February Forest Frolicking

Hello, everyone! In this one, I'm going to recap two photography trips I've taken this February. Most recently, I visited Twin Falls near North Bend. I haven't been there for a while; I usually prefer trails where the crowds are a bit less concentrated. But it's really a gorgeous trail, with mossy trees and lots of river access, so I couldn't resist. Because the trail is wide in places, and because there are lots of spur trails to the river, the popularity of the trail didn't impact my photography as much as I had feared. (The only place where it was really an issue was the upper falls; those are best viewed from a wooden bridge, and the vibrations from all the people walking by precluded any kind of tripod photography.)

First, the South Fork Snoqualmie River. I like the sense of depth in this composition, with the rapids on the foreground and the perspective effect of the trees in the background. F/16, 2.5 seconds.

Here's a shot of a somewhat calmer spot on the South Fork Snoqualmie. I'm pretty pleased that I was able to get this depth of field to work. F/18.

Next, an interesting spot on the river with an abrupt boundary between calm and rushing waters. If you're looking for it, you can see wide-angle distortion in the trees in the upper left and right corners; otherwise, I like this one. F/14, 1.6 seconds.

I'm less convinced by this next image, featuring the lower falls. The trees and branches at left aren't a particularly interesting foreground, and there isn't anything to really give the falls a sense of scale. F/16, 1.3 seconds.

After the Twin Falls hike, I checked out the nearby Weeks Falls, which is accessible via a short trail through the woods. My images of Weeks Falls itself didn't turn out very well; I didn't get good definition in the water. The short trail has a couple river access points; the composition below is from one such location. The relative darkness of the foreground tree made the lighting a challenge, so I'm happy that I was able to make this one work. F/18, 13 seconds.

The week prior to my Twin Falls hike, I visited the Redmond Watershed Preserve for the first time. Most of the forest wasn't particularly photogenic (at least, not in the winter; I imagine there will be lots of spring flowers in a month or so). It's a very pleasant walk in the woods, however, and I got roughly 5 miles of walking in, so I'm glad I went. Below is an image of a stream coming out of "Old Pond." I wasn't originally going for the reflections, but I think they add to the composition. F/18, 1 second.

I'm seeing Indian plum flowers popping up in the woods around home, so I'm getting excited about spring!  I'm also glad to see that we'll be getting a bit of cooler weather - the mountains really need the snow. I'm not a big snow-seeker, so I imagine this means my next hike(s) will be nearby lowland trails. Maybe I'll find some early flowers? Stay tuned!