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-
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.
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.
This past weekend found me in Bend, Oregon attending two workshops put on by Oregon based nature and landscape photographer Sean Bagshaw whose work has long stood out to me amongst the deep pool of talent here in the PNW. Last fall, I discovered he was offering classes in processing of digital photographs and I became curious about the classes. Sean is based out of Ashland in Southern Oregon and so the timing and distance prevented me from signing up.
More recently, Sean announced that he was going to offer the same classes at the new Cascade Center of Photography in Bend, Oregon. Being much closer, I decided to sign up. The first class was “Fine Art Digital Workflow For Nature Photographers” and focuses on the entire process from import to printing of your digital photographs. The second class, “Processing For Extended Dynamic Range” was focused on how to process scenes which are beyond the ability of digital SLR sensors to capture in a single image (such as shooting into the sun at sunset).
Class size was capped at a maximum of 18 students (my classes actually had 10 people Saturday and 14 people Sunday). The format of the classes is presentation style, where Sean works through specific examples using Lightroom and Photoshop CS5. Since people learn at different paces, Sean provides each attendee with a CD containing several hours of video tutorials covering the material he presents. The CD also includes the same sample images so you can follow along and perform the same tasks.
In the Digital Workflow class, Sean lays out a checklist style process for editing of photos. This is something that I’ve tried to look for in the past. At best, I have only managed to find random thoughts in photography forums so I found this very useful. Prior to diving into the workflow, Sean explained the benefits of using RAW photos instead of JPEGs along with strategies for organizing and prioritizing your files.
A good discussion of adjustments and options found in Lightroom/Adobe Camera RAW definitely helped me better understand all of the various possibilities and which ones to tweak (and which ones NOT to). From this introduction, we moved onto the heart of the matter- working with your images in Photoshop. The concept and use of layers is critical in Photoshop so Sean spent enough time explaining the various types of blending modes and how they affect what you create. Once again, I learned that I wasn’t doing anything “wrong” per se but that there are more efficient ways to get certain tasks done.
Layers bring with them the concept of adjustments. Before you are able to creatively apply adjustments, you need to learn how to specify where to apply them. Sean went through the various methods of making selections along with the pros and cons of using each. Now that we had a basic knowledge of moving around Photoshop and using its tools, it was time to learn how to tackle the situations we face as nature & landscape photographers.
Using the right blending modes and scene selections, Sean showed us that it can be fairly easy to balance photos with a bright sky and dark-ish foreground. I used one of these techniques to darken the sky in the first photo of this blog post and it was easy! I should note that Sean is a big advocate if non-destructive editing, which, simply put, are edits that do not permanently alter the original pixels of your photo. The advantage is that you always have the original photo to fall back on should something go wrong.
From here, we moved on to a few different ways of working along complex edges (such as trees against a sky), addressing color casts, dodging and burning, and adding “glow” effects using techniques such as the Orton Effect. The day ended with the use of vignettes to subtlly emphasize parts of a composition. Sean threw A LOT of information and techniques but it paid dividends. I could immediately think of several photos in my library which I could re-work into a better image simply by using these techniques.
The second day (Sunday) was entirely devoted to Extended Dynamic Range (coined XDR by Sean). XDR has become quite a fad throughout photographic circles thanks in large part to HDR software such as Photomatix, HDR ProStudio, and HDR Efex. While some people are able to get great looking photos out of these HDR programs, Sean feels they haven’t quite matured and still are more using a gun to kill a fly. The adjustments they make are too broad and often you end up sacrificing one part of an image for another. The total control offered by using custom masks in Photoshop produce a much better, MORE NATURAL photograph and Sean’s photo galleries are proof of that.
Once again, Sean starts small and simple by discussing methods of working single exposures such as using the adjustment layers, layer masks, and blending modes (all of which was reinforcing what we were exposed to the previous day). From here, we got deep and really spent a lot of time learning about using channel (or luminosity) masks. There are times when targeting specific color channels can help you focus your adjustments on specific features such as the sky.
There’s a lot to digest on this topic and it all leads to a greater appreciation for someone like Tony Kuyper who figured out how to automate the creation of channel masks (and makes them available for a fee through his website). It was really good to walkthrough the process manually in order to understand and appreciate the photoshop actions that Tony has developed.
From here, the class gets more elaborate with processing a single RAW twice (once for highlights and a second time for the shadows), double exposure blends, and even triple exposure blends. It got even crazier with a four image blend of a night scene. The last thing Sean showed us was a comparison of output from various HDR programs compared with Sean’s manual blend efforts. It really does show you that the total control of a manual blend produces a much superior image!
So were the two classes worth it? Without hesitation, I can say YES. From the minute you first meet him, Sean is friendly and engaging without any elitism or arrogance. He is just a guy who is passionate about nature and photography and who doesn’t love that? Before becoming a “pro” photographer 8 years ago, Sean was a middle school teacher and that really shows in his ability to teach and explain concepts. I know that from my own experience, it can be difficult explaining technical topics to an audience that may not be as technically savvy.
Sean would be the first to acknowledge that he doesn’t know everything and is still eager to learn new things and that was evident by our interactive discussions during the course of the days. Even during the two lunch breaks, Sean graciously joined us for lunch allowing us even more time to pick his professional brain. If all that isn’t enough, now throw in copies of the video tutorials he has available on his website and I think you have one heck of a value!
Is there anything I would change about the classes? Yes- but these would be relatively minor things. For this particular weekend, both classes were offered as independent classes. Now, many people decided to take both classes but the second class about processing for XDR had an additional 4 or 5 folks. There were a few instances where our overall progress was slowed due to questions from the XDR only class attendees about topics that were addresses quite thoroughly during the preceding day’s class on digital workflow. This is naturally bound to happen and my suggestion was to offer future classes as a bundle instead of ala carte. I’m convinced of this because I strongly believe that the XDR class really builds off of everything that is taught during the digital workflow class.
My only other “nit” was a desire to see an image processed all the way through from first steps to final save. I felt I understood both day’s instruction individually but would have benefited even more from the integration of both into one example. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, the tutorial videos he provides do offer an example that basically does this. In the end, there really isn’t enough time in the day to completely address everything. I believe that Sean hasn’t offered these classes for very long so I have every confidence that he will take our suggestions into consideration and further refine the future offerings.
I left Bend armed with a lot of valuable information. I’m not completely sure how I will implement much of it but I feel very strongly that I will look back a year from now and recognize that my decision to take these classes helped push my photography up to the next level. Currently Sean does not have any future dates planned for his classes but I would keep tabs on his website news and announcements for future dates. I don’t think you’ll regret it!
Links:
Sean Bagshaw Website
Sean’s Video Tutorial Info (including sample videos)
[NOTE: In the interest of full disclosure, I’d like to mention that prior to taking these classes, I had never met Sean before. I did not receive any compensation for this review and the opinions given here were mine and mine alone]
The flipside of spending so long at Multnomah Creek was that it threw my schedule right out the window. I ended up having to pare back my very ambitious list of places to visit and made my way to one of the shorter trips on my list…
Full descripton of the area is here on the Portland Hikers website. The trailhead is interesting since it’s located at part of the original road up to Government Camp. There’s an interesting sign which shows an old photo taken from this location. The vegetation wasn’t as leafed out as along the Gorge so things were a bit barren..
Right around Milepost 46, the Zigzag River crosses underneath US Highway 26. The stretch of river downstream of the bridge seemed interesting so I stopped to explore compositions. Unfortunately for me, there was a cabin located alongside one of the banks so I had to exclude it from my compositions. I really enjoyed working with the bright streaks of sunlight on the surface of the churning river..
With the day nearing its end, I returned once again to the White River Snowpark hoping for a nice sunset. Through the day, a nice array of clouds seemed to linger around the summit of Mount Hood but, as sunset drew close, they vaporized. The sunset turned out to be a carbon-copy of the previous night’s. Bummer…
The following morning, I began my drive back to the Seattle area but included a sidetrip to Siouxon Creek, which I discovered through my reading of the Portland Hikers Trip Report forum. It’s located in the South Central portion of the Washington Cascades and has the distinction of having a paved road all the way to its remote trailhead. It turns out to be a relic of the former glory days of logging and one forest superintendent’s idea to promote more logging. The trail travels through maturing second growth forest alongside the creek and passes near a few waterfalls.
This was my first visit and so it was all new to me. The creek turned out to be much wider and more open that I had envisioned so photography in bright sunny conditions wasn’t going to be good. I ended up focusing my efforts on the forest itself since it was so magical. The understory is dominated by Oregon Oxalis (which was almost ready to bloom) and full of surprises. If you go, be prepared to encounter a variety of groups because the trail is open to hikers, mountain bikers, and horses..
Sometimes the results don’t meet the expectations placed beforehand, and this trip fell into that category. How one responds to these challenges can make or break the entire outing. I come away with more valuable experience shooting in extreme light conditions and I hope this will only help me out during my future outings. I know I’ll be back next year (if not sooner!)..
I’ve decided that a couple days in May down in the Columbia River Gorge area is a good thing and so I made plans to go down this past week. The actual date was a little earlier than I would have liked due to other committments. Originally, I started doing this in order to photograph the endless field of Arrowleaf Balsamroot that blooms atop Dog Mountain, I’ve since then chosen to expand my itinerary to include other parts of the Gorge as well as neighboring Mount Hood.
At the last minute, I had to alter my plans and drop the Dog Mountain hike due to some highway construction located at the trailhead. I substituted the hike to Indian Point on the Oregon side in its place. The weather was forecasted to be mostly cloudy with a slight chance of thunderstorms for the second half of my time down there but it remained sunny and clear the entire time (horrible conditions for photography!) And now the photos..
Not many photos from this first hike. A detailed description can be found on the Portland Hikers website. Overall, a wonderful forested hike to a prominent point overlooking the Gorge. Views north to Mount Adams, and east to Dog Mountain..
First attempt had a small cloudcap over the summit but hardly any color due to the lack of clouds. I hiked about 2/3rds of a mile up the White River looking for a composition and settled on this location. Turns out some better spots were located much closer to the parking lot!..
One of the highlights for me. Multnomah Creek feeds the very famous Multnomah Falls and the portion of the creek upstream of the famous falls contains some AMAZING scenery and a number of waterfalls. I spent nearly 5 hours here and only made it about 3/4 of a mile upstream of the main falls. A full description can be found on the Portland Hikers website. It’s worthy of an entire day!..
More to come in Part two!…
I’ve returned from my 2 day trek down to the Columbia River Gorge and Mount Hood but have close to 400 photos to wade through. The weather did not go as forecasted so difficult lighting was present at every location I visited (i.e. sunny with no clouds!). I’ve gone through a fair amount of the photos but still have a ways to go. I should have a number of photos to share sometime this week!..
For the final day of my brief 2 day trip to the Gorge, I wanted to explore the highly touted stretch of the Columbia River Gorge on the Oregon side. It is best known for its high density of wonderful waterfalls and easy access off of Interstate 84. After some research, I narrowed my options down to a couple sites and selected Ruckel Creek. Access for Ruckel Creek is accomplished via the very popular Eagle Creek Trailhead. From here, a brief half mile hike eastward through lush forest puts you at the official trailhead.
A bit of a misnomer, the Ruckel Creek Trail starts next to the creek but quickly switchbacks above and away from it. I had no lofty goals so I explored the immediate banks of the creek above & below the trailhead. Sunny skies make for very tough photography so I made the best of it. I would love to return on a cloudy or overcast day!..
