Who doesn’t like a sunset. These are two sunsets I recently came across while going through some of my old files. One was from Antarctica and the other was from Olympic National Park and 2nd Street beach. They just go to show some of the looks a sunset can make. I just returned from the Palouse and there were some gorgeous layered sunsets from that trip. I’ll post them here soon. Please enjoy these just for what they are sunsets.
Olympic National Park is a relatively short drive from Seattle and offers some amazing landscapes. It is special because it has a diverse micro climate. This creates an different weather pattern in various parts of the park. One part of the park is a rain forrest and they get a ton of rain. This is where your camera will fool you because you’ll never see greens like there are in ONP. This is a true I found along a hiking trail with some very nice light hitting it. IT was shot with a Phase One 60 mega pixel camera.
I enjoy photographing in Olympic National Park a lot. There is so much to shoot there. This image was made at the 2nd Beach location. It’s a short walk through the woods that dumps you onto this wonderful beach. Hang around for sunset and you’ll be treated to something special. This is an image made with a Phase One IQ160 with an ALPA camera. I did one exposure then processed it out at 2 stops over and under plus normal. It was the taken into PhotoMatix and tone mapped. What this does is recover the detail in highlights and shadows and then blends them together. A bit surreal and real at the same time.
About two years ago visited Olympic National Park for a week of photography with some very close friends. It was great week with a lot on nice images. This picture is indicative of the week. Lots of waterfalls and lots of green.
One of the most photographed beaches on the west coast is second beach in Olympic National PArk. It’s a short hike to the beach and once there you’ll understand why so many people shoot it. I wanted to try and get somethings a bit different. I placed the rock in the foreground and as the sunset, I made some captures. I knew I wanted to catch the waves in a particular way. I also knew that since I was shooting a Phase One IQ camera I would have a wide enough dynamic range retain details in highlights and shadows.
This is a shot made in Olympic National Park. One of my favorite National Parks, mainly because there is so much diverse landscape to shoot. I made this on Hurricane Ridge and off of a fire road I ventured to travel on. The sky was so blue that day and the color looked so incredible. Once I switched it over to BW though the image just jumped. Shot with a Phase One P65+.
Along the Washington and Oregon coast lines there are some classic places to take magnificent images of the coast and stacks and crashing surf. One of the more iconic places is Second Beach in Olympic National Park. A little bit of a hike through a well marked trail deposits you at this super location. Sunset being the best time to be there. I wanted my images to be different than others I saw before of this location. This was shot with an IQ180 and then processed out with one exposure to six levels at one stop increments. So I had a 3 stop over and under and one normal from one shot. The Phase One camera takes an incredible image with 12 plus stops dynamic range. So in one image I was able to hold all details in highlights and shadows. It’s quite the moment when you look at the histogram of an image like this expecting clipping on highlights and shadows and the Phase One back shows a very nice histogram with toes at both ends. This allowed me to know I had the information to produce an image like this. Then using Photomatix I processed them together to make an HDR. I made adjustments so it didn’t appear to grungy or fake. I retained enough detail in the rocks but didn’t overdue it. I decided on a gold tone cast as that is how I remembered this image. After the image was processed and saved I opened it using NIK Viveza and did some desaturation in the clouds and darkened some corners. Finally I saved it, flattened it and then did a JPEG at a smaller dimension so I could post it on my blog and FaceBook. There were number of images from this one nights shoot that were keepers and this was one. I like the rock in the foreground and texture the water makes. Hope you enjoy it. This weekend I will make a 30×40 inch print.
One of the most beautiful National Parks in America is Olympic National Park a short drive from Seattle. This was taken on the western part in the Hoh Rain Forrest. Shot with a Phase One IQ180 and a long shutter then worked a bit in post processing. A bit if a different look that works.
Part of the Olympic National Park runs along the coastline of Washington. Much of it is hard to access and some require a bit of a hike. This shot though is available from a parking lot. The whole coastline from Washington south though Oregon is just an amazing place to take photographs. I’ll be doing a workshop in olympic National Park this september. This will be one of the places we go.
I keep coming back to Olympic National Park. Have done a number of trips there and I will be leading a workshop there this fall. While most people see this ridge called Hurricane Ridge from the parking lot, I decided to see a ridge I saw off in the distance and thus traveled a very rough road out to a farther ridge. along the way on the top of the ridge were testaments to the battle trees fight to make their stance on this ridge. There are small hearty evergreens with deep roots and then there are the ones like in this photo that fought the battle and lost. Now they are at the mercy of the winds and nature and while dead take on a whole new look as natures wears them down.