Red Wood

Striking red bark in Watershed Park, Bellevue WA

Watershed Park in Bellevue is a typical local park in the Northwest: no roads into it, mostly nowhere to park near it. I happened to find a bit of dirt to park on in an adjacent housing development.

I took the ‘wrong’ lens with me, a 150mm; I should have grabbed something wider but I didn’t know what I’d find. I made the best of it; this beautiful red-barked tree and its companion caught my eye on a steep climb (the longer trails are at the top of the park).

Technical info: Shot with the Phase One XF camera and IQ3 100 back. This is a crop of the most interesting area of the photo—the forest was dense along the path, and I had a hard time setting up a clear enough shot. ISO 50, 1/15th sec, f/2.8. It was dark in there!

This is what the trail is like: too steep for me today, but I am recovering my strength after being ill for a while, so it was good exercise.

The trail was steep, and the large trees made for a cathedral-like feeling. The second shot was ISO 50, 1s, f/5.6.

I also took five aligned shots for a vertical panorama:

I used the same exposure for all of them; the sky was too bright where it shows through, however, so there is some strange stuff going on there, but it adds to the mood. :)