Snowdrifts

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Looking back at this scene brings sharp memories of the freezing conditions I endured to catch sunrise atop this windswept knoll. I still remember fiddling with my camera with cold numb hands, shivering despite wearing multiple layers, feeling nauseated from the lack of sleep the prior night, and most importantly, of being disappointed after the predicted sunrise did not pan out.

Sometimes these are part and parcel of the experience of the photographer. Even after putting the best effort into getting everything right, it is impossible to predict factors that lie beyond the photographer's control. I have faced many such disappointments, but persevere and shoot despite that.

And on this day, I was glad I continued shooting even after the sunrise didn't pan out, because I allowed me to enjoy the peaceful winter solitude for just a little bit longer.

Mount Tahoma State Forest
WA USA

Last of the Fall

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Its the time of the year that I start working on the photography calendar. I have had plenty of adventures this year yielding many keepers, despite the fact that I was bedridden for about half the year. That said, I had to revisit the archives to get a bit of variety.

That opened up the choices quite a bit more, and I had to make many difficult decisions to keep some and discard others. This was one of those that I had to discard from the 2025 calendar. I still like the image for what it captures: a slice of the fall in the mountains in the North Cascades. Clumps of short blueberry add vibrant reds and oranges to the subalpine meadows in this fragile landscape dominated by glaciated mountain peaks. It lasts but for a very short time, but it leaves an impression like no other.

North Cascades National Park
WA USA

Larch Madness

I missed out the Larch Madness of 2024, for the reason that I was in a completely different continent at the peak of the larch season. Larch madness, so named for the precise and synchronous change of color by the Western larches, whose needles take on a amber hue as the temperatures start to dip in early October. Walking in a larch forest at this time is a surreal experience, with backlit trees exhibiting a golden hue. And since they grow in large clusters, the color is very pronounced both up close and from a distance.

This is one such larch grove at one of my favorite destinations for the larches. I happened to arrive at the right time to capture beautiful reflections at this golden lake in the eastern eaves of the Cascade range.

Okanogan Wenatchee National Forest
WA USA

Greens of the Palouse

Its that time of the year again when the Palouse gets a glow-up. Brown rolling hills after the winter slowly transform to a resplendent green, both from the winter and spring crops. Colorful barns and grain silos dot the undulating landscape, interrupting the flowing fields of wheat, soy and canola. Yellow crop dusters take to the air to fly sweeping loops over this wavy landscape, spraying fertilizers and pesticides. While it is no organic farming, it certainly is a productive corner of the state.

And photogenic too. The few weeks surrounding this time offer optimal conditions to capture the pastoral landscapes from the high vistas and from the dirt roads that wind through the landscape. Old renovated farmsteads and beautifully restored red barns offer subjects for the detail seekers too.

Here are a few showing the view from up above.

Palouse
WA USA

Light of the night

The mother of all solar storms slammed the planet on May 9th. I even briefly observed the Kp scale going down to an unheard level of Kp9. The strength of the storm was 4x of the typical that I had witness in the PNW in the past. And it wasn't just one event, it was a train of half a dozen storms that impinged the planet in that timeframe. And during the height of these impacts, the auroral displays were observed as far south as Mexico, Austria and India, and as far north as Australia.

The internet has been flooded with plenty of images of this event over the past few days. Here is my contribution to this, an example of how the faint glow in the sky was really a dazzling spectrum of colors that arced all over.

North Cascades National Park
WA USA

Rainbow skies

I am still on a high from Friday night.

I had an inkling of how auroras appear out in the PNW: a few pillars of hazy light show up on the northern horizon, lasting a few seconds before disappearing, with the entire show lasting an hour at most.

But last nights G4 storm was something else: a once in 20-year storm that hits intensity levels enough to bring the aurora down to the mid latitudes. And so while we were watching the northern front, the display of lights happened overhead instead. It was strong enough to bring the entire rainbow of colors from exciting Nitrogen (pink), Hydrogen, Helium (blue and violet) and high altitude Oxygen (red).

This Mother's day spectacle is something that I will not forget for a while. It rivaled the display I had seen many years ago in Iceland. Will there be more this year? That is a million dollar question

North Cascades National Park
WA USA

Blurred visions

Balsamroot in full bloom stretch towards the horizon where the first light of day hits Mt Hood. Framed against the pink sky, the scene was a a perfect reminder of the beauty of spring in the Pacific Northwest, which encapsulates everything from the vivid tulip blossoms in Skagit Valley, the vibrant flowers in neighborhood gardens to vast blooms like this one.

I used the blur of the windswept blooms to highlight the gusty conditions that morning. While I attempted a few shots at a higher shutter speed to freeze the motion, I found that the blurred flowers worked equally well for this scene.

Columbia Hills Historic State Park
WA USA

Tulip Season

Its perhaps the last week for the blooming tulips out in the Skagit valley. It is a a bit earlier than other years, perhaps aided by a few warm days last month. But it was as colorful as ever.

Did you get to see the blooms this year?

Chasing totality

The chatter on social media over the last few weeks has been the great 2024 eclipse earlier this week.
Tracing a path from south-western Texas all the way across to New England and the north-eastern tip of the US, this eclipse was the last total eclipse in the lower 48 for the next 20 years. While the last eclipse I witnessed was in August of 2017 within driving distance of where I lived, this one required a flight and hop to get to the zone of totality.

While eclipses are easy to predict years in advance, the local weather pattern isn't. It had been a constant
dance of credit cards and booking websites over the last few weeks as I analyzed weather patterns to determine if I was heading to the correct location to catch the eclipse.

While I haven't yet edited the images from this year's eclipse yet, here is totality from the 2017 eclipse in Oregon.

Madras
OR USA

Blooms of the Gorge

Old wagons, run-down stagecoaches, rusty barns and worn out corrals dot the green hills that slope down to the still waters of the Columbia River a thousand feet below. These were the only vestiges reminding us of the rich history of homesteading in this beautiful region dating back to the mid-19th century. Today, these are part of the Columbia Hills Historical State Park in the Columbia Gorge, which in spring, bursts with brilliant blooms of balsamroot.
Here is one such bloom framing an old wagon, a remnant of a bygone era.

Columbia Hills Historical State Park
WA USA