Cougar Mountain, northeast side

Now that King County parks are open, I recently visited Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park for a short morning hike. Although I've been there several times, this was my first time exploring the northeastern corner of the park, starting at the Anti-Aircraft/Harvey Manning trailhead. I enjoyed the lush deciduous forest, and the quiet feel of the trails. It was a wetter morning than expected, with light rain falling about half of the time, but the thick canopy of leaves shielded the forest floor enough to enable some photography.

First, a closeup of orange honeysuckle (Lonicera ciliosa). I've had trouble in the past with really deep oranges, reds, or yellows getting over-saturated or overexposed in print. I deliberately underexposed this shot just slightly, in hopes of alleviating that problem. As always, there's no way to know until it's printed, but there's hope. F/4.5.

Next, a view over a creek ravine, with sword fern unfurling in the foreground. I'm not sure whether the ferns, the maple tree on the right, and the forest in the distance are distinct enough from one another. They're all green, and at roughly the same level of lighting. On the other hand, I like how all of these compositional elements are positioned. F/18.