Tag Archives: heather

Photographs: Cascades, Photographs: Nature

Trees and Boulders, Artist Point

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Trees and Boulders, Artist Point
Trees and Boulders, Artist Point

Trees and Boulders, Artist Point. Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Washington. August 28, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Ridgetop trees and boulders along the trail catch the afternoon light at Artist Point, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Washington.

I had been admiring this steep, rugged, and distant ridge all afternoon, starting with our first shooting location down lower on the mountain. As we hiked up the Artist Point trail, we took a detour to the right and I noticed this low rocky ridge covered with trees and the ridge in the distance. At first I couldn’t quite see a shot and I looked elsewhere, but soon I came back to this spot and thought that something with the foreground rocks and trees along with the clouds and more distant ridge might be interesting – but as soon as I saw this a large cloud floated over and blocked the sun from my position, leaving the nearby trees and rocks in shade!

Sometimes when this happens it makes more sense to move on and look for a photograph that works with the conditions you have, but other times it can be worth waiting. It is hard to know for sure which is right, but I decided to set up and sit tight, waiting to see if the light would improve. The light shining around the edge of the cloud was tantalizingly close, but the cloud was stubborn about moving. At one point the light increased a bit for perhaps 15-20 seconds, but then quickly went away. I continued to wait. Finally, the light began to gradually increase, and I got about one minute or less of sun before the cloud again blocked the light – but this was long enough to make a few exposures of this scene.

I have a favor to ask of anyone who is familiar with this area – help in identifying the trees and, even more, help in identifying/naming the distant ridge and the peaks that sit on it. I’m not great at plant identification, but I’m really out of my league in the Cascades. One person walking by as I made the shot seemed to think that the trees are mountain hemlock – but I’d be grateful if anyone can confirm this… or set me straight. Although I was impressed with the peaks on the ridge in the distance in this photograph… I do not have any Washington topographical maps or guide books, so I’m completely in the dark about what to call this ridge or the peaks. Here, too, I would be grateful if anyone can help me identify the ridge, the peaks, and any other important features in the photograph.

Update: A Facebook reader shared information about the peaks on the distant ridge in this photograph…

Alan Majchrowicz writes: “From left to right, Tomyhoi Peak, Canadian and American Border Peaks, Larrabee Mountain. Nice photo Dan, hope I can break away this week and spend some time up there!”

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Cascades, Photographs: Nature

Sub-Alpine Ponds in Afternoon Light, Artist Point

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Sub-Alpine Ponds in Afternoon Light, Artist Point
Sub-Alpine Ponds in Afternoon Light, Artist Point

Sub-Alpine Ponds in Afternoon Light, Artist Point. Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Washington. August 28, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A trail weaves through meadow and among sub-alpine ponds at Artist Point with the ridge of Mt. Shuksan beyond – Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Washington.

This is another photograph from my late-August afternoon exploration of the stunning ridgeline of Artist Point in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest near the Mt. Baker ski area. This ridge runs through an intimate landscape comprised of small rock fields, meadows with running streams, groves and isolated high elevation trees, and small ponds – and provides a truly stunning panorama that takes in Mount Baker on one side and Mount Shuksan on the other, with distant peaks all around. We could hardly have asked for better conditions for late-afternoon photography. Dramatic clouds ringed the peaks, sometimes obscuring them and sometimes clearing for a moment, and bright sun alternated with softer and diffused light as cloud shadows moved across the ridge.

A bit further along the ridge there is a series of small snow-melt lakes – what I usually refer to as “tarns” in the Sierra. Here a trail winds in front of a couple of them that sit in rocky hollows in front a few ridgeline trees, with the cloud-shrouded shoulder of glacier-covered Mount Shuksan beyond.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Cascades, Photographs: Nature

Artist Point Meadow, Mount Shuksan

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Artist Point Meadow, Mount Shuksan
Artist Point Meadow, Mount Shuksan

Artist Point Meadow, Mount Shuksan. Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Washington. August 28, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The view of cloud-shrouded Mount Shuksan from a heather-filled sub-alpine meadow at Artist Point, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Washington.

As my brother and I came around the corner of this trail along the side of the Artist Point ridge, it took our breath away. I arrived a moment after he did, and found him already down among the heather flowers near the small run-off creek setting up his tilt-shift lens to make a close-up photograph of the flowers with the mountains in the distance. Once he finished, I went to work on this wider view of the scene, including the nearby foreground meadow and flowers, the trees along the edge of the drop-off, the pool of light in the valley beyond, and the shoulder of cloud-rimmed Mt. Shuksan with a dramatic sky beyond.

On a technical note, this was a very difficult exposure. When I looked down at the flowers and plants I saw what you see here, and when I looked up I saw the cloud-filled sky roughly as it appears in this photograph – but the dynamic range was so wide (ranging from parts of the foreground trees in deep shadow to distant snow fields in direct sun) that one exposure could not capture all of the scene data… so I used three which were then combined in post using masked layers and blended manually.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email