Volcanoes of the PNW
The Pacific Northwest is saturated with gorgeous mountain ranges and volcanoes. I spend a majority of my free time hiking and immersing myself in the natural beauty that lies in close proximity to Seattle and my hometown Issaquah. The most iconic volcanic mountains here, like Rainier, St Helens, Baker, and Adams are located within their respective national parks and forests and are some of the last bastions of pristine dark skies in the country, safe from light pollution, and a stargazers paradise… assuming that it is not cloudy! More often than not it is... But! When we are blessed with cloudless nights synchronized with favorable moon conditions, these mountains and their surrounding wildernesses make for excellent nightscape compositions. I used innovative shooting and editing techniques to create the cleanest and most naturally detailed photos of these mountains to date- involving Equatorial Mounts, Modified Cameras, and Focal Length Blending- to create a portrait series of these magnificent volcanic mountains underneath the Milky Way galaxy and inspire those who haven’t seen the Milky Way in all it’s glory to venture themselves to experience the night sky! My mortal words always fall short when trying to articulate the emotions, perspective, and primal self awareness one feels while experiencing what it is like to view the Milky Way hover over these impressive mountains. My ‘Volcanoes of the Pacific Northwest’ is a portrait series of these mountains starting with the most iconic ones: Mt Rainier and Mt St Helens. I have spent countless weeks and sleepless weekends night hiking around these areas with 60lbs of astrophotography gear to capture these mountains in all their glory and enjoyed every bit of it! I hope this summer (2017) between school and sharing my passion for the night sky through the night photography workshops I am running, to have the opportunity to capture more of the amazing mountains here in the Pacific Northwest and add to this collection! I hope these images inspire you to visit our National Parks here in Washington- and don’t forget, half the park is after dark!
