Postcard from Mt. Rainier

This lovely picture of Mt. Rainier and Tipsoo Lake was photographed nearly 5 years ago, in Sept. of 2005, using my very first digital camera, an Olympus single lens reflex. It was actually my first road trip with my new toy…and, frankly, I made a lot of bad shots that day.

Fortunately, this was not one of them. Tipsoo Lake is at the east entrance to Mt. Lassen National Park, just over Chinook Pass on Highway 410. It is the first view you see of Mt. Rainier. I took this photo coming down from the pass. Eventually you get down to the same level as the lake. In fact, I remember hiking the trail around it the next day.

Still, it was an interesting day…my first visit ever to this glorious national park. I enjoyed myself thoroughly, although my pictures did not turn out all that great. In fact I was a bit mystified at some of my results.  Using this camera was so different from my film cameras.

Near the end of the day, I drove all the way out of the park to the west and took a hotel room for the evening. There, I sat down and read the camera’s manual from beginning to end, trying to figure out what I had done wrong…and I mostly did. I learned a great deal that night…so much so that when I went back into the park the next day, my photos turned out much improved. How infinitely better things work when you read the instructions.

Actually, it wasn’t that I hadn’t read the instructions, it was just that I needed to do it again after I did a day of continual shooting with the new camera. The instructions then made a lot more sense…and I learned some new tricks that I didn’t read the first time through. There are so many settings on today’s cameras that one should always put the manual in the camera bag and carry it with you at all times. Worked for me on this trip and on many occasions since.

I still have that camera, but don’t use it as much as my Nikon get most of the photographic work. But, I still like to use it once in a while as it is a very good camera with some unusual features my Nikon does not have. So, I guess the lesson here is read the manual, then use the camera, then re-read the manual again and again. Works for me.