500th Post

Posted on October 29, 2015 by Andy Porter

January 2009 is when I began this blog.

Time is an illusory creature. 7 years ago seems like yesterday and a different lifetime, all at once.

During that span I have posted stories of hitchhiking, near death experiences and other adventures.

I have posted travel reports and given advice.

But mostly I have posted pictures. Lots of pictures!

Images of the Mountains,

: Sahale Arm

: Sahale Camp

: Enchantments

: Maple Pass

: Sahale Camp

: Sahale Camp

Images of Tulip Fields,

: Skagit Valley Tulips

: Skagit Valley Tulips

Pictures of Ocean,

: Shi Shi Beach

and pictures of Night.

: Night Sky Photo Tour

I hope you have enjoyed looking as much as I have enjoyed sharing.

Thank you all.

I’ll be seeing you soon!

Park Butte Lookout October

Posted on October 18, 2015 by Andy Porter

On Wednesday night I made my way up to the Park Butte Lookout for the 5th time this year.
Each trip is different, unique. Skies and clouds, temperature and wind, sun or rain it is always a fantastical place to spend the night.

This trip was no exception, I went with my friend, Sam and her dog River.

The cool October air is comfortable for climbing up with a big back.

Leaving late we arrived at the lookout as the sun set, had dinner and almost immediately after were out capturing images of the Milky Way, blazing above.

I clambered down below the lookout for a new perspective of the lookout and Milky Way.

The yellow lamp I brought created a perfect yellow-golden light inside.

Finally the excitement ended and we hit the sleeping pads, out on the lookout balcony.

The early morning light was wonderful. I popped up quickly and started my circumnavigations of the lookout, searching for the perfect light.

Here is the link to buy prints

and here is the link for Photo Tour details.

Sunrise from Winchester Mountain

Posted on September 25, 2015 by Andy Porter

Morning skies in the North Cascades

This image is from Thursday morning Sept. 23, at about 5am. Taken atop Winchester Mountain, along the Mount Baker Highway in the North Cascades. That’s Venus, the bright light on the right.

Exposure: Canon 6D and Rokinon 14mm lens; f/2.8 at 30 seconds

The next Night Sky Photo Tour(s) are scheduled for October 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th. If you’d like to come along, here is the link!

Winchester Lookout

Posted on September 21, 2015 by Andy Porter

Twin Lakes Panorama

Last Saturday I made it up (finally!) to Twin Lakes and the Winchester Mountain Lookout.

Winchester Mountain Lookout

Located on the north side of the Mount Baker Highway (Route 542) the trail is approached via the Twin Lakes Road. It’s 7 miles from the highway to the start of the trail, 4.5 miles are easy for any car, and the last 2.5 miles require a high clearance vehicle, its a bit rough!

Weekends in the late summer and early fall will find more than 200 cars and pickups parked along the road over the last 3 miles. There is a veritable network of trails originating along the Twin Lakes Road such as Yellow Aster Butte, Tomyhoi Peak, High Pass and more.

Twin Lakes

If your vehicle can make it up to Twin Lakes there are camp sites along both lake shore, out houses and camp fire rings/grates. I saw quite a few parties there car camping with bikes for kids, small boats for fishing along with lawn chairs and coolers.

Here the road ends and the hiking begins. From the parking lot you are right in front of Winchester Mountain, and you can see way up above the flag flapping next to the lookout.

The trail zigzags up the mountain side, 1,300 feet in about 2 miles to the summit. The lookout tower is open to the public, and you can spend the night there. If you get up there and its already taken there are plenty of spots close by to pitch tents.

The view from the top is choked with stark jagged peaks. Goat Mountain, Mount Larrabee, the Pleiades, Tomyhoi Peak crowd the horizon. Mt Shuksan and Mount Baker loom up about all other summits.

The crisp air is perfect for hiking up a steep slope and the fall colors create a luscious palette.

The Winchester Mountain Lookout was clean and spacious, sporting a table, chairs, bed and a wide selection of books.

Saturday was the new moon, and one of the reasons of our visit was to hope for clear skies at night to capture images of the Milky Way.

The low angle of the setting sun set the blue berry bushes on fire.

An hour after sunset the sky exploded with stars.

I opted to sleep out under them, with no tent.

The early morning found the mountain surrounded by clouds. Just as I arose the sun breached the canopy and the sun dance atop the summits across the valley commenced.

Milky Way from Big Rock

Posted on September 20, 2015 by Andy Porter

The usual thinking of night sky and Milky Way images is that you must travel a good distance away from the lights of towns and cities to get any decent shots.

I don’t live near big city, Seattle is 65 miles away, but there are several towns grouped together where I live. But I decided to head up to a local promontory called Big Rock to see about a few night sky images last weekend during the last New Moon.

These three images show that although the lights DO wash out the details of the stars there is still a chance to get some interesting images.

Mount Baker is visible as a small bump on the horizon. The green glow is the aurora borealis, adding some alien color to the edge of the sky.

The next New Moon is October 12th. If you’d like to register for the next Night Sky Photo Tour, here is the link.

New Night Sky Images

Posted on September 15, 2015 by Andy Porter

Every month brings a New Moon and with it, an opportunity to get out for more Night Sky Imaging.

Northern Lights and Milky Way Over Mount Baker

Here in Western Washington its not often that you see the confluence of both no moon AND no clouds, but this last weekend we were blessed with both.

Thursday night I met a friend and we hiked in the dark up to a local promontory known as Big Rock. I expected that there would be plenty of light pollution from the nearby towns, but I did not expect to see the green glow of the Aurora Borealis on the horizon!

Friday night I was teaching a field class on Night Sky Photography through the North Cascades Institute and took 14 students up to Artist Point, at the end of the Mount Baker Highway. There we photographed Mt Shuksan at Picture Lake and then drove up to the roads end to get images of Mount Baker and more shots of Shuksan. At a small tarn we posed for a group shot.

Mt Shuksan

Night Sky Photo Students and Mount Shuksan

Mt Baker

Saturday night I recruited two friends and we hiked up to the Winchester Mountain Lookout. It was my first time up there and I was ecstatic with the whole trip, the hike, the fall colors, the lookout and the stars were all unsurpassed!

All of these image are for sale, as digital downloads, Canvas Wraps and Fine Art Prints. Here is the link to the Gallery Store.

The next New Moon is October 12th. I am conducting Night Sky Photo Tours for Oct. 10th through Oct. 13th.

Here is the link to find out more and register!

Choosing images for the 2016 Washington Scenic Calendar

Posted on September 4, 2015 by Andy Porter

September is here, soon autumn will be with us. This is my signal to start work on the 2016 Calendar.

My task is to sort through the years images and somehow come up with 13 stunning shots.

As I review the files there are a few special shots which will almost certainly be included in this next years calendar and in other cases I have a series of shots from a particular spot and need help choosing which is the best one for the calendar. This is where you come in, I will post a grouping of images from a specific spot. Please vote for your favorite in each section by making a comment below or emailing me at: andyporterphotography@gmail.com

Park Butte Lookout

: Park Butte Lookout

: 3

Ferry Boat

: 1

: 2

: 3

: 4

: 5

: 6

Point of the Arches

: 1

: 2

: 3

: 4

: 5

Barn

: 2

: 3

Lake Ann

: 1

: 2

Sahale Arm

: 1

: Sahale Camp

: Sahale Camp

Stars and Tent shot

: 4

: 5

: 6

Enchantments

: Colchuck Lake

: 2

: 3

: 4

: 5

: Enchantments

Here are a few images that have already made the final cut:

: Snow Geese

: Maple Pass

Panorama of Mount Baker and Park Butte Lookout

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Andy Porter

Sunset at Park Butte Lookout

The Park Butte Lookout is located on the south side of Mount Baker, in the Mt. Baker, Snoqualmie National Fores, in the NW corner of Washington State. The lookout was “retired” from use as a fire lookout many years ago and was then adopted by the Skagit Alpine Club, who maintain the lookout for public use.

Perseid Meteor Shower

Posted on July 29, 2015 by Andy Porter

Perseid Meteor Shower

Every August the Perseid Meteor Shower streaks above Earth creating a fantastic light show. Visibility of the meteors depends upon the moon cycle. If the full moon coincides with the meteor shower it tends to wash out the show. But this year’ s Perseid showers falls upon the New Moon and so we could have quite a show.

Milky Way and Shooting Star

Here is a quote from the article linked above: “Every year, from around July 17 to August 24, our planet Earth crosses the orbital path of Comet Swift-Tuttle, the parent of the Perseid meteor shower. Debris from this comet litters the comet’s orbit, but we don’t really get into the thick of the comet rubble until after the first week of August. The bits and pieces from Comet Swift-Tuttle slam into the Earth’s upper atmosphere at some 210,000 kilometers (130,000 miles) per hour, lighting up the nighttime with fast-moving Perseid meteors. If our planet happens to pass through an unusually dense clump of meteoroids – comet rubble – we’ll see an elevated number of meteors. We can always hope!”

Stars along the Baker River

Capturing images of meteors takes some planning, a little luck and dash of persistence. Basically what’s needed is to get out away from city lights and set up your DSLR (use a wide angle lens) on a tripod. use the widest aperture and a 20 to 30 second shutter speed. make sure your focus is on manual and set to infinity. Then you can point towards the Milky Way and start shooting!

Camped under the Milky Way 3

Of course you can never know when a huge meteor will streak across your screen, so you just keep shooting, over and over and you will for sure get some sweet shots.

If you live in Washington State and would like some instruction on How to capture the Night Sky images, I am offering Night Sky Photo Tours on August 12th and 15th. We will be heading up into the North Cascades for an (almost) all night Meteor Photo Shoot. Here are all the details.

Looking at the stars

Happy Star Trails to you!

Sahale Glacier Camp – 2015

Posted on July 24, 2015 by Andy Porter

Last weekend I made the yearly sojourn up to Sahale Camp, in North Cascades National Park. The 6-mile hike in and up was very dry. The winter’s lack of snow fall has jumped the cycle of flowers and melting ahead a full month. Link to Buy Prints