and also see what shape parts of the state are in after the wildfires and floods).

3.) Dawn or Dusk Photography: I don't think this happened at all in 2025, so it'd be fun to get some sky or even moon photographs around sunrise or sunset this year!

3.) Get close! I got a few decent wildflower pictures this time around, but it's been a while since I've gotten really close to something. It might be fun to push the limits of my macro lens just a bit, for a new way of looking at things.

Happy New Year!

November colors

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.

Fall Color Surprise

Yesterday, I got an early start on the Lime Kiln trail, wanting to get a hike in before the rain. Since it's a mellower hike, and one not terribly far away from home for me, I made good time and only got showered on a bit on my return hike (and that's after plenty of lengthy photo stops). I had hoped that I'd see some fall color, and I did - in fact, it was much nicer than expected! The bigleaf maples in particular were really putting on a show. And, as always, I enjoyed the occasional sights and sounds of the South Fork Stillaguamish River.

My favorite pictures from the day involved the river. First, a scene from near the trail's end. I used my widest lens, so there's some distortion evident, but I still like it. The colors and the sense of depth are both pretty striking. F/14, 1 second.

Next, a view toward a calmer stretch of the river, over the rocky beach. F/14.

I was mostly attracted to this next scene by the colorful tree in the background, and I wanted to frame it with some leaves. The composition ended up a bit busy but I think it still works, and the long exposure effect on the water turned out nice. F/16, 1 second.

Next, one the most photogenic river views from the trail itself, framed by maple branches. F/14. 

Now, a couple typical forest scenes along the trail, with subtle patches of fall color on display. Both F/14.

Finally, a forest view framed by an overhanging maple branch. I like this one in theory; in practice, the lighting levels and colors in background and foreground don't contrast with each other as much as I'd like. But when I take a bit of extra time to look at it, I appreciate the subtleties of all the different foliage colors. F/16.

I'm a bit bummed that this year, it didn't work out for me to do any of the kind of mountain fall-color hikes that I look forward to, like my hikes to Hope and Mig Lakes and Lake Janus last year. With the way the weather's been and what it's forecast to be, I think it's probably too late. But yesterday's hike was a nice consolation prize.

Quartz Creek

Last weekend, I hiked the Quartz Creek trail in the North Fork Skykomish area. Only one other hiking party was out on the trail while we were; it's been a long time since I've had that kind of solitude on a hike! The trail (at least the part we hiked) is a gentle climb through old-growth forest with a couple glimpses of surrounding hillsides and Quartz Creek itself. Even though there aren't any dramatic vistas, lakes, or other destinations, the forest was very majestic. And because of how quiet the area was, photo stops were a fun opportunity to tune my eyes to the birds, and my ears to the chittering of forest animals.

First, some devil's club showing fall color. F/16.

A similar forest view, this time with huckleberry shrubs (I think) giving a little hint of fall color. F/16.

In the next one, I really like the sense of perspective. The fungus growing on the tree helps give a visual anchor point. F/16.

At one point, the trail crosses a stream with a pretty little waterfall and pool. I enjoyed all the tiny cascades, as well as the colors of the rocks. F/16, 5 seconds.

Lastly, some colorful bunchberry leaves on the forest floor. Mostly, I'm happy with how this one turned out. When I look closely, though the colors in the background leaves look a little funky - the borders between the red and the green are quite stark. The JPEG preview didn't have this problem, so there must be a way to do the edit from RAW to get the colors to show up properly; I'll just have to tinker with it. F/5.

Goat Lake 2025

For what will probably end up being my last hike of the official summer season this year, I visited Goat Lake off the Mountain Loop highway, which is probably among my top five favorite hikes that I've ever been on. The bright sunshine along with the haze (presumably from wildfire smoke, including the relatively nearby Red Mountain fire) made photography challenging. I still had a great day, though - even though the trail is mostly forested, it still has a very majestic and open feel, and is very fun to hike (I always take the lower trail, so I can see the creek). And the lake view is spectacular.

First, a view of the lake with some hints of fall color in the distance. In this picture of the lake (as well as others you'll see), I went for a foliage foreground. The haze took away enough detail from the distant mountains that I needed to add some with other elements. F/14.

Next, a more classic view of the lake, again with a foliage foreground. I tried this image in a couple of different ways. I timed the one you see here for still water, with a reflection visible. I also tried this composition after a breeze had stirred up the water, making it look bluer and glittery. Ultimately, I prefer the reflection. With the haze, I needed all of the detail and definition I could get. F/16.

One more from the lake. Even though this one shows the sweep of the scenery a little more fully than the previous two, I don't think all of the elements come together quite as well. But this one is a good representation of how the view looks when you first come to the lake. F/16.

Now, some pictures from the trail. First, Elliot Creek (don't quote me on the spelling; I've seen it a couple different ways). I got lucky with the lighting; the sun was behind a hill at this point in time. I wouldn't have been able to expose this one properly in the sunshine. F/14, 3 seconds.

Lastly, a rare open view along the trail, just before the final climb to the lake. F/14.

All for now. It was nice to end summer 2025 on a high note. Here's to fall!

Boardman and Evan

On Saturday, I took my first photo hike in a number of weeks, to Boardman Lake and Lake Evan off the Mountain Loop Highway. These lakes are mostly wooded, lacking the dramatic mountain views of, say, Lake 22 or Heather Lake. They're very peaceful, though, and easy to get to once you navigate the gravel access road. Fortunately, that access road was in good condition on Saturday; reading reports from prior months and years, I understand that this hasn't always been the case.

First, Lake Evan, which is really just a few steps from the trailhead. The air was very still at this point, and I enjoyed the reflections on the lake's surface. F/14.

Next, an image from just a few steps away, but this time with some foliage in the foreground. F/14.

Next, Boardman Lake. I'm not sure what caused the stripes visible in the rock - perhaps they're markings left by fluctuating water levels? In any case, I think it's a cool foreground. I also like how the first hints of fall color are visible on the hillside on the right. F/14.

Here's another one from Boardman Lake. I was intrigued by this little plant/tree growing on the rock; I think it adds some interest and depth to the foreground. F/14.

I also took a few pictures in the woods around the lakes. There are a lot of big old cedars to gawk at, and it looks like there would be some fun forest flowers in the spring, too. I think if road conditions allow, a return visit in May or June could be rewarding.

First, a closeup of aptly named bunchberries. F/5.

Finally, some hazy sunshine in the woods. The haze helped even out the contrast just enough to make this picture work. The big tree in the foreground is a cedar. F/16.

That's all for now. From now through October is one of my favorite times of year for hiking, so hopefully I'll be posting more soon!

East side camping trip

I recently returned from a multi-night camping trip that started in Spokane. I was there for a wedding in the family, and thought I might as well camp my way back across the state. Due to forecasts for heat and thunderstorms, piecing together an enjoyable itinerary was a bit difficult, but I think I made the best of the time and the weather.

Riverside State Park

Our first night of camping was at Riverside State Park in Spokane. The Bowl and Pitcher is a busy spot in the afternoons (understandably so, due to the many trails, easy river access, and unique scenery). At sunrise, however, I had the river to myself. F/16, 1.3 seconds.

Maple Pass Loop

The next stage of our trip was three nights in the north Cascades; once there, we hiked the Maple Pass Loop trail, which is one of the most scenic hikes in the area. The wildflower displays were not as impressive as they've been other years I've visited, possibly because of how dry it's been this spring and summer. The hiking experience was also more strenuous than my prior visits due to the heat. Because of those factors, and because of the harsh lighting, I didn't do as much photography as I did on those prior visits, and didn't end up with any closeups at all. I think I made the best of the lighting with my landscapes, however.

Here's one nice patch of paintbrush that was still hanging on near Maple Pass. F/16.

Next, the classic view down to Lake Ann, with fireweed in the foreground. F/14.

On the way down from Maple Pass, I found this fun patch of pasqueflower seed heads. In the glare, I was having a hard time getting the focus point just right, so the foreground isn't as sharp as I wanted. On the other hand, I like that this isn't totally front-lit; the mountains are more interesting that way.  F/14.

Below, a patch of heather still blooming near the trail's summit. I like how this ended up compositionally, but I'm less fond of the harsh midday lighting. F/14.

Finally from the Maple Pass Loop, a mountain view with some larch trees (I think) in the foreground. I liked how the gnarly branches framed the mountain. F/14.

Cutthroat Lake

The final hike was to Cutthroat Lake, also off the North Cascades Highway. This trail was much, much easier than the Maple Pass Loop, perfect for a very hot day. The lake itself is different from other mountain lakes I've visited, with a grassy/marshy shore and not a lot of access points to get right up to the water. On the other hand, the mountain views are quite dramatic for such an easy hike. At any rate, I like the landscapes below, and think they do a good job of showcasing the scenery. Both F/14.

That's it for now! I'm not sure whether I'll get out on another camping trip this year. Hopefully I can, but if not, here's to the rest of the summer's day hikes! This time of year is a trade-off - the wildflowers aren't as nice and I sometimes have to dodge smoke, but bugs and trail conditions tend to be more manageable. See you soon!