Methodically Marooned Midst Methow Meadows

I recently returned from an epic multiday photo trip over in the Winthrop area. My primary goal was to find some nice fall foliage, particularly the aspen trees that I know grow in the area. At three nights, it was the longest trip I've ever made on my own (I went to Kamiak Butte for four nights once with my brother). The fall color is in its early stages at the moment, but I still found plenty of nice scenery.

All of the images here were landscapes, thus involving the use of a relatively narrow aperture (generally between f/18 and f/29). I used a polarizing filter in all cases, except the one with the sun in the composition (the extra layer of glass can worsen glare and flares).

Washington Pass

While en route to Winthrop, I made the obligatory stop at Washington Pass to gawk at the views. And why not? They certainly lend themselves to being gawked at. Here is an image of Liberty Bell Mountain and the Early Winters Spires. The scene was more or less backlit; even so, the contrast didn't end up too garish.

Big Valley


The Big Valley trail in the Methow Wildlife Area, between Mazama and Winthrop, is a basically level walk through woods and meadows. In addition to the attractive groves of aspen and cottonwood along the trail, I also saw and heard numerous birds, and was following deer tracks most of the way. This would be a good destination for anyone inclined to see some wildlife.

The next two images are some particularly pleasant views from the forest along the trail.

Images like the one below are always a bit of a gamble, as the contrast between trees and sky can always be tricky. Thankfully, with the help of a polarizing filter, I think I was able to expose the image well enough that I didn't lose too much detail. With some tweaks in Lightroom, it'll probably work.

Finally, a view of the Methow River from near the trail's farthest extent.

Chewuch and Eightmile


One evening, I took my little jalopy up the Chewuch and Eightmile roads in the national forest to see what I could find. I endured some quite hostile glares from cows grazing along the roads, and I glared right back at them for good measure. So there!

The first image is a view of the Chewuch River itself. I liked the fall colors visible from this spot, in addition to the meandering course of the river.

Next is a forest view in the vicinity of Nice Campground. It'll need some contrast work, as well as some tweaks to the white balance (it was late evening on a sunny day, which can lend an overly bluish color cast to an image).

A view across the Chewuch valley:

Finally, a view of some fall foliage and Eightmile Creek from Flat Campground. I'm not particularly thrilled by how the creek itself looks in this shot, but I really liked the rainbow of colors on the bush in the foreground. F/18, 0.8 seconds.

Sun Mountain


I made some early morning and late evening trips to the trails on and around Sun Mountain. The advantage of doing photography in this area is the good views of the surrounding terrain that are accessible quickly (i.e. the good light early and late in the day). The trails in the area are also fairly diverse, passing through dense pine and fir forests, apsen groves, wetlands, and open meadows. A drawback can be crowds. When I was there, however, on offseason weekdays, the trails were fairly empty and even had a somewhat wild feel in places. Even when I've visited the area during busier times - such as once during Memorial Day weekend - I never found the crowds intolerable, even for tripod photography.

The next four images are views from various points on Sun Mountain.

These last two images are from near the beaver pond downhill from Sun Mountain. In the first, I used a narrow aperture (f/22) to get the starring effect on the sun. In the second, I wanted to capture how the vertical lines of the aspen trunks contrasted with the diagonal lines of the branches of the understory.