Mt. Rainier Falls

Went up to Mt. Rainier on Labor Day to catch the sunrise. All we got was freezing rain and clouds so we switched to shooting waterfalls on the way back down the mountain. If you like moving water, click on any of the images, they'll take you to the gallery with a lot more photos.


1. Unnamed Falls above Nareda Falls

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Sweet captures...nice job with the shutter speeds. I went up to Tipsoo on Friday hearing that was the last day of decent weather. Nice work of making something of your trip. The overcast light obviously helped...

SeattleSpeedster wrote in post #10865860
Sweet captures...nice job with the shutter speeds. I went up to Tipsoo on Friday hearing that was the last day of decent weather. Nice work of making something of your trip. The overcast light obviously helped...

Thanks a lot. The clouds helped, using ISO 50 helped and on the last shot of Christine Falls I used a B+W 10 stop ND filter. Just makes me want the Lee Big Stopper that much more so I can have 10-stop ND on all my lenses.

I've never been to Tipsoo but will get there for good weather one of these days, same with Reflection Lake.. I knew the weather was going to suck but decided to chance it anyways. Glad I did.

Nice work Kody. Are these falls easily accessible.

the first one is Ruby Falls. I don't know if the second one has a name, or is just considered an extension of Ruby, before the river enters the Washington Cascades which are right downstream... either way, i like the composition of #2. Narada Falls is actually about 160', though it looks taller from the base of the falls. you were fortunate to get it a low-flow... it's much more graceful than in spring, when it's just a roaring torrent. i don't think i've ever seen the rocks at Christine Falls look that red - is that because of the long exposure from the 10-stop ND filter?

Excellent captures.
Nicely done all the way.

jdizzle wrote in post #10866051
Nice work Kody. Are these falls easyily accessible.

very. the first one, Ruby Falls, is less than 20 yards from the road, and #2 is just a few yards downstream. Narada Falls has a trail that takes you about 200 yards, if that, from the parking lot to the viewpoint on the other side of the river. the viewpoint for Christine Falls is also within 25 yards or so of the parking area.

jdizzle wrote in post #10866051
Nice work Kody. Are these falls easily accessible.

Thanks Julian. Being out there and only being able to use the 10-stop on the 70-200 made me REALLY want the Big Stopper even more than I already do! See below for accessibility.

squirl033 wrote in post #10866062
the first one is Ruby Falls. I don't know if the second one has a name, or is just considered an extension of Ruby, before the river enters the Washington Cascades which are right downstream... either way, i like the composition of #2. Narada Falls is actually about 160', though it looks taller from the base of the falls. you were fortunate to get it a low-flow... it's much more graceful than in spring, when it's just a roaring torrent. i don't think i've ever seen the rocks at Christine Falls look that red - is that because of the long exposure from the 10-stop ND filter?

Thanks for all the info. I thought there was a sign near Ruby Falls but I couldn't remember. I need to get better at taking notes. I didn't read the signs about Narada either. hehe I was just making a best-guess. As far as the color of the rocks I would guess it's a combination of the lighting and the longer exposures? I used cloudy WB which can tend to warm things a bit. When using the 10-stop ND which I used on the shot of Christine Falls it certainly gave the images a magenta color-cast which I did my best to fix in PP.

My PP is very simple though. I import, I run a "Landscape" preset in LR3, add the Lens Profile, adjust the exposure/brightness/co​ntrast and sometimes add a little clarity. That's it. I always attempt to replicate the colors in the image as I saw them.

fr4nk wrote in post #10866069
Excellent captures.
Nicely done all the way.

Thanks Frank!

squirl033 wrote in post #10866079
very. the first one, Ruby Falls, is less than 20 yards from the road, and #2 is just a few yards downstream. Narada Falls has a trail that takes you about 200 yards, if that, from the parking lot to the viewpoint on the other side of the river. the viewpoint for Christine Falls is also within 25 yards or so of the parking area.

As Squirl says, all of these are readily accessible from the road with most of them having pull-outs near the falls for parking. Some of the shots I took were from the road where there are bridges going over the water. The Narada Falls trail is listed as .1 miles. It's downhill to a landing area you can see from the parking lot. It's very easy unless you've worked your legs out the night before. lol

Here's another shot taken from the bridge (the road) over Christine Falls. (Very accessible).

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Lovely series. Those falls have changed a bit since my last visit, from all the flooding.

sparker1 wrote in post #10866497
Lovely series. Those falls have changed a bit since my last visit, from all the flooding.

Thanks Stan. I'd love to go back another time, maybe in the spring to see what they look like at higher flows. I probably would not be able to hop from stone to stone like I did at one point to get a better vantage on the lower part below Ruby Falls.

"As far as the color of the rocks ... I used cloudy WB which can tend to warm things a bit."

ah, that'd do it... actually looks very good, even if not an exact reproduction of the actual color of the rocks...

squirl033 wrote in post #10866884
"As far as the color of the rocks ... I used cloudy WB which can tend to warm things a bit."

ah, that'd do it... actually looks very good, even if not an exact reproduction of the actual color of the rocks...

I'll have to go back into LR and hit "auto" wb and see what they look like with that. Thanks for the feedback though, it's helpful!

very nice Kody. Lots of motivation there to get me out and use my new BW 10 Stop ND also. Thanks for showing off your work!!!

lettershop wrote in post #10867234
very nice Kody. Lots of motivation there to get me out and use my new BW 10 Stop ND also. Thanks for showing off your work!!!

You're welcome, glad I can provide some motivation. The 10-stop is so great for this kind of work!

awesome set of shots