Spring on the Sauk

Yesterday morning, I made a jaunt to the Old Sauk Trail near Darrington. I'd been there before, but only in the late autumn/early winter, and wanted to check out photographic possibilities this time of year. Turns out the forest and river views offer plenty of potential, and if I were to go back, there would also be some nice forest wildflowers to photograph (which I didn't focus on this time).

First is my favorite composition of the day; I'm particularly pleased because I don't get a lot of vertical compositions. F/18.

Next, two compositions involving the Sauk River itself. I used long-ish shutter speeds (1/3 second and 0.8 seconds, respectively) to blur the water's motion a bit. In the case of the first image of this pair, it made it difficult to freeze the motion of the willow leaves, so I had to sacrifice a bit of sharpness.

Finally, an image of some salmonberries in the foreground with an alder grove in the background. I used f/25 to get everything in focus. An aperture this narrow sacrifices a bit of image quality, but the result actually wasn't as bad as I had expected.

Memorial Weekend part 2

Here are the pictures from the second half of my trip to Fields Spring State Park last weekend. The landscape images here, as in the last post, will generally need some careful editing to get the sky colors and contrast right. Nevertheless, I was pretty pleased with how they turned out.

But first, a flower closeup. This is Brown's peony (Paeonia brownii), one of only two species of peony native to the U.S. F/4.5.

Next are two early-morning meadow views. The first uses a wide aperture, F/4, for a blurred background. The second uses a narrow aperture, F/22, for an opposite effect.

Next, an afternoon view from near the summit of Puffer Butte. I was attracted to the way the paintbrush at bottom right and the cloud at top left balanced each other. F/22. I was worried that I'd need to use a graduated neutral density filter, but it turned out not to be necessary.

Next, a landscape with some balsamroot flowers in the foreground (bottom right), with a flowery slope behind them and the Wallowa Mountains visible in the distance.

Next, two early morning canyon views, both at F/18. If you look closely at the first one, you can see a bend in the Grande Ronde river at center left.

Finally, another afternoon view with cumulus clouds. The white flowers in the foreground are prairie star. F/22.

Memorial Weekend part 1

Over Memorial Day weekend, I took a long drive over to Fields Spring State Park, which is south of Clarkston/Lewiston. It's one of my favorite places of all time, I think. Due to the cold and wet weather earlier in the spring, the wildflowers were still in good shape. Conditions were challenging - almost entirely clear skies the whole time with full sunshine. This makes photography hard due to the high contrast of the lighting, the uniformity of the sky, and the difficulty of reading the camera display in the sunlight. Nevertheless, I was grateful for the fact that the weather was quite pleasant for camping.

In the first three compositions here, I omitted the sky to emphasize the views down into the canyons. There was a bit of haze in the air, but I think there is sufficient detail to make the images work. In fact, in hindsight, I like the blue color added by the haze. The flowers are desert parsley in the first, paintbrush in the second. F/25, F/20, and F/20.

Next, a closeup of what I believe to be sticky geranium (Geranium viscosissimum). F/4.5.

Finally, two more "conventional" shots that include the sky. Editing these will be a challenge due to the uneven polarization and the fact that blue sky always seems tricky, at least for me. F/20 in both cases. The flowers are phlox in the first image, lupine in the second.

Adventures in Transportation

This morning, I made my first ever photography trip via bicycle! I visited the Snoqualmie Valley Trail near North Bend and Snoqualmie (the trail extends farther north as well, to Duvall). My total round trip mileage was a bit over thirteen miles, which I'm pretty happy with considering the fact that I hadn't biked for probably more than a year and a half. It went well, with lots of good ideas and lessons learned for the next trip!

First is a view of Mount Si over the Snoqualmie River from the Three Forks Natural Area. I'm not too thrilled by that bit of overexposure at the top right. I might get it to look better in Lightroom, and otherwise, I like how this composition turned out. F/18.

Next, two views of the river from farther upvalley, just as the sun was starting to come up in the late morning. F/20 in both cases. They'll need some lighting and color work, but pretty doable.

A Walk in the Woods

Yesterday, I had a nice walk in the woods on the Baker Lake trail (starting from the north end, along the Baker River). I didn't make it very far, as there was so much to photograph! The Baker River valley reminds me a bit of the Olympic rainforest, particularly the Hoh River valley that I visited last year. One wouldn't mistake one for the other - the Baker River area doesn't have much if any Sitka spruce, is colder, and has different surrounding topography. But they both offer scenic river valleys, luxuriant old-growth forest, stands of mossy maples, and opportunities to see wildlife.

First, a view of some red elderberry bushes (Sambucus racemosa) blooming with bigleaf maple trees in the background. F/25.

Next, a forest view with some hillside boulders in the background. F/22.

This next one is similar in composition to some other old-growth images I've made, but the difference here is that the featured trunk is not alive; rather, it belongs to a standing snag. Snags are an important part of old forests, providing food and shelter for insects, birds, and animals. F/18.

Now a wider forest perspective. This one is actually fairly representative, if you're wondering what the forest in this area tends to look like. Floods and other disturbances often result in younger patches of forest near the river, hence the alder and maple in the background here. F/16.

Next, a cool closeup - a berry just beginning to emerge on a salmonberry bush. F/6.3.

The last three images are some wider views, taken while a bit of rain was falling. Rain makes it challenging to operate photo equipment, particularly out in the open, but can also make for interesting views by pulling the clouds down and softening background shapes. This first one looks across the Baker River itself. Due to a persistent breeze, the motion isn't perfectly frozen in all the branches, but I think it still works. F/22.

The net one looks down the valley; I'd like to work on this one in Lightroom a bit to make the greens more vivid, like they were in person. F/20.

Finally, a view of Blum Creek and the hills beyond in the rain. F/22.

Lighthouse Point

This morning, before it rained, I headed up to Deception Pass State Park to find some wildflowers. All of the pictures here are from the Lighthouse Point area, which has everything - rocky headlands, flower meadows, and nice forests.

The first image is my favorite composition from the trip, with camas flowers in the foreground. Image quality, particularly sharpness, was a problem here - I was using my small tripod all closed up as a monopod, basically, and had that set on another small piece of gear to get the exact height I needed. With an exposure time of 1/15 second, this made getting things sharp a challenge. To make matters worse, the breeze was kicking up at the time. The one I've posted here is the best and might be workable (I'll have to play around in Lightroom to be sure). F/25.

Next, a closeup of camas with an anther set as the focus point. F/6.3.

Next, two forest landscapes from Lighthouse Point. The first has budding salal in the foreground, which I wanted to juxtapose against the lichen-draped forest. The second has less of a foreground, but I still thought the interesting trunk and branch shapes might be worth capturing.  F/22 in both cases.

Finally, some very new growth on what I think is a Douglas fir, with water and cliffs and such in the background. F/22.

Spring Break part 3 - Kamiak Butte

I spent the third part of my travels in the Palouse region of Washington. My big destination was Kamiak Butte County Park, north of Pullman. The flowers are late there this year due to the cold and wet weather this winter and spring. The upshot of my visit, however, was a profusion of early flowers such as grass widow in the meadows and trillium and lilies in the forests.

First, two landscapes showing the abundant grass widow (Olsynium douglasii) on the ridge and around the summit. F/22 in both cases.

Next, some flower closeups. First is Pacific trillium, Trillium ovatum. F/3.5.

Next is a lily, probably Erythronium grandiflorum. F/5.6.

Finally, a paintbrush just beginning to bloom (genus Castilleja). F/6.3.

Next is another closeup, not of a flower but some new growth on what I think is western meadowrue, Thalictrum occidentale. F/3.8.

Finally, a couple more experimental shots. The first is a forest-floor view of some new growth, which I photographed with my wide lens (F/5.3). The second shows opening arrowleaf balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata) with the colors of the Palouse in the background for a tonal and horizontal contrast (F/11).

That's all for now. Here's hoping for more fun adventures this spring and summer!