2024 Year in Review

Here we are again! It's time to review my favorite trips and pictures from 2024, and think about what I might get up to next year. Looking back, 2024 was like 2023 insofar as the time I was able to put into photography was rather uneven. There were some parts of the year where I got out a lot, and others barely at all, sometimes due to weather and sometimes due to competing personal schedule factors. With those constraints in mind, I'm happy with my work, although it sometimes feels as though I'm continuing my work rather than advancing it, if that makes sense, and that's something I'd perhaps like to see change in 2025.

I. Highlights of 2024

1.) Salt Spring trip

The most ambitious trip of the year was a camping trip to Salt Spring Island in British Columbia. Our campsite in Ruckle Provincial Park had an east-facing view of the water, and access to the park's hiking trails. Staying here allowed me to some photography at sunrise and sunset, which I often write about wanting to do, but which doesn't end up happening very frequently. My favorite moments from the trip were getting to watch the full moon rise at sunset one night, and seeing the sunrise the next morning.

I didn't set out to do moon photography on the trip; it just happened that the trip coincided with the full moon. In fact, I was about to put my gear back into the car one night when I turned around and noticed the moon just starting to rise. I had to work quickly; the window of time in which I could expose properly for both the moon and the surroundings was very brief.

Another image I liked from that trip was this one, where I used a long exposure to blur the movement of grass in the wind. That isn't a concept that I employ very often, but I like how I did it here.

While on the island, I also hiked to the top of Mount Erskine. The strength and direction of the sunlight made my photography difficult, but this one looking out to Vancouver Island turned out well; I like the deep blue colors and the sense of open space.

2.) Esmeralda Basin trip

Another solid camping trip came earlier in the summer, when I camped in the Teanaway area and revisited one of my favorite hikes, the Esmeralda Basin trail. I had a good day of mountain and wildflower photography. I made quick time up to my turnaround at Fortune Creek Pass, which took some discipline and patience, but which also gave me time to work on multiple compositions there. (That's always a tricky part of full day hikes, deciding how much time to spend doing photography on the way versus how much time to save for the destination.) You'll see some of the hike's wildflower closeups closeups later, but a couple of my favorites are below. I'd never seen those anemone flowers up there before; it's fun to visit a favorite place over and over again and still notice something new.

Anemone flowers at Fortune Creek Pass

Shooting star along the trail

Mount Daniel from Fortune Creek Pass

3.) North Fork Quinault

My third camping trip was to the North Fork Quinault area in Olympic National Park. The weather was pretty sunny, so photography in this mostly forested environment was a bit tricky. I ultimately walked away with only a couple of images that I really liked. I still had a good time, though, and it's been quite a while since I had so much solitude on a camping trip. I think the North Fork Quinault gets overshadowed by more iconic places like the Enchanted Valley and Hoh Rainforest, so both campground and trail were very quiet.

4.) Bonus Summer

One of my favorite times of year for hiking and photography is from about late September through mid-October. At this time of year, fall colors in the Cascades are often quite nice, bugs and water on hiking trails are at a minimum, and my social calendar tends to be fairly quiet. This year, I lucked out with multiple opportunities for mountain outings in warm, sunny weather - it felt almost like a bonus round of summer.

Mig Lake

Near Mig Lake

Lake Janus

Along the trail to Mount Sawyer

Along the trail to Mount Sawyer

Along the CCC Road Trail

5.) Wildflowers of 2024

It was a decent year for wildflowers in the end! As usual, this is my round up of flowers that were either new to me, or that I photographed in ways different or improved from prior years. In no particular order:

Columbia lewisia (Lewisia columbiana), Esmeralda Basin

Spreading phlox (Phlox diffusa), Esmeralda Basin

False lily-of-the valley (Maianthemum dilatatum), Middle Fork Snoqualmie trail

Large-leaf sandwort (Moehringia macrophylla), Perry Creek trail

Something in the currant/gooseberry family (genus Ribes), Perry Creek trail

Vine maple (Acer circinatum), Middle Fork Snoqualmie trail

Scouler's valerian (Valeriana scouleri), Perry Creek trail

Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis) near Pratt Balcony

Scouler's corydalis (Corydalis scouleri), Green River Natural Area

Pacific bleeding heart (Dicentra formosa), Green River Natural Area

Sea blush (Plectritis congesta), Washington Park

Calypso orchid (Calypso bulbosa), Washington Park

Springbeauty (genus Claytonia), Soaring Eagle Regional Park

6.) Rivers, Waterfalls, and Long Exposures

Last year, I had said that I hoped to do more waterfall photography. This didn't end up being a theme in 2024, but I did do a bit of waterfall and river photography. In May, I visited the Lewis River area with its iconic waterfalls. I got rained on, and ran into a lot of trail obstructions, but still had fun photographing the lower and middle falls:

Lower Falls

Middle Falls

I took a couple other nice river/creek shots in the winter as well. I particularly like the first one of these; living in the Puget Sound lowlands, I don't have a lot of opportunities to photograph ice formations in a creek.

Coal Creek Natural Area

The South Fork Snoqualmie River, Olallie State Park

7.) Honorable Mentions

This section is for photographs that don't fit into the above categories, but that I'm still really happy with or that were unique in some way.

This first one is from the Pratt Balcony in March. I was happy with the deep colors, and the composition feels balanced to me.

The next one is from Trout Lake in the Cascades, with fireweed blooming in the foreground. The hazy background and reddening vine maples give this a fun late-summer feel.

Next, camas and other wildflowers from Washington Park, with Burrows Island in the distance. I think the narrow-depth-of-field approach I used here was effective, and I was able to get the focus point precisely where I wanted it.

I've tried shots from this vantage point, looking down the Perry Creek valley to Hall Peak, a few times. The one I tried this year is my favorite so far, because more of the peak is visible and there's some texture to the clouds:

I really like this next one, of deer fern opening up along the Middle Fork Snoqualmie trail. Since I was looking downhill, I was able to manage this nice forest background.

Here's one that I was worried about, that I did end up liking: a shot of salmonberry blooming in the Green River Natural Area. I was afraid it'd be too busy, but I think it works: the in-focus flower at right stands out enough, and the greens are different enough, to keep all the elements distinct.

In the picture below, I like how the mossy branches frame the tree, and how they stand out from the muted winter background colors. This is from the Licorice Fern Trail on Cougar Mountain.

Here's another nice off-season one: from the Oxbow Loop Trail in November. I think the remnant yellow leaves plus the snowy hills in the distance communicate a sense of seasonal transition.

Next, a pleasant shot of Baring Mountain from the trail to Barclay Lake.

Finally, one that I wasn't thrilled about initially but I keep coming back to: one of Old Pond (I think) in the Redmond Watershed Preserve. I think I like the sense of depth, and the clarity of the reflections in the pond.

II. Hopes and Ideas for 2025

1.) Spring or Fall trip - Usually my most extensive traveling happens during summer camping season, and I don't anticipate any changes to that. It's fun, however, to fantasize about a fall color trip in the late September-mid October timeframe that I've gotten so fond of. It has also been a while since I've been on an extensive spring trip; I sometimes miss my April and May rambles around eastern Washington. I'm not sure whether I'll manage this, because I'll definitely need to save some vacation time for the core of camping season, but it's something that's on the brain.

2.) Winter Color - Weather permitting, I hope I'll be able to get out and about more in January and February, and look for creative ways to find and depict colorful scenes. I had some good results along these lines in 2023.

3.) Local trails - As in prior years, I'm still working on ways to do hiking and photography on a more consolidated driving budget. Each year, I get better at navigating local trails systems like Cougar/Squak Mountain and Tiger Mountain and accumulate more maps. These nearby trail networks can be hit-or-miss in terms of photogenic scenery, but still well worth continuing to build familiarity with.

4.) Alpine Wildflower Bloom - One hope is to get to high elevations during wildflower season at least once. This year, my only foray into this sort of setting was Esmeralda Basin. I enjoyed that, but it's been a while since I've hiked in the kind of lush alpine meadows that you see around Mount Rainier, Mount Baker, etc.

5.) New travel destination - Similarly, I'd like one of my camping/overnight trips to be to a location I haven't visited before. I've had the Mount Adams/south Cascades area on the back burner for a while; another idea might be the Kettle Crest area or something similar toward northeast Washington. It'd also be fun to go farther afield, e.g., California, but I won't know for a while yet whether I'll have enough paid time off to manage that.

Happy New Year, everybody! I'm excited to see what outdoor fun the new year will bring!

November Roundup

I drafted this post a long time ago and then forgot about it. What probably happened is that I was waiting just in case I'd be able to get out again at the very end of November, and when that didn't happen, my subconscious thought "I've already blogged" and this fell by the wayside. So here it is, my photography for November! Wildly, I haven't done any photography in December yet. I'm hoping that changes before the end of the month. I'm itching to go out on a proper day hike...

Cougar Mountain

Most recently, I hiked a few trails out of Red Town on Cougar Mountain. This was just a few days after the "bomb cyclone" that produced all the winds, so hiking was an interesting experience - a lot of trails, particularly hillside trails in denser woods, had a lot of downed trees, necessitating slower going and occasional backtracking. Between that and some winds that kicked up mid-morning, I didn't get a lot of photography in, but I do like the one below: the mossy foreground branches are fun, and there are still some hints of fall color. F/16.

Oxbow Loop Trail

Before that, I hiked the short Oxbow Loop Trail, hoping to get some outdoor time in before a midday rainstorm hit. The Oxbow Loop packs a lot of scenery into its roughly two miles: you get mossy woods, views of the surrounding terrain, and even river access, making it a satisfying option for a limited timeframe.

Three of the compositions from the day were variations on a theme: views over Oxbow Lake with varying degrees of fall color and snowy mountains visible. The fall colors are subdued in this first one, but the mountains ended up pretty clear. F/14.

This one doesn't show as much of the mountains, but I like how vivid the colors are. F/14.

This one has the least interesting background and colors of the three, but the parallel alder trunks are still fun. F/14.

Lastly, the Middle Fork Snoqualmie from a little spur trail. The composition ended up busier that it was in my mind's eye, but I like the colors. F/18, 1.3 seconds.

Licorice Fern Trail

Before that, I made another quick-hike-before-the-rain trip to the Licorice Fern Trail on Cougar Mountain.  There wasn't much time for photography before the rain started to fall, but I did get this picture, of some vine maple leaves hanging on. I'm not sure if I got the white balance quite right, but since I shoot in RAW, that's easy enough to experiment with later. F/16.

Fall Color Extravaganza

This weekend, I hiked to Tonga Ridge and Mount Sawyer, hoping for one more sunny fall-color hike in the mountains before the weather really turns (possibly this week).  I've been to Mount Sawyer once before, in the summer, and I think I liked it better as a fall hike. In July of 2019, bugs, heat from the sun, and heavy brush made the final push to the summit challenging. This time of year, those factors are all a bit more reasonable.

First, an image from my hike up the mountain in the morning. This one doesn't feature the jagged mountain peaks that you'll see in some of the other shots I took, but since it was earlier in the day, the angled sunlight brought out colors really well. F/16. 

Next is a series of images from my hike back down the Mount Sawyer portion of the trail, roughly going from most to least favorite. I chose to order the day this way, making a mostly continuous push uphill and saving my photography for the hike down (with the exception of the one you already saw), so that I could scout out the best locations to set up shop. The views changed with every step, and I wanted to take note of those as well as the most considerate locations for photography (places where people could pass me and my gear safely without detouring into the meadows).

In this first one, I think there's a good sense of depth from the foreground, and, for lack of a better way to put it, a good sense of open space. F/16.

The highlight of the next one is the color contrast in the foreground between the green young trees and the red huckleberry leaves. F/16.

The next one doesn't have the same sense of dramatic open space that the ones above have, nor are the colors as vibrant. But since I positioned the camera more along the hill (rather than looking straight down like in the image above), the converging verticals are not nearly as pronounced. F/14.

The last of this series has the least pronounced sense of depth, and the most distracting converging verticals. I liked the color contrast of the leaves in the meadow, but that doesn't come through as well in this picture as it did in person. F/14.

Finally, the view from the top of Mount Sawyer. Speaking of converging verticals, they're pretty obvious here, created by the downward angle of the lens. In this case, though, I think they're beneficial, and add to the sense of depth. F/14.

It looks like that might be it for warm, sunny fall hikes for this season, as least in the high country. Stay tuned for more adventures around the lowlands of western Washington!

Plan B

Last weekend, I was headed to the Middle Fork Snoqualmie trail, because I wanted a river/forest hike after two visits to mountain lakes. When I got there, however, the parking lot was extremely crowded due to some sort of trail running event going on. Looking at my map and their signs, I was able to piece together that the CCC Road Trail south/west of the Pratt Balcony trailhead was out of range of the trail running event, and headed there as an alternative. That section is clearly lightly traveled in general - past the turnoff to the somewhat more popular Pratt Balcony, we saw only one other hiking party all morning, and were frequently hiking through heavy brush. It turned out to be a relatively easy hike through mixed forest types, with occasional views out to Russian Butte. Would I hike it again? Not necessarily. The brush and thorns wore on my patience. And while the forest is certainly nice and pleasant, it's nothing more scenic than the many other second-growth forest trails in the area (or closer to home). Even so, I walked away with a few decent pictures, and it was nice to have a peaceful walk in the woods with lots of solitude. 

First, a lush stand of maples and alders, with bigleaf maple leaves in the foreground. F/14.

Next, one of those peek-a-boo views of Russian Butte. F/14.

Lastly, Russian Butte earlier in the morning, from near the trailhead. F/14.

September Roundup

Hello all! It seems I've gotten a bit behind on my blog, so I'm going to roll my best September excursions into one post. Highlights include two lakes that I had almost entirely to myself, and some fun fall colors! I still can't say that fall is my favorite season, but I've really come around to fall hiking, and about mid-September to mid-October is one of my favorite times of the year to be outside. The bugs and heat are gone, water crossings on trails tend to be easier, and there are lots of pretty colors everywhere.

Lake Janus

Most recently, I visited Lake Janus, along the PCT north of Stevens Pass. It's a lovely lake that tends to get overlooked in favor of nearby Lake Valhalla and Mount McCausland, which offer more dramatic mountain views. In fact, out of the few hiking parties I encountered on the trail to Lake Janus, the majority  had intended to head to Lake Valhalla but turned the wrong way at the intersection with the PCT. For a long stretch of time, there were no other hiking parties at Lake Janus, which was worth the price of slightly-less-dramatic views. The boggy meadows around the lake seem like they could get quite buggy in the summer, so I don't know if I would revisit then, but I can definitely envision repeating this as a fall hike.

First, Lake Janus from one of the camping areas nearby. The foreground looks a bit busier in practice than it did in my mind's eye, but the fall-color effect still comes through fine. F/16.

Next, Lake Janus from nearer the shore. I like the warm tones of the grass and leaves in the foreground. F/16.

Lastly, a meadow near the lake. F/16.

Hope and Mig Lakes

Before that, I hiked to Hope and Mig Lakes, also near Stevens Pass. Like Lake Janus, Mig Lake tends to be overlooked; it seemed like most hikers were turning the other direction, to Trap Lake. But the trail to Hope and Mig Lakes is one of my favorite fall hikes, due to the solitude and the colorful meadows around Mig Lake.

Here's a view of one such meadow. I took a picture from almost the same vantage point last year (first image), but this time included the sky, which I think I might like better. F/16.

Here's a similar view from nearby. The colors aren't quite as striking, but I enjoy the symmetry. F/16.

Next, Mig Lake. There was a slight breeze at this point, which was a mixed blessing. It took longer to time a shot with the leaves being still, but the breezes also stirred up the water, creating the photogenic blue reflections that are visible here. F/16.

Here's another view of Mig Lake, this time with a selective-focus approach. F/5.

On the way to Hope and Mig Lakes, there are a few clearings in the woods with patches of vine maple, which can be one of the most colorful trees in the fall. I really liked the green and red patterns in the ones below. F/7.1.

Lastly from that hike, a peek-a-boo view of Hope Lake through trees. I was concerned about the high contrast, but I think it works. F/14.

Odds and Ends

There were a few instances in the last month where I made closer/shorter trips, for weather or other reasons; I wasn't as thrilled with my results from these outings, but had two images worth blogging about. First, a forest view from a brief dry break during a rather rainy morning on Tiger Mountain. I don't recall the exact location of this one, but it was somewhere in the Tradition Plateau area. I do like the scattering of yellow leaves in the shot. F/16.

Next, some little ferns (licorice ferns?) growing on a tree trunk in Tolt-Macdonald Park near Carnation. I like the selective-focus concept of this shot, but I'm not convinced that I made it work. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think it might be because the parts of the composition aren't distinct enough from each other, or I wasn't close enough to the little ferns in the foreground. F/8.

All for now. Thanks for hanging in there!