Winter

Trying for the Trifecta

Nov 12

This past weekend I attempted a photographic trifecta-

Scout a location for a possible wintertime shot
Visit the rivers again to check for salmon; and
Shoot sunset from Green Mountain

Forecasts called for good conditions complete with morning fog and sunshine for the rest of the day. Could I be so lucky? Well…..

The morning definitely brought the fog, which would add a noteworthy element to even my test shots. The problem for me was that the fog / low clouds were hugging the sides of the Skykomish River valley and the photo I’ve visualized shoots across the valley. Being the first stop of the day, we decided that we could just switch the order of our visits and come back later in the morning, presumably when the sun would burn off some of the fog. Off we went to the town of Index!

For several weeks now, I’ve been itching to photograph the returning salmon. I hoped a third return visit would be the trick. Nope. Unlike my last visit, this side channel to the North Fork Skykomish River was no longer running at high levels. The only problem was that there still were no salmon to be seen! My friend hadn’t been up here to see the damaged road lately so we hung out and took more photos. It’s amazing to see the power of nature. Just within the last 5-6 weeks, this scene has kept changing.

Valley clouds were still fairly persistent so on our way back to town, I head a few miles east of Index to a pullout along Highway 2 with a nice view of Mount Index and Philadelphia Mountain. The clouds were drifting in front and all around the mountains so the view in front of us was constantly changing. It was just about noon so on our way back through Startup, we stopped off for lunch at the Alpen Drive-Inn. Great burgers and shakes. Highly recommended!

We enjoyed lunch so much that lethargy set in. The cloud cover had changed very little from this morning so it was pretty obvious that there would be little to gain from a return visit to our first stop. There was only one place left to go- Green Mountain.

Snohomish County is home to at least a couple geographic features with the name Green Mountain. The first Green Mountain lies within the Glacier Peak Wilderness, about 10 miles north-northwest of Glacier Peak. The second Green Mountain (and our destination) is located above the small town of Verlot, east of Granite Falls. It’s probably more appropriate to refer to it as a ridge but it does have two small “peaks” on either end of the ridge. It rises to an elevation of 4,000 feet and marks the divide between the South Fork of Canyon Creek to the north and the South Fork Stillaguamish River to the south.

I’ve studied the ridge for a while now in Google Earth and it appeared to offer a closer view of Three Fingers with easy road access. It’s taken a while to act upon my hunch because the Forest Service roads leading up to the ridge have been inaccessible for a few years. I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist but it almost seems like the Forest Service doesn’t want people up in this overall area. For two years, the primary Forest Service road had been closed to due culvert replacements and other repairs. This summer, a logging sale closed the road for the entire summer. Now, as winter descends on the mountains, the road was finally “open.”

Now, after finally driving the road, maybe I know why the Forest Service might be trying to exclude access to people. Accessing the ridge is accomplished using a spur road (Road 4110) off of the road leading up to the trailhead for Goat Flats (Road 41). Green Mountain has no official trails or attractions so I was quite surprised by the number of people we encountered on the ridge. At almost every nook along the road, we drove past people shooting targets. Apparently it’s legal but still distasteful to come across.

The road up to the ridge top is pretty battered with large potholes, most you can partially avoid but more than once you just have to choose your poison and plow on. We eventually turned the corner for the 2 mile traverse across the ridge towards the east summit. At this point, we reached 3,000 feet and had not hit snow yet. This especially came as a relief since it snowed overnight in pockets across the Skykomish River valley. Half way across the ridge, the snow appeared but didn’t prevent us from continuing. The snow wasn’t deep and several other vehicles had made the drive creating ruts in the snow.

The final push to the summit is accessed by a 0.6 mile long spur road. We reached that junction and I decided that we’d make the final distance on foot since the snow was getting more compacted and icy. The east summit of Green Mountain was cleared out for installation of a radio repeater. Despite being mostly clearcut, I was disappointed to see a stand of trees still existed to the north which eliminated the direct view of Three Fingers I had hoped for. I poked around the far margin of the clearcut and found a slight window in the forest which did give me that view I had been hoping for.

While we enjoyed direct sunshine on the summit, Three Fingers itself was still shaded and surrounded by storm clouds. The ridges to our east, however, were starting to get great sidelighting and offered some nice views of Liberty Mountain and Fletcher Peak. I quickly returned to the main landing on the summit to take advantage of the conditions. Slowly, direct sunlight was beginning to shine on Three Finger’s slopes and we decided to head back to my small forest window to set up.

Above and behind us, the clouds were starting to light up with the colors of sunset. Three Fingers enjoyed some warming light but it was clear that this was as good as this evening was going to get. We packed up and headed back to the road near the landing. Through the trees on the summit’s southwestern flanks, the setting sun provided some nice color and clouds. To our southeast, we could see valley fog forming far below us. The snowy road conditions were on my mind so we didn’t linger too long.

Thankfully, the drive out was without incident. I decided to stop one last time at a viewpoint along the road to take some final shots of the Puget Sound and Mount Pilchuck under starry skies. Another day ended completely opposite of the way I had intended. That said, it was still a pretty good day!

White Salmon

May 09

Five weekends in a row of sunshine? Amazing. Temperatures were flirting with 70 degrees but I still had winter somewhat on the brain. Due to our normally abundant snowpack, I wanted to scout out a “pseudo-winter” shot I’ve been visualizing for a while. It centers around the White Salmon Creek, which flows away from the sheer cliff face of Mount Shuksan’s northwest face. There’s a certain level of commitment to my vision so I really wanted to be sure of its possibilities before attempting it.

White Salmon Creek lies outside the Mount Baker Ski Area, and it’s that ski area that provides the best and most direct access. The ski lifts stopped running at the end of April so the best time to make an attempt is now. Winter snowpack is still close to maximum and the travel is much easier (White Salmon Creek has a reputation for Sitka Alder thickets which abuse anyone who dares travel through them).

It’s only 0.75 miles from the White Salmon Day Lodge to the base of Chair 8 and under bright, cloudless skies it was a pleasant 30 minute snowshoe hike. Much to my surprise, White Salmon Creek in the valley below me was buried under deep snows. Hmm. So much for my plans. On some level I was a bit relieved to see this. The sun was BAKING the snow and I know I would have had quite an ordeal to posthole back out of the valley.

It was still a fantastic day so I set up my tripod and scoped out Mount Shuksan. On my hike in, I was following a pair of skin tracks which continued on towards Shuksan. High above on the mountain’s slopes, I could see their skin track uphill and graceful figure-8 turns from their descent. I had come this far, lugging my snowboard, so it was time to make it worth my while. I double-backed to the base of Chair 8 and proceeded to hike up towards the top of Chair 8.

Since the ski area’s closure, the snow has continued to fall. In fact, enough snow has fallen to freshen up every slope within the ski area. Moguls, ruts, mounds…all gone. My visit also was the first in a quite a while to this part of the ski area. As I plodded along, I looked back at my progress and my snowshoe tracks were the only tracks in sight. For a few hours, the ski area was all mine.

The higher I progressed, the deeper the snow got. My trekking poles would easily sink into the snow at least a foot and my snowshoes were slogging through 4 inches of sun crafted corn. My goal was to reach the top of Chair 8 but time was running out for me on this day. I settled for a spot where Chair 5 spills out and joins Chair 8’s traffic. Not the top but still over a mile long descent and 1,000 vertical feet. A fabulous day in the mountains and another reminder of how blessed I am to live here!

Big Four Mountain

Apr 25

Spring means warmer temperatures. And warmer temperatures mean avalanches! This is what prompted me to make a trip up to Big Four Mountain this past weekend. Tucked in the heart of the North Central Cascade Mountain Range, the mountain features an impressive 4,000 foot vertical face on the mountain’s north side. The view is amazing, and in the early 1920s, one of the early industry magnates from Everett thought it would make a great location for a hotel. The Big Four Inn was constructed near the base of the mountain, burned down in 1949, and was never rebuilt. Today, the site of the inn has become a “picnic” area and the only remnant of the inn is the fireplace which still stands in a large open field. For more info about the inn and its history, click here.

The mountain and inn site are located about 25 miles east of Granite Falls and accessed via the Mountain Loop Highway. During winter, the road is closed and gated at Deer Creek (about 2 miles shy of the site). We weren’t sure what to expect for travel conditions since the last report was by the Forest Service almost 2 weeks ago. Optimistically, we brought some cross country skis hoping for a nice glide out and back. As I mentioned a few posts ago, the low elevation snowpack has been melting quick. Here on the Mountain Loop Highway, we experienced the same thing and had to carry our skies a couple times during the initial part of our trip out.

The skies were clear, the sun was out, and it was getting warm. When we arrived at the picnic area, we had the whole place to ourselves. I decided to set up in the shade of the old fireplace. I spent my time taking several frames for some potential panoramic photos of the face before turning to my telephoto lens and some more intimate scenes of the mountain. We had hoped to witness some nice sized avalanches off the mountain; in reality, it looked like we might have been a week or two late for that. With time, we started to hear cracks and rumbling in the general vicinity of where we were at.

We did have a time constraint so we packed up and headed up the trail towards the Ice Caves viewpoint, which is located near the base of the mountain. The ice caves are a summertime phenomena in which melting snow water hollows out the large piles of avalanche snow that accumulate at the base of the mountain. Caves form and last throughout the summer due to the shade afforded by the mountain. The caves are dangerous and fatalities do happen; the most recent death was a young girl in 2010. This link has a lot of nice old photos of the ice caves over time as well as the Big Four Inn. Once at the viewpoint, our time was limited, and we left within ten minutes. The viewpoint is much too close to the mountain for photography (and safety for that matter!).

I was actually a bit eager to head back to a particular spot back out along the highway, about a half mile before the picnic area. Here, the South Fork Stillaguamish River makes a sweeping turn in the foreground with Big Four in the background. The sun wasn’t overhead but wasn’t too far from it. I had to use my graduated neutral density filter technique to slow down my exposure times. The landscape version seemed to work out well but the portrait version had a weird artifact in the lower right corner where the sun reflected on the river’s surface. I don’t know if it was a reflection off one of my ND Grad filters but I was able to correct this in Photoshop with some dodging and burning.

The Elusive Moon

Apr 10

This past weekend brought the sun-starved Northwest a magnificent weekend. Lot’s of sun and warm (ok, spring-like) temperatures. Hallelujah! How did I celebrate this momentous weekend? By visiting the deep winter snowpack, of course. To be more specific, I wanted to shoot sunset from Artist Point. I’ve meant to do it all winter but things just haven’t come together like this weekend. As luck would have it, a full moon would also be rising after sunset in the vicinity of Mount Shuksan. Winning!

I grabbed a friend and we made our way up to the Mount Baker Ski Area. I always have the best plans in mind when I start but good ‘ole Murphy makes an appearance. The hike from the ski area parking lot up to Artist Point takes me a little more than an hour, and another half hour to make it out to Huntoon Point. Our start time of 6:15pm didn’t bode well (sunset was at 7:50pm). At 7:10pm, we were about halfway up the last steep pitch below the Artist Point. The light was entering the “magic hour” but we clearly weren’t where we had hoped to be.

After some debate, we decided to settle down nearby so we didn’t miss any photo opportunities. While we couldn’t get a view of Mount Baker, we still had a great view of Mount Shuksan as well as the many peaks to the north and northwest. The high slopes of Mount Shuksan absorbed some nice, warm orange light before it quietly faded into the coming night. Some occasional winds chilled us to the core and I began to evaluate the second component of our evening- moonrise. Apparently I misread my moonrise app and thought moonrise was at 9:12pm (roughly an hour wait). When I checked the time again, it was 9:42pm.

Neither of us relished the idea of waiting close to 90 minutes up here for the moon to rise so we decided on Plan B. It was too dangerous to (cross county) ski back down to the parking lot so we walked out instead. My friend originally thought we should take our moonrise photos from Picture Lake buuutttt the 25 foot high snowbanks surrounding the lake convinced him otherwise. I knew of a particular turnout along the highway between the lower and upper lodge which has a nice full view of Mount Shuksan so that’s where we headed.

I stamped out a platform in the roadside snowbank and set up my camera. In addition to moonrise shots, I wanted to get a photo of the stars above the mountain so that’s what I worked on. One common technique is to take two photos, one photo taken with a high ISO to capture the stars in the sky and then a second photo at low ISO to capture your foreground of interest. The two different photos are then blended together in Photoshop to come up with your finished photo. In order to keep the stars “stationary” in your photos, the exposure times have to be no more than 20-30 seconds. The high ISO (1600 and above) and a wide open aperature of F2.8 is what makes this happen.

Provided you have a newer camera, this is the easy part! The harder part, at least for me, is determining the length of exposure for the foreground part of the photo. Using an ISO like 100 requires a lengthy exposure time to sufficiently expose the scene. I haven’t practiced night sky photography enough so I have to experiment to get things right. Many cameras have a “feature” built into them to reduce noise on long exposures. This is accomplished by taking a second photo after your first photo for the same length of time, but as a black image. The theory is that any noise becomes apparent and the camera can then subtract that from the first image taken.

The problem with long exposure noise reduction is that for a 4 minute exposure, you have to wait another 4 minutes for the black reference image to be taken. This makes it difficult to hone in a proper exposure through trial and error. Most cameras allow you to disable the noise reduction feature so this is recommended since you can do a better job using Adobe Camera Raw and third party plugins within Photoshop. I experimented for about an hour but it was clear the moon wasn’t going to crest above Mount Shuksan anytime soon due to a low trajectory. We still had close to a 3 hour drive home so we hurried to pack up and get going. After dropping off my friend, I finally got home at close to 2am.

I wasn’t all that excited at the time about the photos I shot but I changed my tune as I spent time processing them. It turned out to be a great caper on the day.

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..

Winter Foss

Feb 21

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:

Tamanawas and Mount Hood

Jun 20

After a day in the Gorge at Ruckel and Gorton Creeks, I spent the following day traveling around Mount Hood. My first destination was Tamanawas Falls which has been on my list for a year or two. Located on the east side of Mount Hood, the falls are an impressive 90 feet tall and plunge over a volcanic rock outcrop. The falls are also situated in a way that allows you to get behind them so that opens up some other compositional opportunities.

The unsettled weather from the previous day continued into the next and I found myself in rain while the sun shined in Hood River. The trailhead for Tamanawas Falls is located right along Highway 35 south of Hood River along the banks of the Hood River. Several miles outside of town, you are treated to your first full view of Mount Hood. Upon my first view, I found that the mountain was acting as a dam for the nasty weather located on the west side. The eastern flanks were basking in sunshine while the divide was being overwhelmed by creeping clouds.

The sunshine continued all the way to the trailhead. It was clear that the weather wasn’t going to be optimal for waterfall photography. The hike is a pleasant 2+ miles through forest alongside Cold Springs Creek. The forest is unique in that it’s a bit more airy than a west-side forest but it still contains the high diversity of plants that you do find on the west. The cold spring was still thwarting plant leaf out but I still managed to see trillium, fairy slipper, Oregon anemone, and lots of few flowered solomon’s seal.

This hike was a really a great discovery. The creek alongside the trail has a number of interesting scenes that warrant further exploration. The falls are large enough to throw a significant amount of spray so taking a photo of the falls can be a challenge. I admit that I must have been a pretty humorous site huddled behind an umbrella on a sunny day waiting for a quick break in the spray to take my photos.

After some initial photos from further away, I hiked down to the edge of the creek for some closer shots. The spray was more intense so getting any shots required more gymnastics. I had a couple brief moments of balanced light as an occasional cloud would block the sun. My next stop was up behind the waterfall. I had to travel directly through the main brunt of spray but it was nice & dry once I got closer to the falls.

The area behind the falls is a large amphitheater thanks to a seemingly endless supply of calving columnar volcanic rock. It’s very cool to see- until you look up and see all the cracks in the rock high above you. I admit- I got spooked out about spending a lot of time underneath the overhanging rock. I took my shots and quickly moved back out into the safety of the open skies. After reaching the trailhead, I packed my gear and headed for a placed called Brooks Meadow.

Clued into this location by a Oregon blogger, I wanted to visit to check out this 35 acre meadow located at roughly 4,000 feet and a little bit further east of Mount Hood. Sadly, what wasn’t mentioned in the blog post about the meadow is that it is located within the City of Dalles watershed and access is prohibited. Bummer. Looked like a neat spot! All was not completely lost because I spied a location on my drive up that looked to have a nice, commanding view of Mount Hood and the East Fork Hood River valley.

The clouds continued to thicken over the west slopes of Mount Hood and were continuing to provide dramatic conditions. I spent a fair amount of watching and taking photos before I had to leave. My last stop of the day was on the west side of Mount Hood and deep into the center of the bad weather- Lost Creek. Located within the Sandy River drainage, I was attracted to Lost Creek due to some photos of the waterfall that is present about 2 miles up the trail which continues on to Burnt Lake.

If Tamanawas Falls was a highlight then Lost Creek was a lowlight and disappointment. The creek was within earshot but just a little too far away and too much effort to be able to quickly pop off the trail and look for photo ops. Now throw in the fact that very little of anything has leafed out to this point and you get a fairly boring, lonely hike in the forest. Once I got to the falls, the second disappointment set in. The viewpoint of the falls is horrible- you’re standing right above them and there’s no safe way to access a better vantage point.

Had I known any of this, I probably would have skipped this one. Live and learn! The one thing that was pretty amazing about this trail was the unbelievable abundance of trillium. It almost reminded me of some of the displays of avalanche lilies you see at Mount Rainier. I think I will return to explore the Sandy River valley a little more since the forests do seem interesting.

Now I Say Goodnight to Winter

Apr 26

An ironic title, given the title I used for last week’s posting. In fact, as I write this, the snow level will dip below 1,000 feet again. All this just days from the month of May! Nonetheless, winter for me isn’t over until the Mount Baker Ski Area season comes to an end and that finally happened this past weekend. A gorgeous day of sunshine was forecasted so sticking around after an afternoon on the slopes for sunset was in order. For once, the weather forecasts were actually correct and the day progressed with clear skies.

By 5pm, things around the ski area had quieted down and the last wave of snowshoers were returning from their day trips up to Artist Point. As they returned, I was geared up and on my way up to Artist Point. I attempted a sunset from up here last winter and had some keepers with great pink alpenglow colors on Mount Shuksan. One thing about that visit was that I felt rushed looking for compositions due to a short lead time into that sunset. This time, I made it up onto the ridge before the “golden hour” before sunset and that allowed me to traverse along Kulshan Ridge and check everything out.

I hike all the way out towards the high point of Huntoon Point. Before the last ascent, I noticed a snag sticking out of the snow. I immediately recognized it as a snag I had photographed last fall. I put together this side by side shot to give you an idea of how much snow really accumulates in this area:

The snag (the right-most one in the right-hand photo) was probably 12+ feet tall and is situated on a rise that is 8-10′ above the trail. Seeing only the top 3 feet of the snag leaves a whole lot of snow underneath my feet!

I hoped I could find a spot which would leave me with compositions of both Mount Shuksan and Mount Baker but found this a challenge. In winter, the ridge top takes on a convex shape due to wind transport of snow. The only trees that aren’t buried are located down off the crest on either side. This means that you have to physically relocate from one side to the other in order to shoot either mountain. Now throw in a slew of snowshoe tracks and ski traverses throughout your foreground and you have your work cut out for you!

My decision was to hunker down and face Mount Shuksan and the Swift Creek headwaters. Besides, I enjoyed the vast scene dropping away in front of me. As the minutes of the golden hour ticked away, the light began to change from white to golden light. I hoped and patiently waited for the peak colors to appear but they never graced the slopes of Mount Shuksan. A bit frustrating because I could see better light to the south towards Whitehorse Mountain and to the northwest towards American Border Peak!

As luck would have it, I stood up and looked back towards Table Mountain & Mount Baker and the sky had some nice orange color but was starting to fade. Before committing to my vantage point of Mount Shuksan, I had scouted a composition for Mount Baker. I further prepped the spot by stamping out a firm pad in the snow. Now that time was of the essence, I was able to quickly set up and not have my tripod legs sink down into the snow pack.

I snapped off a few shots and was quite surprised to see that my camera was able to contain the entire dynamic range within one exposure. My visit last winter was with my Pentax K10d whose sensor technology was three-ish years old. My current Pentax K-5 has some of the best dynamic range you can currently buy in the APS-C format and I’ve become a firm believer in this. I remembered another scene just on the other side of Huntoon Point so I humped all my gear as quickly as I could over to a half buried small snag.

After a few more quick snaps, any magic light that was left faded away. Donning my snowshoes once again, I quickly made my way back towards the buried Artist Point parking lot and the descent back down to Heather Meadows. So ended the day, and so ended another ski season and winter. Despite the obvious abundance of snow, it was personally a weird winter. Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by previous winters but the lack of a lower elevation snowpack was a real disappointment.

Along with a number of other locations, Nooksack Falls received intermittent snow which prevented me from getting the truly winter scene I’ve been hoping for. The Ohanepecosh River valley was virtually bone dry all the way up close to 2,000 feet. Closing the door on winter does open the door for summertime, wildflower meadows, and the beautiful high country. Granted, it will be a while before it will be accessible but the trip planning and research can begin now!

Winter won’t leave

Apr 22

Ever since the calender made it official and told us that it’s springtime, the weather has actually reverted back into winter. It’s the 21st of April and snow levels are STILL dipping down below 1000 feet and we haven’t had a single high temperature of 60 degrees. Thankfully I love winter! Coming into the weekend, I had some interest in shooting some scenes of skunk cabbage, one of the sure signs of spring.

As it turned out, the spots in the upper North Fork Nooksack River valley I was thinking of were still solid snow and not accessible. It’s sure been a jeckyl and hyde winter! Up at the Mount Baker Ski Area, crowds have dwindled down to mostly the diehards despite a substantial snowpack. For yet another weekend, the weather proved to be dramatic and offered periods of cloud, sun, and even light snow.

Maybe I never really paid attention before but this has been one heck of a winter for scenes of clouds lapping over and around the impressive summit of Mount Shuksan. The sun’s path through the sky also changes which now lights up the snowy slopes of the Shuksan Arm enough to add dramatic shadows. The spring sunshine really brings out all of the subtleties of these slopes. As you can see from some of these shots, they are reminiscent of the jagged mountains of Alaska, Karakoram, or Himalayas.

I kept seeking and taking shots while the light allowed for it. Of course, these photos were color but the interplay of clouds and mountain just beg for a black & white treatment. I recently received my copy of Nik’s Silver Efex 2 so I went for it. After finishing up at the ski area, I revisited Razor Hone Creek. Incredibly enough, the creek still lies buried underneath the multiple feet of snow that covered it last month. This spot usually has a nice 10 foot waterfall but not on this day:

Back down in the valley, I stopped along the river at a location I never realized existed (partly because it’s typically buried under more snow). It’s nothing more than an unofficial “party” spot along the river and is a pullout inside a grove of large old growth cedar trees. The river here is fairly calm with a few gravel bars. Lucky for me, the upstream valley slopes were still flocked with fresh snow:

I wanted to go scout some of the Middle Fork Nooksack but that ended up having to wait until another time…

Bigma Fun

Mar 26

I recently ended a long quest to pick up my “wildlife”zoom lens. As a brand, Pentax has not kept up with developing long length zooms (or primes for that matter) for use in wildlife photography. The Pentax branded lenses out there hail from the end of the days of film and the FA series of lenses. For modern times, options are really limited to a few offerings made by third party lens developer Sigma.

Sigma has been producing their 500mm (750mm equivalent with the Pentax 1.5x crop) beasts for a while and their offerings boil down to the 150-500 or the 50-500, which is affectionately known as the “Bigma.” Based on my research, the 50-500 was held in high regard for both it’s image quality and value. The current version of this lens retails for about $1600 in a Pentax mount and uses a HSM motor for focusing. Pentax’s own lenses with HSM motors have been suspect so I wanted to avoid this and target a used copy of the previous version of this lens (the 50-500mm F4-6.3 APO DG).

I thought I had scored a deal on one using eBay but the seller had mistakenly listed their Nikon mount lens as a Pentax mount.There’s nothing worse than opening a box and realizing the lens you see won’t fit your camera! Anyways, fast forward a few weeks and I found an individual selling their one year old Bigma for $825 on a Pentax forum. For an additional $50, the seller threw in a UV and Polarizer filter so I jumped on it.

I’m not really a wildlife photographer but occasionally find myself in those kind of situations. What’s more, there have been a few times when I knew that the extra length beyond my normal 300mm tele would have yielded a much stronger composition and image. I’ve wanted to take this lens out for a spin but haven’t had the time until a few days ago. I tried stopping by the Mosquito Lake Rd bridge over the North Fork Nooksack River but there wasn’t a single Bald Eagle to be found. If I was going to use this lens, it would have to be landscapes.

Before that, however, I stopped briefly at Nooksack Falls. I hoped to get a “wintertime” counterpart to my ladder-aided shot of Nooksack Falls from last summer. To my disappointment, much of the snow that fell a couple weeks ago has melted away..

After that, I continued up the Mount Baker Highway to hit the slopes at the Mount Baker Ski Area. The skies were partly sunny with clouds drifting in and around the neighboring peaks. Perfect for dramatic photos! I decided to only use the Bigma so all of these photos were taken with the 50-500 and a UV filter:

I’m really happy that I picked it up. It is a HEAVY lens and weighs in at over 4 pounds. I won’t be taking this out on a hike very much! Another caveat is its construction so you should be mindful of its use during extreme conditions. Living in the wet confines of the Pacific Northwest, I’m very accustomed to being out in rain and snow. My camera body has weather seals but my lenses do not. I have not found this to be an issue overall but the Bigma is put together slightly different.

Six screws retain the front most element of the lens to the rest of the extending body of the lens. Given our proclivity to rain, I’m real concerned about moisture penetrating this seal. Thankfully, I have found an inexpensive solution but I’ll blog about that after I have had some time with it in actual rainy conditions. My Manfrotto ballhead can support the weight of the lens and camera but it is sensitive to vibrations. Using the camera’s timer or better yet a remote control helps mitigate for this.

The extra 200mm at the extreme end of the range does make a difference. There’s been one composition out along the Shuksan Arm that I’ve wanted to shoot but have been unable to since it won’t fill the frame at 300mm. It now does and hopefully I’ll be able to shoot it before the end of ski season next month. Focusing is fairly fast and snappy but it has hunted for focus in low light and low contrast conditions. I’ve been able to work around this by either selecting a higher contrast focus point or by pointing the lens at a higher contrast portion of the scene and then recomposing for my original scene.

The Canon / Nikon versions of this lens have a few switches near the mount which control zoom creep and manual / auto focus. The Pentax version only has the zoom lock switch and I gave myself a heart attack as I unintentionally discovered that manual / auto focus is controlled by a push/pull of the focusing ring. I thought I had broken the lens!

My last comment is about the lens hood, which requires some consideration. The horizontal petals almost half the depth of the vertical petals, presumably to avoid appearing in the frame at 50mm. My very first attempt using this lens was at a local estuary wetland during a windy rain. Although I was perpendicular to the wind, it was blowing water droplets in and onto the front of the lens. This is something I have not encountered with my Pentax DA55-300 which uses a lens hood with a uniform, deep length. This isn’t calamity by any stretch but I think folks should be aware of such things. Sometimes the photos we take can’t be duplicated so I would hate to loose a photo because I didn’t check for water droplets!

[UPDATE] I haven’t had many opportunities to use this lens until recently when I visited Boundary Bay in British Columbia to photograph the Snowy Owls. You can see those photos in my blog post here.

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Steve Cole Photography

Pacific Northwest Landscape / Nature Photography