Four weekends at Mount Rainier

ksproul · September 12, 2011

I haven't posted any photos here in a quite a while, so I thought I'd get the ball rolling again with some photos I've taken at Mount Rainier over the last four weekends (three Saturday morning trips for sunrise and one full weekend of camping and hiking). As it turns out, there's hardly been a cloud on any weekend around here lately, so I had to make due with blue skies, for the most part. On Labor Day weekend, my wife and I hiked up to Van Trump Park (past Comet Falls) for the first time, which is where a few of these sunset photos are from. A ranger gave us a tip that the wildflower meadows were excellent there, and she wasn't kidding. They were much better than anywhere else I had seen so far this year. It was quite an uphill hike (and return in the dark), but well worth it. This weekend, we may head out to Spray Park (for my first time) if the weather permits.

Anyway, the photos are below. Comments and criticism are welcome. Thanks for looking!

1 - Morning at Bench Lake:

2 - Looking toward the Tatoosh Range from Paradise just after sunset (with smoke to the south):

3 - Narada Falls in mid afternoon:

4 - Sunset at Van Trump Park:

5 - Sunset at Van Trump Park:

6 - Mount Adams in the smoke to the south from Van Trump Park at sunset:

7 - Just after sunrise at Paradise:

8 - Near the top of Ruby Falls on the Paradise River:

ront · September 12, 2011

WOW, all of these are incredible!!!!

Ron

thonsu · September 13, 2011

Stunning. Hard to pic favorites.

TreyHoff · September 13, 2011

Very well done! Those wildflowers really set up the shots and the shot of Mount Adams in the distance is stunning.

Rhuarc · September 13, 2011

Love these! I need to make it down there sometime.

squirl033 · September 13, 2011

very nice! i think i like #1 and # 7 best. #2 is very much like one i shot this past Saturday, looking toward the Tatoosh Range from Paradise meadow at sunset... gotta love "The Mountain"...

ksproul · September 13, 2011

ront wrote: »

WOW, all of these are incredible!!!!

thonsu wrote: »

Stunning. Hard to pic favorites.

TreyHoff wrote: »

Very well done! Those wildflowers really set up the shots and the shot of Mount Adams in the distance is stunning.

Rhuarc wrote: »

Love these! I need to make it down there sometime.

Thank you all very much! I appreciate the feedback. Now's the time to make it there, if you can. I intend to go back this weekend myself, probably the last time for a few weeks (and then I'll be back for the fall colors). It's shaping up to be my first chance to make it out there with some possible clouds this summer, and the flowers are now peaking in many areas.

squirl033 wrote: »

very nice! i think i like #1 and # 7 best. #2 is very much like one i shot this past Saturday, looking toward the Tatoosh Range from Paradise meadow at sunset... gotta love "The Mountain"...

Thanks! When I was shooting sunset there over Labor Day weekend, that was basically the only area I could find in the trails around Paradise that had some nice patches of flowers. The only thing that annoys me about shooting to the south right there is the road in the background. I noticed you did a good job of finding a nice composition without the road, whereas it ended up in most of my shots (including this one, originally).

Doug Solis · September 14, 2011

Love your series, very well done. I just love #6, there is such a feeling of depth with the various layers of color and texture. What a great composition.

Vaughan · September 14, 2011

Stunning set of photos, no1 and 6 are my favourites but they are all beautiful

aj986s · September 14, 2011

Beautiful series!

Art Morgan · September 14, 2011

All are great! Especially love the sky color in #2 !

Sam · September 14, 2011

Nice.....Nice......Nice.

clap

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Love the wildflowers and the rainbow, or is it a waterfall bow?

Sam

Andy · September 14, 2011

Very jealous here. Bravo

ksproul · September 14, 2011

Wow, thanks for all the kind words! I really appreciate all the feedback. Hopefully I'll have more to share after this weekend, as a Spray Park hike is looking more and more likely on Saturday.

codyjbennett · September 15, 2011

Spectacular. I'd love to know your essential setup. Obviously a tripod, likely your aperture closed down dramatically, are you also using a ND filter and/or circular polarizer? What lens/body?

Again, great shots. I love that nearly every shot has an obvious and compelling subject at every distance from the camera.

Cheers!

choudhrysaab · September 15, 2011

WOW! these are STUNNING shots. They look too good to be real but damn, GREAT JOB DONE!!!

ksproul · September 17, 2011

codyjbennett wrote: »

Spectacular. I'd love to know your essential setup. Obviously a tripod, likely your aperture closed down dramatically, are you also using a ND filter and/or circular polarizer? What lens/body?

Again, great shots. I love that nearly every shot has an obvious and compelling subject at every distance from the camera.

Cheers!

Thanks for the kind words!

To answer your questions, they were all shot with my Canon 7D and either the 10-22 or 17-55 lens. I believe I had my Hoya HD circular polarizer on for all of them. I had a Lee 3-stop soft grad ND on for a couple of them (#2 and maybe #7?) to balance out the sky/mountain and foreground. They're all from a single exposure except for #1 which was manually blended (one of my first) from two exposures - one for the mountain/sky and one for the rest, for dynamic range. Also, the #3 used a B&W 10-stop ND filter to get the long exposure in the middle of the afternoon (along with the polarizer, which helped bring out the rainbow). As for aperture, most were around F/16. And yes, every one of these were on a tripod (my heavy Slik 700DX with Manfrotto 498RC2 head).

ksproul · September 17, 2011

choudhrysaab wrote: »

WOW! these are STUNNING shots. They look too good to be real but damn, GREAT JOB DONE!!!

Thank you!

bnickeson · September 17, 2011

So that's what Paradise looks like with flowers on it this year! Great series!

Lightsearcher · September 17, 2011

Amazing..!!
What a fantastic set of pictures, all all very well done.

Thank you for sharing.

Marcelo

lilirishangel · September 17, 2011

wow Beautiful set of Pictures

bskaran · September 18, 2011

Great shots. Superb composition and colors.

ksproul · September 18, 2011

Thank you all! I actually stopped by Paradise again yesterday, and the flowers are still quite thick (for this year anyway), but it was rainy and breezy and the mountain was completely clouded over, so I didn't get any shots off at the meadows. I had also hoped to make it to Spray Park to shoot the wildflowers, but that's looking less likely now. It certainly feels like fall has arrived around here. On that note, I'll be back out at Rainier in a few weeks for the fall colors, hopefully!