349 - Little Tipsoo Lake
First off, KEEP IN MIND THE “LITTLE” PART OF THIS LOCATION. It’s extremely important.
We underestimated the time it would take to get to Mt. Rainier, so naturally we were running a bit late for this shoot. We show up to Tipsoo Lake about 45 minutes before sunset, only to find out that we’re at the wrong spot. Now I get into a panic.
It 100% looked like the right spot, but some lady tells us right when we get out “if you’re looking for the reflection shot of Mt. Rainier… it’s not here. It’s a little ways up the road, that way.” Then she points in an aimless direction behind her.
She was clearly pissed, probably because she just spent 30 minutes walking to the other side of the lake with a camera and tripod, only to discover there was no reflection.
Well… better her then me I guess.
We take her advice and look at our map. Turns out there’s a lake called “Little Tipsoo Lake,” right up the street, so we check it out.
And this was 100% where the shot was. So thank you to whoever this lady was. Beautiful reflections of Rainier, in a buggy abyss. It was actually really relaxing. A great place to get an EPIC first view of the mountain. So we shoot away.
Ten minutes before sunset, I’m almost positive I have a banger, but I keep shooting anyway. And lucky I did, because I actually *didn’t” have a banger yet, as I would discover later while editing.
Then, the impossible happens. A beautiful pink cloud appears out of nowhere and rains down on Rainier. There’s really no way to describe it, other then to show you this picture.
“Power Puff”
Sony a7rIII + Tamron 17-28mm 2.8
[ISO 800 ~ 39mm ~ f/11 ~ 1/50]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Isn’t that fucking insane?! What in the world… It was pure magic. I stated at my camera screen lovingly, and enjoyed the rest of the sunset. Eventually I called it a day.
As for the other photos, I didn’t capture the full dynamic range well. The trees in the image were completely clipped black and didn’t provide a great silhoutte image. So I had to discard them.
But that doesn’t even matter... Because a pink magic cloud saved the day. Fuck yeah.
I’m on a mission to explore as much as humanely possible.
Want to see my progress? Check out the Adventure Map.
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