[/caption] Mt. Thielsen with its incredible snow pack during late June in 2011. It’s hard to imagine that you can’t take more than 5 steps while hiking any of the Mt. Thielsen trails without running in to snow. You are well advised to bring your snow shoes if you plan on hiking near the higher elevations of the mountain. Most of the campsites within the Diamond Lake area are still closed due to the high snow pack and the north entrance to Crater Lake National Park isn’t scheduled to open until later this week. I took this photo near the snow park just south of Hwy 230 and about 1/2 mile south of Diamond Lake. I was using my Canon T1i along with my Sigma 17-70mm lens. It was about 8:35am and the sun was in the upper right hand of the photo which was creating a pretty intense glare unless you took cover in some shade. I made sure to attach my CIR-PL and warming filter in order to tone down the glare in the sky and warm the mountain as well as the forest in the foreground. I set the ISO to 100 and reduced the white balance to -1.3. I had the camera mode in Program/Normal mode so the aperture was automatically set at F-8 and the shutter speed at 1/320 second. I wanted to get as much of the mountain in the photo with the trees in the foreground so I set the focal length at 70mm. I was still able to have a really good depth of field since there were no distracting subjects too close to the main subject.
Tag Archives: Mt. Thielsen
Mt. Thielsen, OR
[/caption] Mt. Thielsen with its incredible snow pack during late June. It’s hard to imagine that you can’t take more than 5 steps while hiking any of the Mt. Thielsen trails without running in to snow. You are well advised to bring your snow shoes if you plan on hiking near the higher elevations of the mountain. Most of the campsites within the Diamond Lake area are still closed due to the high snow pack and the north entrance to Crater Lake National Park isn’t scheduled to open until later this week. I took this photo near the snow park just south of Hwy 230 and about 1/2 mile south of Diamond Lake. I was using my Canon T1i along with my Sigma 17-70mm lens. It was about 8:35am and the sun was in the upper right hand of the photo which was creating a pretty intense glare unless you took cover in some shade. I made sure to attach my CIR-PL and warming filter in order to tone down the glare in the sky and warm the mountain as well as the forest in the foreground. I set the ISO to 100 and reduced the white balance to -1.3. I had the camera mode in Program/Normal mode so the aperture was automatically set at F-8 and the shutter speed at 1/320 second. I wanted to get as much of the mountain in the photo with the trees in the foreground so I set the focal length at 70mm. I was still able to have a really good depth of field since there were no distracting subjects too close to the main subject.
Mt. Thielsen, OR
[/caption] Here is a photo of Mt. Thielsen and Diamond Lake in the foreground. I took this shot the same day that I had visited Crater Lake National Park back on 6/30/10. The one thing that I will always remember is the thousands of mosquito’s that thrive along the lake during the summer months. It was like being attacked by a barrage of pesky flying pests that were determined to suck the blood right out of you. However, luckily I brought plenty of bug repellent and I had only spent about an hour at the lake. It was about 6:00pm so the sun was fairly low and I was facing due est so there was little to no sun glare. The mountains behind me were also shadowing the sun which helped eliminate most of the glare from the lake or clouds. I was trying to get several shots without having any of the dozens of fishing boats that dotted the lake but this was one of only a few with no boats in the photo. Since the water was creating some glare I made sure to use my tripod, bubble level and my remote switch so I could eliminate any blur. I was using my Canon EOS T1i along with my Tokina 12-24mm wide angle lens. I attached my warming and CIR-Pl filter and set the focal length to 14mm. Since the camera was in Program/Normal mode the aperture was at F-7 and the shutter speed was at 1/100 second. I set the ISO to 100 and the white balance at -0.3 in order eliminate some of the harsh light in the clouds. Diamond Lake is an amazing place to camp, fish, hike and there are also several miles of single-track mt. biking trails along the wilderness. This part of Oregon is one of my favorite places to visit during late spring or early summer. If you can handle the mosquito’s, it’s one of the best places to truly enjoy the outdoors with all of the trimmings. You have a National Park, huge pristine lake, Several volcanoes to explore, alpine lakes, meadows, massive forest, creeks, rivers, waterfalls, no cities and hundreds of miles of hiking trails. The air is absolutely amazing and the atmosphere is very peaceful. You can see Diamond Peak, Mt. Thielsen, Mt. Baily and Mt. Scott. I’ve seen bald eagles and dozens of species of wildflowers. If you increase in some elevation you can see all of these mountains, including Mt. Shasta to the south and the Three Sisters to the north. Truly, this is a place to explore when the weather is nice.
Central Oregon Cascades, OR
[/caption] Over the years I have tried to find the best spot to take a photo of the Three Sisters and Mt. Bachelor in winter. However, I have never been able to get both of them in the same photo. I eventually found one of the best spots to attain these photos with little more than a 2 hour snow-shoe adventure that ends at the summit of Bates Butte. The butte is just a few miles southwest of Sunriver. The butte is right off the road, the elevation gain is only about 600 feet and you have a 360 degree view of the land. I had no idea that any of these buttes offered views like this. Sometimes it’s hard to see the forest through the trees. In fact, you can see Paulina Peak to the east and Mt. Scott, the tip of Mt. Thielsen and Diamond Peak to the south. Once I got home, I starting looking through my Oregon Atlas and Gazetteer and found that there are several buttes in the area that are easy to get to and may offer even better views. To get this shot I was using my Canon Rebel T1i along with my Canon 55-250mm telephoto lens. I also had my UV, warming filter and CIR-PL filter attached. The camera was set in Program/Normal mode and the aperture was at F-7. The ISO was at 100 and the white balance was set at -1.3 due to the bad lighting. The focal length was at 100mm and the shutter was opened for 1/250 second. Since the photo was taken at 12:52pm the lighting was pretty dull. However, I had to wait for the sun to creep around the mountains before I could get a descent shot that included some light against Mt. Bachelor.