Down by the River

Some interesting photo subjects in, around, and of the Carbon River between Buckley and Enumclaw, WA

This was my favorite find today. I have noticed that there is a flume parallel to the Carbon River, running under state route 410 just west of the Carbon River. I found a trailhead that leads to a portion of the flume, and found what you see above. I don’t know what to compare it to; my son Justen thinks it must be from the Shire in Lord of the Rings.

The water is blue because it is carrying a very high load of glacial dust, scraped from the rock as the ice slides over it. The glaciers on are Mt. Rainier, which is about 20 miles away.

The arch, the strange color of the water, the (typical) Pacific Northwest excess of vegetation—just a great photo opportunity.

Shot with the new Phase One IQ4 digital back and a 60mm lens. I took two shots, one high and one low using the shift capability of the Actus camera that supports the digital back and lens with a bellows between them (think old-school 4x5” cameras). I combined the shots as a vertical panorama in Affinity Photo. The brightness variation is pretty extreme, but the IQ4 was just able to capture detail in the blacks and preserve detail in the sky. It’s a pretty impressive dynamic range.

No hobbits were observed, but several dogs were nearby chasing sticks and diving into the river…

The trail continued past the flume and I discovered this bit of graffiti on an old concrete block, probably a remnant of an old bridge over the Carbon River. (It has been replaced by a steel bridge a bit north of the old one.)

I am really happy with how the IQ4 digital back captures the colors. The high pixel count also gives the scene a very tangible feel.

The path then opened up into a large clear area, providing access to the Carbon River. I took a time exposure of 30 seconds, which blends the rapids and shows the cool blue color of the ground-up rock from Mt. Rainier. There has been almost no rain for months, so the glacial dust dominates the color of the water. The log sitting on the island in the river has stayed there for quite a long time now; I would guess that it was put there by the flood conditions a year and and a half ago. The water hasn’t been anywhere near that high since those floods.

This is a panorama made from two 30-second shots, with the camera rotated on the tripod.