Mountains

Rising above the earth, mountains have these epic shapes that inspire much of my photography

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Earth's Eye

Reflection Lake at Sunrise, Spring Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington “A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.” ~Henry David Thoreau I was struggling to come up with a name for this photo and hoped I could find inspiration from someone better with words than I am. Of course I came across this quote from Thoreau, and there in the middle was the title: Earth’s Eye. That’s exactly how Willie and I felt as we enjoyed sunrise from Reflection Lake on this particular morning. It was cold but it was amazing: a perfect reflection on the lake, Mt. Rainier standing above us, with beautiful patches of wildflowers in front of us. We had briefly stopped at this spot the previous morning only to find the entire scene covered in thick fog. We didn’t have a clue where Mt. Rainier would even be (we thought it was further to the left). To come the next morning and see something completely different was inspiring, and breathtaking. By the time we left we were surrounded by tens of photographers. Luckily we arrived first and could scope out the 2 largest patches of flowers along the lake. The flowers were still blooming (or dying), so there wasn’t much to choose from. We watched the fog form on the lake, then disappear completely. Hopefully you enjoy the beauty of this scene as much as we did, even without an epic sunrise sky going with it. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 16mm, f/16, 0.4 sec, ISO 100

2016 August Cascade Cascade Range D800 Mount Mount Rainier Mount Tacoma Mount Tahoma Mountain Mt Rainier NPS National Park Nikon Nikon D800 Pacific Northwest Park Rainier Summer Sunrise Tacoma Tahoma Washington alpenglow flowers fog landscape nature reflection reflection lake reflection lakes stratovolcano volcano wildflowers

From Pacific Northwest