Orion Photography's photostream  

Eastern Washington has always been a challenge for me to find landscapes that speak to me. I'm not talking about the green agricultural areas of the Palouse (which I've not seen but find little calling for simply because they are man made), but the dry rolling scrublands of the natural environment, where sagebrush is the dominant vegetation that can reach 8 feet in height. On this particular trip out back in 2009 we were pretty focused on finding the hedgehog cactus, and though we did find them I was mostly drawn to shoot these sagebrush skeletons, some fully dead and others looking like large sized bonsai experiments.

For this particular shot I couldn't decide whether to post the black and white or the color version, so I thought I would combine them and see what people preferred. I could tell you which one I preferred in the end but would rather hear what your thoughts are first :)

One of the most amazing things about the rainforest is that when a tree falls in the forest (or in the case of most forests, a large number of trees fall over time) they are merely beginning a new life, as the nurse logs and base for the future forest to take root in. Wandering the trails of the Olympics you can barely walk more than 5 minutes without seeing some sort of nurse log activity, the ground literally swallowed up in a green blanket and then stretching upward toward the sun. Getting a shot that conveys the appropriate amount of foresty life can be a real challenge though (as anybody who's ever tried to photograph a forest can attest to). As we were hiking back in the pre-sunset light I had to stop in my tracks when I saw this scene.

One of the hardest things I've found in photography is knowing just what to shoot when you know your eye was caught by something. Did you see a branch, or was it the whole scene? It's easy to include too much, or by the same token not enough, so I am trying really hard to rely more and more on my "gut instinct" for what grabbed me in the first place. Which is how I ended up with this shot of the nurselogs and the faint glow of sunset bouncing through the trees. It also helped that the air was so cold that the slightest moisture would condense on the front of the lens, accidentally adding an ortonish effect "in camera" whether I wanted it or not :) Sometimes (like here) it worked, and other times not so much (and I would have to wipe it and try not to breathe when I took the next shot), but for this scene it was just that little bit of extra to add mystique to the scene.

Sounds are dampened, the noise of the creek is a whisper as the fresh snow falls. Branches coated in white glistening powder, birds flit through the understory, seeking food in the now monochrome landscape. The forest in fresh snow is eerie at every turn, familiar and yet not.

As me and a couple photo/hiking friends wandered on the trail, one of them remarked "I was going to look up info on the trail but go sidetracked" I told him that the only place I've been to more repeatedly is Mt. St. Helens, and that I come here 3-4 times a year throughout the seasons (for the past 6 years). He asked "why?" and I said "because I still find new things every time I'm here". This is the first time I'd been on the trail with the arrival of the first low elevation snow, where there wasn't any previous snow to obscure details or bury the vegetation. I was finally able to get a shot of my favorite falls in full on fresh snow glory too, but that's a shot for another day, today I opted to post the more tranquil shot from the trip.

Taken on the first day of the recent snow storms (last saturday) when it was still possible to drive to the trailhead in slush and pavement. On our drive back the snow was coming down fiercely and we passed an H2 spun out and facing the wrong direction in a ditch at a 45 degree angle with a trooper helping everybody out of the drivers side of the vehicle. Luckily I was not the driver for this trip, as we ourselves had a close call when we had to veer to make sure we had enough space from an oncoming truck, promptly sliding and swerving erratically before our driver was able to slide us to a stop in the road (Thanks again Jim for the driving skills!!).

This was and still continues to be one of the most amazing trips to Mt. Rainier I ever had and likely ever will have. In between being swallowed by fast moving clouds, the mountain was my constant companion, and I watched the clouds literally tear themselves apart in the wind and then reform and roll over the landscape. It was ice cold up here, but the sunset was totally unbelievable on a lot of fronts. It made me wish I had two of me to get both the wide shots and the zoom shots at the same time, as there was so much going on around me. I feel lucky every time I dip into this particular photo set to explore, as I always find something new and exciting to process even 2 years later :)

Still processing through my Quinault images from last month, finding a lot I liked out of the trip, with a nice amount of variation to the images. This was taken with my +6 stop filter, which I've found a side benefit of using, because of the way it lets in light compared to a normal long exposed shot. It tends to soften the contrast changes through the scene, keeping the darks darker and the areas where light penetrates brighter but not in a "harsh "look I bumped up the contrast" look". Looking at the other shots I took of this spot without the filter I could not easily reproduce this effect as well without having actually used the filter. More and more I'm feeling like I just need to be leaving the +6 stop filter on ALL my shots, even though the shot times are ridiculous on an overcast day :)