Return of the Salmonberry

Today, while not quite as paradoxical as its immediate predecessor, was close. The morning dawned with the underside of high clouds aflame with red and pink. Soon the color faded, however, and what remained was an overcast and unusually frigid March morning. Frost hung on the grass. Even a few patches of snow remained from yesterday morning's snowstorm, which had ended as oddly and abruptly as it had begun, giving way to a cheery spring sun still not warm, high, or long-lasting enough to reach all of shadow's cold refuges.

I returned to Meadowdale Beach Park to finish last week's unfinished business. The salmonberry flowers were undaunted by the cold. Indeed, I got one of my best salmonberry portraits to date. Flower portraits are tricky; you want to have some sort of unique context or perspective without distracting from the flower itself - but you need that extra component, otherwise the photograph is pretty but relatively uninspiring. I think this first image does the trick by incorporating a second flower and a bud in the background. They give the image some context while not compromising the centrality of the foreground flower. I used f/6.3 to keep the aforementioned background objects from becoming formless blobs.

This second image is a different angle of the same flowers, also at f/6.3. It's less perfect, but it has a different feel to it, due to the vertical perspective and the inclusion of a bit of sky in the background.

The next photograph puts salmonberry flowers in a bit more context. I wanted a flower shot with some mossy trunks and branches in the background. I actually tried this shot on two occasions during my hike. The first time, the air was a bit breezy and I had to use a quite high ISO to get a reasonable shutter speed at f/20, the aperture I needed to get adequate background detail (I actually would have liked more, but that would have been even more difficult). My results were still not very sharp and the noise was high. On my way back, I was able to use "only" ISO 500. It's not as awesome as it was in my mind's eye; I'll have to come back to it eventually to decide whether it was worth all the trouble.

The next one I rather like. The morning sunlight was beginning to burn through the clouds, although it was still diffused a bit; it was also still angled. All this made for some very interesting lighting. I wanted to put the salmonberry flowers out of focus to emphasize the idea of the forest. I stopped down to f/9, though, so they would retain something of a discernible form. They give the forest a cheery aesthetic. I don't like the half-trunk on the right side. This partially has to do with the crop; I cropped it to a standard 8x10 dimension. It would obviously look different at other sizes. In a final edit, I might crop a bit more out from an 8x10; the bottom could afford to lose a bit. Other than that, I think this one turned out well.

Next is a shot of the same plant and the same background, from a slightly different angle and with the flowers in focus this time. The filtered sunshine brings out the salmonberry plant more than overcast lighting would have. I used f/9 to keep some detail in the background trunks, thus preserving the image's context.

Finally, a shot of a broadleaf maple overlooking the alder and salmonberry forest. A bit of slight, filtered backlighting made the mossy maple branches stand out.

Eventually, the filtered, angled sunlight changed into overhead, direct sunlight, rendering the forests a contrasty mess to a camera's sensor. I was fortunate to have been outside with my camera during such choice conditions!

A Post-Literate Park

Today, for the first time, I visited Washington Park in Anacortes. Its hiking trails are more extensive - and more rugged - than I had expected. I jumped the gun on the specific varieties of meadow flowers that I wanted to photograph, so I didn't come away with any show-stopping pictures. I am more excited for the possibilities that this park might hold. If pictures are to be believed, the rocky meadows on the southern slopes have quite the array of wildflowers later in the spring. I certainly hope so, because it's a cooler setting than the Ebey's Landing, or even the rocky meadows in Deception Pass...and both of those places are farther away!

I will post one photograph from the afternoon. This is a red-flowering currant bush. Even after I had waited about 20 minutes for the right lighting, this picture was still almost impossible to pull off - there was a slight breeze, there wasn't a ton of light in the shade, and I needed a wide depth of field (f/10 was the aperture on which I ultimately settled). I had to crank the ISO all the way to 800 and still couldn't go any faster than f/50 of a second - and it was still a bit underexposed. So it's dark and, worse, there's a lot of noise. Still, I kind of like the composition.

Also, if you ever visit this park, there are two things to note. First, I wouldn't really recommend driving the loop road through the park - it's narrow, it has some sharp turns, and you'll be dodging pedestrians and bicyclists. (Similarly, if you walk the loop road, you'll have to dodge cars, but this is not as stressful). The park is much more fun to enjoy on foot, so set the time aside and walk!

A second thing to note: Beware of the trail signs. At almost every other park that I have ever been to, trail signs feature the names of the trails and/or the names of landmarks accessed by a particular trail, along with arrows and numerical distances in labeled units. Hardly any of the trail signs in Washington Park are so equipped. Rather, they use colored symbols to guide the hiker. At first, I was bewildered and navigated using my map and my position relative to Burrows Channel and the development to the east of the park. Eventually, I noticed that some of the symbols recurred (although sometimes backward or rotated), so there is a logic to this system. I don't understand why they couldn't have used a more conventional marking system, though. So if you visit, I would highly recommend using a map - and your wits, given the presence of some unmarked side trails.

Salmonberry Forests Forever

Last week, I described an oasis of old trees in Shoreline's Boeing Creek Park. I wish the same could be said about Meadowdale Beach Park in Edmonds. Only a scattering of behemoth stumps remain to evoke the forest's bygone grandeur. Still, the park is a lovely place, greeting the senses with a pleasant second-growth forest and the constant music of birdsong. The existing forest consists mostly of red alder and bigleaf maple, with a dense understory of salmonberry and the occasional red elderberry.

And what do you know? The salmonberry bushes were just beginning to bloom when I went there yesterday. What a remarkable bit of "luck!" Unfortunately, the air was a bit gusty, especially closer to the beach, making flower photography quite difficult. I did, however, manage to squeeze out three acceptable shots.

The first one, while not perfect, is the most visually arresting of the bunch. I stopped it down to f/6.3 to get an acceptable level of detail in the foreground flower. I'm not 100% happy with this composition, though, because it's a bit busy. The leaves in the upper left-hand corner (which were the objects closest to the camera) are particularly distracting.

The next shot features the same two flowers from a different angle. I was able to use a wider aperture, f/4.5, and still get a decent amount of sharpness because I wasn't as close. This one, while not as busy as the previous composition, is also not as adventurous. I think one of the reasons for its comparative lack of interest is the point of view - instead of keeping the flowers directly at eye level, as in the previous composition, this looks at them slightly from above, which for flowers is a more conventional and less interesting perspective.

This third one juxtaposes a salmonberry flower against a mossy tree (I think a maple). It turned out alright, but it's not as compelling as it was in my mind's eye. As more salmonberry bushes bloom, though, I'll get other chances to try similar compositions in more favorable settings.

Shoreline's Crown Jewel

Boeing Creek Park will always have a special significance for me. It was where, first on childhood walks with my family and, later, solitary adolescent wanderings, I learned to love hiking. It is also a lot more diverse than most forested parks in the Seattle area. Indeed, although most of the park consists of second-growth, the park is sprinkled with old Douglas firs, most of them along and within the ravine created by Boeing Creek. Why were these giants spared? Park signs suggest that it may have been due to the steep, unstable slopes on which they were and are situated.

Simply hiking through the park - particularly over time - reveals this to be entirely plausible. The ravine's slopes reveal themselves to be very steep in some places. More than that, though, this breathtakingly dynamic park's annual changes demonstrate why it would be impractical or even dangerous to operate logging equipment in some places. The soils are sandy and prone to collapse. Every spring, the trail greets me with a new series of washed-out sandy cliffs where a slope - or a trail - used to be. Bars and islands made of sand and gravel appear and disappear in the creek and in Hidden Lake. Entire trees periodically tumble into the ravine.

This turbulent, active nature - while making resource extraction, trail maintenance and hiking problematic - is a quality that, along with the presence of old trees, makes the park special and a prime place to witness nature at work.

The first composition I am going to present in two versions. I wanted to juxtapose the trunk of an old-growth Douglas fir that I found against the mossy maple trunks in the background. The creek was also visible, which was a bonus. Originally, I had planned to wait to try this composition until later in the spring or summer, when the trees had leaves. I decided to try it, though, because I realized that the mossy trunks and branches might actually stand out better without green leaves. (I will, however, try it again later in the spring as planned!) I used f/25 to get everything in focus, and actually set my focus point between the trunk and the background in order to keep both sharp.

I made two compositions, one in which the trunk takes up about two-thirds of the frame, and one in which the trunk takes up about a third. I think I like the first better, as it gives a clearer sense of the tree's massive size, but I wasn't confident, so I posted them both and you can think about it.

The next picture is imperfect but still worth posting. It is imperfect because the Indian Plum leaves in the foreground, the ones in focus, aren't totally sharp due to a slight breeze. Also, the forms of the mossy trunks in the background don't stand out as much as I'd like. Still, I like my idea here. Perhaps with some creative white-balance tweaks in Lightroom, I could help at least the second problem. (I didn't want to use any wider of a depth of field than that provided by f/6.3, because that would have brought too many leaves in too sharp of focus and rendered the image entirely too busy.)

Next, we see a young hemlock growing from the remains of an old tree (perhaps a cedar?). There are lots of diverse trees of different ages within the park, something that - for most of the park - suggests a health forest, at least comparatively: in some sections of Carkeek Park in Seattle, by contrast, the tree cover (alder) is so uniform that young firs and cedars have had to be planted to ensure the forest's continued existence.

Finally, one that celebrates the mossy maple trunks. Were I to edit this, I would modify the white balance in such a way that accentuated the yellow-green of the moss against the darker green of the evergreen foliage in the background.

Wet, Cold, Gray, Beautiful

For I think the third time this winter, I took advantage of relatively cold temperatures to make a snow level exploration. The snow level was not quite as low as I would have liked - the snow at the Middle and Upper falls was still rather slushy - but it was still nice to see some. The problem was nonstop precipitation. Thus, I hardly took any pictures. Still, the falls were very beautiful, even with rain, snow (eventually) and slush from the trees cascading over me. I made it all the way to the upper falls and contemplated continuing up to the logging roads and Wallace Lake. This, however, would have required a bit of off-trail travel in about a half-inch of slush and some steep sections. After about twenty feet I wound up on my hands and knees.........so I decided it wasn't worth the trouble. Wallace Lake isn't that pretty, and the route goes through second-growth forest that isn't very picturesque. (Note that the logging roads can actually be nice in the summer because they are covered with oxeye daisies and foxglove).

Although Wallace Falls is a fun place to visit as it is, I find myself wondering what it would have looked like before it was logged. It must have been just as spectacular, with cascading waters and huge mossy trees, as the rainforests on the Olympic Peninsula. It would put the Boulder River trail to shame, and send the even the West Fork Foss trail home crying about its inadequacy. Unfortunately, the forests are relatively uniform and second-growth.

I do, however, desire to return to Wallace Falls State Park in the spring. I noticed this time that there are a lot of salmonberry bushes growing along Wallace River and the North Fork Wallace River. Potentially, I could get some nice shots juxtaposing them against the rapids.

So, here are the two pictures worth posting. They both need some contrast enhancement...but of all digital post-processing tasks, adding contrast (even to just part of a picture) is one of the easiest to do. I also want to cool down the colors a bit; I left the white balance setting too warm on my camera. Editing from RAW, of course, that's not a problem.

The first one I owe to a kind hiker who held his umbrella up over me as I took the shot. Not having some covering would have resulted in water getting on my polarizing filter, as the wind was drifting the rain toward me. I would have liked better-defined snow on the trees. Contrast enhancement will help, though.

This second I took at the very end of my hike, when it finally stopped raining (albeit for a few minutes only). I wanted to juxtapose the lush lichen and moss on the trees with the snowy ridge up above. Post-processing will help me make the snowy ridge a bit more defined. But this picture, I think, says it all about winter in the Puget Sound. In the lowlands, winter is wet and lush, with plenty of moss, lichen and evergreen trees keeping things lively. Always looming nearby, however, is the cold and snowy winter world of the Cascades..

Marginal days can really make photography interesting. Days that capture transitions - such as a snow level, or snow on autumn leaves, or just-opening flowers - make me feel as though I am witnessing a truly special event. Today was like that. I felt as though I witnessed what might be winter's last hurrah as it gracefully retreated up into the hills.

...All that said, I can't wait until summer. Partially because of the weather, and partially because I'll be able to visit some proper wilderness. And flowers! Soon.

Lo How A Plum E'er Blooming

Spring has sprung in Discovery Park! The Indian Plum (Oemleria cerasiformis) shrubs are budding, and a few bushes now have coming some flowerets bright. These plants are great; green leaves and white flowers light up the drab forests every February. They are like an alarm clock for the end of winter and the beginning of spring. Native plants wake up and get going right away, even if the local weather, as we all know, hits the snooze button and waits a couple months to get spring going on its end.

Here is my best. The red in the background in the lower third of the picture is from least year's dead leaves and twigs; I knew it would give an interesting color contrast. What I didn't anticipate was how dark the conifer foliage in the upper two thirds of the background would appear. I think that characteristic, though, makes the picture more interesting. I stopped down as far as I could (f/3.8) to minimize any distracting shapes in the background. It might look like I used flash, but I did not.

Here are some buds on another Indian Plum bush. I was so close that I was able to stop down to f/8 while maintaining a mostly solid background; I really needed more definition in the foreground than I would have gotten with a wider aperture; the area in focus would have been to small to form pleasing spots for the eye to lock on to when viewing the picture.

There is also a willow showing some signs of life. Frankly, I'll have to wait until later in the year to identify it. One picture I took turned out; it needs its contrast increased and the colors enhanced (maybe...if the contrast doesn't do the trick). I stopped down to f/10 because I wanted to place these budding branches within the context of the wintry field and branches behind them.

Finally, an experimental shot I took of some Indian Plum flowers. I wanted to juxtapose the new flowers against the bare branches of the surrounding trees. To do so, I stopped down to f/20 so that the branches' shapes would be at least somewhat discernible. It turned out better than I expected, although white flowers and a white cloudy sky aren't the best combination; the green draws all the attention in this photograph. I'll be trying a similar composition next month, hopefully, when the salmonberry bushes begin to bloom.

Before I go, I'll mention that I took a trip to Deception Pass State Park a couple weeks ago. Other than being lost for about 20 minutes of the hike, it was fairly uneventful. I jumped the gun on any interesting plant scenery. Only one picture is worth posting. This is looking west across Lottie Bay from the Canoe Pass Vista Trail; the little headland that I was on isn't named on my map. Anyway, to get all the depth of field that I wanted (f/25), I had to use an exposure speed of five seconds. This turned out to be a blessing because it blurred the water's motion and made it look glassy. Thankfully the air was still enough that the leaves didn't blur. The tree in the foreground is a Pacific madrone (Arbutus menziesii).

Ta ta!

Frostless near Seattle

Hopefully those of you who live in and around the Seattle area had the chance to see the magnificent frost we've had the past few mornings. Usually we just get some on the grass. This time, though, it has covered bushes and trees as well, in a few places heavily enough to be mistaken as a dusting of snow. I attempted to photograph this frost twice this weekend, and twice ended up with something other than what I had bargained for.

I'm going to write this post backward and start with the more recent trip because the photographs are better. Paradise Valley Conservation Area was my destination. I'd been there before, and was frankly unimpressed - the forest is young and not all that interesting, and the trail generally stays well away from wetlands, creeks, and other visually interesting yet ecologically sensitive features. I remembered, however, that one of the trails had a good eastern view not too far from the parking lot, and I though about maybe getting a nice frosty sunrise. Upon arrival, what should I find but - of all things - snow! Not deep, but a nice frosting still remained on most of the trees. So any frost was dwarfed by its more ostentatious cousins, snow and ice.

This is probably my favorite image of the pack. These bushes were everywhere, and all had little red buds, but this was the first composition I made of them and it ended up being the best. The red comes through very nicely, and the shapes of the buds are perceptible beneath the ice. The background has some barely perceptible lines/shapes, which I don't like, but I really needed some depth of field in the foreground. I think that, especially with some tweaking of the lighting, it's a forgivable deficiency.

Now comes my second favorite. As I was wandering down the trail, I happened upon a fir branch that was lit with soft sunlight. I tried envisioning a variety of different compositions, and noticed that the sun itself was quite diffused by other branches and some high clouds. The sun, then was soft enough to include in the composition without overwhelming everything else (although I did place it mostly behind the branch). I liked how the cool blue shows up in the shadows.

Next, two pictures I took prior to dawn. I think they capture the spirit of the morning well, and the colors even came through fairly accurately (although the first could stand slight saturation...but not much). Clearly the second could use a lighting boost in the shadows.

The next two juxtapose wintry trees against the sunrise. I used a graduated neutral density in the first one...and sideways, no less! This helped darken the sky and the sunrise, so I could expose for the tree in the foreground without overexposing the sky. In the second one, the sky actually is overexposed - with dark foreground elements on either side, I couldn't use the graduated filter. With Highlight Recovery in Lightroom, I might be able to save it, because I like the composition.

The previous morning, I had gone to Bob Heirman Wildlife Preserve, on the Snohomish River near Monroe, hoping to capture that elusive frost. For whatever reason, the park and its immediate environs were not as frosty. Perhaps the big river's proximity moderated the air temperature. That's really the only thing I can think of.

There was some frost, however, and this was my best composition. I wanted to juxtapose a frosty bush with the bare trunks of the adjoining forest. I think this picture does that fairly well, while also communicating the color in the branches. I tried many apertures for this, and settled on f/6.3 to preserve some shape in the background. I kept all of them, though - I'd really have to see this one printed at a large size to make the final decision on whether the background was distracting and needed less definition. I don't think any more would be a good idea.

The other respectable composition from the Preserve was this of a frosty fern. I honestly wasn't that satisfied with it, just because it seems like a bit of a conventional subject and composition. It turned out well, though. The middle of the fern is a bit left of center. This would be easy to fix at cropped sizes, of course.

A shout-out to my parents, older brother, and sister-in-law, who got me a tripod strap and warm pants and socks for Christmas! I surely would have perished without them. Thanks!