Sometimes a sunrise slowly builds to a glorious finale and sometimes it’s a flash in the pan like when you turn a stereo on and forget the volume is at full. A couple of days ago, the sunrise was the latter.
The color just started as I was a few minutes away from my location and it was really going as I parked and ran with my gear. I literally only had two minutes of “show” and that was enough time to shoot four bracketed series. And then it was over.
Crazy!
I spent one of the days from this holiday weekend heading up the Foss River Road trying out a new pair of cross country skis. Here are some photos of the Foss River on our way back to my truck:
There has been a lot of press lately about the large migration of snowy owls down into the continental U.S. Every once and awhile (known as an irruption), their numbers really spike and this happens to be one of those years. As it turns out, one of the big “hot spots” for them is just across the border in British Columbia at Boundary Bay near the town of Tsawwaassen. Some friends of mine visited a few weeks ago which got me curious and I did some research. Lots of owls, sitting around, not far off established trails- my kind of wildlife photography!
Originally, I was just thinking about a day trip to Boundary Bay. My girlfriend suggested that we make it an overnight trip and that turned out to be a GREAT idea. The main congregation of snowy owls is found near the end of 72nd St, along the raised dike. From the 72nd St junction westward to 64th St, the snowy owls are generally found resting on top of the driftwood pieces that tides have washed up against the base of the protective dike.
For the most part, the owls seem to tolerate the HUGE influx of admirers viewing and photographing their stay. The majority of visitors stay close to 72nd St (site of the largest gathering of owls) but folks willing to walk further west along the dike towards 64th St will also see more owls, bald eagles, great blue herons, and other wildlife. Even fewer people travel east along the dike from 72nd St but don’t let that stop you! I found a couple snowy owls (without any one around) along with a great blue heron and more bald eagles.
As longtime visitors to my blog can tell, I’m a landscape/nature photographer first & foremost. Any wildlife I have previously photographed has usually been the result of being at the right place, right time. In the last year, I purchased a Sigma 50-500mm lens (also known as a “Bigma”) and a gimbal head in hopes of adding more wildlife photos to my portfolio. We arrived at Boundary Bay during the late afternoon and were able to get a parking spot somewhat close to the dike since people were beginning to leave.
The weekend’s forecast was for sunshine and 50 degree temperatures but that was quickly changing at Boundary Bay. A thick maritime fog was advancing towards us from the Strait of Georgia. Eventually Mount Baker disappeared from view and reduced visibility settled in. Although there would be no sunset, the conditions did offer an opportunity to capture some unique photographs. We turned around at 64th St and made our way back to 72nd St. The failing light really provided a challenge since my Sigma is a F6.3 @ 500mm. Thankfully, the low light and higher ISO capabilities of my Pentax K-5 were up to the task.
We got back to my truck well after sunset and the place had pretty much cleared out for the day. Along the way back, however, we were treated to some owl activity such as perching even closer to the dike trail and some flyovers. We traveled the back roads towards Tsawwaassen where we spent the night at the Coast Hotel (recommended!). The next morning, the skies were clear and I was excited to head back in time for sunrise. I had expected a number of wildlife photographers would already be present at Boundary Bay but that wasn’t the case. In fact, we were the third car to show up!
I quickly suited up and we were off. For my sunrise shots, I decided to head out into the marshy, grass filled near-shore environment. It was cold enough over night to frost which made travel a little easier. As you get to the mudflats, there are some beautiful S-shaped tidal inlets which perfectly reflected the developing light show. Although the skies to the east over Mount Baker were devoid of clouds, the skies to our south had a series of high, wispy clouds which began to reflect the warm light of sunrise. It was truly one of my favorite sunrises of the year and the fact I was able to photograph it and enjoy it with my girlfriend made it even better!
Sunrise began to develop quickly and eventually the sun rose above the horizon between Mount Baker and the Twin Sisters range. The wildlife photographers were beginning to show up in numbers as the light improved. My girlfriend decided to head east along the dike from 72nd St as I decided to head back to the owl concentrations west of 72nd St. I’m going to save any commentary about the behavior of wildlife photographers for another blog post but I was saddened.
I headed further west towards 64th St to get away from the photogs and returned to a large tree alongside the dike which the day before held up to three snowy owls. On this day, two bald eagles were enjoying the high ground. My only experiences with bald eagles are along the North Fork Nooksack River near Mosquito Lake Road (east of Bellingham) and in that area, the eagles tend to “spook” quite easily. At Boundary Bay, the experience is quite the opposite.
I approached the tree in several stages, taking photos along the way. I really thought that they would fly away but they didn’t. In fact, a woman walked right up to an interpretive display near the base of the tree and the eagles did little more than look down inquisitively. After getting my fair share of eagle photos, I headed back to 72nd St and then further east to meet my girlfriend, who had been calling me throughout the morning about all the wildlife she had been seeing along the dike. Sure enough, I kept seeing what she had.
We eventually returned to 72nd St around 11am and it was rapidly turning into the circus we witnessed the day before. I took a couple more photos (which filled my memory card) and I took that as a sign to leave. After gathering our stuff and checking out from our hotel, we spent a little time to explore the ag fields near Westham Island and Ladner. We were both pretty tired so we made the drive back home, returning just in time to see the kickoff for the Super Bowl. Ok, that last fact made *ME* happier than my girlfriend!
This was a great place to visit and I’m sure we’ll return, even when the snowy owls have left. This was also my first good outing with my Bigma lens supported by a gimbal head. The vast majority of the photos in this blog post were taken with the Bigma and I’m pleased. It’s not the fastest lens at F6.3 on the longest end but the high ISO capabilities of the Pentax K-5 can make up the difference. I do need to dial in the set up of the gimbal head because I still experienced some vibrations of mirror slap while taking photos..
(You’ll notice the terms “TRAIL PHOTO” and “OFF-TRAIL PHOTO” with the picture descriptions. I’ll explain this in an upcoming blog post about wildlife photographers)
I can’t believe that it’s almost been a month since my last outing! Weather has thwarted some of my plans the last few weekends so this time I settled on something conducive to gray, overcast skies- waterfalls. I also wanted to see if there were any bald eagles yet along the North Fork Nooksack River so I headed for Mosquito Lake Rd area. At the bridge over the North Fork, I only found one eagle in the immediate vicinity but you could hear the calls in the area. The river itself was running a bit swift, but clear, and also with a lot of salmon. Peering down from the bridge into the water, I could see dozens of 24″ salmon (winter steelhead?) resting in one of the slower eddys of the river.
There were also a ton of fisherman bombarding them with lures so I decided to move on. Just across the river is the Nork Fork Rd which parallels the North Fork as it heads upstream. After about 3 miles or so, the county road ends and it appears to enter State DNR lands. Racehorse Creek is crossed using a primitive one lane wooden bridge and, in about a half mile, an unsigned path leads away from the road and towards a series of waterfalls. The itself is about a quarter mile and pretty quiet if not for the constant sounds of gunfire as people blow things up elsewhere in the forest.
Soon enough, the roaring sounds of water get louder and louder. While the double wide trail veers away from the sound of water, another path heads towards the sound. Blue flagging marks the path to take if you’re interested in reached the base of the waterfalls. I think I counted about 4 waterfall drops, all with varying heights. The creek bisects a narrow, steep chasm so photographic opportunities of the upper tiers are limited unless you’re able to rappel down into this section of creek.
I took some shots from the edge of the cliff and then followed the flagging all the way down to the base where I backtracked towards the lowest (and most impressive) waterfall. While I did not have rain to contend with, I had some subtle spray from the waterfall that I needed to be mindful of. Sometimes I was, sometimes I forgot so there may still be some water drops that I missed during my photo editing. I worked the falls up one side, across, and back down the opposite side before heading back to my truck.
I wanted to check out some of the sections of the North Fork and look for any Bald Eagles. As I drove by one shallow, rapid stretch of the river, I spied an eagle eating a fish. I pulled over quickly where it was practical and tried to double back on foot to get some photos. As my luck would have it, as soon as I got there, the eagle lost interest or didn’t like the sight of me and flew off. Such is the life of a bumbling wildlife photographer!
My last stop was further down the road at pullout along a side channel of the river. High above the channel sat three bald eagles and down in the channel were a number of salmon splashing and swimming back and forth. Once again my mere presence sent two of the eagles flying so I opted to photograph the salmon instead. Although I could fill the frame better with my Sigma 50-500mm, I don’t have a polarizing filter for it (86mm filter size. That some serious money!) so I ended up using my 55-300 zoom.
I moved around and settled in along the rip rap and spent the next half hour watching and trying to get the occasional photo. The winter run and eagle season are just getting started so I’m looking forward to returning soon for BETTER results.
Life has been decidedly non-photographic as I have been debating the merits of various roofing contractors but I did sneak away to explore more of the Money Creek valley in the North-Central Cascades. Fall color is just beginning here (and in general along the Highway 2 corridor) with just a hint of yellows in the Big Leaf Maples. The Vine Maples are showing more color with some nice reds and oranges…
My first connections to the Pacific Northwest began with a visit to the Carbon River valley portion of Mount Rainier National Park. My first visit to Green Lake as well as the hike to the snout of the Carbon Glacier left such an impression that I wanted to make this area my home. Through the years, I’ve made repeated visits to both. I had wondered about what lay beyond the glacier’s snout and one summer, I made my first hike up to Moraine Park.
Tucked away alongside the Carbon Glacier, Moraine Park starts about 5300 feet and is bordered to the south by Moraine Ridge at 6000 feet. The Wonderland Trail bisects the area and I’d hazard a guess that the majority of its visitors are Wonderland Trail hikers on their way to Mystic Lake and destinations beyond. I have made the hike to Moraine Park three times before. My first time, I was blown away by the display of Avalanche Lillies along the trail in lower Moraine Park. On another visit, I explored Moraine Ridge (the high point on the Wonderland Trail in this area) and eventually found myself perched above the sprawling Carbon Glacier and the formidable Willis Wall and north face of Mount Rainier.
My last visit was five years ago. Since then, the active nature of the Carbon River down in the lower valley damaged the Carbon River Road so severely that the National Park Service finally gave up on the road. These days, if you want to visit Moraine Park, you must hike or bike the 5 miles of the road AND THEN hike 8 miles. Through the years, this has been a pretty big deterrent but my fading memories of the views finally compelled me to return.
My last visit was with my point & shoot so I really wanted to capture the views with my latest SLR gear. Luckily, I was able to convince a friend to join me on this long outing which I’ve dubbed the Mount Rainier biathlon. I know we needed an early start so I met him in South Hill at about 7am. From there, we made our way to the Park’s Carbon River entrance. To my surprise, the small lot next to the ranger station was already full so we parked alongside the road just inside the gate. We geared up and set out on our bikes around 8:30.
I’ve hiked the road several times on my way to Green Lake and biking the road definitely made quick work of the distance! The road is steady (but gently) uphill so I knew the ride back would be low effort and a relaxing end to the whole outing. The road has about 3-4 major sections of damage but otherwise is a gravel road still in good condition. The damaged sections a little tricky to navigate due to large amounts of cobble and sand. As you reach the Ipsut Creek Campground (road end and trail head), you navigate through some of the most severe damage. After just over an hour, we reached the campground where we locked up our bikes to an eye hook at one of the camp sites.
Now it was time to travel on foot. The first quarter mile of trail has always struck me as some of the prettiest stretch of the Carbon Glacier Trail. The flood damage of recent years has changed that. Throughout the day, I found myself telling my friend “wow- that’s different” a number of times. Although I’ve hiked the trail a number of times, I never stopped at Ipsut Falls. We made the brief side trip and the dappled sunlight through the trees really made a beautiful scene.
Pressing on another two miles we reached the junction with the trail that crosses the river valley and joins the Northern Loop Trail. At some point the “traditional” trail to the Carbon Glacier became damaged so, for now, hikers are rerouted across to the north side of the valley. I have to admit that the north side is prettier and more aesthetic. After about 1.5 miles, we reached the snout of the Carbon Glacier. The wildflowers alongside the trail here were about prime and putting on a nice show. We rested a bit in preparation for the climb up and into Moraine Park.
While the day had been pleasant and cool to start, the climb up away from the snout was in the sun and the sweat began to pour. After another mile, we reached the Dick Creek camp and the shade of the forest for the final switchback climb to Moraine Park. Your arrival in Moraine Park is the crossing of Moraine Creek. Suddenly the forest is a bit more open and parkland. The trail travels up a gully between what I guess are two older lateral moraines.
In this lower portion of Moraine Park, we finally hit some snow patches but nothing substantial. As a testament to our non-summer, I guess that we were perhaps a week shy of “prime” Avalanche Lilly conditions. Many were in bloom but still more were preparing to bloom. We enjoyed the pleasant stroll that leads you up to the large 13 acre meadow below Moraine Ridge. This meadow provides you with your first BIG view of the north face of the mountain. Suddenly, all the large old growth trees you hiked past seem small.
At the far side of the meadow, a short series of switchbacks take you up to the 6,000+ saddle (also part of the divide between the White River and Carbon River drainages). While the Wonderland Trail continues downhill another 0.6 mile to Mystic Lake, a way trail heads west past a couple tarns and steadily climbs up through the subalpine parkland. After cresting a knoll with a worthy view of its own, the path grows a bit more fainter and drops down into a small tundra-like basin. Climbing through stunted heathers and wildflowers, there’s just one final scramble up the lateral moraine to one of the best views in the park.
Throughout our push to this point, we saw clouds slowly creeping up from the lower Carbon River valley. As we dropped our packs and I broke out my camera gear, the clouds caught up with us. They lifted faster than I was able to set up for my first shot. Luckily, we had some time to spare before our turnaround time of 5pm. In a few minutes, the clouds parted like they tend to do in the mountains and we were treated to clear views of the mountain and glacier. We had the entire view to ourselves and the only sounds were the large waterfall across the valley from us and the ping-ponging of rocks within the Carbon Glacier below us.
We soaked in the sights as much as we could but eventually we had to turn back. After spending most of the day ascending nearly 4800 vertical feet, the descent went much faster. I had passed on taking a particular shot from the lower end of the Moraine Park meadow on our way up because I thought it would be better light on our way back. We were racing to beat the upwelling clouds and I thought we would just beat it. Turns out I was wrong. As I swung my tripod out of my backpack, the clouds drifted in. I was only able to rattle off just two shots before the clouds obscured the mountain permanently.
My friend noticed this one tree in the area whose bark had been peeled away like a banana by a bear. It definitely made a curious sight. The time for photography was over and now it was time to hike out. We had a LONG way to go and not many more hours of daylight. The cumulative effects of the day were already wearing on me. After replentishing our water, we set out. One by one, we again passed milestones from earlier in the day.
Our last break was the final bridge across the Carbon River, 2 miles from the trailhead. I felt completely spent but light was fading like sand through an hourglass. I had given a time estimate to my girlfriend about when we would be done and I knew that we would be off- A LOT. One last time, we stood up and plowed onward. At this stage of fatigue, auto-pilot mentality clicks in. The scenery fades away and my only focus is on my footing to prevent a trip or stumble. The closer we got to the trailhead, the darker the forested sections of trail got.
We finally passed the turnoff for Ipsut Creek and I knew we were finally down with the hike. Of course, we still had 5 miles of road to navigate in the dark. Both of us came prepared with headlamps so we did the best we could. There is nothing like absolute pitch black darkness and pale LED light to make you unsure of how to ride a bike. I think I would have felt safer with training wheels! Within a short distance away from the campground, I stopped abruptly and promptly fell over. I heard a sickening sound which I assumed was a piece of camera gear breaking.
No time to check- have to keep moving. The undamaged portions of the road went by as smoothly as could be expected. The occasional section of sand and cobble would instill fear and several near misses were averted. The whole dark bicycle ride out was somewhat of a surreal experience. We rode wobbly side by side to combine the lighting of our headlamps. The huge old growth trees in the peripheral of my vision looked like fog and the whole road ahead seemed to be a featureless landscape.
After making our way through the last damaged section of road (first on the way in), we were able to comfortably coast our way back to the ranger station and my truck. Eventually, the reflectors on the access gate came into view and we were back at my truck. Time? 10pm on the nose. A very, very long day had finally come to an end without any severe injuries. Granted, I could barely walk and I was 3 hours over the time I said I would be done hiking but still a successful day.
Reaching Moraine Park has always been a serious effort and with the road’s demise it has become even more so. Three backcountry camps lie within 4 miles of Moraine Park so I would wholeheartedly recommend a visit to anyone.
While Razor Hone Creek thwarted me yet again (there’s a double waterfall drop I’ve been eyeing but it’s dangerous to access), I was fortunate enough to enjoy some of the beautiful weather around the Mount Baker Ski Area and photograph some of the wild cloud formations that where trailing all around Mount Shuksan. It was a glorious bluebird type of day with unusually light crowds within the ski area. Over the course of just a couple hours, the constantly changing clouds kept creating dramatic views of Mount Shuksan.
I took about 20 or so shots of the scene but after reviewing the shots I realized that the photos would be better suited for conversion to black & white. The photos are fairly monochromatic to begin with with shades of blue dominating. The sunshine was also casting some dramatic shadows across the steep slopes of Mount Shuksan. A black & white conversion would help accentuate these features and increase the overall “power” of the scene.
During my early days of processing my photos, I used Photoshop Elements to perform my black & white conversions. The Elements version I’m familiar with (Version 6) provided a few quick settings for certain styles/looks and then a couple sliders to tweak them as desired. All along I knew that Photoshop CS was supposed to be a more powerful tool for black & white conversion. Once I finally stepped up to the full version of CS5, I found the black & white conversion process a bit daunting. Gone were the presets that I could start with and, in their place, were a number of sliders which at times seemed to do nothing!
There had to be some better way to do this and so I decided to download the trial version of Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro. This program is really an add-on to Photoshop CS (or Elements) and it’s sole purpose is to convert photos to black & white while providing the most flexibility in an easy to use manner. It’s not cheap (currently $180 but there are a few discount codes you can get from the web) but it gets high praise for the job it does.
Once you fire up the filter, the Nik Software dialog loads your photo (AND respects the Smart Layer functionality of CS!) along with a few dozen presets that you can chose to start your conversion with. Now, truth be told, a number of the filters don’t seem terribly useful (there are several sepia type filters based on different color tints for example). After playing with the options, I kept gravitating towards the “High Structure” style preset.
I found that the High Structure preset did a great job and I didn’t feel the need to make any drastic changes. There were some additional options such as simulating a variety of black & white film grains (I tended to like the Kodak 100 TMAX Pro) but I ultimately decided NOT to use one of these filters because it added TOO much grain for these particular images. Turns out that the only adjustment I felt I needed to make was to reign in the highlights just a little bit for one particular photo to prevent them from washing out.
Despite the impressive power and ease at which you can convert your photos, I’ve had a few glitches that I have yet to explain while using Silver Efex Pro, namely a cryptic error message telling me that the product had failed. This would typically happen when the filter dialog was loading or when I was ready to apply the filter. There was also a time when the dialog wouldn’t open but it added the filter into the list of layers in CS5. I frankly don’t know what caused this but usually a restart of CS5 would suffice. I will be purchasing a copy of Silver Efex Pro (a new version is just about to ship) and I just hope that these little quirky issues don’t follow me with the full version.
Anyways, here are the photos I chose to convert to black & white:
