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!
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!
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
Still, there were a few patches of flowers left. 
Clear skies did not lend to much of a sunset panorama,
Camped at Sahale Glacier Camp
but did present great opportunities for the night sky.
The Park Butte Lookout is a decommissioned fire lookout from decades past. Perched on a precipice along a ridge on the south side of Mount Baker the lookout commands a wide view of the North Cascades.
Now maintained by the Skagit Alpine Club the lookout is open to the public and if you wish, you can spend th night there.
Which is what I did a few days ago, I hiked up, hoping to get images of the night sky and Milky Way.
But, alas, it was not to be, after sunset the clouds rolled in.
The North Cascade mountains in Washington State are rugged, lush, stark and colorful all at once.
Lupine and the North Cascades
Abundant rainfall creates fantastic meadows filled with wild flowers while at the same time sculpting the ridges and peaks into serrated knives of stone.
The two main entry ways into the North Cascades are the North Cascades Highway (Hwy 20) and the Mount Baker Highway (Hwy 542)
Mount Shuksan and Picture Lake, along the Mount Baker Highway
While there are a few places, such as Artist Point (located at the end of Hwy 542) and Washington Pass (the highest point along Hwy 20) where you can drive to see the scenery, most of the time a trip here involves hiking.
Liberty Bell from the North Cascades Highway
Along these two byways there are many side roads leading to trail heads that take you up (always up!) into the high country. There are so many trails and choices!
The North Cascades Highway (Hwy 20) is a part of the Cascade Loop Scenic Byway. This is the Best Road Trip Vacation in Washington State!
If you are interested in fantastic, colorful prints of the North Cascades to adorn your home or office here is a link to my North Cascades Gallery. There you can purchase Canvas Wrapped prints (framed prints are available) as well as Fine Art prints.
One of the most popular hikes along Highway 20 is the Lake Ann – Maple Pass Loop. This 7 mile hike visits Lake Ann, cupped amongst peaks snow and flowers and offers spectacular views of the nearby summits.
Wildflowers along the Lake Ann – Maple Pass Trail
This summer I am offering Guided Photo Tours of the North Cascades. We can pick a trail, based on your available time and venture into the mountains for some stunning scenery and photographic opportunities and/or training. Tours are available for both day hikes and overnight trips.
Skyline Divide is a trail reached from Highway 542. This trail leads up and onto a ridge carpeted with lupine, paintbrush and other flowers with grandstand views of Mount Baker, adorned with glaciers.
Mount Baker and Lupine from the Skyline Divide Trail
If you are looking for a guide book that catalogs most all of the North Cascades Trails, I recommend the book “Hiking the North Cascades” by Erik Molvar (Falcon Press). This book provides accurate info about each trail including mileage, elevation gain, and details of flora and fauna.
Another fabulous day hike is the Sauk Mountain Trail.
This trail is an easy(ish) hike up into the high country with smashing views of the Skagit Valley. 
If you like a dash of solitude to go along with your mountain scenery then you’ll need to don a backpack and hike at least a day travel from the parking area. Here the crowds disappear and you have the place (mostly) to yourself.
Hiking along Sahale Arm
In the next installment I will describe a few of the most stunning overnight and extended hikes in the North Cascades.
Trail along the North Fork, Bridge Creek
If capturing images of the Night Sky is your thing, check out our Night Sky Photo Tours and the Night Sky Photo Gallery!
Glow of Aurora Borealis
Here is another shot from the other night along the Baker River.
Camped under the Milky Way 3
I had in my mind several images, planning and scheming as we hiked in, having the kids in the tent illuminated with the I-Pad, having them look out of the tent, in awe at the stars.
Here is the i-pad shot. Not too bad! A little overexposed on the face of the kid (Dawson) holding the device.
Then I tried an image with them looking out of the tent. I used the red light function on my head lamp to illuminate their faces and this is what I got:
At first I didn’t even try to edit it, it looked so red.
But later I decided to give it a try. I edited (in photoshop, as a raw file) the foreground, then went back and edited the raw a second time, but edited just the sky.
Then I merged the two and did final editing.
That’s Joe on the left, wrapped in the sleeping bag. And my son, Max is the incredulous one on the right!
Not too bad!
I guess I’ll have to take the kids camping more often!
Looking at the stars
This view of Mount Shuksan in the North Cascades (Washington State, USA) is the most photographed mountain in North America. This is due to its beauty (and Picture Lake!) and the fact that you can drive on a paved road to this very spot!
Here is an image I captured in the fall.
Mount Shuksan
And here is a less common view, an image from last night!
Mount Shuksan and the Milky Way
The New Moon is marked every month on my calendar. As it gets closer I start watching the weather service map, looking for where there will be clear skies. Last month was a complete dud, the 5-night window only saw overcast and rain.
But this weekend the sky was clear. I had three people sign up for my Night Sky Photo Tour on Saturday night.
Officially the New Moon is tonight, June 16th, but if you are close, one or two days plus or minus, you will get the lighting you want.
Camped under the Milky Way
This first shot I have been dreaming of for some time. My son is 10 years old and he likes to go camping with his friends, swimming and being goof balls. Of course they always bring their electronic devices. I made sure to tell them to save some battery life for dark.
The strip of the Milky Way appeared directly over the tent. The exposure to capture the stars is 30 seconds long, but that’s way too long for the light from the I-pad. So I had them sit and turn it on for a second or two and then quickly off.
Then I spent some time circumnavigating the tent. I got a shooting star in this one.
Milky Way and Shooting Star
and then as I faced north I captured this image. The pink glow is actually the Aurora Borealis! How cool is that!
Glow of Aurora Borealis
I had three people sign up for my Night Sky Photo Tour on Saturday night. We visited the Washington Pass Overlook to capture images of Liberty Bell. Between instruction advices I snapped a few images. This image is from a north-facing view. To the naked eye there was NO color.
Needless to say we were all excited to see the Northern Lights there on the horizon!
Northern lights at Washington Pass
I have been working with Photoshop for some time. My learning curve has been rather slow and often painful! Slowly I learn new techniques for manipulating light and shadows.
Images of the night sky demand more work than daytime shots. The camera I have, a Canon 6D, and the 14mm lens I use allow me to set the exposure for 30 seconds.
In the unedited images you can see the strip of the Milky Way and in the edited images it pops out and grabs you!
Here is an image I shot a few years ago with a Canon T2i, a 15mm lens at 30 sec. and 800iso. Its a bit dark!
Now the newly edited version.
This next shot is from Zion National Park. I used the Canon 6D with a 14mm lens at 15 sec.
Here is the edited image.
Liberty Bell and the North Cascades Highway, Canon 6D, 14mm lens at 25 sec. Before
And after.
The last shot is of Mount Rainier from Crystal Mountain. Again using the 6D and the 14mm lens at 30 sec.
If you would like to attend a Night Sky Photo Tour and learn how to capture such images, here is the link with dates and prices!
And the final version.
For those of you who are already Photoshop savvy, the most useful tutorials and techniques for editing starry night shots I have found are at Dave Morrow Photography.
If you would like personalized Photoshop Lessons with me online, here is the link!
Happy Shooting and Editing!
North Western Images - photos by Andy Porter 