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Lewis County

Reflection Lake
Reflection Lake
by Yi Jiang

Mount Rainier National Park

All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action…
Narada Falls
by Sandeep Thomas
  • James Russell Lowell.

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Today’s shot is from an amazing place that’s nestled inside the Mt Rainier National Park, the Narada falls. A waterfall that drops 188 ft in two tiers of 168 ft and 20 ft cascades. This photo is of the bigger upper falls where the paradise river falls into a canyon which is at 90 degrees to it. This is one of the most popular spots in the park especially when you have the star attraction of the hidden under cloud cover for three days. We met a group of nuns and some Buddhist monks from Tibet visiting the falls along with scores of other regular visitors. That just shows how popular this waterfall can get.

While scouting out the park for interesting spots, I was quite surprised to see a waterfall that’s named after a sage from Indian mythology. Based on my limited familiarity with the texts, Narada is a sage among gods who claim to be the greatest devotee of Lord Vishnu, one of the Hindu Trinity or Trimurtis. Apparently, his main source of entertainment is creating rifts between the Gods and Demons and enjoying their constant struggle. So, it was interesting to see a waterfall named after him in this corner of the world, even though I have no Idea why his name was chosen.

While we were there on a day which was perfect for waterfall photography, the early summer timing meant that the water flow was quite heavy and it was a challenge to keep my filters and camera dry. In fact, you can see the water drops in the top corner of my frame and I was really thankful that modern camera gear comes with amazing weather sealing.

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live...
Ô, Sunlight! The most precious gold to be found on Earth…
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Henry David Thoreau.

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Another shot from the wonderful silver falls, this little waterfall is located at the end of a 0.3-mile long hike and provides some excellent views from a wooden bridge that crosses the creek downstream. Because of the fantastic forest canopy, you can come here pretty much anytime to shoot. We visited during a sunny time when the clouds were playing hide and seek with the sun. Unfortunately, we had to wait quite a bit for the clouds to diffuse the sun so as to not get any hot spots in the frame.

This shot was taken directly from the bridge and I didn’t include the falls as it was under direct sunlight and was messing up my long exposure. Instead, I wanted to emphasize the way the water was getting molded into the chasm that was downstream from the falls. Hope Y'all like it.

Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it…
Ruby Falls
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Lao Tzu.

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When we planned our trip to Washington my hope was that being a month early from peak tourist time would allow us to get to all the popular attractions without much crowds around. We planned our trip in late June and got hotel accommodations at a much cheaper rate. When we visited hurricane ridge, we got a feeling that maybe we messed up on our calculations a bit as the meadows didn’t have any wildflowers in them. The grass was visible but that about it, we had the whole place to ourselves though. I hoped that it would get better at Mt Rainier National Park but pretty much every spot we wanted to visit was under feets of ice.

But the surprising element was the number of waterfalls. Everywhere we looked there were cascading waterfall of all heights. I am not sure if this one is even a regular waterfall or just a spring snowmelt phenomenon. It was a very small cascade, but I liked how it fans the water over the flat rock. I used a 3 stop ND filter to get the silky flow on the water and used a polarizing filter to cut some glare.

Rainier Dawn [EXPLORED]
Reflection Lake

Sunrise at Reflection Lakes in Mt. Rainier National Park. One of those rare times that you want clear skies. At least for me, I wanted Rainier to...

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Eruption
Through the Alpine Mist

Sunrise at Reflection Lake, Mount Rainier National Park, Washington.

**This is a copyrighted image with all rights reserved. Please don't use this...

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Narada Falls Mist
Narada Falls

Let me start off by saying that this was not an easy photo to get. Due to the shape of the canyon and the prevailing winds the only area to get an...

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Candy Mountain
Reflection Lake

Mt Rainier USA

Not really recognisable in this state but I had an interesting evening at Reflection Lake in 2013 when some amazing colour hit the...

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Moody Mountain
Through the Alpine Mist

Sunrise at Reflection Lakes, Mount Rainier National Park, Washington.

As always, your thoughts on this one appreciated.

**This is a copyrighted...

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Rainier Above The Clouds [EXPLORED #3]
Mt. Rainier

Rainier emerged above the clouds and the last light of the setting sun hit the white snow and made it glow. It was in incredible sight to see, and...

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Earth's Eye
Earth's Eye

"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...

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Mount Rainier and Reflection Lake
Mount Rainier and Reflection Lake
by Birgit M.

Mount Rainier National Park, USA (_9010553) OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago…
Ô, Sunlight! The most precious gold to be found on Earth…
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Warren Buffett.

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One of the spots I wanted to check out in Rainier National Park was the beautiful silver falls. In pictures I have seen of the falls, the water looked just so blue and I wanted to really see it in person. While we were there we had a lot of trouble finding the trailhead due to the forest growth but finally found miniscule parking area and the trailhead. The trail is about .3 miles long but steep and reached the falls after a short hike.

The lighting was challenging due to the tree cover because the rays coming through the trees were increasing the dynamic range of the scene. I had to wait for the clouds to mask out the sun, so I will get a bit of reprieve but the Nikon D850 is just so outstanding in handling these situations. Hopefully everyone likes this shot.

Ô, Sunlight! The most precious gold to be found on Earth…
Ô, Sunlight! The most precious gold to be found on Earth…
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Roman Payne.

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One of the reasons I have gotten into landscape photography was to photograph waterfalls. I was lucky enough to be born and raised in a part of the world where it rains for half the year with lush green forests and waterfalls everywhere. As a child I don’t remember a single dat coming home not getting completely drenched or muddy. So much that my mom installed a tap outside to wash me off before entering the house.

Being around so many streams and waterfalls make you addicted to them and I try to visit them every chance I get. Now I live in sunny Southern California and oe thing that we lack is water. So, while on our annual roadtrip this year I made it point to see every waterfall I could. This beautiful waterfall is tucked away near the entrance to Rainier National Park and is called Silver falls. I posted some pics I took here earlier. I couldn’t get the main falls to be devoid of bright sunlight for the long exposure shot even after waiting for about 20 minutes. This was the best I could manage.

We live in a rainbow of chaos…
Mount Rainier
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Paul Cezanne

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Finally, let get to a shot of the mighty Mt Rainier from our recent trip to Washington. We were at Mt Rainier National Park for three days and couldn’t even determine where the actual mountain was due to the extensive cloud cover. Plus, most of our hiking trails that we marked were still under thick layers of snow and ice. We saw this view for about 30 minutes just before we were schedule to leave for Trout Lake. It felt like Mt Rainier relenting to our pleas and prayers and finally revealing the peak of one of the most stunning Mountain Peaks in all of the North Americas.

We cant wait to get back here again.

When ambition ends, happiness begins…
When ambition ends, happiness begins…
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Thomas Merton.

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Mt Rainier decided to hide under epic storm clouds during our last visit to the park during early June. Not only we couldn't see the peak of this mighty mountain but most of the hikes that we planned were under thick snowpack and all we could do was to drive around the narrow park roads photographing waterfalls and hope for a glimpse of the mountain when the winds whip up the clouds.

Thankfully there was no shortage of waterfalls all along the park. Thanks to the snowmelt almost all the waterfalls were in full flow. This waterfall is basically a roadside waterfall that didn’t even have a proper turnout. Thankfully not many cars came while I took this shot. Hope you all like it.

Painted Rainier
Reflection Lake

The glaciers atop Mt. Rainier are painted in a soft pink and magenta during the Blue Hour. It was so quiet, and so peaceful standing there that...

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Rainier Reflection
Reflection Lake

Mount Rainier on Reflection Lake at sunrise. For just a few short minutes there was a nice glow on the horizon as the sun started to make its...

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A Break In The Clouds
Mt. Rainier

For most of the day at Mt. Rainier National Park, low clouds obscured the mountain peaks. We never had a glimpse of Rainier. And while shooting the...

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Time for Reflection
Mount Rainier and Reflection Lake

*This image is copyright, all rights reserved, and not part of the public domain. Any use, linking to, or posting of this image is prohibited without...

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Painted Rising
Earth's Eye

As photographers we go through certain trends within our photography. My current interest area is photographing flowers in the foreground of my...

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Through the Alpine Mist
Through the Alpine Mist

With the pre-dawn sky looking to be ready to dish out another cloudless sunrise at Paradise and the flowers covered in a thick coating of frost that...

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Layers in the Morning - USA
Mount Rainier National Park

Washington State Sunrise. Early morning sunrise at Mount Rainier N.P in Washington State. Lovely morning without a sound. Layer after...

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Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail…
Narada Falls
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Charles Kettering.

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Todays shot is from Mt Rainier National Park. I took this shot after photographing the beautiful Narada falls. Pretty much the whole time we were there, we had an overcast sky with cloud cover completely blocking out the mountains. As we were coming back from the viewpoint for Narada falls I noticed these cascades just above the falls. There is a bridge that crosses the stream, so it was easy enough to frame and the low even light helped immensely with the exposure the image. The only problem was the lack of punch in the color of the foliage due to the dim diffused light.

I was in two minds about posting this image as it looked a bit blah but decided to post it anyway to share a thought about pursuing photography as a passion. I have heard from a lot of people who follow me on Flickr about how they never get to visit any stunning locations nearby and how they are not lucky enough to live in a place where weather pattern is pretty bland. This shot was made in arguably one of the most beautiful spots in the world yet while we were there, we didn’t see the sun for three days. I only saw Mt Rainier for exactly 20 minutes on our last day at the park. But as you persist with your passion you will learn that there are things you can do even on bland uninspiring moody days. So hang in there and just persist, eventually, the sun will come out and give you something stunning.

The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful…
Ô, Sunlight! The most precious gold to be found on Earth…
by Sandeep Thomas
  • E. E. Cummings.

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A wonderful ravine we came across while exploring the beautiful silver falls and surrounding falls. This shot was taken from a bridge across the stream combining the focus shift mechanism of the Nikon D850. This is a stacked image made from about 8 images that are combined to retain the full depth of field. On the other side is the beautiful silver falls but, on this side, the water was wonderfully shallow showing the pebbles in the creek and the rapids creating some nice motion to add to the scene.

Always do what you are afraid to do…
Nisqually Glacier
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson.

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One of the biggest attractions to us during our visit to Mt Rainier National Park was to see the Nisqually Glacier. Its one of the larger glaciers on the southwestern side of Mt Rainier. The glacier has had periods of advance and retreat since 1850 when it was much more extensive. It is currently retreating. Measurements made at 9,200 feet (2,800 m) altitude show that glacier got 56 ft (17 m) thicker between 1994 and 1997, suggesting that it will probably begin advancing in the first decade of the 21st century. Nisqually Glacier is the source of the Nisqually River.

Unfortunately, our visit coincided with a passing storm that covered the peaks of the mountain almost for the entire time we were there. I had scouted this point which is from a bridge over the Nisqually River while scouting the park using google earth. The view didn’t disappoint but we couldn’t see the Glacier at all, instead the storm clouds covered the massive mountain completely and painted a brooding scene.

For this particular shot, I thought a square crop worked really well, dividing the scene between the massive strom clouds and the debris field created by the commanding Nisqually glacier. Hope I succeded in bringing out the enormity of this vista. Settingswise, I basically metered this scene for the highlights in the storm clouds hoping that my D850 will bring in the details in the dark tones. This was my first trip with Nikon’s new flagship and I was a bit on edge after this trip but the camera is just stunning in the amount of dynami range it captures, it impresses me every time I post process an image even after using the D800 for five plus years.

Mount Rainier, Washington, USA
Mount Rainier
by Birgit M.

The photo was taken from Stevens Canyon Road. (_9010533) OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Reflection Lake
Reflection Lake

This is called Reflection Lake... for one of those obscure reasons that is no doubt lost in the mists of time :o)

Mount Rainier is the volcano in...

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Breaking Through
Mt. Rainier

Mt. Rainier breaks through the fog and clouds that had obscured the mountain all day. It was a very intense next 12-13 minutes, shooting...

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Reflection Lake
Mount Rainier and Reflection Lake

The clouds are really what made this place for me. I hiked up in the Paradise area (taking shots of wildflowers, losing my sunglasses, meeting a...

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By the Light of the Moon
Through the Alpine Mist

A 22 minute exposure on a partially moonlit night overlooking Reflection Lakes, Mount Rainier National Park, Washington.

Hindsight says I should...

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Across The Valley
Mt. Rainier

It is not often where I feel compelled to shoot so many different compositions of what is essentially the same scene. But when it is something you...

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Mt Rainier in Reflection - USA
Mount Rainier - USA

Staying the night in the Paradise Inn lodge and from there it's a 10 min drive to Reflection Lakes. Stood here first around 5:15am but soon other...

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Mount Rainier - USA
Mount Rainier - USA

Staying the night in the Paradise Inn lodge and from there it's a 10 min drive to Reflection Lakes. Stood here first around 5:15am but soon other...

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Thanks to all Phoide contributors to Lewis County!
Most notably Sandeep Thomas, Birgit M. and Yi Jiang.