Water Falling Over Things 2009: Part IX (The Unexpected End of a Rainier Summer)

[regnaD kciN]

I originally went up to try to catch sunrise at Reflection Lakes, but the clouds and wind on the water didn't exactly cooperate...not bad in terms of color, but it really became Non-Reflection Lakes for the morning.




Shortly thereafter, the clouds rolled in for the morning. So, what is there to do but take advantage of the rivers up there for a new installment of WFOT?

First, the cascades on the Paradise River above Ruby Falls.













An obligatory wildflower shot along the path.




Then, below Ruby Falls, a whole series of mini-falls have the collective name of Washington Cascades.










Finally, and more a matter of Water Flowing Through Things, the Cowlitz River cutting a hundred-foot channel through Box Canyon.




I mentioned in the title this was "the unexpected end of a Rainier summer." It wasn't supposed to be -- as a matter of fact, I was on my way back up Rainier the very next day...when the engine on my 1991 Accord (with 429,631 miles on it) finally gave up the ghost. By the time I had gotten the car towed off the mountain, managed to get back home (did you know that it takes two days just to get a bus out of Packwood, Washington, to the nearest place where you can get a rental car?), and replace my old Accord with a slightly-less-old Accord, not only were the wildflower blooms over on Rainier, but I had to cancel a planned trip to the Oregon coast which was going to be my big photo trip of the summer. :-( I'll still be back to Rainier this year, but it will be to capture autumn foliage, not summer flower meadows. I guess my planned wildflowers/sunrise/Reflection Lakes shot, for which I've already found the perfect tripod location, will have to wait until next August...

[Celebration]

1. Beautiful pictures, but a sad story

I love the first one, just because it is imperfect and very cold looking. Brrr.

The story makes me glad that my daughter in Seattle just replaced her ancient Honda with a newer used car. However, I am sure she would have found someone to impose on rather than taking the bus. :)

I am really sorry we are missing your Oregon coast pictures, though.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. They are all breath taking photos

the first one, tho, almost looks like a watercolor.
I love it !!

[Mira]

3. Each one spectacular and worthy of specific commentary. Your work is so distinctive.

On the first one I am struck by the lines, the curve, the movement and life of it curving imperceptively back towards the viewer. That first one is getting the comments, and I agree. And I love the mountain peeking out.
They are all marvellous.

[regnaD kciN]

4. Thanks, but it's interesting to me that people seem to like the first one so much...

...since, as far as I'm concerned, that's the one undeniable failure of the group. Not so much because the clouds are obscuring so much of the mountain, but because I can imagine what it would have looked like if there wasn't enough breeze to stir up the water, so that the "middle-ground" was a perfect reflection of the mountain and clouds.

Of course, when I was up there that morning, I was already making plans to return several other mornings that coming week (paisley was off on vacation, so I didn't need to drive her to work as usual) until I got a morning where everything was right. Needless, the car breaking down killed those plans So I would assume my opinion of that photo is due to my comparing it to the "what might have been" I can only visualize in my imagination.

[ConsAreLiars]

5. Sometimes there is better than "perfect.'

I suppose most of us have seen Coffee Table Photo Books and Sierra Club Calendars and wished to get pix anywhere close, but that one invites us into another dimension of reality and seeing. The mountain floats above the clouds, the water looks like something some drugged-out impressionist painter might produce and so on.

Next time you go out to hawk your wares, put a big version of this out in a prominent position in addition to your usual display. If you don't sell a couple in the first few hours, then toss it into the back of the stand and curse me for bad advise and go back to whatever has worked best.

I think it would make more than a few people stop and look more closely at your work.

[Mira]

6. What you said. No wonder we look alike.

[ConsAreLiars]

9. I've noticed that.

We've traveled very different paths and many teaching miles. You from away to here and then away and back and more, me merely away and back and then again very far away and back. And so, it seems, we have come far enough to share the same avatar.

Note: Not just "miles," but on the ground, within the world, among the people "teaching miles."

[Celebration]

7. the first one

Is a particular moment in time. The conditions are unlikely to be repeated. It doesn't have the look of a photographer waiting for the perfect conditions. It is a mountain. It has to bear all conditions.

You know, I could be there in perfect conditions and get a great picture. But it would not have the feeling of this picture. The first picture evokes a feeling in me. The feeling is majesty, of course, and chilly, and imperfection, and bearing all things, and beauty coming from all of those things. Overall, I would say wonderment. None of those would I have felt from perfect conditions.

[priller]

8. Beautiful photos.

The first one is great.