2020: Year in Review

Sometimes when I write these year-in-review posts, I start with a sentence along the lines of, "I can't believe it's already time for another one of these!" This time, something like "it feels like it's been ten years since I wrote one of these" is more appropriate. We all live in a world radically different from the world of January. I'm on my third job of the year (or fourth, depending on how you count), and, like so many others, have had to withstand some unexpected and unwelcome changes. But I am also thankful for my many blessings this year, such as a secure place to live, the ability to stay employed in one form or another most of the time, access to outdoor spaces, and supportive relationships. My year of photography has had its ups and downs, but shaped up to be much better than I feared in the early spring.

Note: unless otherwise noted, all locations are in Washington state.

I. Highlights of 2020

1) First Photography Snowshoe - In January, I made my first snowshoe trip with photography gear, up the Cooper River trail north of Cle Elum. While making such a trip didn't show up on my list of goals for 2020, I've written about it in prior years, and it was good to finally accomplish this. Snowshoeing is a lot of work, particularly with camera gear, and in the future I'll need be intentional about managing weight and leaving anything I won't likely use (e.g., the macro lens) at home. I'll also need to be picky about the conditions - the temperature during this trip was above freezing, maybe 36 degrees, leading to a chunky and slippery snowpack that was annoying to walk on. I imagine that a trip in below-freezing conditions would be more enjoyable.

2) First International Photography Trip - In mid-February, mere weeks before COVID-19 exploded in the U.S.,  my girlfriend and I traveled to Grenada in the Caribbean. I stuck to my phone camera for most of the trip, but brought the big camera and tripod to Mount Carmel Falls on the west side of the island.

Just a phone snapshot, from near where I was staying, to show how gorgeous Grenada is!

 

3) Other Antediluvian Highlights - Last year, I took pride in making good use of late winter, and I made another effort to do so this year. Late-winter photography is challenging due to poor conditions in the mountains, mud/storm damage on trails, and the absence of scenic features that motivate me the rest of the year (flowers, foliage, etc). But I managed to find fresh snow, pleasant woods and rivers, and even some very early signs of spring!

Far Country Falls, Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park

Washington Park, Anacortes

The Green River, Kanaskat-Palmer State Park

Indian plum leaves, Deception Pass State Park

Skookum Flats trail, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest

The White River from the Skookum Flats trail, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest

Hall Peak, from near the Big Four Picnic Area, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest

4) The Shutdown - I didn't get to do much photography between mid-March and early May, for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, of course, was the existence of extensive park and public lands closures. Second, my hours had been cut and my job was in jeopardy, so I felt the need to limit driving expenses. Nevertheless, I made a couple good trips, including one to see camas flowers blooming, a favorite part of spring in western Washington.

Camas flowers blooming in Sharpe Park, Skagit County

 

The Evans Creek Preserve, near Sammamish.

5) Exploring State Land - In early May, the state parks and DNR lands re-opened, well before national parks and national forest trailheads. Although this constrained my trip planning, it also prompted me to check out areas that I might otherwise have overlooked, or that I had not visited in a long time. Case in point: The final two images in this section are from the Oxbow Loop trail, an easy 2-mile loop that I had noticed on maps but might never have taken the time to visit had national forest lands been open.

Rockport State Park. This is one of my favorite forest images of all time, and I took it on a sunny day, no less! Some drifting clouds filtered the sunlight at just the right moment.

The South Fork Snoqualmie River from Olallie State Park, on the way to Twin Falls.

Oxbow Loop trail

Oxbow Loop trail. The flowers on the forest floor are Pacific bleeding heart (Dicentra formosa).

6) The Rainy Day - While I like my images from this June day, the big achievement was successful, rain-resilient trip planning. My first destination of the day, the viewpoint at the end of the Garfield Ledges trail, was a total bust due to rain and low clouds. I had planned for this possibility, however, and salvaged the day by stopping at viewpoints of the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River and taking pictures between rain showers. I can't always rely on being able to find short stops and time them properly, but in this case, I made the best of a day with poor hiking and viewing conditions.

7) Repeat Visits and New Perspectives - In contrast to the spring, the remainder of the year felt more "normal," at least where hiking and photography were concerned. Most public lands reopened, and the relative safety of outdoor activity became increasingly obvious. I didn't camp as much as I would have liked, due to delayed campground reopenings, some ill-timed car trouble, and employment situations that continued to be volatile until the fall. But for day hiking, at least, it was a great summer and fall. Some of my best results came from places I visited multiple times or revisited from prior years.

For example, I hiked the Perry Creek trail four times, and enjoyed witnessing and photographing the changing of the seasons. It was like hiking a new trail each time!

May

May

June

October

November

I camped in the Teanaway area (north of Cle Elum) twice this summer. In both instances, I hiked the Esmeralda Basin trail, and there's definitely enough scenery to sustain two visits, especially under different weather conditions (the second visit was sunnier). On one of the trips, I also hiked the Bean Creek Basin trail, which I last visited in 2011.

 

Shooting star blooming along the Esmeralda Basin trail, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest

One of the Esmeralda Peaks from the Esmeralda Basin trail, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest

Mount Daniel from Fortune Creek Pass, at the end of the Esmeralda Basin trail, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest

Paintbrush blooming in the Bean Creek basin, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest

I'll never get tired of the hike to Goat Lake in the Henry M. Jackson wilderness. This year, despite bright sunshine, I managed to walk away with one of my best images yet of Elliott Creek, and a couple new perspectives on the iconic lake:

A salmonberry flower and Goat Lake

Goat Lake, but not from the same direction as most photographs.

Elliott Creek

Another favorite hike of mine is the Gold Creek Trail north of Snoqualmie Pass. My favorite image from this year was the one below, with a fallen log (over a ravine, and above the trail) providing the foreground.

Another place I revisited was the Old Sauk River Trail near Darrington. I hiked it looking for a stress-free and socially distant outing for the day after Thanksgiving, and left wondering why I don't hike it more often.

One more productive revisit: the Emmons Moraine trail, from the White River Campground in Mount Rainier National Park. Knowing what scenery to expect helps a lot, as does an early start (I was camping this time).

Mount Rainier and Emmons Moraine

The Inter Fork of the White River

8) Lupine Extravaganza - One of my favorite parts of the year was the incredible lupine bloom in the Cascades. I'm no botanist, but the lupine seemed more extravagant than in other years. The meadows along the Palisades Lakes trail in Mount Rainier National Park were especially otherworldly.

Palisades Lakes trail, Mount Rainier National Park

Clover Lake, Mount Rainier National Park

Mount Baker from the Park Butte trail, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest

9) Seasonal Transitions - I managed to capture the summer-to-fall and fall-to-winter seasonal transitions this year. These transitions can be hard to time; one missed week, or a severe weather event, can push my photography headlong into the next season.

Mowich Lake, Mount Rainier National Park

Baker River trail, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest

The elusive autumn-to-winter transition along the PCT north of Snoqualmie Pass

10) Early winter - The best time to photograph snow in the mountains is in late fall and early winter, before the roads and trails are a total mess, when avalanche danger is still low, and the walking is still easy. Some years, my timing is such that early winter hiking doesn't happen, or happens only once. This time, I made three productive trips in these conditions, two of which were just before their access roads (Chinook Pass and part of the Mountain Loop Highway) closed for the season!

Red Mountain and the Commonwealth Creek basin, from the PCT north of Snoqualmie Pass

Along the Naches Peak Loop, near Chinook Pass

Perry Creek trail, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest

 

11) Wildflowers - 2020 wasn't exactly a banner year for wildflower closeups, but I managed to get a few decent ones. As usual, I'm only including the ones that I'm fairly sure I've identified correctly.

Hooker's fairy-bells, or drops of gold (Prosartes hookeri, or Disporum hookeri), Perry Creek trail, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

Orange honeysuckle (Lonicera ciliosa), Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park

Rock penstemon (Penstemon rupicola), Esmeralda Basin trail, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest

Magenta paintbrush (Castilleja parviflora var. oreopola) near Noble Knob, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest

Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis) and deer fern (Blechnum spicant), Gold Creek trail, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest

Broad-leaved starflower (Lysimachia latifolia), Deception Pass State Park

Scouler's corydalis (Corydalis scouleri), Olallie State Park

Camas (Camassia quamash), Sharpe Park, Skagit County

12) Perspective Distortion - When shooting a landscape at a wide focal length, even a slight angling of the lens up or down will make straight lines converge (e.g., looking down into a valley, tree trunks will converge inward toward the bottom of the composition). This is an amplification of the convergence that the naked eye sees, and that the mind corrects for. In a composition, this convergence is a double-edged sword: it can create a dramatic sense of scale and space, but can also be distracting when too extreme. In the cases below, I think I used this distortion successfully. Crucially, each image includes a striking foreground, a straight horizon, or both, giving the eye a reference point.

Looking down the Bean Creek basin, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest

Near the Evergreen Mountain Lookout, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest

Lupine on Dalles Ridge, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest

13) Early morning contrast - I'm getting better at photography on sunny days and in high-contrast settings. I think a big part of this is following the instinct, which comes from experience, of when a composition will or won't work. The three images below are my best results from this year along these lines:

A channel of the South Fork Sauk River, along the trail to Monte Cristo, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest

The White River from the Skookum Flats trail, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest

Big Four Mountain, near the Big Four Picnic Area, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest

 

14) Odds & Ends - Here are some images that don't fit into the above categories, but which I still really like and I think deserve to be highlighted:

Along the Heliotrope Ridge trail, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest

Mount Rainier from Noble Knob, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest

Hope Lake, Alpine Lakes Wilderness

Mig Lake, Alpine Lakes Wilderness

The South Fork Stillaguamish River from the Big Four Ice Caves trail, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest

II. Goals from last year

I'll confess that I didn't spend much time this year thinking about the goals I set in early January. Even so, how did I do?

1) Non-floral macro photography - I did this once: an image of parsley fern (Cryptogramma acrostichoides) opening up for the season along the Perry Creek trail.

2) Dawn, dusk, or moon photography - Does once count? While on a post-holiday getaway with my girlfriend, I tried my hand at a sunrise:

Snee Oosh Beach

3&4) New Area and New Wilderness  - Last year, I set out the related goals of doing photography in a new area of the state, and doing photography in a wilderness area that I hadn't previously visited. My hike along the Pleasant Valley trail met these goals - I had never hiked in the William O. Douglas wilderness, and had never been east of Chinook Pass along the 410 corridor. I had an even more ambitious plan in the works later in the summer, to camp in the vicinity of Mount Adams, but car trouble forced me to scuttle that trip. Maybe next year.

The American River

5) Sale or Venue - I actually managed this when I entered some images into an online exhibit through the Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Arts Council. With all of the other changes occurring in my life, I forgot to promote my entries on social media. But one still sold! Goal met, barely!

6) Learning - I didn't attend to this one very intentionally, although I did read an environmental history of Seattle (Emerald City by Matthew Klingle), and spent some time looking through photography books that I own (such as a couple Ansel Adams collections, as well as QT Luong's Treasured Lands: A Photographic Odyssey through America's National Parks, in which the author includes lots of interesting discussions of his photographic process).

III. Ideas for 2021

I'm not going to get very invested in making resolutions or setting "goals" this year. There's some uncertainty about my employment situation going forward, especially in the second half of 2021, so managing this might be the determining factor in my photography and travel plans. Furthermore, the pandemic and success of vaccination will determine where it will be responsible, or possible, to travel. But here are some ideas of where 2021 might take me, if things go well:

1) Dispersed camping - So far, I've only camped at established campgrounds and trailheads. The ability to camp elsewhere, e.g. on remote Forest Service roads, would open up a whole host of new locations and possibilities. I'm already accustomed to tent camping, including at campgrounds without water or trash service, so augmenting my gear to be ready for dispersed camping would be relatively simple.

2) Dawn, dusk, and moon - This is a repeat goal from last year, but it would be great if I could summon the focus and planning to do more of this. More flexibility with camping (see goal #1) and, even more importantly, more time to do so, would help.

3) Tech updates - While this isn't an absolute or urgent necessity, the time will come when it will be beneficial to update my software (I'm using a pretty old version of Lightroom) or even my computer. I've been putting this off due to the time it will take to migrate everything, but I'll have to do it eventually. I'm still happy with my camera, although it's now well over ten years old, and I'm not sure how long it will last.

4) New area - There are a few places on my radar for 2021 that are either new to me or that I haven't visited very frequently. The Mount Adams area, the east slopes of the Olympics, and the Blue Mountains are high on the list. I'm entertaining fantasies of going even farther, such as to the Wallowa Mountains or even to Canada, but I don't want to get too ahead of myself.

5) Non-floral macro photography - This is another goal from 2020 that could be worth revisiting in 2021: using my macro lens for closeups of things other than blooming flowers. Examples could be other parts of flowering plants, mushrooms, grasses, bark, and other things. I still think that this would be a good way to expand my work, and what I look for and experience in the field.

6) Sale or display - I'll repeat last year's modest goal: In 2021, I'll either publicly exhibit, or sell to a non-family member, at least one photograph. It would be fun to do more than this, of course, but again, doing any kind of advance planning right now is exceedingly difficult.

Happy new year, everyone! I wish everyone who reads this health, safety, and a 2021 that is better than 2020!