Bryan Swan's photostream  

This one had been sitting on my hard drive, relatively untouched for the last two years. As I was cleaning out some rejects, I started tinkering around with a few shots and the more and more I looked at this one, the more I liked it. Taken more or less around the same time as this shot.

Evening sun illuminating Bull's Tooth over Upper Chain Lake, Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Washington.

So I suppose this is about as much consolation as I get having had to sit on the sidelines and watch all those incredible sunrises and sunsets last week while I was driving to / coming home from work. Then a three day weekend shows up and it snows so I can't go anywhere. Since I moved back to the eastside I wasn't exactly stranded in the middle of the city anymore though and I took the opportunity to explore a little. Would you believe this is Bellevue? Bridle Trails State Park specificly. I grew up a little more than a mile away from here and live about half a mile away right now, and it took me 30 years to actually explore it. It's certainly not old growth rainforest, but I have to say, for a 10 minute walk from my apartment, I'm impressed. If I get snowed out of work for the rest of the week, I may have to head back.

Fairly straight forward with this one. Panther Creek Falls seems to be quickly becoming a favorite among the photographers in the Portland / southwestern Washington area but it had been several years since I had been here and I had yet shot to the falls to a level which I was satisfied with. I really wanted to get a shot from the base of the lower tier looking back up at all three sections of the falls, but I found that the logjam which had previously allowed me easy access across the creek had shifted and made it impossible to cross without getting wet up to my crotch (which just wasn't going to happen on this particular day). So I monkeyed around a bit at the base of the upper tier and shimmied my way out to the end of a log which was perched about 10 feet above the creek, set up my tripod with very little room to balance, held my breath and hoped that the shot would turn out. I think this may be my new favorite composition of the falls.

More information and directions to the falls here for those interested.

The final little bit of alpenglow lighting up part of Cutthroat Peak near Washington Pass. Unfortunately the sky had been completely cloudless in the direction of the peak all day, then naturally as soon as it was too dark to effectively shoot anymore, some really sweet wispy clouds moved right over the summit. Still quite pleased with my take from this particular evening though.

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Just in time for the long, dark days of winter, Seattle City Light has finally finished their renovations of the Ladder Creek Gardens and for the first time in probably 20+ years, Ladder Creek Falls is once again illuminated with colored lights after sundown. Not having shot anything like this before, I found composing a decent shot particularly difficult - especially while trying to get my tripod high enough to get it over the railing along the stairway. If you find yourself in the Newhalem area after dark, I'd highly recommend taking the short walk through the gardens at night - no need for a flashlight even.