Last year was not one of my most productive years for landscape photography. The weather in Southeast Alaska during the summer gave me very few photo opportunities and overall I focused more on shooting wildlife. I still prefer the results of my medium format film cameras for shooting landscape images, but admit that it is becoming much more difficult for me to spend the money on film when I own 2 digital SLRs. I have become very selective about pushing the button when it costs me over $1 per image. Fortunately, I still find a scene once in awhile that justifies the investment.

In late August, I took advantage of the late season wildflower bloom at Mount Rainier National Park to create this image, “Spray Park Wildflowers“. I have hiked up to Spray Park at least once per summer for the last 8 years. I have had mixed results creating the photograph that I have envisioned, so I keep going back hoping for something more dramatic. It is only a 6 mile round-trip hike, so I can leave Seattle in the afternoon and be up in the meadows in time to photograph the sunset. After the shoot is over, I hike back down to my truck with a headlamp in the dark. On this attempt, the lupine and paintbrush were the best that I had seen in the last 5 years and there were some nice clouds up in the sky. I created this image using my Pentax 67II, 45mm lens, Singh-Ray LB Polarizer, Singh-Ray 2-stop Hard GND filter, Gitzo Basalt tripod, Acratech Ultimate ballhead, Fuji Velvia 50 film at f22 and 2 seconds.

What a bummer. I ended up not getting any better and unable to dive due to my breathing difficulties, so I came home. I went to the doctor the other day and got some medications. The most positive thing that I have to say about the whole ordeal, is that I overcame my fear of flying to Asia for only 2 weeks. I think that I handled all the travel pretty well, in spite of getting sick. I had whatever I got here in Seattle before I left, because my family all has it at the same time. We are all trying to get better in time to take out family trip to Bocas del Toro, Panama in 2 weeks.

In other news, I have been seeing some new visitor traffic from Webshots now that they are featuring some of my images in their Pro catalog. They will be featuring many more of my images in the weeks ahead. Please have a look around my website and I hope that you enjoy viewing more of my photography.

Also, for those of you who have been visiting my site for awhile, you might have noticed that I’ve been changing the layout and navigation the past few weeks. My website developers at FGI have been doing a great job helping me realize my vision of how I want the site to look and work.

I got out hiking and camping a bit the last few weeks now that the summer is coming to an end and I am no longer flying up to Alaska to get rained on and not take any pictures while spending a lot of money. Yes, summer in Southeast was tough this year. Also, my last trip to use my boat got interrupted by a house fire back home! My girls were out of the house and safe when it happened and my slides and hard drives were not destroyed, but we had to move and re-buy all of our second floor bedroom furniture and clothes. My daughters started back to school last week. We are doing fine, but what a pain.
Anyway, I went down to Mt Rainier 2 weekends in a row to try and photograph the summer wildflowers. Spray Park is one of my favorite locations in the park, so I always enjoy the hike. I do it int the afternoon, shoot the sunset, and then hike back to the car in the dark. The flowers were very late this year, but they were pretty good.

Please visit more of my Mount Rainier National Park Photography.

I went down to Mt Rainier on beautiful but crowded Sunday afternoon. The trail down from the Paradise parking lot to the start of Mazama Ridge was pretty solid, so I decided to walk up there and shoot the sunset. Most of you who have known me the past few years know that I have been trying to avoid snow, but this winter I have been putting in some effort to get some nice images. These snow covered trees are blasted by the wind and were encased in some spectacular ice formations. I thought that this composition was the best of my efforts.

Please visit more of my Mount Rainier National Park Photography.

If you happen to be on an Alaska or Horizon flight this month, turn to page 81 and you will see one of my best selling images of Mt Rainier as the ‘cover’ for the Destination Washington section. I look forward to working with Alaska again in the future for their in-flight magazine image needs.

Please visit my Publication Credits page to learn more about my nature photography publishing business or visit my Mount Rainier National Park Photography page.

My image “Cloudy Fall Colors” is in the Showcase section of the November issue of <em>Outdoor Photographer</em> which just hit the news stands.  I created this image at Mt Rainier 1 year ago on a morning where I could not see the summit at sunrise, but the fall colors were at their peak, so I took advantage of what I had available.<br><br>Please visit my <a href=”http://www.cornforthimages.com/Licensing.htm”> Publication Credits</a> page to learn more about my nature photography publishing business or visit my <a href=”http://www.cornforthimages.com/Galleries/Landscape/Washington/Mount%20Rainier%20NP.htm”> Mount Rainier National Park Photography</a> page.