Postcard from Mt. Rainier

This is one of my heretofore unpublished photographs from the only trip I ever made to Mt. Rainier National Park. It was in September of 2005 and I was using my first digital camera, an Olympus DSLR. In fact, this trip was my first chance to give this camera a real workout…and to learn how to use it. It felt so different in my hands than all my film cameras. I felt like a complete novice that first day out.

And it showed…my first day of shooting was less than spectacular. I made a lot of mistakes in the settings. I got a few good shots, but most were not “Jim” quality.

I remember getting a hotel room west of the park in the town of Ashford and sitting their half the night, going over the photos I took and discovering what I did wrong. Then, with the help of the manual, I reset the camera’s settings and learned how to do certain settings when the situation called for it. You know what they say, when all else fails, consult the manual. I even fell asleep that night with the manual in my hand.

The next day’s shooting yielded much better results, including this photo taken on a trail in Paradise Valley. Besides learning how to properly use my new camera, I got lucky with the light and the wind on the mountain.

Mt. Rainier National Park is really only available to travelers and photographers for part of the year. As it sits at a high elevation, the roads close early. And if the snow is heavy in the winter, the roads are not open until late spring or even early summer.

As I said, I took this photo in September. But because of the short seasons at these higher elevations, this area of the park had a great many flowers in bloom…as if it was springtime. That was a nice surprise and helped yield some nice results.

You can see a few more photos of my only trip to Mt. Rainier on my Website…mostly taken on the second day. I am not sure why I didn’t go back their more often as I lived in WA for 15 years. I guess I was too busy with work and family matters...an excuse we all share. Now, I am really a long way’s away. Too bad as I have a better camera, eight year’s more experience as a photographer, and much better post production software. I can only imagine what I could do today. A photographer’s lament.

(To see a larger version of this photo, just click on the image)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com

If you subscribe to this blog by e-mail and wish to purchase a print or send a free e-mail greeting card using this image, click this link to the main Postcard Blog Site.