A mild visual puzzle found. I think it is good to make photos that present the viewers with a bit of a challenge, make them think, shake up their preconceptions just a bit.

Tags:   snow square Hasselblad film Kodak Tri-X b&w Oregon landscape Mt. Hood white Blue Moon Camera

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I had it in mind to sit and write some stuff out with this post tonight, but the evening has found me utterly exhausted. I have been hampered these past few days with a nasty cold that has slowed me down and work has been particularly grueling. Even my teeth are exhausted, and they have hardly had to do anything today it seems. So instead of writing, I will leave you with an image that doesn't need to have much said for it at all.

I particularly love the shades of this image, that and the shadow on the mountain cast by that lenticular. This was a pretty amazing night. And yes, I came back from it totally exhausted too but at least I had exposed film to show for it. Then again, the fruit of my endeavors tonight at least will be a Holga show. So it all is for something.

Tags:   Mt. Hood lenticular cloud Pentax 6x7 film Kodak Tri-X alpine mountain landscape night midnight full moon Oregon Pacific Northwest Blue Moon Camera

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From the hike I did the Sunday before yesterday with Erik and Scott. Coming down the mountain a bit after midnight we were graced with a pretty spectacular lenticular cloud that we could watch expand and contract, in some cases seeming to loom across the entire sky and in others looking like it was going to break up and blow away. Regardless, we stopped a couple of times to make more photos. This was from our last pause, right before reaching the parking lot. I had so many images of the mountain already (15-20, the joys of using medium format film) that I decided to step back and with the last frame on my Holga made this image of Scott working on his own photos. On more occasions than not these days, I find landscapes become infinitely more interesting with people in them.

Tags:   Holga square film Kodak Tri-X Mt. Hood Oregon Pacific Northwest landscape night midnight lenticular cloud alpine snow winter dark plastic camera Holga 120FN Blue Moon Camera

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I had to return the Hasselblad. I had it for the better part of a year - and what a good year that was with that camera - but when your boss asks to have his camera back, well.... you give him his camera back. I did get it out for one last trip though. I went up the White River Canyon with Erik and Scott on a midnight snowshoeing expedition. The conditions were perfect: full moon, clear skies, not much wind. Exposures times were surprisingly fast, which allowed for more exposed film than was probably necessary. And then on our hike down a giant lenticular cloud enveloped the mountain as a parting gift. So the trip back was broken up by several more stops and much more exposed film on my part.

Tags:   Mt. Hood night square film Hasselblad mountain snow winter stars Oregon landscape Pacific Northwest alpine Blue Moon Camera

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So where did I leave off? Oh yeah, tromping and traipsing around the forest in the middle of the night.

That was a good stop in that grove of trees, but my real goal was to see Mt. Hood. So I packed up my gear and got to climbing again. The climb up above Mirror Lake was pretty awesome after dark. I could see the glow of Portland on the horizon, backlighting other ridges in the Mt. Hood Forest. And whenever there was a break in the trees I could see countless stars twinkling overhead.

And suddenly I came out on top of the ridge. I knew I was there because... well this was the view. I had to just stand there for a few moments without even touching my cameras to soak it in. I imagine this view is impressive during the day, but at night it is magical. I knew I was going to do a longer star trail image so I figured I would get some digital star field photos out of the way first.

Begin minor rant: What is it with modern lenses that they now focus beyond infinity? I know there must be a decent reason, but from my end of things, a photographer at night trying to get stars in focus, it is ridiculous. If you are going to make something that will not work automatically in every situation, it seems a good idea to at least make it decently easy to use manually, and having the focus throw go beyond infinity certainly does not make focusing there in the dark easy. At all. So I was pulling 15 second exposures. Checking the back of the camera. Out of focus. Rotate focus a hair and another 15 second exposure. Still out of focus. Rotate, expose, check. Still a dud. Good thing it was just "digital". Took me about five minutes of this game to get infinity. I can sort of understand this with a zoom lens.... sort of. But this was a prime 50mm f1.4. Inexcusable if you ask me. Especially considering I pulled out the Hasselblad, clipped it into the tripod and rotated that Zeiss lens to the end of its throw, and you know what? Infinity. First try. A fifty year old lens showing up that Canon lens. Kind of sad. Also there seems to be a big loss of sharpness with this lens at 1.4. Granted, I expected that, but my Nikkor 50mm f1.4 is so much sharper than this wide open, and it is also 20 years old. I am not saying older is better. I am just wondering why lens manufacturers have seemed to have forgotten how to build lenses properly. Don't even ask about the chromatic aberration. :-p End minor rant.

Nevertheless, I overcame my technical ummm limitations and got a few sharp star fields that I was pleased with and then set up the Hasselblad to let an hour long exposure rip. I also had to put on a fleece as the constant wind was chilling me in my sweat soaked t-shirt. Then I pulled out my sleeping bag, set up my overnight pack against the rocks to give me something to lean up against and tented the sleeping bag over me and just stared at the stars and listened to the winds incessant stories of old mountains and longer spans of time. I also told myself I was NOT going to fall asleep. How could I? The stars were amazing. I could see the Milky Way with my bare eyes. The rocks were pokey, and the wind chilled me where ever it crept around the sleeping bag. So imagine my surprise when what felt like 15 minutes later my one hour alarm went off. I was tempted to stay up there the rest of the night, with just my cameras and the stars, until sunrise. But the sky was clear and sunrise was not promising a whole lot. That and I wanted to save something for another trip. ;-)

The hike down went pretty quick. That mountain lion came back to stalk me no fewer than three times... or so I told myself. But I made it to the trailhead without incident, and back to Portland (stuck once again in road construction) by 5 or so.

Phew. In summary, I can think of few better ways to miss a good night's sleep.

I turn in the roll tomorrow that has the star trail on it, so perhaps that image will be making an appearance soon too.

Tags:   stars Mt. Hood mountain alpine Oregon Pacific Northwest digital star field night starry dark Zeb Andrews photography twinkle Blue Moon Camera

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