These two images were captured from the same spot, 4 days apart.
Skagit Valley Under Autumn Clouds
Skagit Valley Sunset
Tag Archives: andy porter photography
Mount Shuksan, North Cascades National Park
Mount Shuksan reflected in Mirror Lake
The Majestic North Cascades
East of Puget Sound in Washington State the jagged, glacier-clad North Cascades rise skyward.
North Cascades National Park
Sahale Glacier Camp
Due to its abundant rainfall the range boasts some of the deepest snow accumulations in the world, more than 95 feet in one winter. Three quarters of all glaciers in the lower 48 states are here.
Mount Challenger Glacier
Streams and rivers coursing over this terrain give raise to a huge number of waterfalls.
Mount Logan and Waterfall
On the Thunder Creek Trail
Forests of spruce and cedar, hemlock and fir carpet the terrain.
Boundary Trail, Pasayten Wilderness
Horseshoe Basin, North Cascades
When the winter snow melts the meadows are afire with myriad wildflowers.
Wildflowers on Lakeview Ridge
Lupine on Sahale Arm
Wildlife abounds, black bears, bald eagles, deer and marmots, to name but a few, grace the land. Grizzlies, wolverines and wolves are reported with increasing frequency.
Black Bear
Deer at Cascade Pass
Autumn creates a riot of colors. Larches turn bright orange, vine maples explode in reds and yellows.
Cathedral Peak
Amphitheater Mountain
Maple Pass
The best months to visit are July to September.
See you on the trail!
Arriving at Copper Ridge, North Cascades National Park
Along the Baker River
From my home its a short drive up the North Cascades Highway to the Baker Lake Road. The first 20 miles is paved and follows along side Grandy Lake and then Baker Lake.
Intermittent views of Mount Baker appear.
Mount Baker from Baker Lake Road
The last 5 miles skirt the northwestern shore of Baker Lake, the road is gravel here and ends at a parking area.
From here a trail heads north along the Baker River. Views of the glacier-clad North Cascades appear and the river is spanned by a suspension bridge.
Baker River Bridge
Along the way there are several spots where you can scramble down to the gravel bars near the water.
Baker River
At this time of year the water level is so low that its easy hiking among the snags and channels.
Maples and spruce, old growth and new, the trees are full of color.
The bright green of the river is remarkable and the reflections of the fall colors.
Baker River
The way back home I keep stopping, here another fantastic sight of color and light…
North End of Baker Lake
Baker Lake
Fall in northwestern Washington is glorious!
Maple Pass Loop, North Cascades
Escaping the inane demands related to income production is like fighting shadows. The barriers seem substantive until you shine some light towards them and call bullshit on the strangle hold they have, at which time you’re free.
Well… free for the afternoon anyway!
We arrived at the Rainy Pass parking area at 3:30. In 5 minutes we were on the trail heading up to Maple Pass. It was Thursday afternoon and there were few people on the trail, mostly on the downhill part of their hike.
It felt good to stretch the legs. And even better to be with out a big pack.
Driven by the urgency to catch the sunlight we flew up to Maple Pass. Pushing on towards the light just over the ridge.
Approaching the crest Lake Ann came into view with its distinctive foot shaped island, the meadows near her outlet stream aglow in the sun.
Lake Ann, North Cascades
The angle of the sun was now providing some illumination on the ridges to the east, the orange accent of larches highlighting the edges…
View from Maple Pass
North Cascades in the Evening Light
And we made it! The sun was now well above the horizon, igniting the fires of inspiration. All of the colors bright and vibrant, urgent and insistent, soothing and satisfying, the hair-line of perfection.
Textures appeared, foot prints on the dry trail…
Along the Ridge near Maple Pass
Maple Pass Loop Trail
Orange and yellow against the backdrop of blue…
Maple Pass Loop
Larch on the Maple Pass Loop Trail
We lolly-gagged along the ridge cooling off from the sprint upwards, warming up from the cool breezes, alternately staring at the beauty of the North Cascades, scurrying about looking for the best viewpoint /angle of light and basking in the glory of it all…
We made it to the highest point of the trail. the light was fast fading and so we headed down the switchbacks toward Rainy Lake and the car…
Switchbacks headed down from Maple Pass
Pausing here and there for more parting shots.
On the trail down from Maple Pass
Happy trails!
Maple Pass Panorama
Larches at Sunset…
Along the trail to Blue Lake, North Cascades…
Backlit Larches
On the trail to Blue Lake
Skagit River Sunset
North Cascades National Park
Back in July I made the 17 mile sojourn to North Fork Meadows. The hike was first tedious, then exceedingly brushy and wet, but the scenery at NF Meadows is worthy of a few more images to post!!
Looking back down the valley…
This is an image of Mount Logan and a waterfall on the North Fork of Bridge Creek
North Fork Meadows
Nighttime Imaging
Anytime I have seen images of the night time sky I have always been awed. Viewing the cosmos, seeing the huge number of stars, the strip of the Milky Way stretching across the sky these evoke such a strong feeling…
So, I decided this year to try my hand at capturing a few images. I read up, re-studied my camera instruction manual, got my tripod and cable release and started.
My first effort was of the Cirque of the Towers, in the Wind River Range. The moonlight illuminated the peaks in a perfect light. I was excited!
Warrior Peak, Cirque of the Towers
I did not fully duplicate the fact that I would not be able to see anything through the view finder, and that the camera’s auto-focus would be inoperable.
So, I set the focus manually to infinity, turning the dial all the way to its end.
I was generally very disappointed, with the exception of this one image, because, as I later learned, on Canon lenses one needs to set the focus ring back, matching up the mark on the top with an l-shaped symbol on the lower ring. The result of my ignorance was that most all of the images I pictures were out of focus.
What a bummer!
My next effort was along the Washington Coast, again, I picked another moon-lit night to try and capture images, but did not take into account clouds! I was able to get a few images, thought they were fuzzy and too grainy.
Stars at Point of the Arches
Heading back to the books I read more about focus, ISO, time of exposure and decided to try again.
This time I headed up to the Baker River on a night with no moon, and even better, no clouds!
However, I was again foiled by my failure to make sure that the focus was set right. But I did recall an advice to review images on the camera using the magnification buttons to zoom in and see if the image was in focus…about halfway through the shoot I remembered that advice and checked, and the focus was way off. Fixing it I continued and was able to get a few good images. For the most part I was using an ISO of 800 to 1600 and a shutter speed of 25 to 30 seconds. As I reviewed the images it seemed to me that the stars were somewhat fuzzy, I recalled reading that with longer exposure times, (20 to 30 seconds) that the rotation of the earth can blur the stars.
Tent and Stars on the Baker River
Encouraged I headed up to the Washington Pass overlook to take another stab at moon-less night. I wanted a dramatic backdrop. Setting up at the overlook gave me Liberty Bell mountain as a silhouette. Here I tried to use higher ISO, 1600 to 3200 and keep the shutter speed down to 15 seconds.
Liberty Bell Mountain and Milky Way
It looks like I captured either a shooting star or satellite on this image.
Liberty Bell Stars
A short time after I had occasion to return to Baker River again. I tried to recall each point: turning off the image stabilizer, removing the polarizer, setting the manual focus, using a shorter speed and higher ISO. I also had someone inside the tent turn on and off the headlamp so as to not overexpose the tent light.
On the Baker River: Tent and Stars
This particular tent is very photogenic!
Another picture of a tent with stars!
Last weekend I headed up to Cutthroat Pass and the next night up to Heather Pass, in the North Cascades.
This first image is from Cutthroat, we camped on a rock slab at the top of the pass. I believe the orange tint in the foreground is from wildfires burning to the south.
Cutthroat Pass at Night
This last image is from Heather Pass, here I tried to use all I had learned, incorporating the tent, milky way strip and a high ISO (and shorter shutter speed) to get things sharper.
Heather Pass: Starfields at Night
It seems that I still have a way to go, back to the books for me. If any of you have any advices for me, I would be most grateful!
Gallery of Images on Ecology.Com!
Ecology.com is a fantastic site dedicated to Planet Earth.
The ECOLOGY Global Network™ Mission Statement: “To use the modern tools of information and communication to inform, educate and inspire the global community to respect, restore and protect our natural and human world, and to encourage all people to become stewards of the environment in which we live.”
Recently I was contacted by Jane Engelsiepen, Executive Editor, and invited to create a gallery of images for their EcoArts page.
For me, this was quite an honor and I am very proud to be included on their site!
Here is a link to the Gallery, “The Beaches of Olympic National Park”
North Western Images - photos by Andy Porter 