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dankearl
08-31-2013, 12:09 AM
Mt. St. Helens 33 years after half the mountain blew away.
Taken today, I had not been up there for 10 years, it was still just dirt and rocks at that time.
It is making a slow but nice comeback.
Always hit or miss to make the drive up, I wanted some clouds of course, just not right over the rim.
You are looking into the crater and at the new mountain bulge forming inside, the rim is obscured, but is not much higher.

1/20, iso100, 16mm (slight crop) nikon 16-35 lens, D800, polarizer + grad filter used.

DSC_7204bp2.jpg (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=132027&stc=1&d=1377925682)

jack williamson
08-31-2013, 05:51 PM
It is hard to grasp the power that was unleashed that day. Even after all of this time, still pretty barren. I love the flowers making a foothold in the FG. Very nice composition, nice exposure. What kind of distance are we looking at here?

Jack

dankearl
08-31-2013, 06:14 PM
Jack, I was standing on Johnson ridge, 5 1/2 miles to the crater. The ridge is about the halfway point into the total blast zone, the ridges behind me
are still bare but riddled with Old growth timber toothpicks. For those not familiar, in front of me was Thick old growth timber forest to the rocky slopes
that was the timber line. The valley in front was just pulverized in the blast, nothing left at all in the immediate aftermath but smoking mud and rock.

laurie golden
08-31-2013, 10:15 PM
Dan,

I love your composition and the baron landscape with some green starting to grow. The flowers add to the contrast of devastation and new life. Good use of filters.

Markus Jais
09-03-2013, 03:10 PM
Beautiful shot. I like the composition with the small flowers in the foreground. The blue looks fantastic and is a great contrast to the yellowish vegetation.

Markus

Andrew McLachlan
09-03-2013, 05:26 PM
Hi Dan, this is a nice composition showing how slow it is taking to rejuvenate after the eruption. Mother Nature sure can unleash her fury when she wants to.

Roman Kurywczak
09-04-2013, 12:06 PM
Hey Dan,
I see why you went horizontal with comp....but did you do any verts? I like the R half of the image and may have tried this with the bush in the LL leading up to the mountains. I was there shortly after they reopened the road......very surreal and it is amazing how much it has come back!

Morkel Erasmus
09-05-2013, 05:03 PM
A nice view on this historic vista, Dan. I felt your OP lacked some punch as it seems a bit flat (probably due to the time of day). The polariser has helped with the sky though.
In this repost I basically added some LCE and also burned the shadows in the FG and midground and dodged highlights likewise.
Lastly I took out some of the blue evident in the mountain and shaded parts of the land.
WDYT?

dankearl
09-05-2013, 06:27 PM
Thanks for taking the time Morkel.
You made it pop nicely and I will try it on a bunch of others I took that day.