Reflection Lake, Lassen Volcanic NP
I've posted a very similar shot from this location, which can be seen here (in case this looks familiar to anyone).
Once again, while working on a project I was brought back to photos from my long road trip from San Francisco to Seattle last year. The first evening we had a brief opportunity to stop at Lassen Volcanic National Park. I knew essentially nothing about the park and only had a few hours to take it in, but in those few hours I was very impressed with what I saw. Just before sunset my wife and I took a walk around this small lake at the north exit of the park, Reflection Lake. From the opposite bank of the lake you'd be looking back towards Lassen Peak and its reflection in the lake. As we were just making our way back to the car the sky lit up beautifully with the warm light of sunset. Looking back to Lassen Peak it took on an amazing pink-orange color, but I was not in a good position to photograph it, but the view across the lake was fantastic.
The small branches seen in my other photo were just at the bottom of the frame in this shot (I cloned out the bit you could see, I think I had only a small area on the bank to work with otherwise I'm sure I'd have just adjustment my position to avoid it all together). I also simulated a 1.5 stop ND Grad filter by blending two exposures, differing only in their 'exposure' value, to lighten the right side of the frame.
Lassen Volcanic NP was much more than I expected for how little I've ever heard about it. If you happen to be making the drive past on I-5, it's well worth the short excursion east to check it out.
Nikon D40 | Nikon 18-200VR@18mm | f/8 | 1/50s | ISO400 | Handheld
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Uploaded on Nov 21, 2009
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Wizard Island, Crater Lake National Park
In 2008 when I moved from San Francisco to Seattle, my wife and I took a few days to make the trip, including two nights camping at Crater Lake National Park. Once again, weather was generally working against us (it snowed on us, in August, that's just not fair!) and I would up with little of photographic interest to share, but in my effort to find something representative I found this photo.
Crater Lake is really a remarkable place. The lake is not formed in an impact crater (as the name suggests to me) but rather in the massive caldera of a volcano. From the rim of the caldera the cliffs drop about 1000ft down to the water's surface, where it's another 1000-2000ft down to the bottom of the lake. The water is fed by rain and snowfall (being up around 7000-8000ft elevation), and is remarkably pure - it is among the clearest waters in the world. As a result the bright blue color of the water is unlike any I've seen before. (So many of my photos in overcast skies failed to convey that very well).
Near the western rim of the lake there is Wizard Island, itself a volcanic cone - a volcano within a volcano really. As fascinating as the lake is, I found it a bit difficult to frame or present well photographically, but Wizard Island is a nice focal point in this amazing setting.
Nikon D40 | Nikon 18-200VR@38mm | f/8 | 1/400s | ISO200 | Handheld
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Uploaded on Nov 20, 2009
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Blue Lake, North Cascades National Park
This is my first post from North Cascades National Park. When I moved to Washington a little over a year ago I was excited that there were three National Parks within easy reach (at least according to the map). But with a busy summer and short hiking season I was only able to make one overnight trip to North Cascades back in July.
For this hike to Blue Lake we had to wait out a heavy downpour in the parking lot until it let up enough to venture out. The storm lifted as he climbed the trail and after a couple of miles we arrived here at Blue Lake.
The name turns out to be very much apt. The color of the water was a surprisingly bright blue-green color, which was not necessarily captured all that well in the photographs. It had the great blend of spring wildflowers along the trail, along with remnants of the winter's snow lingering in the shadows. I had hoped to return in autumn to capture the larches along the water when they turned golden, but alas that will have to wait for another year.
But weather and perhaps a lack of creativity left me with few photos from that trip I'm all that happy with. But I really wanted to find one photo from this park that stood out - I'd welcome any feedback on whether it warrants a thumb up or a thumb down. After looking at it off and on for several months I can't tell anymore.
Nikon D90 | Sigma 10-20@10mm | f/8 | 1/640s | ISO200 | Handheld
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Uploaded on Nov 18, 2009
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The Sentinel, Bryce Canyon National Park
While looking through my photos for a separate project this evening I stumbled across this photo, which is one that always catches my eye. So I've finally decided to go ahead and post it. This was taken back in February while shooting around the Southwest with friends Scott, John, and Suad. Our first morning there was at Bryce Canyon National Park - quite possibly the most ideal place in the world to watch the sun rise.
We stayed at the park itself to allow us to be there for sunrise, and in fact began to start shooting about an hour beforehand here at Sunset Point. We shot for a while before sunrise before heading to Inspiration Point for the event itself. On my way back to the valley rim I was struck by way The Sentinel (the tall and narrow hoodoo in the center of the frame) and its adjacent sandstone was starting to really light up. At this point it was still quite dark, but the sky to the west was starting to glow with the impending sunrise. The required exposure was long (30 seconds at ISO250) which allowed quite a lot of movement to be captured in the clouds.
For better or worse, I processed this image twice and blended the two exposures, though a curves adjustment and proper masking could have accomplished the same. The two varied only in their 'exposure' value - one processed slightly above the original setting, and one below (to retain the color in the sky). Hopefully that did more to preserve the image than to detract from it - I'm always a little torn when blending exposures.
If you haven't been to Bryce Canyon NP I very strongly recommend it - it's one of the most amazing landscapes I've ever seen, and an amazing place to be when the sun crosses the horizon on a winter morning.
Nikon D90 | Nikon 18-200VR@32mm | f/8 | 30s | ISO250 | Tripod
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Uploaded on Nov 17, 2009
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Golden Gardens, Seattle, Washington
Last night I decided to grab my camera and head out just to shoot something for a change. In the midst of constant rainy days here in Seattle, there was a brief respite from the rain yesterday so I ventured over to Golden Gardens Park along the Puget Sound.
Due to the heavily overcast skies and low cloud both the sunset and Olympic Mountains were no-shows, so I had little to work with, and even less light. Back in January I came down to this same area where I shot some old pier pilings (here) and last night I noticed another collection just a little further north, which is what you see here.
After shooting what I could I packed it in, fingers frozen, and headed for home. I didn't come away with a lot, but it was nice to get out shooting again.
Nikon D90 | Nikon 18-200VR@28mm | f/16 | 30s | ISO100 | Tripod
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Uploaded on Nov 15, 2009
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