Mt. Rainier & Upper Tipsoo Lake

coscorrosa

These were all taken during the last week near Upper Tipsoo Lake / Naches Peak at Mt. Rainier.

#1, From last Friday's sunrise, I didn't post this last week, but looking back, I actually kind of like it:



#2 Sun setting over wildflowers (lens flare is intentional! )



#3 Sunset over Upper Tipsoo Lake (I thought it was interesting how strongly the sun reflected off the middle of the mountain. I also saw some artificial lights near the summit, presumably from a climbing party):



#4 Dusk over the lake



#5 Dawn this morning



#6 There's a reason they call the NE corner of Mt. Rainier National Park "Sunrise" (taken this morning):



#7 Sunrise II (from this morning, probably my favorite of the series, this was the peak color at sunrise)



#8 Wildflowers just after sunrise:



There's probably some glaring mistakes with these, since I processed them so quickly, but I had to clear them out so that I can take photos this weekend

bon4ire

Wow these are amazing shots! My favs are 1 - 5. Something about 6 and above doesn't hit me like the first 5. It could be the orange is too overpowering.

Bob

bryanj87

Wow Ron, another awesome series! The colors are amazing. I wish there wasn't 10 feet of snow on the ground when I was there! thumb

kdog

Spectacular images, Ron. Beautiful locations caught in perfect light.

Grizzle6

Ron--
A great set. Some very nice light, and an obviously iconic subject. Just a couple things I noticed...

#1 has exceptional light, but seems just a bit too symmetrical IMO. It's definitely tempting to keep the entirey of the trees in the reflection, but I would experiment with a crop that places the horizon somewhere other than (nearly) dead center.

#3 seems to have some interesting banding going on in the sky. Guessing this is from a polarizer...

#4 seems to have a bit of a cyan cast to it, but I would love to see this one in BW. I think with the highlights and the leading lines of the stream, it would be fantastic

#5 is beautiful! Love the pre-dawn light on the mountain and #6 is a stunner as well.

Nicely done.

jeffmeyers

I love all of them. But I especially like #3 and #7. Great photography!

CatOne

Beautiful. I love Velvia-esque landscapes with use of Grad ND filters. Lots of color... they're beautiful. Looks like mother nature sure cooperated!

coscorrosa

bon4ire wrote:

Wow these are amazing shots! My favs are 1 - 5. Something about 6 and above doesn't hit me like the first 5. It could be the orange is too overpowering.

Bob

Thanks Bob! It was actually that bright in person, and while I might be one to increase saturation occasionally (OK, often), I'm never one to take away the saturation that was already there

coscorrosa

bryanj87 wrote:

Wow Ron, another awesome series! The colors are amazing. I wish there wasn't 10 feet of snow on the ground when I was there! thumb

Yeah, the lakes don't reflect as well when covered completely with snow! There's still a lot more snow than normal this time of year due to the volume of snow in the winter and the coolness of the temperatures in Spring. The Paradise area of the park is still mostly covered with snow, and there won't be much of a wildflower show (if any) there this year. But the NE and NW corners of the park are clear now for the most part.

coscorrosa

Grizzle6 wrote:

Ron--
A great set. Some very nice light, and an obviously iconic subject. Just a couple things I noticed...

#1 has exceptional light, but seems just a bit too symmetrical IMO. It's definitely tempting to keep the entirey of the trees in the reflection, but I would experiment with a crop that places the horizon somewhere other than (nearly) dead center.

#3 seems to have some interesting banding going on in the sky. Guessing this is from a polarizer...

#4 seems to have a bit of a cyan cast to it, but I would love to see this one in BW. I think with the highlights and the leading lines of the stream, it would be fantastic

#5 is beautiful! Love the pre-dawn light on the mountain and #6 is a stunner as well.

Nicely done.

Thanks Adam, appreciate the detailed and constructive feedback, it's very helpful!

For #1 I don't mind the top-bottom symmetry because of the lack of left-right symmetry. I agree that other compositions may have been better, this specific cloud/color combo only lasted enough for one shot unfortunately.

#3 yep, polarizer. I didn't notice it (I don't notice much!).

#4, yeah, good call on the BW, here's my attempt (I don't know what I'm doing, learning how to properly process in BW is on my list, but I think this came out OK):

coscorrosa

Thanks for the comments/feedback
I appreciate it!

Now, a funny story that I didn't include in the original posting. And by funny, I mean frustrating as hell then, but funny in retrospect.

I left work early on Tuesday (around 3:30 PM) drove two hours to the mountain, and shot around sunset/dusk (shots 2-4 were from this outing). Afterward, I camped out at my brothers house which is about an hour closer than mine, in order to get up and shoot the sunrise, after which I would drive into work (and get there around 10AM or so).

So I get up early Wednesday and make it to the mountain around 5AM or so, set my tripod up, and... I got the dreaded Err 99 error (Canon users will be familiar with this). Usually when I get this, I can yank the battery, the memory cards, switch lenses, pray to various (and often competing) Gods, sacrifice small furry animals (apologies in advance to that marmot and his family), and it comes back to life.

But not this time. I had the battery out for five minutes, and still it didn't want to work. And during all of this, the sunrise was awesome (no clouds, but a blindingly bright/pink light). As I was walking back to my car, with expletives flying from my mouth, I spotted an elk that I would have been able to have a good photo of as well.

So, I was pissed. I contacted Canon and they said to leave the battery out for 20 minutes and clean the lens contacts with a pencil eraser, and it worked.

So I vowed that I would return, and I did, two days later, and saw an exact repeat performance of the sunrise from two days before, except this time, I had a camera that actually worked (photos 5-8).

Moral of the story: I need another camera body!

Stormy1

Very beautiful shots, i really dont have a favorite because i think everyone of them is absolutely teriffic

Ann McRae

These are gorgeous. That mountain range is so photogenic because the peaks are so nicely isolated from one another. I didn't know Mt. Rainer had that beautiful sunrise effect, but now that I do next time I visit my cousin.......


ann

PS - I will have to try the eraser thing on the camera contacts. Cool tip.