New batch from Mt. Rainier this morning

coscorrosa

I had to drive from Seattle to Portland today for non-photography related reasons, so I decided to wake up at 3AM and take a 90 mile detour to shoot Mt. Rainier at sunrise before heading down (sunrise is early enough that it wouldn't make me late, just tired).

It was dark and cloudy when I arrived, and I had a hell of a time locating the trail down to the base of the lake I planned to shoot from (this was the same area I was at last week, but when I got back home I looked at a map and realized I had missed a lake that probably would have a reflection of Mt. Rainier, so obviously I had to go back). Unfortunately, the mountain was completely shrowded in clouds and I didn't think I would get much.

Soon however, the fog started to clear a little bit just before sunrise:



I waited around but the light seemed to be getting worse (brighter and losing its color). I thought the best was over so I decided to start hiking up another trail (I could see now!) to go and find some wildflowers. About a half mile up I noticed that the light above the mountain had just started to turn pink:



AGHH! So, I ran and scrambled back down the trail (it's not easy to run with a tripod and camera over your shoulder, nor particularly wise I suppose) hoping to catch some of that light and color in the reflection. When I got down to the lake 6 minutes later, the light was still there, and even more clouds, but the mountain was mostly obscured:



I waited around a little longer, but it never did clear up all the way:



I still managed to find some wildflowers on my way back (I wish I had seen this location earlier when the light was a little better, but now I know). UPDATE: Better version below.



Anyway, it was worth it. I think this lake has a lot more potential than a few others I've seen around Rainier (at sunrise and sunset both), and it's only two hours away.

f64

Very nice set. Just a note on the bottom one. It looks like plenty more detail could be gotten out of the foreground. It might really help it snap.

Just a rough draft.

coscorrosa

f64 wrote:

Very nice set. Just a note on the bottom one. It looks like plenty more detail could be gotten out of the foreground. It might really help it snap.

I agree with you, the original image was too dark in the foreground. I actually debated about whether to fix it, but I thought that if I fixed it, then I would have less incentive to go back and shoot it in better conditions

But since you went through the trouble, here's my updated version:

scole

#3 would be my favorite. I love the reflection of the popcorn clouds in the lake. A shame the mountain wouldn't cooperate.:D

dogwood

Aaahhh-- so this explains why nobody is on-time for anything in Portland (which really is true). They're all trying to squeeze in a quickie landscape shoot on Mt. Rainer just before their event or meeting!

Nice efforts though-- some of the shots are quite nice and without your narrative, I've have said they were awesome.

Darren Troy C

# 4 is superb!

schmoo

coscorrosa wrote:

I agree with you, the original image was too dark in the foreground. I actually debated about whether to fix it, but I thought that if I fixed it, then I would have less incentive to go back and shoot it in better conditions

But since you went through the trouble, here's my updated version:

My better! The flowers really are much better in your reprocess. I think the mountain was fine in the original, however, as in the second version it seems a bit washed out to me.

I love how mountains hang on to clouds. The reflections you caught were fantastic, too

coscorrosa

scole wrote:

#3 would be my favorite. I love the reflection of the popcorn clouds in the lake. A shame the mountain wouldn't cooperate.:D

That just makes it more special when they eventually do cooperate

coscorrosa

dogwood wrote:

Aaahhh-- so this explains why nobody is on-time for anything in Portland (which really is true). They're all trying to squeeze in a quickie landscape shoot on Mt. Rainer just before their event or meeting!

Nice efforts though-- some of the shots are quite nice and without your narrative, I've have said they were awesome.

Thanks Pete! This only explains why we're late during the summer, during the winter, we have other reasons (but as part of the Seattle cabal I'm not allowed to disclose them).

coscorrosa

schmoo wrote:

My better! The flowers really are much better in your reprocess. I think the mountain was fine in the original, however, as in the second version it seems a bit washed out to me.

I love how mountains hang on to clouds. The reflections you caught were fantastic, too

Thanks schmoo!

Yep, it's a little washed out in the second version. I'm very lazy with post-processing, I almost never mask (even if I should), partially due to an irrational "that's now how it looked when I took it" philosophy, but mostly because I don't know what the hell I'm doing I might re-work it to keep the contrast on the mountain, but I might have to bring down the detail on the trees a bit otherwise I'd have to mask them out, and that's beyond my capabilities. Remind me to never take any shots where there's not a flat horizon...

I promise to have a version that's not lame eventually, but probably from another shoot. I have a five hour drive back tomorrow afternoon, we'll see if I'm up for another try