3 First Light on Mt. St. Helens from this Morning

[kb7rib]

Got some really nice morning color early today and with the fall sun angle got some good rays on the upper slopes of Mt. St. Helens.

View attachment 169761
Comments and critiques always welcome.

 

[kb7rib]

1980 Between Ritzville and Mose Lake

 

[AlanL]

1980 Between Ritzville and Mose Lake

Is this the ash cloud from St. Helens?

 

[GFields]

Interesting photo

 

[thearborist]

I have a small bottle of ash on a shelf that my Grandad collected (in Tacoma). A small souvenir. We didn't hear a thing in Delaware! But we did get some red sunsets for a while.

 

[AlanL]

I have a small bottle of ash on a shelf that my Grandad collected (in Tacoma). A small souvenir. We didn't hear a thing in Delaware! But we did get some red sunsets for a while.

There are still curio shops along the road leading up to the mountain viewpoints selling small yard ornament sculptures made from the piles of ash still piled up in the area here. It makes a really soft plaster that doesn't last long in our wet winters so hardly an investment

 

[AlanL]

Nice shot! I like that you kept the dark foreground in it too- balances it better. Try playing with contrast and sharpness- you could darken the mtn a bit to make the snow more contrasting with the rock, and as the mtn is your subject, I think it could look a bit more dark. It also has some cool layers between the different hills leading up to the mtn that chould be brought out with contrast as well. I did a quick edit on my iPhone of it as a basic example of what I mean, but I would have used Photoshop for a quality one if it was my print (tell me if you want me to delete it and I will):

Interesting take on the scene but a bit more contrast that either what I saw or would usually apply to one of my images. I did tease out a lot more detail on the mountain slopes and the snow from the original in the version I posted - this is a far cry from a straight out of the camera image. I did enhance the layering effect quite a bit as well as I do with most of my telephoto images of the Cascades when shooting from above my house.

I am fine with you leaving your edit up. Thanks for giving it a go.

 

[AMann]

Got some really nice morning color early today and with the fall sun angle got some good rays on the upper slopes of Mt. St. Helens.

View attachment 169761
Comments and critiques always welcome.

Nice shot, I like that you kept the dark foreground in it too- balances it better. Try playing with contrast and sharpness- you could darken the mtn a bit to make the snow more contrasting with the rock, and as the mtn is your subject, I think it could look a bit more dark. You also have some cool layers between the hills in the foreground, contrast adjustments and even the photoshop gradation tool would bring those out. I did a quick edit on my iPhone of it as a basic example of what I mean about contrast, but I would have used Photoshop for a quality edit if it was my print (tell me if you want me to delete the example and I will:



If you don’t have Photoshop, and you’re curious as to what I mean about the gradation tool, if you want PM me a higher resolution file of it and put your name as a watermark on it. I can make the adjustments that I’m talking about and send it back to you. If you shoot in Raw mode it alows for much better editing than jpg mode.

 

[dan.utinske]

I have a small bottle of ash on a shelf that my Grandad collected (in Tacoma). A small souvenir. We didn't hear a thing in Delaware! But we did get some red sunsets for a while.

I have my ash in my lungs from Search and Rescue

 

[AlanL]

If you don’t have Photoshop, and you’re curious as to what I mean about the gradation tool, if you want PM me a higher resolution file of it and put your name as a watermark on it. I can make the adjustments that I’m talking about and send it back to you. If you shoot in Raw mode it alows for much better editing than jpg mode.

Thanks for the offer but I have been shooting landscapes for over 60 years and using photoshop for over 20. The file was processed using a custom camera profile followed by a clean up using DxO PureRAW 3 before working with the light in Lightroom and finishing touches in Photoshop. I used several masks while editing the light and colors in Lightroom.

What you are looking at is how I wish to present the scene based on what I was viewing when I took the shot. I appreciate the feedback but don't really need lessons in image processing tools. If you are interested in pure photography discussions you can find me on FocalWorld where I post almost daily and am one of the moderators.

 

[dan.utinske]

This is taken in the blast area during search and rescue operations. I'm standing alone, much thinner in those days. The other two are pilots, photo taken by AP reporter. Original hangs in my office. Crazy how fast time flies. We're standing on ash, area was completely silent, no noise, no insects, no animals, just silence. This is 20 May 1980, two days after she blew. Ironically Helen's first eruption was on my birthday, 27 March 1980! The shorter pilot (Chuck Falconi) was killed in a helicopter crash later that same year, 11 Nov 1980.

 

[AlanL]

Sometimes I wish I could have been in the area when it did erupt but every time I hear about the amount of ash that even fell in the Portland/Vancouver area I am glad I wasn't.

Thanks for adding in more of the eruption history.

 

[dan.utinske]

Sometimes I wish I could have been in the area when it did erupt but every time I hear about the amount of ash that even fell in the Portland/Vancouver area I am glad I wasn't.

Thanks for adding in more of the eruption history.

Cities west of the mountain got a pretty good coating of ash a week after the May 18th eruption. Early that following Sunday morning, she blew again, smaller but still very intense and we woke to a very very black darkness not realizing that that Helens had again erupted. We were sleeping on cots in a grange hall when the local sheriff came in to tell us. Our aircraft were covered in ash, it was a mess but the ash cleared relatively quickly but not before making a mess of things.