Willie has an obsession with Corn Lily, so of course we had to find every single patch and search for the ones with the best shapes! I found this patch with a single flower sticking up in the middle of it, and knew I had to get a photo!

Corn Field

Yea yea, I realize that this isn’t a “corn field” in the sense that you’re all used to, but this is corn! Corn Lilies to be exact! Willie has an obsession with the way Corn Lily leaves twist and curl into beautiful abstract shapes and when we found a huge field of Corn Lily on our first day at Mt. Rainier, we had to spend an hour or so photographing them. The entire trip he would keep his eye out for the “perfect patch” (which he only sorta did find). Just after parking and heading on the trail up Mt. Rainier, in search of wildflower fields, we came across this area of Corn Lilies. We searched high and low for a patch of leaves that chris-crossed with each other in beautiful shapes but something else caught my eye: the 2 small flowers that sprung up in this scene. A lot of time landscape photographers will “garden” the scene — remove weeds or place flowers in the scene, but in this case I touched nothing - these were 100% there before I found the photo (and were still there after I took the photo). Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8: 52mm, f/13, 0.8 sec, ISO 250

I loved the water droplets on these Corn Lily, and had to take a shot!

While looking for the perfect Corn Lily patch, I came across this dew filled spider web and knew I had to grab a shot

While looking for the perfect Corn Lily patch, I came across this dew filled spider web and knew I had to grab a shot

Water droplets and flowers, I'm in!

While walking around the field of Corn Lily, I turned back and took a photo of the flowers we were walking through. There's patches of these, but not the carpets of flowers we had hoped for.

I loved the shapes here - how the water had caused this blade of grass to bend and hold itself in a young lupine, while a heavier flower in the background arches back the other way ... and then the beautiful water droplets on the grass. I had to take a snap!

Dewey water droplets on some plants. I was mesmerized by the water trapped here.

Dewey water droplets on some plants. I was mesmerized by the water trapped here.

Emergence

Mount Rainier is known for its summer wildflower blooms. Willie and I made a trip to Seattle in hopes of arriving during a year where the flowers blossomed with carpets and carpets of flowers and beautiful colors. When we arrived, though, we found quite the opposite: there were flowers, but only in patches. On our first morning we woke up in the park to find the entire mountain covered in fog. We could barely see 15 feet in front of us as we drove from the campsite towards the base of the mountain. The fog was a great excuse to scout for fields of flowers. Along the way we passed an area filled with lupine and Indian Paintbrush, though not quite in the abundance we were hoping for, and we decided to keep hiking up the mountain. While scouting an area a few hundred feet up the mountain, we noticed the fog was starting to break and Mt. Rainier was emerging. Willie looked at me and screamed “back to the Paintbrush area!” The fog had left dew on the grass and before I knew it, I was sliding down the hill on my butt! We made it back to the Paintbrush Field just in time to catch the mountain peak out. A few minutes later and the mountain was gone again! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 16mm, f/11, 1/50 sec, ISO 320

Emergence

Mount Rainier is known for its summer wildflower blooms. Willie and I made a trip to Seattle in hopes of arriving during a year where the flowers blossomed with carpets and carpets of flowers and beautiful colors. When we arrived, though, we found quite the opposite: there were flowers, but only in patches. On our first morning we woke up in the park to find the entire mountain covered in fog. We could barely see 15 feet in front of us as we drove from the campsite towards the base of the mountain. The fog was a great excuse to scout for fields of flowers. Along the way we passed an area filled with lupine and Indian Paintbrush, though not quite in the abundance we were hoping for, and we decided to keep hiking up the mountain. While scouting an area a few hundred feet up the mountain, we noticed the fog was starting to break and Mt. Rainier was emerging. Willie looked at me and screamed “back to the Paintbrush area!” The fog had left dew on the grass and before I knew it, I was sliding down the hill on my butt! We made it back to the Paintbrush Field just in time to catch the mountain peak out. A few minutes later and the mountain was gone again! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 16mm, f/11, 1/50 sec, ISO 320

Peeping Rain

I’ve always wanted to visit Mt. Rainier National Park to see its epic wildflower blooms, but every summer the wildflower blooms were predicted to be small or Willie and I had been too busy to make a trip. With the wet winter in 2016, we had hoped that the flowers would be booming and planned a trip. We arrived at Mt. Rainier at night, setup our tent and tried to get some sleep before having to wake up early for sunrise. When we did make it up the mountain we found 2 things: lots and lots and lots (and lots) of fog, and no carpets of flowers. Instead, the hills had patches of blooms, spread here and a little over there. While looking for the flowers we had come across this spot, which was the first area that had a good number of both Indian Paintbrush and Lupine, but we kept walking, hoping we’d find better flowers. We had no idea where Mt. Rainier was since the fog was so thick but just after passing this patch, Mt. Rainier suddenly appeared through the fog! We raced back to these flowers, falling flat on my butt in the process, and managed to snap a few photos before the fog covered Rainier again. I called this photo “Peeping Rain” because it reminded me of Peeping Tom, poking its head up to take a peak, then disappearing again as soon as you look. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 15mm, f/11, 1/30 sec, ISO 100

Mt. Rainier was covered in fog when we arrived on our first morning. There was a period of 5 minutes where Rainier peeked out from the fog and we raced to this field to capture it with the Indian Paintbrush. And just like THAT, it was gone again!

Willie managed to find his perfect Corn Lily patch here, and I found some water droplets I wanted to photograph.

Willie wanted to see if there were any ice-caves in Rainier so we hiked all the way up the mountain, with no food or water (he was the brilliant one who told us we were just going for a short hike, then decided he wanted to go all the way up). We found this little sucker, but it had mostly melted and the light was poop. No caves for us!

Willie wanted to see if there were any ice-caves in Rainier so we hiked all the way up the mountain, with no food or water (he was the brilliant one who told us we were just going for a short hike, then decided he wanted to go all the way up). We found this little sucker, but it had mostly melted and the light was poop. No caves for us!

Wild Carpets

A friend recently asked me what part of landscape photography excites me the most. The answer is complicated, because it’s always changing. At one point it was cityscapes, at another time it was seascapes, for a while it was epic mountain landscapes, and lately it’s been scenes with wildflowers. Willie and I had wanted to visit Mt. Rainier during wildflower season for a number of years, and we finally made that happen in August of 2016. Wildflower season is interesting, because it happens at various times throughout “spring”. I say “spring” in quotes because in the mountains spring can be in August (like it was in Mt. Rainier). We didn’t quite get the giant carpets of flowers that we were hoping for, but we did see lots of flowers! We happened upon this field of Indian Paintbrush and Lupine while walking around Mazama Ridge. It probably had the largest amount of flowers we had seen in one place in all of the park. I loved how the Indian Paintbrush ended and the lupine continued as far as the eye could see, until your eye crashes into the Tatooth Mountains, capping a beautiful scene! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 24mm, f/13, 0.4 sec, ISO 100

OK, so I sky swapped in the other photo -- this is the real one.

Painted by Tatoosh

There’s something incredibly peaceful about seeing a field of wildflowers in front of giant mountain ranges, so obviously I wanted to travel to see some of this. Willie and I arrived at Mt. Rainier National Park in August hoping to find carpets and carpets of wildflowers. We didn’t quite find them but we did find nice patches of flowers, like this one. We spent the better part of 2 days hunting around the Paradise Valley area of Mt. Rainier National Park and the lupine and Indian Paintbrush were the two most common flowers we found. In this particular field, we found a nice picture of the two plant types while the Tatoosh Range loomed in the background. We found this field high up on Mazama Ridge, a beautiful area of rolling hills and fields of flowers. It looked as if some of the Lupine was already dying and the Indian Paintbrush would only last a few more days. I snapped the photos of the flowers at sunset, surrounded by thousands of mosquitos (man, a face net would have been helpful!) and then snapped the sky some hours later once the sun had set and the bugs had gone to bed. While we didn’t get to see the massive number of flowers we had hoped for, the fields we did find were still absolutely gorgeous! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 22mm, f/13, 1/3 sec, ISO 100

Path of Reflection

“A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.” ~Henry David Thoreau Willie and I ventured to Mt. Rainier National Park in its “spring” ... which means August. By the time the snow melts and the wildflowers start to bloom, it’s summer everywhere else! On years when there’s more snowfall, the flowers usually bloom in larger fields, looking like carpets of flowers. We had hoped that this year would be flower-filled. Unfortunately this was a weird year — when we arrived, the some flowers were just about to bloom and others were on their way out. There were no carpets of flowers! In fact, at Reflection Lake, here, we only found two little patches of flowers. Luckily we had arrived first and were able to stake out the two best flower patches! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 16mm, f/9, 2 sec, ISO 100

Sunrise on Reflection Lake

Sunrise on Reflection Lake