Sandia Mountain Winter Storm, Part 5
After shooting a several panoramas, I used my ND filter to make a few long-exposure photographs of the passing winter storm. I shot a series, ranging from 30 seconds to 6-7 minutes. There wasn’t enough blur in the clouds at <30-60 seconds, and at >3-4 minutes the clouds started losing most of their texture/blur, so I decided to share the 61s and 91s exposures.
Sandias and Winter Clouds (ND Single Frame 61s, 2021, Color), Cibola National Forest, New Mexico (15″x22.5″)
Sandias and Winter Clouds (ND Single Frame 91s, 2021, Color), Cibola National Forest, New Mexico (15″x22.5″)
ND Awards 2021 Entries
Spent a bit of time thinking this weekend about my ND Awards entries for 2021- decided on the below images:
Seagulls on Dock in Fog
Seagulls on wooden dock in fog at Lake Washington. From November, 2019, 40s exposure time.
Gulls on Wooden Dock (B&W), Seattle, WA (10″x18″)
Asheville River Arts District at Sunset
Passing clouds over industrial structures and the French Broad River in Asheville, NC.
Passing Clouds over Warehouse and Tower, Asheville, NC (15″x22″)
Passing Clouds over Bridge and French Broad River, Asheville, NC (13″x22″)
Black Mountain Tower and Warehouse
Re-visited this industrial park in Black Mountain, NC to shoot passing storm clouds in the late evening.
Passing Clouds over Tower in Industrial Park, Black Mountain, NC (15″x22″)
Passing Clouds over Warehouse in Industrial Park, Black Mountain, NC (15″x22″)
Black Mountain Tower at Night
Tower in an industrial park in Black Mountain, NC near the Black Mountain Ciderworks. 122 second exposure.
Tower in Industrial Park at Night, Black Mountain, NC (12″x18″)
Streaming Clouds over Mt Mitchell after Sunset
Clouds streaming over Mt Mitchell as the sun’s light fades from the Blue Ridge Mountains. Exposure time was ~5 minutes to allow blurring of the moving clouds.
Mt Mitchell and Streaming Clouds after Sunset, Blue Ridge Mountains, NC (9″x16″)
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″)
Warped Wooden Dock, Part II
Long exposure of warped wooden dock along the shores of Lake Washington.
Warped Dock at Stan Sayres Memorial Park (B&W, #1), Seattle, WA (10″x18″)
Warped Wooden Dock and Fog at Stan Sayres Memorial Park
Long exposure of passing morning rain clouds and fog over a warped wooden dock along the shores of Lake Washington.
Warped Dock and Fog at Stan Sayres Memorial Park (B&W), Seattle, WA (12″x18″)
Angled Warped Dock and Fog at Stan Sayres Memorial Park (Color), Seattle, WA (12″x18″)
Dock and Fog at Stan Sayres Memorial Park
Long exposure of passing morning rain clouds and fog over Lake Washington at Stan Sayres Memorial Park.
Dock and Fog at Stan Sayres Memorial Park (B&W), Seattle, WA (12″x12″)
Rocks and Fog at Stan Sayres Memorial Park
Morning rain clouds and fog over Lake Washington at the jetty along Stan Sayres Memorial Park.
Rocks and Fog at Stan Sayres Memorial Park (B&W), Seattle, WA (10″x18″)
Winter Storm Approaches Westport Jetty
Long exposure of winter storm coming in from the Pacific at Westport Jetty near Twin Harbors State Park, Washington.
Westport Jetty and Clouds at Sunset (B&W), Westport, WA (10″x18″)
Washington Coastline in Winter
Stumps and logs embedded in the sand at Twin Harbors State Park, Washington.
Stump in Waves (#3, B&W), Twin Harbors State Park, WA (12″x12″)
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″)
Stan Sayres Boat Launch at Sunrise
Bulb exposures of passing clouds reflecting morning light at the Stan Sayres Boat Launch in late August.
Stan Sayres Dock at Sunrise (Angle), Seattle, WA (12″x18″)
Stan Sayres Dock at Sunrise (Side), Seattle, WA (12″x18″)
Lake Washington Sunrise Bulb Exposure
Back in late August, I decided to head down to the Lake Washington shore to photograph a new subject before sunrise. Passing morning clouds provided a nice linear structure in the sky for these 3-5 minute exposures.
Submerged Tree Branches in Lake Washington at Sunrise (BW),
Seattle, WA (12″x16″)
Submerged Tree Branches in Lake Washington at Sunrise (Color),
Seattle, WA (12″x18″)
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″)
Hanging Lake, Summer 2019
Last summer was quite dry and hot on the Western Slope of the Rockies in Colorado- smoky air from forest fires and streams and waterfalls that trickled instead of gushed. This summer, I took my annual walk up to Hanging Lake in Glenwood Canyon and photographed the falls- there was much more water, with falls spouting out of the cliffs in multiple places. Here is a 30-second exposure of the falls at Hanging Lake.
Hanging Lake and Falls (Bulb Exposure, 2019),
Glenwood Canyon, White River National Forest, Colorado (11″x18″)
Lake Washington Bulb Exposures, Part 6
We had a relatively rare mid-summer rain pass through this weekend, so I took advantage of the darker skies and headed out to Madison Park to take a few bulb exposures of the passing clouds over Lake Washington. Unfortunately, as I set up to shoot, the sun started poking through the clouds, so even stacking a 10-stop ND filter on a polarizing filter only allowed for ~60-75 second exposures. I’ve found that I need a good two to five minutes to really get the water to flatten out in these photographs.
Madison Park Pier and Summer Rain Clouds (#5, B&W), Seattle, WA (12″x18″)
Rialto Beach Bulb Exposures, Part 5
Long-exposure photographs from the cloudy morning hike back to the car at Rialto Beach in Olympic National Park, WA.
Waves Washing around Rock, Olympic National Park, WA (12″x18″)
Waves, Rocks, and Black Sand, Olympic National Park, WA (12″x18″)
Rialto Beach Bulb Exposures, Part 3
Single-frame long exposure photograph of sea stacks and Hole-In-The-Wall at sunset along Rialto Beach in Olympic National Park, WA.
Light Rays over Sea Stacks, Olympic National Park, WA (12″x18″)
Tide around Rocks at Sunset, Olympic National Park, WA (12″x18″)
Rialto Beach Bulb Exposures, Part 2
Long-exposure panorama (and a single-frame long exposure) of sea stacks and Hole-In-The-Wall at sunset along Rialto Beach in Olympic National Park, WA.
Sea Stacks and Hole-In-The-Wall at Sunset, Olympic National Park, WA (16″x34″)
Sea Stacks and Low Tide at Sunset (#3, Color), Olympic National Park, WA (12″x18″)
Luke Parsons Photography 