Archive for October, 2008
Our native Larch is a tree I don’t see in gardens very often. All summer it’s a soft green, but in the autumn it turns brilliant gold for a short period before dropping its needles for the winter.
This larch is in Cynthia Krieble’s Ellensburg, Washington garden. It’s right out front where everyone passing by on the sidewalk or street can see it in a border of mixed conifers, drought-tolerant perennials, and grasses. Other plants visible in the photo include red-twig dogwood, Russian sage, and a juniper. Cynthia is an artist who gardens like she paints, mixing colors and textures in a varied palette. You can see some of her work at Linda Hodges Gallery.
I made the photo this afternoon when the sun peeked out from the thin, high clouds that moved in today. At this time of year the sun never gets very high in the sky, so even mid-afternoon light is low and dramatic. Backlighting enhances the texture and color in the needles. With the sun at my back the larch, while still attractive, was not nearly as exciting.
This was my fourth visit to Cynthia’s garden. Photos from the others are at Inland Northwest Gardening.
October 28 2008 | Gardens and Native Plants and Photography | No Comments »
Last month I was down in Portland for the annual Garden Writers Association symposium. I took time on the morning afterward to spend a few hours exploring and photographing in the International Rose Test Garden. There are a huge number of roses in the garden, many of them looking very nice in late September. But one stood out to me that day — a shrub rose called ‘Raven’.
What struck me was the pattern of the petals. Neither too full nor a single, I liked the way the individual petals curved around and formed nice patterns in each blossom. The bushes were covered with lots of these very dark red velvety flowers.
I’ve never seen ‘Raven’ in the garden center, but it’s one I’d definitely seek out if I decide there’s room in our garden for a new rose.
Now that we’re almost to the end of October, the roses are about finished. But it’s nice to think back and remember some of the blooms from earlier in the season.
October 26 2008 | Gardens and Photography | 1 Comment »
The Pacific Northwest isn’t known for fall color the way New England is, but we still get our share of brilliant yellows and oranges. The color here is from Bigleaf Maples (Acer macrophyllum) growing on a steep hillside above the Baker River. I shot from across the river with a 70-200mm lens and worked over the image in Lightroom to improve the contrast and saturation.
It’s getting toward the end of the foliage season, and most of the maples around Baker Lake and along the Baker River trail today had already lost most of their leaves. The Vine Maples were nearlybare, with just a few lingering leaves showing pale color. I’d hoped there would be more interesting foliage when I set out for a hike today, but it was mostly disappointing photographically.
All was not lost, as it was a very pleasant day for a walk in the woods. The clouds lifted mid-day and the sunshine highlighted the moss-covered tree trunks. I found a couple of species of coral fungi and maybe identified one of them in my copy of David Arora’s Mushroom Demystified. There were some other mushrooms along the way, but mostly past their prime or so small as to not be particularly interesting.
At the end of the day I drove up to Baker Hot Springs to see if it had been dug out after being filled in by a winter storm a few years ago. The pool was back to similar size to what I remembered and I sat and soaked a while before heading home.
October 23 2008 | Native Plants and Photography | No Comments »
This afternoon was a glorious blue-sky sunny autumn day with temperatures in the low 50s. Perfect for a bike ride around Lummi Peninsula. I chose to ride counter-clockwise for the first time in many visits to this regular loop, so I came back along Lummi Shore Road. The view from the road is across Bellingham Bay to Mount Baker. I was pedaling briskly, but able to enjoy the spectaular view of the mountain at the same time. The water was nearly totally calm, unusual for the bay, and the sky was a cloudless rich blue.
When I got home I decided I needed to return with my camera for the late afternoon light. I parked at one of the higher points along the road so I could look down on the water as well as across the bay to Bellingham and the mountain. Unfortunately, by 5:45 pm the sky had some high cirrus clouds and light haze over the mountain. The view just wasn’t as dramatic as I had envisioned. Always the optimist, I set up and made a series of exposures as the sun went down. I shot with my 70-200mm lens, coupled with a 2x teleconverter for many frames (including the one here).
I waited a while after the sun left the mountain to see if the sky would get interesting in that time between the sun dropping below the horizon and darkness. The clouds over Lummi Island were OK, but not spectacular. Over Baker there was nothing interesting going on so I headed home.
The frame here has benefitted from some work in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop to enhance the color of the sky and improve the contrast of the forested hills and the city buildings. It’s closer to what I envisioned than the raw camera capture.
And the bike ride? I set a new personal speed record for the year, averaging 18.9 mph over about 32.5 miles. Much of the time I was riding 21-22 mph on the flatter sections of road. There are no big hills, just a few gentle upgrades on the route.
October 22 2008 | Bicycling and Photography | No Comments »
Mid-October is getting toward the end of the good weather in the North Cascades. I took advantage of a nice day today to head up toward Mt. Baker to photograph the mountain and the rugged crevasses and seracs on the lower portion of the Coleman glacier. I made this self-portrait at the high point of my hike, a bit over 5900 feet elevation. The crevasse I’m stradling wasn’t very deep so I felt comfortable going out on the glacier by myself without an ice axe. However, I didn’t go any farther than where I’m standing.
The weather wasn’t as good as I’d hoped for. The blue sky in the photo was only in evidence for a short time about 3 pm, but it couldn’t have been timed any better. Most of the time the sky was a hazy white with thin, high clouds signaling an approaching front which will probably bring rain on Monday.
The Coleman glacier, which flows north off Mt. Baker and terminates into Glacier Creek, is heavily crevassed and the lower portion has substantial seracs. A climbing class of more than a dozen students was busy practicing their ice climbing on the glacier below me. I tried that once, in about the same place, and decided ice climbing isn’t for me. Maybe I gave up too easily and I should try again.
Several creeks cross the Heliotrope Ridge trail as it winds its way up toward the glacier. The higher elevation crossings were challenging because of ice on the rocks. In mid-summer the challenge is huge water flows from melting snow, but that wasn’t the issue today. In one case I threw a bunch of small stones at the ice to break it off the rocks so I could have a firm place to stand mid-stream. I really didn’t want to get wet or injured.
All told, I hiked about 6 miles with 2300 feet of elevation gain and loss today. If I hadn’t gone to the mountains I could have gone kayaking, bicycling, or worked in the garden.
October 19 2008 | Fitness and Photography | No Comments »
