Bulb Exposure of Mt Sopris and Clouds
While driving across the country in June, I stopped in Carbondale, Colorado to take my annual photograph of Mt Sopris. This time I decided to make the long shadows across the field an abstract, black foreground element. Exposure time was ~4-5 minutes with a 10-stop ND filter to get a little blur in the passing clouds.
Mt Sopris, Shadow, and Clouds (B&W, Bulb), near Carbondale, CO (7″x16″)
Snoqualmie Falls Panorama
Panorama of Snoqualmie Falls- wish I had included a bit more foreground as the bottom of the ravine feels cut off in this one. I’ll have to take another trip out there when it’s more foggy/cloudy so I don’t get that burned out white spot in the sky!
Snoqualmie Falls in Late Winter (Color Panorama #1), Snoqualmie, WA (16″x28″)
Snoqualmie Falls in Black and White
Shooting a few long-exposure photographs of Snoqualmie Falls has been on my bucket list, so I decided to check the location off my list last weekend- rainy/cloudy conditions were in the weather forecast, but the sun started poking through the clouds as I got there. Winter sun is usually a relief in the Pacific Northwest, but not for long-exposure photography.
Snoqualmie Falls in Late Winter (BW #1), Snoqualmie, WA (12″x18″)
Fog and Falls along Talapus Lake Trail
The light took on a silver quality as the fog thickened on my hike down from Talapus Lake so I decided to stop and photograph the stream flowing out of the lake.
Fog, Falls, and Trees near Talapus Lake, Alpine Lakes Wilderness, WA (12″x18″)
Fog, Falls, and Moss near Talapus Lake, Alpine Lakes Wilderness, WA (16″x36″)
Thomas Lakes and Mount Sopris, 2019
Blue hour bulb/ND panorama of snow fields, cirque, and summit of Mt Sopris from Upper Thomas Lake at Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness, White River National Forest. It was hard to get the exposure right as the light was fading- you can probably tell that the panorama gets darker from left to right as I left the exposure times the same for each of the frames in the shot. The second panorama is from the following morning- I used a B&W conversion to try to emphasize the texture of the rocks and clouds.
Upper Thomas Lake and Mt Sopris at Blue Hour (2019),
Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness, Colorado (16″x35″)
Upper Thomas Lake, Mt Sopris, and Morning Clouds (B&W),
Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness, Colorado (16″x40″)
Downed Trees after Winter Storm
Downed, broken trees from a winter storm scattered around Coal Creek and falls near Bellevue, WA.
Coal Creek Falls and Logs, near Bellevue, WA (12″x18″)
Crystal River along CO-133
I stopped to photograph Hayes Creek Falls along Colorado-133 (south of Carbondale, just west of Mount Sopris). Water was barely trickling over the Falls, so I crossed CO-133 and shot a few bulb exposures of the water flowing around the rocks in the Crystal River. Hoping this area recovers from drought and fire season.
Crystal River (Bulb Panorama), near Bears Gulch, CO (16″x54″)
Crystal River (Bulb Single Frame), near Bears Gulch, CO (10″x18″)
Spouting Rock above Hanging Lake, CO
Visiting the same location year after year forces me to try to see the same scene from new perspectives. This summer, I spent more time to the right of the falls taking a few long exposures of the water flowing out of the limestone at Spouting Rock above Hanging Lake.
Spouting Rock (Horizontal #3, Color, 2018), Hanging Lake, Colorado (16″x20″)
Spouting Rock (Vertical #3, Color, 2018), Hanging Lake, Colorado (28″x16″)
Meltwater Stream and Coleman Glacier
I walked up the lateral moraine along Coleman Glacier and stopped to shoot a long-exposure panorama of the meltwaters flowing out of the snow and ice. I liked this composition because it captured the stream, house-sized seracs (chunks of ice in the middle of the panorama above the snow field), and Mt Baker peeking over the ridge and snow field in the background.
Meltwater and Coleman Glacier (#3, Color), Mt Baker Wilderness, Washington (16″x54″)
Falls along Creek near Annette Lake
A single-frame photograph of the falls along the creek running out of Annette Lake in western Washington.
Humpback Falls (Single Frame), Mt. Baker Snoqualmie National Forest, WA (16″x16″)
Falls along Humpback Creek
After hiking up to Annette Lake and Silver Peak, I stopped at the falls along Humpback Creek to photograph the moss, rocks, and water. Clouds had moved in throughout the day, providing nice lighting for a few bulb exposures.
Humpback Falls (#1, Color), Mt. Baker Snoqualmie National Forest, WA (16″x32″)
Silver Peak Summit
Views from the summit of Silver Peak, Cascade Range in early June.
Silver Peak Summit (#1, B&W), Cascade Range, WA (16″x47″)
Silver Peak Summit (#2, Color), Cascade Range, WA (16″x61″)
Franklin Falls, WA
After moving to the Seattle area from southern Arizona last summer, I took a weekend walk up to Franklin Falls to photograph the South fork of the Snoqualmie River as it cascades over a 70-foot cliff. Large falls are always a treat after living in the desert.
Franklin Falls and Rainbow (#2, Color), near Bend, WA. (12″x18″)
Franklin Falls (#3, B&W), near Bend, WA (16″x46″)
Hoh Rainforest Stream, 2017
Nearly 10 years ago, I took a rainy solo backpacking trip up the Hoh River in Olympic National Park. I remember photographing a stream surrounded by emerald green ferns and hanging moss. Late last summer, I hiked up the same trail along the Hoh River and tried to photograph the same subject (but from a new perspective, a decade later). Overcast conditions again provided diffuse light that allowed for even lighting during longer exposures.
Hoh Stream (Panorama #1, 2017), Olympic National Park, WA (42″x16″)
Ring Road Stream and Cliffs, Iceland
Roadside stream cascades over rocks in southern Iceland along the Ring Road.
Cliff, Farm, and Stream (Color #1), southern Iceland (16″x53″)
Svartifoss, Iceland
The cascading waters of Svartifoss slowly eat away at the rock, leaving jumbled piles of basalt in the ravine below. Columnar jointing in basalt flows + waterfall = perfect photography opportunity for a Geoscientist (and thousands of other photographers).
Svartifoss and Columnar Basalt, Vatnajökull National Park,Iceland (16″x36″)
Roadside Falls, East Iceland
The desolate drive along the Ring Road between Mývatn and Egilsstaðir in East Iceland passes through a windswept plateau where golden grasses creep up the steep slopes of hills (first panorama).
On our descent to Egilsstaðir in the Jökuldalur valley, I stopped to photograph the Rjukandi Falls as they poured over cliffs on their way to the Jökulsá a Brú river (second and third panoramas).
Light on Grassy Hillsides on the Plateau (#2), East Iceland (16″x81″)
Yst Í Rjúkandi Falls (#1), East Iceland (16″x35″)
Yst Í Rjúkandi Falls (#2), East Iceland (28″x16″)
Dettifoss, Iceland
At 44m tall and 100m wide, Dettifoss is a spectacularly large curtain of water pouring over a shelf of rock in northern Iceland. Sediment turns the waters (from the melting Vatnajökull glacier) of the Jökulsá á Fjöllum river a strange grey. Mist billowing up from the canyon makes bulb panorama exposures near the falls difficult to shoot (the camera gets wet quickly, and the lens gets covered in water spots). To give a sense of the size of the Dettifoss, I also included a single-frame bulb photograph of the opposite bank (note the person in the red rain jacket standing on the rocks above the falls)
Dettifoss and Jökulsá á Fjöllum (Bulb #4), northern Iceland (16″x66″)
Dettifoss (Single Frame, Bulb #2), northern Iceland (16″x16″)
Selfoss, Iceland
Selfoss pours over and through jumbled basalt columns a few hundred meters upstream from Dettifoss, the most powerful waterfall in Europe. Selfoss and Dettifoss are both formed by the Jokulsa a Fhollum river in northern Iceland as it flows from the glacier Vatnajokull’s to the Arctic sea to the north.
Selfoss, northern Iceland (12″x18″)
Goðafoss Part 2, Iceland
After photographing Goðafoss from the cliffs on the north side of the river, I set my tripod up on the south and took a few bulb exposures looking down at the falls. This panorama is one of my favorites from the morning: constant mist billowing up from the cascading water changing into misty silk in the bulb exposure.
Looking down on Goðafoss from South (Bulb), northern Iceland (16″x48″)
Goðafoss, Iceland
Rivers and streams flowing down to the ocean create a tremendous number of waterfalls in Iceland. On my trip around the ring road, I stopped to photograph one famous set of waterfalls – Goðafoss – where a river pours over a shelf of rock creating five falls of various sizes. Driving rain kept me in the car for a few minutes, but the cloud passed and I was able to photograph the falls from a few angles without getting my camera too wet. I first took a few photographs after rock hopping to the cliff at the top of the falls (first photo below- no ND filter). I then walked down stream and set my tripod up so I could take a bulb exposure looking back up at the falls (second panorama- with ND filter). Note the dark rain cloud that is looming in the upper right corner of most of my photographs on this day.
Looking down on Goðafoss, northern Iceland (16″x54″)
Goðafoss (Bulb #2), northern Iceland (16″x54″)
Ólafsvík Waterfall, Iceland
On Snæfellsnes peninsula, streams flowing off the flanks of the mountain cascade over basalt cliffs, forming a series of falls in the shifting clouds.
Ólafsvík Falls (#3), Ólafsvík, Iceland (16″x40″)
Öxarárfoss, Iceland
After visiting Gulfoss we drove west back towards Reykjavik and stopped for a quick walk to Öxarárfoss, a waterfall in Þingvellir National Park. The falls cascade over basalt cliffs into the fault line/ravine along the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that separates the North American and the Eurasian tectonic plates. As a geoscientist and a photographer, this location was particularly exciting to visit for me. I clearly wasn’t the only one who wanted to see the falls- I ‘had to’ sit and just enjoy the view while waiting for a group of photographers to move on to their next stop before I could shoot panoramas of the falls from a variety of angles without interruption.
Öxarárfoss and Rocks, Þingvellir National Park, Iceland (18″x44″)
Gulfoss, Iceland Part II
After photographing Gulfoss from below, I walked up the stairs and out onto the plateau above the canyon to photograph the river as it enters the falls.
Gulfoss Plateau, southwest Iceland (18″x58″)
Luke Parsons Photography 