Photo of the Week

September 27, 2010January 14, 2013

East Eagle Creek Canyon (Photo of the week)

Painted cliffs descend to a mixture of fir and pine along East Eagle Creek, Eagle Cap Wilderness, Oregon

This week’s photo was taken on a recent backpacking trip to Eagle Cap Wilderness in north-eastern Oregon. The trip was so scenic that I’m still wading through many great photographs, creating a photographic trip report (so stay posted). This shot was taken on the last evening of the trip, as we were working our way down the canyon from the headwaters of East Eagle Creek. The setting sun lit the western-facing cliffs in soft light. I was doubly blessed that in the afternoon, the gray skies broke up into fluffy white clouds, giving the sky a little texture.

This shot is a great example of what RAW capture from a digital SLR can achieve. The most important aspect to keep in mind when finding the right exposure, is to make sure not to blow out your highlights. Once a highlight is blown, there is no information to recover in the image file. To prevent blowing out the highlights, I use the histogram and adjust the exposure compensation up or down as needed. In this case, I was at risk of the clouds being overexposed, so I had to dial back the exposure to -1 EV. The resulting histogram actually showed that I had overexposed the image just a little, but I knew that was okay, because I was shooting RAW. I brought the file into Lightroom, and used the Recovery slider to bring the detail back into the clouds.

Now I was faced with a very dark foreground. The Fill Light slider helped with that, but the sky was still brighter than it appeared to my eyes in real life. Enter one of Lightroom’s best features, the Graduated Filter. This allowed me to darken just the exposure of the sky, bringing the whole image back into balance.

Shooting RAW gives me the most flexibility to make important image processing decisions on my computer after I get home, rather than relying on the camera manufacturer’s automated algorithms to run in camera while processing the RAW into a JPG. If there is one aspect of digital photography I would recommend, it is learning about and understanding the benefits of shooting RAW. If your camera has this setting (even many point-and-shoot cameras now have this), use it. There will be more work to be done after you get home, but the resulting images will make that effort well worth it.

September 20, 2010January 14, 2013

Crater Lake Sunset, Eagle Cap Wilderness (Photo of the week)

The setting sun highlights an outcropping on rock, jutting into the still waters of Crater Lake, Eagle Cap Wilderness, Oregon.

This week’s photo was taken during a recent backpacking trip into Eagle Cap Wilderness in northeastern Oregon. This was our first night, and the end of a long day of driving and a steep uphill climb of 3000 feet. Even before I pressed the shutter release, I knew I wanted to convert this image to black and white. A small rock peninsula was jutting out into the lake from the opposite shore, and I wanted to accentuate the extreme contrast between the brightly lit rocks and the shadowed forest beyond.

As expected, we had the lake to ourselves. Unlike the famous Oregon counterpart of the same name, this “Crater Lake” in the Eagle Cap Wilderness is small, and is not considered a destination unto itself, but a stopping point as the hiker gets deeper into the wilderness. In fact, this lake is not formed in a crater at all, but a dimple in the landscape carved by glaciers of the last ice age. As this lake is fed by snow melt, its water is crystal clear. Although small, this lake definitely is beautiful, which can be at least some comfort on very cold nights.

September 13, 2010January 14, 2013

Mt Lassen From Lake Helen (Photo of the week)

Mt. Lassen is reflected in Lake Helen after a morning snow shower, Lassen National Park, California

This week’s shot was taken on my way out of Lassen Volcanic National Park after a failed attempt at a solo backpacking trip. After trying to wait out the rain in the morning, I finally gave up and headed back home after my long drive only the night before. The rain was strong, and the dark clouds foreshadowed the wicked thunderstorm to come.

However, just as I was passing Lake Helen on the main road through the park, the rain stopped and I decided to take advantage of this brief respite. I parked my car by the lake and jumped out with my gear, hoping to make a few quick exposures before the storm started in again. I had the lake to myself, and I didn’t see a single car pass on the road while I was shooting. Although I knew the temperature had dropped the night before, I was surprised to see fresh snow on the top of the mountain. That was my second fresh snow of the summer, the first being at Crater Lake in July.

This shot is actually a combination to two images – a technique I’ve been using successfully for a couple of years. Traditional photographic technique would have required I use a graduated neutral density filter, in order to darken the exposure of the sky so as not to blow it out when I exposed for the foreground. Shooting digitally from a tripod allows me to create this effect later on the computer using two exposures instead of one. This saves the weight of the extra filters out in the field, and frees me up aesthetically.

First, I expose for the foreground light, and capture the frame as if the entire scene was lit evenly. This will result in an image where the sky (and in this case mountain top) is completely blown out and appears white in the photograph. Next (without moving the camera or tripod), I expose for the sky, rendering the foreground very dark, if not black. I later combine both images as separate layers of the same file in Photoshop, using layer masking and the gradient tool to blend them together, getting the best exposure for the sky and the foreground.

Soon after I got out of my car, it started raining again, and I knew it was time to leave. I’m glad I got this opportunity to shoot this area during a break in the storm – the rain could have easily let up somewhere else (or not at all), and I would have driven out of the park without another shot.

September 8, 2010January 14, 2013

Mt. Lassen Reflection (Photo of the week)

Mt. Lassen is reflected in Manzanita Lake at sunset, Lassen National Park, California

A couple of weeks ago, I drove up to Lassen National Park for a quick solo overnight backpacking trip. I could tell that wilderness camping in the park was not very common by the raised eyebrows from the ranger when I asked for a permit. “Oh. Did you hear about the weather?” she asked.

Uh oh, I thought. That is never a good sign. She went on to tell me that the temperature was expected to drop by 30 degrees and a thunderstorm was moving in, with rain expected by 11 AM of my first day. I decided to give it a go anyway, and see how bad the weather would get. Before setting up camp at the trail head, I drove north to Manzanita Lake for sunset, where I took this week’s photo.

Luckily, I was blessed with great weather that evening, and had a pleasant hike around the lake capturing different views of the mountain reflected in the deep blue water. Mt. Lassen is probably most photogenic from the north, so this lake is a (very) popular spot for campers. I was happy to see some snow still clinging to the north-facing slopes.

After sunset, I drove south to the trail head, set up camp, and was soon asleep. The rain started at 5 AM and picked up from there. I packed up in the rain, tried to wait out the storm in the car, and finally gave up around 8:30. It turned out to be a good decision, because it rained continuously for the next couple of days. With low, fog-like clouds over much of the landscape, photography was rendered pointless. The handful of photos I took at Manzanita Lake turned out to be the bright spot (literally) of my trip. Overall, the trip was not what I was planning, but it is hard to be disappointed with such a beautiful scene.