First Light at Mazama Ridge, Mt. Rainier National Park

This photo was taken on August 23, 2008 at Mt. Rainier National Park in Washington.

This is from Mazama Ridge, just below the Paradise River. Technical Details: Canon 5D, Canon 24mm TSE f/14, 5.2 sec. ISO 100 with a Singh-Ray 3-stop grad ND (hard) to tone down the sky and mountain.

This was a late year for wildflowers in the Cascades, about 3 weeks after the normal bloom, and the bloom has been inconsistent, with the lupine a bit stunted. Several snow fields still crossed the trail, and the climb up to Mazama ridge, which we began around 5:15 AM was still pretty wet.