Another Day, Another Hike, Another Chance To Snap Away

Another autumn Saturday, perfect for a hike.  Last week’s adventure at Eklutna Lake had looked to be the last of the season, but the weather held – depending on which direction one ventured – long enough for another outing…  I say depending on which direction, because I first headed south in search of adventure, only to encounter heavy rain and blowing wind along Turnagain Arm.  After driving 25 miles with no sign of the weather letting up, I turned tail and headed back north, stopping long enough to take a few shots.  I pulled out my polarizing filter to try to get this rainbow to really “pop”…

I kept driving north and ended up at the Eagle River Nature Center, and soon lit out on the Historic Iditarod Trail.  The sun was out, so I left my polarizing filter on.  Soon a piece of birch bark caught my eye, as it reminded me of a flag waving in the wind, backlit by the sun…

Further along, the clouds moved in front of the sun, the mostly barren trees grew closer together, and I envisioned a black and white scene, like the background of a Bev Doolittle in total grayscale…

Not the best rendition of a black and white scene – by far – but some thing to think about and experiment with more in the future.  

The mountain ridge on the right was lit beautifully as the sun peeked through the clouds, and I tried to capture the dramatic light.  For this shot I underexposed two stops, and turned my polarizer until the sun’s glare on the rocks softened.

Then I concentrated on the section of the ridge to the left, trying to capture blowing snow and the sun’s glow.

On the way out several spruce grouse were spotted.  Since I had left my carrying case of filters in the car (including my clear UV filters), I still had my polarizing filter on.  The reason for this is that I didn’t want to be tromping around the woods without a protective piece of glass between my lens and the elements.  This resulted in losing a stop or two of light, so the ISO went up as I tried to freeze the bird against a rocky, drab background.  I got one shot that I think shows the similarity between the bird’s natural camouflage and its surroundings… 

And I learned a valuable lesson (and felt like a rookie at the same time) – don’t assume that the weather will cooperate.  As soon as the sun disappeared for the day – especially considering that the remaining foliage wasn’t saturated with fresh rain – the polarizer should have come off, to be replaced with a clear, protective filter.

Lastly, I got a couple of shots of a squirrel packing on weight for the winter.

Not my most productive day ever photographically (I don’t think that I got a single “keeper” shot the whole day), but a few lessons were learned that will hopefully push me one step closer to being a better photographer.