Peninsula Trip 1: Odds and Ends

I recently returned from a trip to the Olympic Peninsula. May main goal was to do photography in the Hurricane Ridge area, but before I get to that, here are some odds and ends from other locations.

First, a dawn view from the Hurricane Ridge Road. I used a graduated neutral density filter to keep the sky color from getting blown out. F/20.

Next, a dawn image looking out toward Mount Baker, from an overlook on the Hurricane Ridge Road, with some fog or low clouds creeping over the water. F/16.

Next, a couple flower closeups from the "Heart O' the Forest" trail, adjacent to the campground where I stayed. First is pink wintergreen (Pyrola asarifolia). F/4.5.

Next, Pacific waterleaf (Hydrophyllum tenuipes). F/5.

Goat Lake

Yesterday, I took a day trip to Goat Lake in the north Cascades. The lake is a challenging location to do photography; the length of the hike essentially prevents being present for the best light (unless you're backpacking). I booked it to the lake and got up there just after 10 am. The lighting was still a bit angled and there were some pretty drifting clouds; even so, there was no getting around the day's harsh lighting. So a lot of these images will need lighting work when I take the RAW files into Lightroom.

The first is an image involving the lake itself, from the path that extends around the shore past the main trail and day use area. F/22. I believe this mountain is Cadet Peak.

Next, two compositions involving clouds and the flanks of Cadet Peak, also from near the lake. F/22.

Below, some paintbrush (Castilleja) from a dry creek bed that intersects with the trail, with alder trees and a distant mountain in the background. F/4.5.

Next, a view of Elliott Creek early in the morning. Although the trail frequently puts you within sight of the creek, unobstructed views are hard to come by. This was my best attempt at a composition involving the creek. F/22, 1.6 seconds.

Another variation on the theme of mountains and clouds. If these peaks are named, I haven't yet identified them. F/16.

Finally, cow parsnip (Heracleum maximum or Heracleum lanatum) and old-growth forest. F/22.

A Splendid Summer Saunter

Happy Summer!

Today, I decided to beat the heat by doing some photography during the early morning hours. I arrived at the Big Four Ice Caves picnic area/trailhead at about sunrise. There was a pair of picnickers already getting set up there when I arrived. Who gets up that early? Weird.

Anyway. The first is my favorite, with a meadow of Sitka valerian in the foreground. The mountain behind me was already sunlit at this point, providing some nice illumination onto the flowers and weathered trees. F/22.

Second, Big Four and its reflection in a pond near the picnic area. Contrast is a bit high but probably workable. F/18.

Third, a view over the South Fork Stillaguamish from the bridge. I don't know the name of the mountain in the distance. This one will be a challenge to edit due to the high contrast, but I kind of like this composition. F/18.

Third, a view with some columbine in the foreground. The lighting is a bit harsh but I think this one still works. F/22.

Finally, a flower closeup on a twinberry bush. I will have to deal with the yellowish-green color cast reflected from the surrounding sunlit leaves. F/5.

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.