Stream

Underwater tests

Oct 02

This past weekend I set out to test a few photographic ideas. One such idea I’ve been thinking about is photographing spawning salmon. I think I was partly inspired by some of the work that Seattle photographer Jon Cornforth has done in the past along these lines (link here and here). Now, I’m primarily a landscape photographer so when my thoughts stray into “specialty” areas of photography, I tend to think about how I can accomplish the same goal in a low frills manner. In the example photos taken by Jon, he’s using a $2,000 protective housing and placing his camera down in the water. I can’t possibly justify spending that much on a housing for something I’m going to do rarely.

So how else am I supposed to get these kind of pictures? Would you believe a $15 aquarium?

Well….that’s my bright idea, and that’s what I was trying out this past weekend. I started with a 10 gallon glass aquarium that I picked up at a local pet store for $15. The next thing I picked up was a photo bean bag like this one sold on Amazon for $28. A little steep price wise but I’ll probably be able to utilize this for other things in the future. Another piece to the puzzle is something I already had- a wireless remote for my shutter. The one I’m using is one of those Chinese specials you find on eBay (just search for “wireless remote”). Mine was $15 and it’s supposed to have an effective range of 100 feet which is PLENTY of distance for this endeavor.

So that’s the basic list of items I purchased for this. In terms of my camera, I used my 12-24mm wide angle at 12mm with a circular polarizer to help eliminate any reflections off of the aquarium’s glass. As for a location, I chose a side channel of the North Fork Skykomish River, up valley from the town of Index. The lack of any rain over the last 2 months has dropped the water levels quite a bit. This fact meant that there weren’t any spawning salmon to photograph right now. It did, however, provide some stable conditions for my experimentation.

The first thing I learned was that an aquarium without any weight in it will float. I grabbed a couple pieces of river rock which helped add some weight and finally allowed the aquarium to sink down into the water. It wasn’t too difficult to level the camera thanks to the bean bag and my flash hot shoe bubble level. Setting a focus is a different matter. Attempting to select a focus point & then autofocusing just doesn’t work. Before I head out to attempt this again, I’m going to experiment with close range focusing to give me a better idea of where focus should line up on my lenses indicators.

I fumbled around in the main part of the side channel, trying to compose a shot which was roughly 60% underwater / 40% above water. The scene underwater is naturally darker and sunlight reflecting off the forest’s canopy made for an extreme contrast. The best way to combat this would be to use a graduated ND filter. Unfortunately, space inside the aquarium was limited so fitting a filter holder for my 4×6 ND filters would have been tough (assuming I had one of the Z Pro sized filter holders which I don’t). Eventually I settled in to a backwater side channel to the side channel which I believe will have spawning fish when the river levels rise.

I was taking test shots and finally getting a handle on things when I realized that there were small salmon fry swimming around in front of me. For a while, I stood back and stared intently at the frys as they swam around. Every time one would happen to cross through my framed area, I would click my remote to take a picture. I knew I would have to freeze the motion of the frys so finding the right settings were a bit of a chore. I bumped my ISO up to 1600, my aperature to F7.1, and my shutter speed to about 1/20th of a second. My RAW files were a bit on the dark side but the huge dynamic range of my Pentax K-5 allowed me to brighten up my photos back home in Photoshop. I felt pretty good and finally packed it in after about a half hour of test shots.

Once I got home, I noticed some additional things I need to correct before I try this again. First, a thin layer of foam would be a good thing to have to protect the glass bottom from any weight you put into the aquarium (in my case, river rock). Second, I also need to pick up some black fabric to drape over my weighted bottom and the glass side of the aquarium behind the camera. In my shots with the small frys, you can just make out the reflection of my wireless remove in the upper right corner. In the above/below water shot, you can also see the reflection of a white-ish river rock. Whoops! Finally, I need to be a little more conscious about water drops on the outside of the aquarium glass. I didn’t pay attention to that and the end result looks like water drops on the lens. I’m encouraged by my initial tests and will hopefully have some more to share in the coming weeks when the salmon start returning!

To close off this post, I want to include a couple photos I was fortunate enough to take of a bobcat (Lynx rufus) I happened to stumble upon while hiking in the hills above Sultan earlier that same day. I turned the corner of this logging road and the bobcat was loping up the road 20 yards in front of me. I instantly froze but the cat sensed my presence fairly quickly. Instead of running off, it decided to sit down in the middle of the road and watch me. I quickly took an iPhone photo. It still sat there. While talking out loud to the bobcat, I slowly put down my backpack and fished out my camera and zoom lens (it never fails that you will ALWAYS have a wide angle mounted when you need a zoom and vice versa).

The bobcat laid down and seemed to take a quick cat nap (pun intended). I took more photos, trying to use my treking poles as a crude monopod. I moved up slowly a couple yards. The bobcat moved back a couple yards and sat down again. This time I extracted my tripod and set it up. By now the bobcat was losing interest in me and turned and continued to walk slowly up the road. I snapped a few more shots while it eventually stopped and sat down at a bend in the road. I tried to slowly get closer but the bobcat finally turned the corner and disappeared. A cool experience and a complete accident! This PDF will give you a nice primer about bobcats.

Snoqualmie, I Hardly Know Thee

Jun 19

I don’t like crowds when I’m outdoors so making the decision to visit someplace notorious for crowds is crazy for me. The I-90 corridor up to Snoqualmie Pass is the place where ALLLLL of Seattle decides to go to when they want to go for a hike. That explains why I’ve only done one hike in the 13 years that I’ve lived in Washington. So what would lure me back? Franklin Falls.

I’ve been searching for locations to match an idea I have and Franklin Falls fit the bill. Franklin Falls is accessed by the ever popular Denny Creek trailhead and it is EXTREMELY popular. It’s only a mile from the trailhead to the falls but it turns out that you can also get there much quicker via a side trail off of a switchback of Forest Service Rd 58. Crazy simple!

Anyways, Saturday was a cloudy day with showers coming so it was a perfect day to make a first visit. Lots of Trillium were in bloom in the area and there were still pockets of snow despite a modest elevation of 2700 feet. Spring melt is underway and the falls were quite full. The spray from the falls filled the amphitheater and quite a ways downstream as well. Much like my experiences at Tamanawas Falls on Mount Hood, I had to constantly dry my lens of water drops before every photo. I was only taking some test photos so we only spent about a half hour at the falls. Almost on cue, the horde of visitors began!

Within 10 minutes, 15 people appeared so it was time to go. We continued up Road 58 towards the pass to visit another unnamed waterfall near Alpental. It’s similar to one located at the Deception Falls picnic area. Here, though, the South Fork Snoqualmie River drops and crashes into a rock wall and then spins 180 degrees before continuing downstream. It’s tough to shoot becase some of the I-90 structural elements can sneak into your frame.

Next up was a 0.25 mile stretch of the river downstream of this waterfall. It’s a little ways down and away from the road but we had some glimpses that piqued our interest. There was a little more snow in the trees here so we had to be careful about collapsing undercut snowbanks. As it turned out, this stretch of river has several really interesting features. Despite being so close to the westbound lanes of I-90 (literally below them), you couldn’t hear the traffic. The looming rain finally made its appearance and that signaled that it was time to move on again.

The last location in this part of the valley I wanted to check out was the Ashael Curtis Nature Trail. It’s your typical short loop trail through a forest with some old growth-esque sized trees (but still held much evidence of prior logging including springboard notches on a stump). I don’t know the history of this particular nature trail but it does appear as though it has been hammered by storms. There’s lots of windfall debris all over the place which made things a little too difficult to come up with good compositions. The large trees are still worth visiting, though!

To finish off the day, we headed west back towards North Bend and took Exit 38 to go check out Weeks Falls in Olallie State Park. The falls are wedged between a dam upstream and a hydroelectric spillway on the downstream end. I imagine that the falls were probably more aesthetic before humans made “improvements.” The advection fog which we observed forming over the South Fork Snoqualmie River in the Denny Creek area was now making its appearance at the top of Weeks Falls.

Compositions are tough here so I focused on more intimate scenes. After a little while, full fledged rain began and it was time to call it a day. It was only a recon outing but I’m definitely excited about what I found. I’ll have more to share from this area in the future.

Columbia Gorge 2012

Jun 08

Mid to late May is the time for my annual trip south to the Columbia River Gorge and Mount Hood area. It’s usually a jam packed few days so this year I’m going to group some like minded outings together. This year my Gorge visits were limited to Oneonta Gorge and Elowah / Upper McChord Falls, both of which were first visits for me. I was very fortunate to have both locations all to myself!

…and on a much rainier day, here are some photos from the Elowah Falls area-

Bagley Creek Wandering

Mar 15

Winter continues to churn through the Pacific Northwest. The calls for potentially low snow levels sent me finally back up the North Fork Nooksack River in search of winter scenes of Nooksack Falls and Bagley Creek. The snow continues to pile up at Mount Baker where the base depth has passed the 250″ mark. It’s impressive- but that snowfall hasn’t accumulated to the same degree at lower elevation. I was a bit disappointed to discover that there was a minimal snowpack at the Wells Creek Road turnoff for Nooksack Falls. Definitely not enough for the photo of Nooksack Falls I have been envisioning!

Instead, I drove on to the Salmon Ridge Sno-Park, where my goal was to cross country ski up to Bagley Creek. For me, it’s a bit of a hidden gem, well within earshot of the busy Mount Baker Highway. It’s beautiful in summer, but not as familiar to me during winter. Although I’ve spent over a decade driving up to the Mount Baker Ski area for turns, I only started cross country skiing last winter. As a snowboarder, the independent suspension nature of skis has me wavering like a drunk but I’ve been getting the hang of it. Slowly.

One of the great things about the Salmon Ridge Sno-Park (and cross country skiing for that matter) is that you don’t have to endure hordes of people. It’s definitely an activity that allows you to slow down and connect with nature. There were only two other cars in the large parking lot when I arrived that afternoon. Maybe it was the weather- at 2,000 feet, the incoming storm was offering up alternating cycles of light rain & then snow. From the parking lot, the trail to Bagley Creek utilizes a Forest Service road which parallels the river.

It only gains a few hundred feet over 2ish miles so it’s not a bad option for beginners. Bagley Creek passed underneath the road via a fair sized bridge. It’s confluence with the North Fork Nooksack it’s only a few hundred yards downstream of the bridge. Upstream of this bridge, but below the Mount Baker Highway, lies a fascinating stretch of creek with waterfalls of varying heights and several stretches with unique character.

Since my last visit well over a year ago, some changes have occurred. Just a short distance upstream of the bridge, a large log has beached itself on a rock formation and another log has fallen across the creek some 30 feet up in the air. After taking some photos at the bridge, I wallowed off trail in the deep, unconsolidated snow alongside the creek trying to make my way to a cliff located about 50 yards off the road. On my summertime visit, I waded upstream while my friend found this high perch along the edge of a circular amphitheater.

It was tough going but I reached the edge of the cliff. From this spot, I could see the narrow slot canyon which prevented me from traveling further upstream back in the summer. As I took various photos, the weather was in flux from light sprinkles, to sun breaks (with sprinkles, of course). I packed up and headed back to my skis located back on the road. I wanted to leave myself with a little bit of time to photograph a stretch of the river back closer to the trailhead. I can ski flat land and uphill without too much difficulty but going downhill still terrifies me!

I was proud of myself as I managed to make it down all the hilly stretches with a healthy dose of pizza and french fry. At the base of the last hill back near the trailhead, I wandered off towards the river to check things out. By now, it was almost 3pm and the incoming storm was settling into the mountains. After a few minutes, it began to snow a few large flakes. After setting up my camera, conditions change for the worse. The winds really picked up and the snow was falling sideways and I felt like I was inside a snow globe.

My black backpack quickly turned white and I knew it was time to make haste back to my truck. I made my way back as quickly as I could to my truck and dumped my gear inside. The snowfall rate maintained a furious pace as I joined the parade of cars coming down the mountain from the ski area. The road had not been plowed for a while and it was definitely accumulating on the road. At this time of day, all the traffic heading back to Glacier keeps a couple snowfree ruts on the highway but the eastbound lane was a pristine white color. Thankfully, level heads were present and speeds were down to 35-40mph.

It snowed all the way back to Glacier where it finally changed permanently over to rain. Ironically, had this weather greeted me on my trip up to the mountains, I would have stopped off at Nooksack Falls for my photo! Hopefully there will be another opportunity this winter..

The End of Fall 2011

Nov 02

Based on last week, I knew peak color was probably past but I decided to head up the Highway 2 corridor to look for any lagging examples of color. The Miller River drainage was the destination this time since I’ve never visited it before. Below the West Fork / East Fork convergence, the valley is pretty much devoid of any color. Most leaves have fallen already. The West Fork Miller looks fabulous but is no longer drivable so I’ll have to hike it some other time.

The Miller River Road does continue up the East Fork valley pretty much all the way to the Lake Dorothy trailhead. Unlike the Money Creek valley, the road strays a little too far away from the river at times so scouting for scenes to photo take some work. The first bridge over the East Fork is a pretty neat area so we spent some time exploring both the upstream and downstream reaches.

Above this bridge, there isn’t much to see for a mile or too until the Great Falls Creek area where there was a great display of fall color across the valley from the road. There are two waterfalls visible from this point of the road- Great Falls and a lesser, unnamed one a little further to the south. By this time of the day, the sunbreaks were becoming a bit more common. At the same time, clouds were still hugging the upper slopes of Cascade Mountain which created some great drama in the vicinity of that second waterfall.

Just a couple hundred yards before the Lake Dorothy trailhead, the river winds its way through a tight, slot type canyon. The entrance to this stretch of the river is a large talus / scree type slope with large mossy boulders. A few of them also had colorful lichen as well..

After a couple quick shots of these two snags located near the trailhead, he loaded back up and made a beeline back down to Highway 2 and then over to the Beckler River drainage. Again, conditions were largely spent out with a few solitary stretches of fading color. He headed north up to Jack Pass to investigate one of the side roads at the pass. Last year, a tremendous windfall blocked the road. The road was clear this time so we were able to keep going. This particular road doesn’t go anywhere in particular but it does afford you a great view down into the North Fork Skykomish River valley.

This week, the snow level is going to finally dip down to below 3,000 feet so winter is only a few weeks away. That sure was a quick fall!

Ruckel and Gorton Creek

Jun 11

Last week I made my annual pilgrimage south to the Columbia River Gorge and Mount Hood area of Oregon. I don’t need to spend a lot of time describing and praising this area- it has a reputation and a well deserved one for its amazing scenery. Despite holding out a few extra weeks this year, the Dog Mountain Balsamroot blooms just weren’t going to coincide with my visit. Rain and a much delayed spring convinced me to seek other destinations.

This year I finally had nice, cloudy skies (yes- I said it) so I ended up returning to Ruckel Creek. There is a trail that begins alongside the creek but it quickly climbs away from the creek. This leaves any exploration as off trail bushwhacking. It’s actually not that bad so long as you don’t mind getting your feet a little wet (or just wear some 16″ rubber boots). My first visit here was 2 years ago and on that day, I had lot of sunshine. I also did not have much time so my exploration was cut short.

Since this was somewhat of a last minute decision, I neglected to do additional research before heading down. My fuzzy memory was telling me that there should be another waterfall upstream a bit. Technically, I wasn’t wrong but it turns out that it’s much further upstream and I probably was expecting. Nonetheless, I had DRY weather and nice, even lighting so you can’t ask for much more!

I pushed upstream further but I saw no signs of a waterfall. I decided to stop at this particular spot where the creek had a nice sweeping arc around a moss covered log jam. It was a bit of a challenge to capture some of these scenes because I felt they needed a higher, downward looking perspective. In order to accomplish this, I had to stand up on logs or the stream bank and set up my tripod with the legs closer together (which isn’t completely stable)…

Once I got back to my truck at the Eagle Creek trailhead, I still had some time left in the late afternoon. I decided to head a little further east to something that’s been on my list for a few years but I’ve never been able to fit it in: Gorton Creek Falls. Starting at the Wyeth Campground, most of the hike to the 80 foot waterfall is pretty straightforward along an old roadbed. The last 100 yards require a lot of climbing up, around, and over boulders and stream bank along the left side of Gorton Creek to reach the base of the falls. I took my climb during the scramble part and did not find it too difficult. I would recommend caution because a slip a few locations would cause an injury of some sort and create a situation where rescue personnel might be needed to carry a person out. In a few minutes, I was at the base of the falls and enjoying the whole scene all to myself.

Top Ten of 2010

Dec 12

My laptop is finally repaired so it’s time to look back at 2010 and pick out my ten favorite photos from the year. Ok, well, make that ten PLUS 2 because it’s always hard to limit it to just ten! I don’t know how many photos I’ve taken during the last 12 months but about 450 photos have found their way here onto my blog. From that, I chose about 100 photos to add to the galleries of my website. To me, that means it was a pretty good year!

Looking at the photos I’ve selected for this year in review, water seemed to be a popular subject of mine. The weather this summer wasn’t very good (as evidenced by the wildflower season at Mount Rainier National Park) so a number of my trips were confined to the streams and waterfalls in the forests. And so……the top ten in no particular order:

1.) “Nooksack Falls in Summer- North Fork Nooksack River Valley”

A definite favorite since I finally achieved a shot I had previously visualized. I had been looking for a different view of the falls and a higher, downward perspective seemed to fit the bill. The problem is that there isn’t a natural high viewpoint so I used a 6′ ladder to get this perspective.