p.1 #1 · Artist's Point, Washington State, early October
I meant to post these several weeks ago, but forgot! Here are some images taken at Artist’s Point in early October this year. Artist’s Point is between Mount Shuksan and Mount Baker in Washington State. These images were taken towards the end of almost three months of sunshine in the Seattle area (yes, it does happen once a decade or so). I wasn’t looking for clouds, and did not mind the challenge of the large dynamic range midday. All images were taken with a Nikon D800:
p.1 #2 · Artist's Point, Washington State, early October
Very nice Keith. You have similar subject tastes to mine.
I have one question for you - what do you do for white balance for shots under full sun blue skies? I find I have to add some warmth to my images when taken under a full blue sky to offset the bit of blue hue.
p.1 #3 · Artist's Point, Washington State, early October
John,
Thanks. Regarding WB, first off, I shoot raw. The color temperature that the camera (currently a Nikon D800) suggests is almost always consistent with how I remembered seeing things. Very rarely (probably less than 5% of the time) however, I will make a slight adjustment in WB. Under very blue skies (a rarity here), I will occassionally warm things up a bit, as you suggest. For the images above, I did not make any changes to the WB settings as they came up in Lightroom. However, now that I am looking at the images again, perhaps I should have warmed up the last image a bit. But it is surprising how blue glaciers in shadow appear. The other three images look, to my eye, like how I remember seeing things that day. Thanks for taking the time to look and comment!
p.1 #4 · Artist's Point, Washington State, early October
Very nice. I can't decide between #1 and 2. I hear ya about the rain. Here in PDX we had 80 sunny days out of 81, and now they are saying we might have the 5th wettest October on record - and it didn't even start raining until the 2nd week.. Oh well, wont stop me from shooting
p.1 #6 · Artist's Point, Washington State, early October
really like the first two, from Huntoon Point. the tarns out there make for some nice foreground interest, and Shuksan herself is a great subject any time. i've taken a number of shots from Artist Ridge trail... marvelous views!
p.1 #7 · Artist's Point, Washington State, early October
Dustin, Jim, and Winston, thanks for looking and commenting. Much appreciated. Dustin, sounds like PDX had been similar to SEA. I need to get out in the rain to shoot more often! Otherwise, I may have to wait until next July 5th!
Keith W.
p.1 #8 · Artist's Point, Washington State, early October
Keith these are very nice indeed. I must have been up there around the same time. I was there on Sunday October 7th. I too shoot with the D800. I have a shot from up at Artist Point with a reflection of Mt Shuksan but it is a different body of water than yours. If you don't mind where exactly was this taken. Thanks.
p.1 #9 · Artist's Point, Washington State, early October
Jim, thanks. I guess the name of the area is Huntoon Point. It is a short walk from the artist's point parking area - the walk that stays on the ridge and heads towards Shuksan. I was there on October 3rd, I think. From looking at your website, it looks like you were on the same short trail that I took. The two tarns in the images are the last tarns (of three, or four at most) before the ridge drops back down towards Baker lake. It's funny that I have been in that area many times, but had never taken that short trail, thinking that the image opportunities were better elsewhere. When I go back, in following years, I will hit this same trail late in the afternoon or early evening. It is such a beautiful area.
Keith W.
ps. the last two images were taken from a knoll above the artist's point parking lot
p.1 #10 · Artist's Point, Washington State, early October
Thanks for the information Keith. I grew up in Bellingham and did lots of hiking around the area. I live in Seattle now but it is always great to go back to that area. Big difference between then and now is the number of people that visit the area. Artist Point was so busy the day we went I was lucky to get a parking place at all. We have camped at Lake Anne many times.
p.1 #12 · Artist's Point, Washington State, early October
there are a number of small lakes up in that area... there's Picture Lake, which is the iconic view of Mt Shuksan with reflections that a bazillion people shoot every year. it's a helluva view, and i have several large prints i took there myself. and there's the smaller lake next to the chalet, but it's not as scenic. a little farther up toward Artist Point, just below the visitor's center, are the Bagley Lakes, which are basically just meltwater ponds, but they're fairly good sized, and if you hike down into the basin, you can get some nice compositions there. there's another pond right at the visitor center parking lot, that's not named, but you can sometimes get nice reflection shots of Table Mountain. and then up at the top, there are lots of little tarns. most are out at Huntoon Point, but sometimes there are small ones even along the side of the Artist Ridge trail just past the parking lot. i like the tarns at Huntoon Point, because with the right angles - like Keith got in the OP - you can get some really nice reflections, and they can offer some nice foreground interest.
