As photographers we go through certain trends within our photography. My current interest area is photographing flowers in the foreground of my scenes. Ive always wanted to visit Mt. Rainier National Park just because the volcano looks epic, but also because it has beautiful wildflower blooms. Willie and I visited in August of 2016, hoping for carpets of flowers caused by a very wet winter. Unfortunately we only found patches of flowers.
We arrived at Mt. Rainier at night, setup camp, and went to bed. When we woke the entire scene was covered in fog. We drove to Reflection Lake but we were surrounded by so much fog we could barely tell where our feet were, let alone which way Rainier was. We left and hiked up Rainier instead.
The next morning was a different story though and we were glad we were one of the first people to arrive at Reflection Lake. The lack of wildflower blooms meant that there were only a small handful of flowers next to the lake. Willie immediately plopped his camera down next to this patch of Indian Paintbrush and wouldnt budge. Off I had to go, trying to find some other flowers. Eventually we traded spots and I was able to get in and snap this photo. I loved how the red Paintbrush contrasted with the purple flowers next to it, while the sun touched the trees and Rainier in the background.
Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8:
14mm, f/14, 1/6 sec, ISO 200
