O'Grady

On Saturday, I spent the morning in the O'Grady section of the Green River Natural Area, between Enumclaw and Auburn. Despite its proximity to these cities and to farmland, it has a surprisingly lush and remote feel, particularly along the narrower trails that branch away from the main service road. I think it's becoming a favorite off-season (late winter and early spring) destination of mine. On this particular morning, which began with clear skies before high clouds moved in, there was an abundance of hair ice along the trails. I didn't photograph it, as I didn't see scenes that would improve on my hair ice closeup from December, but it's something to remember for future winter mornings.

First, a view over a small pond or stream channel on the valley floor. I took a picture from almost exactly the same spot last winter (penultimate photo in the post). Even though last year's fog added some mystery and moodiness to the scene, I like the framing and depth better in this version. The colorful foreground trunk on the left anchors the image, and the pond creates some helpful color contrast. F/16.

Next, a winter forest scene farther uphill. Some backlighting, even though heavily filtered by the clouds and forest canopy, helped illuminate the mossy trees and accentuate the color contrast between them and the dormant understory shrubs. F/16.

Lastly, a forest view framed by some cedar branches. The image quality of the mossy foreground trunk suffered a bit here. Maybe I should have stopped down more than F/16 to increase the depth of field further, but I think it has more to do with the underexposure of the trunk in this case (I had to bring up the blacks and shadows quite a bit in Lightroom). I don't think it's too bad, though.