In 1981, I interned at Olympic National Park for three months right out of college. I returned this summer after almost 37 years to find the park as beautiful as ever though under stress from outside forces. The park is unique in that it features high mountains, temperate rain forests and rugged ocean beaches within its borders. Here are examples of each. Olympic Mountain Range Hall of Mosses in the Hoh Rain Forest Pacific Beach view from Kalaloch Lodge
Ruby Beach is the best known of all the Olympic beaches with its large and small mix of sea stacks which were molded by wind, surf and sand over hundreds of years. I was so looking forward to photographing beautiful sunsets there. However, between smoke from forest fires up and down the West Coast and coastal fog, I had to make do with low contrast scenes the first time I visited Ruby Beach. I used various Lightroom processing methods and a couple of Skylum plug-in apps to pull out more details, colors and showing the moody atmosphere I found. This sea stack made my wife say it looked like an animal. Perhaps a large male gorilla? Here I used a Skylum Intensity CK's Enhanced Landscape preset which I finished off in LR. Nikon D750/16-35VR, 1/125s, f/16, ISO 400, EV 0, 26mm Focal Length. Below is a comparison of a LR edit (left) versus a set of 5 photos (-2EV to +2EV) merged into an HDR image (right) using Skylum Aurora HDR 2018 app. Again, I was using the Nikon 16-35mm VR lens. This time set at 24mm for both images with slightly different perspectives. Below, I again used the Aurora HDR app to bring out the detail and color of the scene yet still show the fog on the beach. Ruby Beach Sea Stacks by Scott Thomas, on Flickr The trail leading down to Ruby Beach comes out next to piles of bleached driftwood and a large Sitka Spruce tree defying gravity on the other side of Cedar Creek. Nikon D750/24-120VR, 1/125s, f/16, ISO 1100, EV 0, 52mm Focal Length. It sure was a challenge photographing and processing the resulting photos. I have learned a lot about using Lightroom pre-sets from other photographers, LR graduated and radial filters and the Skylum apps.
I had a few days over the holidays to work on more photos from Olympic National Park. Olympic Mountains from the Hurricane Hill Trail by Scott Thomas, on Flickr More to follow this week!
The previous photo was taken about half way up the trail to Hurricane Hill. This was the view from the top at elevation 5,757 feet. Those small subalpine fir trees in the foreground are probably 50 to 100 years old. Olympic Mountains from the Top of Hurricane Hill by Scott Thomas, on Flickr While the previous photo was taken with a 24-120VR lens, this one was taken with the Nikon 70-200VRII lens at 70mm. Yep, I backpacked the heavy lens with me.
By using the 70-200VRII, I was able to pull in a close up of Mount Olympus. Mount Olympus by Scott Thomas, on Flickr Not as impressive as the Rockies but it does look a bit unwelcoming.
On the hike down from Hurricane Hill, I got in some wildlife photography using the 70-200VRII lens. Olympic Chipmunk by Scott Thomas, on Flickr Blue or Sooty Grouse (Dendragapus obscurus) along the Hurricane Hill trail in Olympic National Park. Olympic Marmot (Marmota olympus) along the Hurricane Hill trail in Olympic National Park.
This week I blogged about the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center. Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center by Scott Thomas, on Flickr Olympic Mountains from the Visitor Center by Scott Thomas, on Flickr Hurricane Ridge Road by Scott Thomas, on Flickr Pearly Everlasting Wildflowers by Scott Thomas, on Flickr
