national forests

Wonderwall

One of the perks of being stuck at home is to go back and comb the archives for hidden gems. The improvement in editing techniques can lease new life to old images that I had discarded as 'uneditable'. Lightroom's capabilities to selectively filter regions based on luminance and color ranges have proved invaluable in this.

This was one such image, which proved difficult to edit at the time I shot it (6 years ago) due to the high dynamic range. While I did take a few bracketed exposures of this scene, and shot a few others with a graduated ND filter, the former lacked sharpness due to lack of a tripod to keep the camera steady, and the latter introduced visual artifacts that were proving challenging to remove. With the new capabilities of LR, I was able to control exposure in a much better manner, and restore the photo to what I actually experienced at the scene.

Gifford Pinchot National Forest
WA USA

The Sierras of Washington

I hardly expected to see a granite landscape in the PNW. The unique geology of the Cascades means that most of the granite is covered under thick layers of sediment, and only gets exposed in the higher elevations (unless its not already covered by snow, glaciers or even older metamorphic rocks). The Alpine Lakes Wilderness is one of the few regions in Washington where it does become exposed.

Climbing up to this point took me to a wonderland quite reminiscent of the granite escarpments of the Sierra Nevadas. I was in a region with glistening blue lakes surrounded by tall cliffs, craggy rocks and snow-capped peaks. I can't wait to explore more of this region before the season ends.

Alpine Lakes Wilderness
WA USA

Framing a fourteener

Imagine sitting down inside a warm log cabin nestled a winter wonderland, with a window overlooking distant snow-capped peaks.
This cabin wasn't one of those. It was a decaying remnant of an old mining or hunting cabin: its roofs had long since gone, and one of its sides was already missing.

But the window framing the snow-capped peak was still around, waiting for this composition.

White River National Forest
CO USA

2022 Landscape Photography Calendar

With the pandemic restricting travel, I focused my photography on the amazing landscapes in the northwest corner of this diverse country. See my favorites from the varied locations in the Pacific Northwest, from rugged mountains to temperate rain-forests, including all the three National Parks of Washington, and wilderness areas that line the Cascades. Experience diverse scenes from the rugged mountains to the wild coast of the Pacific Northwest, a true treasure of diverse landscapes.

And remember, this calendar is for a good cause - all proceeds will get donated to Sierra Club Foundation. We are gifted to have such amazing public lands, and having visited 52 National Parks and many more wilderness areas, I have come to realize the vital importance of our public lands system in protecting and preserving nature, culture, wildlife, and landscapes for the future. The Sierra Club Foundation helps secure protections for public lands and waters, promote healthy ecosystems and communities, and fight for clean air and water, and build a diverse, inclusive environmental movement that reflects and represents today’s American public, and prioritizes important connections between environmental health and social justice

You can purchase this colorful 2022 calendar here. Thank you in advance for your support

Waiting For Last Light

You wait in anticipation for this moment: as the sun approaches the horizon, the shadows lengthen, leaving the deep green valleys in cold darkness; the highest of the snow-capped ridges and glacier-covered peaks taken on a bright orange glow, while up above, the sky transforms from the azure blue of the day to the deep blue of dusk; clouds change from their frothy white to a deep orange as they drift effortlessly across the landscape.

As a photographer, it is not just the moment, but the actual transformation, that captures my attention, and draws me out to mountain-top vistas as the sun sets. Sometimes, I try to capture this as a timelapse, but in others, I just seek to capture a moment in time as the best possible representation of that beautiful evening.

Mt Baker Snoqualmie National Forest
WA USA

Our Night Skies

Our Night Skies.jpg

Tonight, wherever you are, go outside and look at the sky. Can you see the wonders? Overhead are countless distant fires, stars upon stars in clusters and constellations, a natural darkness where the faintest colors and lights shine. For most of human history, wherever on the globe, this was the night we knew. This was the darkness in which all life evolved and which our body and spirit still crave. Art and science and religion all flowed from our experience of natural darkness and a starry night sky. This is where we came from, this is who we are.

– Paul Bogard, author of End of Night, 2019

I have been very privileged to live in places where I can access the backcountry where I can see spectacular night skies sparkling with the light of a 100 stars, and where the silence of nature is omnipresent. But ever so slowly, we are losing access to these places where we can appreciate our dark skies. With the work of the International Dark Sky Association, we are able to preserve the such dark places. But even then, there are no rules that govern the satellites that roam the sky above.

Here is one image of a perfectly good night sky polluted by the light from a satellite drifting across the arc of the Milky Way

Wallowa-Whitman National Forest
OR USA

Hidden Gems

In my four days of wandering the Appalachian foothills, I found that the real wonder of the region is not in the Smoky Mountains or the famed Blue Ridge Parkway, but in the national forests that surround the east to west spine of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Peaceful lakes with undisturbed trails and bountiful waterfalls adorn the undulating and lush landscape of the Nantahala and Cherokee National Forests.

I enjoyed the serenity of one such lake in western North Carolina far more than I thought I would, and it was only my first day in this beautiful part of the country.

Nantahala National Forest
NC USA

Hidden in the woods

Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.

A tiny cabin is adorned by the colors of autumn in the heart of Nantahala National Forest.

Nantahala National Forest
NC USA

A Golden Retreat

High in the Sierras, there exists mythical places where the skies are red and the water is a turquoise blue, where rugged granite behemoths were carved into graceful shapes, where glistening lakes and gurgling streams wind their way down mountains, valleys and canyons. Some of these mythical places are hard to reach, while others, including this one, are just a day's hike away from civilization.

Ansel Adams Wilderness
CA USA