I have a favorite spot for taking scenic pictures of Mt. Rainier. It’s a small ridge in Graham, WA east of Meridian Avenue. You can see a similar view driving south between Graham and Eatonville on highway 161.
But this spot is perfect; there’s a major break in the trees for the dairy farm. You can see a few of the buildings that belong to the farm at lower left.
That spot is about 26 miles from the base of Mt. Rainier. It might not seem that close—that’s where the clear days come into play. The closer you get to Rainier, the more fore-shortened it looks. You need to be back far enough to see the mountain clearly. If you get too close, you are looking up at the mountain, and it doesn’t look as tall.
The shot above is a panorama made with the camera held sideways, using a 100mm lens. There are 10 shots with a fair amount of overlap to make sure that there is a good fit for the pano.
Here’s a vertical pano which shows more of the foreground. It also shows more detail around of the mountain itself.
Beautiful!