Window in Clouds at Hurricane Ridge
A second photograph of a mountain poking through clouds near Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park, WA.
Tree Silhouette, Clouds, and Mountain, Olympic National Park, WA (10″x10″)
Low Clouds over Hurricane Ridge
Mountain poking through clouds near Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park, WA.
Tree Silhouette, Clouds, and Mountain, Olympic National Park, WA (10″x10″)
Clouds over Olympic Range from Hurricane Ridge
I visited Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park for the first time back in August – unfortunately many of the trails were closed for management/removal of mountain goats (via helicopter!). Even though I wasn’t able to hike around as much as I may have liked, the small loop trails provided fantastic views of the clearing clouds over the surrounding mountains and hillsides.
Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center and Clouds, Olympic National Park, WA (10″x18″)
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″)
Coleman Glacier
I am used to hiking to near 13,000 feet in Wyoming to get on blue ice, so I’ve been trying to take advantage of the relatively easy access to low-elevation glaciers in Washington State. A few weekends ago, I drove to Mt. Baker and hiked up to Heliotrope Ridge and Coleman Glacier. I stacked three horizontal panoramas to try to capture the full view of the crevasses, seracs, and ice falls, but it’s still hard to get a sense of the size of the mountain and flowing ice from a series of photographs.
Coleman Glacier and Mt Baker (#5, Color), Mt Baker Wilderness, Washington (32″x61″)
Ice and Sand at Jökulsárlón, Iceland
Icebergs from the retreating Breiðamerkurjökull calve into Jökulsárlón, where they are carried out to the ocean. The wind and waves then push the melting chunks of ice up onto the black sands of ‘Diamond Beach’ (Jökulsárlón Ice Beach). This is another one of those sweet spots in Iceland where climate and geology combine to make a perfect location to photograph.
Jökulsárlón Lagoon (Single Frame #1), East Iceland (12″x18″)
Jökulsárlón Lagoon (Single Frame #3), East Iceland
Jökulsárlón Sand and Ice (Single Frame #6), East Iceland
Jökulsárlón, Iceland
Blue-grey icebergs from Breiðamerkurjökull are scattered across the surface of Jökulsárlón. After a few test photographs of the glacial lake, I noticed that I had to keep the exposure length under ~10 seconds, or the icebergs appear blurred as the cold wind pushes the ice slowly across the lake.
Jökulsárlón (Bulb Panorama #2), East Iceland (16″x66″)
Great St. Bernard Pass
I spent a few days this summer visiting my maternal great grandfather’s home town in the mountains north of Aosta, Italy. On my way back to Switzerland, I walked up the back of the “Colle di Gran San Bernardo” and took a few photographs of the clouds as they gathered over the jagged peaks and glaciers of the Alps. I need to visit this place again- I am accustomed to thin air and a long approach to see glaciers near 13,000 feet in Wyoming, but the ice in the Alps is much lower and often easier to reach.
Window of Clouds over St. Bernard Pass, near Valais, Switzerland (16″x59″)
Luke Parsons Photography 