This goes to prove that you have to be able to work fast at sunrise and sunset. I was already a few minutes late arriving at my location. Ten minutes after arriving, it was faded and the fog rose up to greet me and block my view. Early bird gets the worm!…
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.
I’m pleased to announce that I’ve updated my website by adding nearly 40 new photos taken during the first half of this year. You can view those photos in my New Photos gallery. Normally, that would be the extent of my “new photo” announcement. This time, however, I’d also like to mention that I’ve also completed a large project where I have re-processed nearly every photo that is on my website (that’s 300+ photos).
I created my website about four years ago and a lot has changed since then. My experience, both in the field and with Photoshop, has grown tremendously. I’ve largely been focused on the present and the future but, earlier this year, I realized that I could do a better job of processing my oldest photos based on my current knowledge and skill set.
And so it began. I’ve posted a few before and after comparisons on my Google Plus account but I’ll share a few examples of what I’m talking about. One of the common mistakes I made was using a display that wasn’t color-calibrated. Eventually all serious photographers realize this mistake and incorporate color calibration into their normal workflow. Your not aware of it at the time but it slaps you in the face once you realize it. Here we have a waterfall scene along Deception Creek:
It should be obvious that the original photo (on the left) has a HUGE green color cast to it. However, once corrected, the difference is striking. Here is another example from the wildflower meadows on Mazama Ridge in Mount Rainier National Park:
After the correction, the colors of the lupine really pop and it’s not due to an increase in the color saturation! Another type of correction, although less common in my collection, was for dynamic range. Now consider this photo of fall color in the Wells Creek drainage on the north side of Mount Baker:
The foreground was in shade but the upper ridge where the fall color was located was in full sunshine. When I originally processed this photo, my abilities at the time could only accommodate the shadows or the highlights but not both. At the time, not even an HDR process could produce a satisfactory result. Through what I have learned since then, I was able to blend two exposures from the original single RAW file and I’m very happy with the results. Now the clouds, bright fall color, and cliff faces are not overexposed *AND* there is sufficient detail in the shade of the foreground.
Some photos were originally color but, after some reflection, I felt would have more impact if converted to black and white. This photo of Hemispheres at the Mount Baker Ski Area is a prime example:
This process took quite a while and seemed like it would never end. In the end, however, I am quite happy with the results and feel that is was well worth the effort.
There’s not much for me to say about Mazama Ridge in Mount Rainier National Park that I haven’t said in previous years here and here. Last weekend I made the trip down to view the wildflowers which were probably beginning their peak week. Great time as always and I ran into a few fellow photographers I’ve interacted with online over the last couple years.
As I hiked out after sunset, the low clouds that persisted all day at lower elevations finally began creeping up the Stevens Creek valley towards Reflection Lakes saddle. I stopped for a couple quick photos on the ridge and at Faraway Rock-
I was up in the vicinity of Snoqualmie Pass last night, hoping to do some photography with the coming full moon. Despite forecasts promising cloud cover percentages of 6-13%, the stark reality of weather was significantly worse. The other lesson learned is that the moon travels a far lower path in spring/summer than later in the year. Last night, this meant that the moon never rose above a ridge to the south of my location (or really broke through the mostly cloudy skies for that matter).
The upside of the conditions were the opportunities to photograph a mix of clear patches of star filled skies along with fast moving clouds. Lemonaide from lemons!
Auroras are trademarks of the high latitudes such as Alaska, Norway, and Canada. It is much rarer to see them at the lower latitudes of places like Seattle. After a tremendous solar burst last week, that’s exactly what was forecasted for the weekend. Sometime in the early 2000s, I saw some aurora activity from the front yard of my house in Everett and it was mesmerizing. I desperately wanted to capture the auroras above some of our fine northwest scenery.
There have been some near misses in terms of seeing auroras over the last couple years and that gave me some time to figure out where to go. Over time, I finally found my “spot” in the Baker Lake vicinity of Mount Baker. My location looked to have a great view of both Mount Shuksan and Mount Baker and was fairly accessible. Predictably, the weather slowly degraded as Saturday arrived. Clouds would be bad enough but persistent afternoon thunderstorms in the mountains really threatened to ruin any chance we had.
As the afternoon went on, the storm activity seemed to tail off and so we gave it a go. Surprisingly, the Forest Service roads were bone dry; the thunderstorms never dropped their payload in this area. Despite some concerns about having to hike on snow to our destination, everything ended up being snow free. Even better, the site I had researched turned out to be great. Mount Baker remained cloaked behind thick clouds but Mount Shuksan had a horizontal slit across its mid flanks. I think the struggling optimists inside of us hoped that the pockets of blue sky were the beginnings of a clear night sky.
Below us, the Baker Lake valley was filling with clouds and gradually creeping up the valley sides. Sunset drew closer and closer bringing color to the various clouds across the sky. As daylight continued to fade, so did our hopes for clear skies in this area. After sunset, the clouds finally swallowed us whole. It was still early enough to come up with a Plan B. It was tough but some reports of clear skies back down in Snohomish County lured us back closer to home. The Mount Pilchuck trail head was our Plan B and two hours of driving later, we were there.
Clear skies were directly overhead but clouds filled the northern skies. no auroras were visible to the naked eye. Or were they?…..While taking some night shots, my peripheral vision seemed to catch a shimmer in the sky. Clouds were still thick so I wasn’t sure what I saw. On one of my shots, there was a small green orb. The auroras! Sadly, that would be all that we would see. It was now pushing 2am; we now accepted the bitterness of defeat and drove home. Hopefully soon, the skies will cooperate and we will capture the auroras. One of these days…
Last weekend I returned to the East Side trail in Mount Rainier National Park. I’ve described the trail in a previous blog post so I’ll just add a few comments about this year’s visit. We had braced for rainy weather but managed to avoid it for most of the day. There might be some sort of rain shadow effect for the Chinook Creek valley (roughly anything south of Chinook Pass and east of the mountain) because we experienced some moments of sun and blue sky while the White River valley to the north of us had constant rain. The rain finally reached us on our hike out when we were only 2 miles from the trail head.
Both of my visits occurred in the month of June but the water levels were higher this time around. I think my future visits will be in September so that we can enjoy lesser flows instead of walls of white water. Despite the low elevation of 2800 feet, the north end of the East Side trail still had a few stubborn patches of isolated snow. Granted, they weren’t anything to be concerned about but it was the last day of June!
We took a break in the area of the Chinook Cascades and were visited by a Dipper. I expected it to fly away by the time I wrestled my camera and zoom lens out of my backpack but it cooperated and stayed a while. I tried taking some photos of the white water crashing in the background while the bird chirped away. From there, we stopped at Stafford Falls since I wasn’t very happy with the results from my first visit. The water levels were too much so I abandoned my plans to enter the water for some different perspectives (I had brought my chest waders).
The other goal I had on this trip was to photograph Ohanepecosh Falls from below at water level. There isn’t a trail so it would take some investigating to figure out a possible way down. I was happy to discover a fairly easy way down that wasn’t very dangerous. Again, the higher water levels somewhat diminished what was possible since the downspray from the falls were far reaching. We experienced our first drops of rain while at the falls which was a bit odd because there were patches of blue skies and a clear view of Shriner’s Peak across the valley from us.
All in all, it wasn’t the most “productive” outings but it is one of the more solitary hikes you can enjoy in Mount Rainier National Park. We only crossed paths with a couple on our way out and that was it. Big old growth, crystal clear streams, and lush green forest – what more could you ask for?
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.
It was three hours until sunset and this is how things were shaping up. What to do? After finishing up my hike to Ramona Falls, this was my dilemma. Although the mountain was fairly socked in, you can see that there is a tall lenticular cloud structure building up behind it. I decided that, when sunset did come, the lenticular cloud was probably going to be highlight. Clearly from this vantage point, I wasn’t going to see much; i needed to move but where? On the first day of my trip, I drove the entire length of Lolo Pass Road to the actual pass and this gave me the knowledge of where I could photograph the mountain, and what to expect. From this simple action, I now knew that I should head to the last viewpoint nearest the pass. It situated me in a more northerly position instead of the northwesterly position that the photo above was taken at. As I drove to my destination, I passed another photographer who had staked his claim not far from where I was previously. I had to smile because I knew that my destination was going to be better suited for what was to come. Boy was I right! The next hour until sunrise was a photographing frenzy. I kept alternating shots between my Sigma 17-70mm lens and my Pentax DA 55-300. The colors from sunset definitely not the best I’ve ever seen but the cloud movement and dynamics certainly were. The wind currents kept changing the view in front of me, almost like shaking an Etch-A-Sketch. True to my hunch, the tall lenticular cloud behind Mount Hood acted like a magnet for any of the colors of sunset. Minute by minute, there was always something to photograph. Like many sunsets, this one just faded away without fanfare. I honestly didn’t expect much of a sunset but I was dead wrong. I’m just glad that I had done a little bit of homework to put me in the best possible position to take advantage of it!
During my recent trip down to Mount Hood and the Columbia River Gorge, I actually spent more time around Mount Hood than down along the Gorge. Here’s a compilation of photos from several of my Mount Hood related outings-
Tom Dick Harry Mountain Sunset
I climbed to the top of the mountain in hopes of a sunset at the end of the first day of my trip. I got a late start from the Mirror Lake trailhead but made good time up to the lake. Beyond the lake, I tried keeping the brisk pace but it was wearing me down. The trail was patchy snow for the first half but that snow was sitting on the trail like a huge humps. Just below the 6′ tall rock cairn, the trail was completely snow covered and the slog was on. More than once I thought about abandoning my effort but I kept at it. I ended up topping out about 20-25 minutes before sunset. There was no sunset to be had on Mount Hood but Mount Jefferson to the south was receiving some nice light and had a nice lenticular cloud on its lee side. I stayed until sunset was officially over and then headed down as quickly and safely as I could.
Ramona Falls
My first visit to this waterfall. This area of Mount Hood fascinates me because it seems like it is located in a rain shadow. The trees are a little more spaced with more pine. I arrived at the falls in the afternoon so I had a mix of sun and shade across the falls. To counter this (and to get the silky water effect), I used my 0.6 Graduated Neutral Density Filter. It still requires some extra Photoshop processing to come up with something presentable but it is possible. Abstracts like the ones shown here are probably the primary compositions but I did like my composition with the stump in the foreground and the falls in the background. Again, tricky lighting but still doable!
Highway 26 Corridor
This year’s trip was a little later than my previous trips and one of the benefits of this was seeing some Pacific Rhododendron in bloom. These photos are from a stretch of Highway 26 just east of the town of Rhododendron. It was late in the afternoon so I even had a little bit of dappled sunlight through the forest.
Old Salmon River Trail
This trail is described as having the most accessible old growth forest in Oregon. Located just a few quick minutes off of Highway 26 near Welches, the trail runs along the Salmon River for several miles and frankly surpassed any expectations I had. My visit was about 90 minutes before sunset and it was a huge mistake! Next year, I’ll devote an entire day to exploring the Salmon River. The forest is so lush and diverse that there’s a lot to take in and observe. Until then, enjoy these photos..
