357 - Hoh Rainforest
*Note: This adventure also features an in-field vlog.
Hoh, Hoh, Hoh, MERRY PHOTOGRAPHY!
Today we shot at the Hoh Rainforest in Washington. And it was lit af. No seriously. Check out this first pic:
“Hint of Love”
Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
ISO 1000 ~ 70mm ~ f/9 ~ 1/20s
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Woo! I love that shot. I've learned my lesson time and time again about shooting in forest. It's hard as hell, so start SMALL to warm up. Once you've got a better understanding of the landscape at hand, you can move up to the bigger scenes.
The main idea of forests is to eliminate as much noise as possible, but being flexible enough to let foreign objects strut into the composition randomly. I'm finally starting to feel more comfortable in them, and it's fucking awesome.
Now, I've been to the Hoh Rainforest once in the past. It was a couple years ago, and it was a complete shit show. I was just learning how to bracket + HDR, and, long story short, I messed up the entire shoot minus one self-portrait shot that didn't even include the forest.
Last time I went to the Hall of Mosses, a 1 mile loop that showcases some of the best scenes the rainforest has to offer. For some reason I went at sunrise, not realizing the light wouldn't even hit the forest until a few hours later. Right when I was leaving the forest after shooting for hours, the lighting got good. But I was too tired to shoot more, so I called it a day.
This time we showed up a few hours after sunrise, just early enough to beat the crowds and hit that perfect lighting. And oh, was it perfect. Here's my magnum opus of the shoot:
Holy fucking shit. I'm incredibly proud of that shot. If you wanna hear me break down the composition, you can watch the vlog where I talk about it for about a minute and a half straight. A lot of that editing is thanks to Photoshop, which I'm realizing is 1000% necessary for any type of shot that really stands out against the crowd. The editing you can do there is just un-parallel to Lightroom.
Oh! And remember when I was talking about horror landscape photography a few blog posts ago? It came to life in this shot! With the creepy claw branch! Wow... I guess this concept might go somewhere.
Alright! Moving on... What else? Oh yeah, I got this closeup of a maple leaf, which is pretty cool. I'm generally not a macro shot kinda guy, but I like throwing one in most shoots to get practice.
“Maple Pipeline”
Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
ISO 200 ~ 52mm ~ f/9 ~ 1/3s
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
These macro shots also help compliment the overall tone of the shoot a little better too. And they're a nice backup in case one of your more technical shots doesn't work out like you hoped. Like in my last shoot, Second Beach. Let's not talk about that.
We finish up the Hall of Mosses, but I'm still itching for some more shots. We look at the map, and realize there's a 17 mile one way trail called the Hoh River Trail, with a bunch of stops on it. We find a waterfall called Mineral Well Falls about 2.5 miles down, and decide it's our next mission. We could use the exercise.
The waterfall ended up being a tricky mistress. The trail drops you off at a viewpoint about .1 miles away from it, and there's a secondary trail that's relatively unkempt that gets you closer. So we waded through shrub after shrub only to arrive to a completely blown out waterfall, and me to realize I forgot my ND filter.
Fuck. Well, guess I'm shooting closeup mini waterfalls. Which ended up being really fun actually. The mini shaded waterfalls were all crazy detailed, with mushrooms, branches, moss, and all sorts of fun features. I snagged this baby right here without my ND filter thanks to the heavy shade.
“Shroom Stream”
Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
ISO 100 ~ 24mm ~ f/16 ~ 0.6s
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Well, that's about it folks. Solid shoot, solid day. I love forests. They're such a challenge. Until next time!
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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