360 - Quinault Rain Forest
The Hoh Rainforest's infamous younger brother is the Quinault Rainforest, and it's different in a LOT of ways. Let's get into this, shall we? I also vlogged it!
For one, it's way less crowded. For two, there's a massive lake you can swim in. And three, it's way more epic. I'll give the Hoh Rainforest the Hall of Mosses, but this place has waterfalls and a massive canyon running through the entire area. It felt more like a true rainforest to me.
Our hike was along the Quinault Loop Trail, a four mile loop that claimed to give the best overview around. For this shoot I decided it would be best to just photograph instead of vlogging, because I'd been going HARD the past couple days trying to up my vlog production level, and needed a day to recalibrate.
On a side note, I sometimes wonder if I get BETTER shots when I don't vlog- because I'm focusing 100% of my energy on photos instead of video. Who knows...
I started off the shoot fairly uncertain. It was literally 97° F, and the rainforest was being a rainforest in terms of humidity. Naturally, I was sweating a dick in the first ten minutes. On the plus side, we arrived at the PERFECT time- two hours before sunset so we got those nice light rays shooting through the forest illuminating things for us.
My first shot came out super abstract. Check this out:
In order to get that shot, I was mostly aiming my camera randomly at pockets of light and shooting. I assumed I'd find out that stood out to me in post-production, then I could edit the colors to pop a little more and crop a coherent scene. Honestly a fairly basic shot- no stacking, blending, or anything. Just pure old school photography.
NEXT UP... We were on a mission to hit a waterfall. The one that came up was Cascade Falls, which was supposed to be around somewhere. It ended up being almost exactly halfway from where we started, which was convenient because we could cool off near the waterfall and snap some photos as a break.
For some dumb reason I didn't think about bringing my wide-angle lens (in a forest??? I fucked up...), but I managed to still get a this beauty barely fitting it in the frame:
“Double or Nothing”
Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
ISO 2000 ~ 24mm ~ f/10 ~ 1/50s
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Not gonna lie, I almost didn't get a shot because that clip was so close to the edge, but I made do. That 24mm is a fucking beast if you use it right. I also did a nice time blend, which I'm realizing is almost 1000% necessary for solid waterfalls shots. The leaves were taken at a way faster shutter speed then the waterfall.
To close off the adventure, I wanted to snag one more shot. We walked along the lake, and the crescent moon was giving me v i b e s. Normally I'm a little cliched out on a moon shots, but I took this photo anyway. To make it a bit more original, I cropped it weird. Maybe I can sell it as a bookmark someday. I call it Three of a Kind.
“Three of a Kind”
Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
ISO 400 ~ 70mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/500s
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
And that's it! Nice little rainforest to visit if you're in the area- I'd HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend taking a dip in the lake if you can- you won't regret it.
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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