red alder along the road to Paradise
©2008 Ed Book

G9

Peace

Tags: -print available-, forest, mount rainier, mountains, snow, tree, wa, white, winter

warning danger
©2008 Ed Book

G9

Peace

Tags: -print available-, highway, mount rainier, sign, wa, white, winter

Tatoosh peaks beyond Mazama Ridge - snowstorm
©2008 Ed Book

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Tags: -print available-, forest, high key, landscape, mount rainier, mountains, snow, trees, wa, white, winter

Last week while I was in Mount Rainier National Park, I stopped on the Nisqually River bridge that crosses a short distance below the Nisqually Glacier to make some photographs. A tour bus crossed the bridge and parked to unload it's riders so they could make some photos from the bridge. I watched and then got involved myself...




They didn't speak English and I don't speak Japanese but I gave them some business cards and I hope they contact me so I can ask them to sign model releases so I can use the images.

Peace

Tags: highway, mount rainier, people pics, wa

Paradise with twenty feet of snow - Mount Rainier National Park
©2008 Ed Book

last week on big snowshoes

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Tags: -print available-, high key, landscape, mount rainier, mountains, snow, wa, waterflow, white, winter

©2008 Ed Book

camera: Canon EOS 1Ds MkII
lens: Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM
handheld (yeah, it's heavy)
ISO 1250 1/6400sec @ f/6.3

I saw the eagle and grabbed the camera with lens from the van and didn't have time to more than push the 'doohickey'. The tripod was set up but if I would have bothered to use it I would have missed the bird. Also, I had, without looking, spun the exposure time dial and ISO buttons/dial... I wouldn't have used ISO 1250 or 1/6400 sec exposure had I had time to look at the camera while I was grabbing it - I didn't take my eyes from the bird or wouldn't have found it with the long glass.




Two years ago, at this time of year, at low tide, we could see three dozen bald eagles at this location all at once. This year, this is about the sixth eagle I've seen all season. I hope because they had some other place they wanted to visit and not for declining salmon run.

After the eagle landed in a tree, about a quarter mile away, I set the camera on the tripod and changed shutter speed and ISO to make this image before it left to go up the canal away from me and out of sight.



Peace

lotsa snow up in the mountains. After finishing taxes and meeting with a couple of Olympic College photography classes who came to meet me at our Silverdale Fine Arts gallery, I drove up to Ashford in the Cascades to do some Mount Tahoma Trails trail grooming, a stay at Copper Creek Hut and some xc-skiing and snowshoeing.

I was greeted with a foot of new snow the day I got there and found that the propane for the heat was disconnected so was feeling lucky that I'd included a second sleeping bag in my stuff. Although the temperatures all week were in the twenties, the cabin didn't drop below 39 degrees (good insulation, cooking and heating water on a campstove, a little radiant heating through the windows and body heat - I did prance around a bit to get warm now and again) I slept upstairs on a futon with my two sleeping bags and one of the hut spares if needed and slept toasty... and with a view of Mount Rainier should the clouds part... I did see the mountain one time during the week, and it was one night under the full moon. I set up my 'pocket pal' (Canon G9) camera on the window sill and made a long exposure... one of those, "see, there it is - I don't care if it's not a keeper but I saw it and so had to record it."

After a week of staying alone in the cabin with a few day visitors, most of which I met out along the trail while grooming or skiing, I decided to visit Paradise in the NP just a few miles up the road from Ashford. The snow was deep, and still a lot to accumulate before spring (a few months away up there). I was up there with only a couple other vehicles of campers but had to retreat down from Paradise as I hadn't gotten a camping permit or overnight parking permit before going up the hill. I didn't really mind returning to Ashford for the night for a restaurant meal and couch in the warm MTTA office for the night. The next morning (yesterday), I drove back up to Paradise and couldn't decide between skis or snowshoes and opted for snowshoes because I was afraid of skiing in the deep snow alone. Also, there had been another foot of fresh snow overnight. (the base level of snow currently at Paradise is about twenty feet and that's consolidated (packed) snow.

When you walk across the snow in snowshoes (I use the largest they make) you sink in to the first harder depth where the snow has packed. In this case, I was walking on top, sort of, only sinking in to my knees with the snowshoes. I did sink up to my waist a few times but managed to keep my snowshoes on the whole time.

more later and photos to follow... I need something for my aching shoulder right now.
...and to shake the chill I just got from working in my cold office.

Peace

Current Location: home again

'longtime readers of this journal know that I'm an active volunteer with Mount Tahoma Trails Association as a ski patroller, trail groomer, and co-hut manager for one of the huts (the Yurt) (more accurately I'm yurtmeister's assistant and fill in for him when he's not available).

You may know that there hasn't been public access to the south district of the trail system and three of our huts (two cabins and the yurt) this winter and last because the Tahoma State Forest access bridge across the Nisqually River washing out. (There will be a temporary bridge in place for next winter, if the Department of Ecology's plans stay on track.)

We have been able to access the huts in summer via a long convoluted route via private gated timber lands for maintenance and construction projects. This winter, there have been five expeditions to the huts, not all successful, to check their safety and to remove snow from the roofs. I went on an expedition in January to the Yurt to remove snow from the roof and drove one of the organization's tracked grooming machines to push snow away from the sides of the yurt so snow could slide from the roof. It took us a dozen hours to get through the 18 miles of deep snow cutting fallen trees along the way. Three more expeditions to the yurt fording Catt Creek and brushwacking a mile to a trail and then several miles of skiing to shovel snow.

Then, late last month, we had a report from witnesses staying at Copper Creek hut in the north district (where we do have public access this winter) that there was a large fire lasting several hours in the direction of Snow Bowl hut. Because of weather, we weren't able to see the hut from the distance across the Nisqually Valley or from the High Hut webcam... When we did get a break in weather, I compared earlier webcam images of Snow Bowl hut with the current images and couldn't find the hut. An overflight by Mike Dunn, a longtime friend, confirmed our fears that Snow Bowl hut had burned.

An expedition this past weekend to High Hut, the Snow Bowl site, and The Yurt confirmed that High Hut and The Yurt were safe and that Snow Bowl Hut had burned. We will get more information as time passes and I will post it here as well as other photos I have and will get.

This winter has been unusual in the amount of snow. At this time of year, we normally have about four feet of consolidated (packed) snow at the huts but presently, there is over twelve feet of consolidated snow.

When Mike Dunn made his overflight images, they also flew over High Hut and The Yurt to make some images. Here is one of the images Mike sent me of The Yurt. Remember that The Yurt is two stories high and that we have shoveled snow from it a couple times before this photo was made. Since this image was made, there has been a few more feet of snow in the mountains.


The Yurt from the air
© 2008 Mike Dunn (used with permission)

I'll be going up to Copper Creek hut this week to do some grooming with the new Pisten Bully grooming machine and would like company. Anyone interested in going along, let me know. No equipment needed except sleeping bag and 'ten essentials' I can provide some equipment if you're not so equipped. I intend to drive to a snowmobile to drive it to the snow grooming machine and then drive the grooming machine on the trails and then stay at the Copper Creek cabin overnight or perhaps a couple nights. The views should be excellent of Mount Rainier and the surrounding valleys and mountains and there will be plenty of opportunities to walk, snowshoe, or xc ski... No need for prior experience and I'm not expecting anything strenuous. I may have to ski uphill a mile or so to go get the snowmobile so I won't have to carry my stuff on my back.

Let me know if you're at all interested and we can discuss this further. I hate to go alone but hate not to go at all more than going alone. The trail system season closes at the end of the month and I'll be the only one available to do grooming.


Peace


ok, now back to working on taxes

This month, as featured artist at the Silverdale Fine Arts gallery, I decided to go in a little different direction from my usual printing. I chose to print and frame all macro images. They are archival giclee printed on mouldmade cotton watercolor paper. It was a lot of work printing, matting, and framing forty-some images but I was pleased with my results and here they are as displayed this month.

The artist's reception was Friday and I think a good time was had by all visitors and refreshments were great. As I had gallery duty on Saturday, the reception was extended to all day Saturday too. Thank you to all who attended to show your support of my work.







( a couple more images here )



Peace

Tags: -print available-, about me, macro, silverdale fine arts gallery, wa

Silverdale Fine Arts gallery website

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The Brothers - (named for the Fauntleroy brothers, Edward and Arthur)
Olympic Mountains, as viewed from Nika Trail on the Kitsap Peninsula
Puget Sound, Washington
©2006 Ed Book

'taking a short break from printing (getting ready for displaying new images at our Silverdale Fine Arts gallery in 'Oldtown')

Peace

ps 'climbed it many years ago.

Tags: -print available-, alpenglo, blue, landscape, mountains, olympic mountains, sunset, wa

working on something different a little while ' call it refreshing the palette. I've been optimizing and printing images for my 'featured artist' show next month at the Silverdale Fine Arts gallery ... all new prints and in one theme... I'm quite busy getting everything ready... more about it soon.


Hood Canal and the Olympic Mountains, Washington
©2006 Ed Book

I made this image about a mile from our home on Nika Trail a couple years ago and just picked it at random to optimize before checking back into my project.

(no, the theme of the collection of images isn't landscape)

I'll bet some who keep up with what I post could guess... a subject that's gotten good reviews herebouts on LJ.

Peace

Tags: -print available-, kitsap peninsula, landscape, mountains, olympic mountains, puget sound, sky, sunset, wa, waterflow

in the Olympic Mountains west of here. I had an errand in Sequim and before and after spent some time up in the hills. I drove to the snow and got my van stuck... 'took a couple hours getting unstuck (I was only about thirty feet onto snow from bare roadway but although it was only a couple inches deep at that point, it was ice... as soon as I drove off bare dirt, I decided not to drive to where I might not have room to turn around and so tried to turn around there... but the front wheels dropped a couple inches into a rut and as most full size vans, it couldn't back up with the rear wheels on ice and lower than the front wheels... I had to find a couple logs in the dark under the snow and break them loose from the frozen ground and drag them to the van and then jacked up the van to put them under the front wheels... easy after that but it took about three hours to find and drag the logs...

I was beat by then so climbed into the back of the van and zzzzed till morning. I was going to put on my skis and ski up the road but had to get to Sequim and after returning to the hills afterward didn't feel up to skiing and was expected at home. Too bad because just as I was leaving a snowstorm was coming in and the conditions would be excellent for skiing up the logging roads.

Here's an image of the Dungeness River valley looking toward the Buckhorn Wilderness.

For those who know the area, I made this image on the way to the Zion Mountain trailhead -- where I stopped when I came to deep snow on the road.


Dungeness River Valley and Buckhorn Wilderness - Olympic Mountains, Washington
©2008 Ed Book

Camera: Canon G9

Peace