Weekend Adventures, Part II

Sunday was awesome. I went to Mt. Rainier with my friend, Cole, for a photography lesson with Randall Hodges. Randall is a nature photographer who shares his skills with new photographers via lessons out in the field.

Sunday's class brought 12 budding photographers to the Mt. Rainier National Park at the crack-o-dawn. I am not kidding. As I left Bothell at 1:40 am I thought, wow, most people are just wrapping up their Saturday night functions. My adventure was just beginning.

The Reflections Lake Series

Despite our early departure from Seattle, and arrival at the Nisqually entrance at 4:18am, we some how became totally, totally turned around in the park. Long story short... we arrived at our first spot, Reflections Lake, just as the "good" light was fading and while the morning sky was still quite pretty, it wasn't very interesting.

I have included three pictures from Reflections Lake. The first picture was taken in Aperture mode at f22 with a UV filter. I wanted a good "before" picture; if I were to use my trusty "little Canon" (I mean my beloved A520) it would probably end up looking just like that. Washed out and zzzzzz. For the middle picture, I was still in Aperture priority, but I used the Cokin filter. Nice sky, huh? The trees looked dark on my LCD, but I *hoped* they would show up better on a regular monitor. When I got home I realized that all of my trees were dark. Huh? That stumps me because the clear part of the gradiant filter should have let enough light through, yah? Oh well. I made some adjustments with the Canon editing software (gasp, its true!) to get the third picture, below. Before this trip I would have never, ever, thought about leaving in the middle of the night to go catch a sunrise at Mt. Rainier. But now, I am hooked. I want to go back.

Oh, you may wonder "why was she in Aperture priority?" Well, that is what Randall recommended. I figured that since I was there to learn from him, I should be a good student and follow his directions. Actually, I had to keep reminding myself that all day. Its interesting because my pictures turned out different than usual... except the ones waaay at the bottom; those are totally Macro Supergirl shots ;)

The First Hill Series

When we arrived at the Reflections Lake location, I was a bit disappointed that the shoot was taking place in the parking lot. It was a great location, but what fun is it to go to a mountain and shoot from a stinkin parking lot. As we approached the group, I muttered "A parking lot? Are you serious? This is weak sauce. Weak sauce." Cole had no idea what I was talking about.

Luckily, after about 40 minutes of shooting at the lakes we caravanned to our next destination: the Paradise Trails. The rest of the morning was spent climbing up, up , uphill. Definitely NOT weak sauce; quite the opposite... it was Odaleedo.

Our first stop was a pleasant meadow along the trail. All twelve of us set up our gear. It was crowded. Since my Reflections Lake shots had Mt. Rainier centered, I composed this group with the mountain to the side. The sky was so pretty, except for one big 'ol cloud. It reminded me of the Sunset Park shoot on Thursday, where there was one stinking cloud covering most of the Olympics.

Again, I used aperture priority, probably still way out at f22. This time, though, I used a circluar polarizer AND cokin filter. Randal suggested turning the polarizer so that the sky was really, really dark. So I did. (see the first picture). When I looked at the picture at home I felt that it was too dark (not like I pictured it), so I made some white balance and contrast adjustments to create the middle picture. The third picture I am kinda proud of... I had moved my camera around a bit and had taken some pics where the mountain was cut off a bit more. I asked Randall if I was on the right track with my pictures, and he repositioned my camera and said try this compostion (I didn't post those pictures, but basically he said less sky and show more of the mountain). The third picture is the one that Randall composed... not too different from the ones I had taken a few minutes earlier. Not too bad, eh?

I moved down the trail a little bit and was able to catch a little bit of a stream, too. The picture below (to the left) is one that I composed, and subsequently adjusted a bit when I got home. The one to the bottom right is one that Randall composed. I guess I am not too far off track, composition wise. Seeing what a difference just a little bit of tweaking can do helped me realized that I need to slow down a bit when composing. Just for fun, I converted my pic into black and white. Ansel is my hero.

The Second Hill Series

Once I saw the little stream, I didn't want to leave the area. But, the crummy part about being on a group lesson is that you have to move on. Plus, there were a ton of wildflowers there. Water features and flowers? Sadly, I was a diligent student and carried on with the group.

I'll be honest, the next destination was not as much fun for me. By the time we got to this spot, the clouds had slipped behind the mountain in full force. They weren't even cool, contrasty clouds either. Just blah. It didn't help that it was crowded with all of us, and there were more trees around. The trees were cool (very, very cool!) but it was a challenge to compose, given the cramped conditions. Oh... except when this photogenic marmot made an apperance on a nearby rock. Then everybody grabbed their tripods and used up a heap of their available memory on the little marmot. Always a contrarian, I didn't follow the crowd, and was instead, finally able to plunk my tripod down in peace and compose a decent shot.

While I was packing up for the next destination, I saw a group of dedicated hikers on another trail. I loved the way they looked, and a Lori-shot zipped in my mind. I could see it! The angle of the trail complimented by the line of hikers with their uniform backpacks. They were moving fast. I had to think fast. I put my camera in auto-mode and snapped the pic below.

So sad, isn't it? Its crummy. At that moment, I missed my little canon, and the freedom I used to have with it. With the little canon, I just take pictures that interest me. I love the spotaneity. Moments like this are just captured; no stress, no strategic use of aperture/shutter, no metering. Just see what grabs your eye and go.

For a few minutes I was like one of those cartoon characters that had a little cloud over their head and a scowl on their face. My packback weighed a ton by then and the people were getting to me.... and then I heard that our next destination had a ton of wild flowers. My ears perked, the cloud vanished and I smiled all the way to the next stop. aaaah, flowers.

The Third Hill Series

When we got to this place, Randall said that the overcast sky is perfect for macro shots of flowers. Huh? I guess it is just my own style to like a soft, sunsetty type light on them, or some sort of backlighting. The shots from this spot were really quite tricky; the lighting was crummy, it was super windy (which, btw meant I was cold & you know what I am like when I am cold? grrr, huh?), and there were a lot of hikers getting in the shots.



I do like the way that they turned out. I guess I am still feeling the frustration that I always feel out in the field; I cannot capture things in my camera as beautifully as they appear to me in real life. That is not yet my gift. It was amazingly beautiful, and neat to see the way the trees and flowers changed at the different altitudes.


The two pics below were taken in, of course, aperture mode. This time it was at about f10 and I didn't use a polarizer. The first pic is "as-is" and unedited, while the second picture has some white balance, contrast and RGB adjustments.


























Its All Down-Hill From Here
Oh, I mean that literally. After the last meadow it was 11 am and the class was wrapped up. Randall thanked us for attending the class and gave us free reign of the mountain. Cole and I figured we would be back again to explore this enchanting mountain, so we decided to head back to the car and take pics along the way.


I wanted to get a shot of the tail headed down, but some guy was in my way. I waited patiently for him. Then he took off his backpack and proceeded to take many, many pictures of a stinkin marmot. Grr. Get out of my shot! I figured I could sit there like a dummy and get all irritated or I could set my 10-second timer and take a nice, cheesy shot of myself on the mountain. Go cheese. (ps. at this point, you've probably noticed that all my skies are kinda turquoisy. Del, any insight on how to fix this? I still have the raw files...)

And then, we saw waterfalls... right near the road! Still technically weak sauce, but still very cool. I switched to full manual mode for these.

Throwing out all of the landscape skills I had acquired along the trail that day, I fell into my old habits...I fell of the wagon... I succombed to my addiction. That's right. Flowers.

I took these near the side of the road.

Three Barista Coffee
This pic is called "three barista coffee" because, honestly, it took three baristas (and a good 15 minutes) to make 'em. Dang.

... the end.

p.s. I highly recommend a trip to Mt. Rainier. There are tons, truly tons of amazing features to shoot. Plus, it is challenging... it challenges you physically (um, it is a mountain), the climate is challenging (the weather changes! and it is windy), you really have to tap into your creativity (it is hard to get a non-cliche rainier pick, you really have to work on the composition), and then there is self-control (when do you stop?). I hope that you enjoyed my pics, and thank you for reading all of my random rambling.