Rain Forest Wanderings - New Thursday Image 07/05

Laurence · Expire: 2016-06-19

Finally getting the Pentax 645 going again. Had a fine hike up the Quinault Valley to its headwaters
near the Anderson and Lindsley Glaciers.

This hikes takes you through 14 miles of pure, green rain forest, interspersed with river canyons,
hillsides with record-breaking trees, and repopulating bottomlands. I basically grew up here. Generally,
the rain averages about 4 meters per year in this lush valley.

I saw about a dozen bears, all foraging the new growth for grubs, roots, and small creatures. They will
eventually work their way right up to the high alpine slopes as the snow melts back later.

The valley is always overwhelming this time of year, in the explosion of growth. No matter how many
times I've been here, it's always just a 'green shock' to visit again. A totally different world that almost
seems to be an alien world from a science fiction novel.

Anyway, it was a good place to test out the Biometar. I also took a couple other lenses, including the Mir 45/3.5
lens (I think it's model 26B - I don't have it in front of me), the Zodiak 30/3.5, and the Sonnar 180/2.8 (heavy,
but I put it out of sight in the pack to pretend it wasn't really weighing me down Laughing

).

I'll have more descriptions of this fine little 3-day trip, but just wanted to get at least one image into this thread.

This is by no means the best image, it's simply the first one I came to in the sheet of transparencies.

As I scan more I'll add to the thread. Hopefully, you will get a good representation of the beauty in this quiet, enchanted valley.

This image is of some very perky Deerfoot Vannilaleaf plants. Later in the year, when the leaves start to go yellow, you can
crush them in your hands and experience a wonderful vanilla smell.

I left the image 'as is' out of the camera and scanner, with no 'tweaks', to show a representation of the raw output before
any post-processing. Perhaps could use some sharpening, but I'm not completely sure it really needs it.

In my opinion, the lens renders a different signature than any of my other lenses, especially in the bokeh. Without tweaking,
I would say that the greens are rendered slightly on the cool side and actually very close to the colors seen with the eyes.
I think it seems to be a nice lens, so far. I could have used more depth of field - this was at about f:3.5 or so. I tend to
forget that medium format seems to have an apparently tighter DOF than say...35mm. I'm happy that the bokeh seems to
fall off in a gradual, pleasing manner.

Deerfoot Vanillaleaf
Pentax 645
Zeiss Jena Biometar 120/2.8
Provia

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

Such a living picture! I am glad to see again your pictures much! Look forward more!

Minolfan · Joined: 30 Dec 2008 Posts: 3437 Location: Netherlands

Beautiful!

DigiChromeEd · Joined: 29 Dec 2009 Posts: 3462 Location: Northern Ireland

You know Laurence, I enjoy your writings as much as your photographs - it really brings them to life! Smile

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

Perfect.
Photographing grass well is difficult, you managed it perfectly.

Excalibur · Expire: 2014-04-21

Lovely story and picture.

martinsmith99 · Expire: 2013-11-18

The greens look great. I'm not sure much sharpening is necessary for this image.

fuzzywuzzy · Expire: 2013-11-30

Great start!

I'm a sucker for unspoiled wilderness, looking forward to the rest of the series.

Laurence · Expire: 2016-06-19

Well GREAT! Thanks all for the comments, this helps me to have someone else's view of the output, and I appreciate it.

By the way, when I submit more pix, I have no problem with ANYONE tweaking the images and posting. That's a great way
for me to get new perspectives on images.

And again, I'm just scanning images in the order that I see them on the sheets, some will be hopefully good, and some not so
good. That's okay, as long as I can sort of convey the green beauty of the forest.

Laurence · Expire: 2016-06-19

This was basically a test of the Zodiak 30/3.5. The trees start to get larger when the trail rises just a few meters above the
river flood plain. This area was once part of the river and so has formed a level bench. The age of this biome can be estimated
by noting that the Western Red Cedar is about 10 feet in diameter. So that gives it an age of roughly 900-1100 years. Seems like
a long time to us puny humans, but just an eye blink in the scheme of the millenniums. Shocked

Usually the Western Red Cedars are accompanied by Vine Maples. The two species trade nitrogen and isotopes of various other
elements. The cedar usually needs the exchange of the nitrogen given up by Vine Maples; however, in this case there is
probably already sufficient nitrogen in the soil so that the cedar can thrive to maturity. These areas tend to be a little more
open than the lower terraces because the pioneer species (alders, hemlocks, cottonwoods) have fallen and added to the
soil in years past.

There are relatively open spots like this, punctuated by little copses of Salmonberry. The Salmonberry is prime food for the
Olympic Elk, and the plants are almost always 'chopped off' at the new growth by the elk. The elk in this portion of the valley do not
migrate to the high meadows; rather they are 'resident herds' that spend all year in the valley. The moderate weather allows for
sufficient food to grow, even in Winter. The elevation here is not quite high enough to retain snow for very long, so the elk have a
good food base.

What is interesting to me, is that I've noticed that these former bottomland benches can sometimes be only a meter or so above the
flood plain, yet the ecotone is dramatically changed. There are about five levels of benches in this particular valley - this is the lowest
benchland area. Another step up, and the dominant species becomes Douglas Firs with a Huckleberry, Dwarf Bramble, and Canada
Ground Dogwood ground cover. It is in those bench elevations where the Douglas Firs are found to be giants. In fact, the world record
Douglas Fir is found in the next valley north. However, there are so many 'near record' Firs in the valley that it boggles the mind when
you come across a grove of them. Whereas this Cedar is about 10 feet in diameter, the Firs are consistently from 8 to 12 feet in
diameter and there are a LOT of them. Most of the Firs approach 100 meters in height, while the Cedar pictured here tends to taper
quickly to about 50 meters or so. In this image, you can see the lower river floodplain level in the distance to the right of the Cedar .

As I followed the trail here, I remember how quiet it was. I could hear the river about 1/4 mile away as a background sound, and the
only other sound was the call of the Varied Thrush with its wonderful double-trill voice. The sounds make one feel as if it is a prehistoric
area; very soothing, yet seemingly from another world. It's no wonder that traveling here soothes the soul.

There is some movement in the foreground patch of Vanillaleaf from a light breeze. The Zodiak seems to be doing pretty well for
rendering colors; it definitely needed just a little USM though to bring out the details a little better. I would say it is an 'average to
a little better than average' lens, definitely useful for its wide angle. I am happy with this first shot. I have to be careful with the
angle of the lens when taking an image, as the edges tend to distort as a natural result of the wide, curved front lens element. I
will have some other examples scanned soon, that will show more pronounced distortion. This can be fixed in an image editor, although
at the expense of losing some of the image in the process.

A nice thing about the rain forest valley is that there is no need to even fool with the saturation sliders, as the natural scene has all
the saturation that I want - and then some! shock:

This image is, again pretty much 'raw' out of the camera and scanner with no special processing other than the light amount of USM.
I think it could become a more dramatic image if someone with more skill than I have edited the image.

First Bench Cedar
Pentax 645
Zodiak 30/3.5
f:11 at 1/2 second
Provia :

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

Something went wrong with Zodiak picture , Zodiak is super sharp from your feet to infinity.

DigiChromeEd · Joined: 29 Dec 2009 Posts: 3462 Location: Northern Ireland

It's like an image from a fairy-tale - Hansel and Gretel or Little Red Riding Hood come to mind!

Beautiful image! Smile

Laurence · Expire: 2016-06-19

Laurence · Expire: 2016-06-19

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

I can imagine this shoot in harsh contrasty B&W , look forward your other scan.

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

Amazing results Larry!

Laurence · Expire: 2016-06-19

Thanks guys. I skipped around a little in looking at the transparency sleeves and found some images from the Zodiak that appear
to be MUCH sharper than the previous one on here. I am glad to have found that they are obviously sharper, at least looking through
the transparency held up to the light in the window. I'll scan a couple of those tomorrow to give the Zodiak a much more fair chance
of showing its mettle. Smile

Himself · Expire: 2013-05-30

Larry, that tree is humongous!
I can only guesstimate its size by doing some comparison with the path width.
Being next to it, the feeling would be overwhelming.
Fairy-tale indeed.

Laurence · Expire: 2016-06-19

Well, I have a lot to learn with this very wide angle lens. If it's not tilted just right, the curvature is
REALLY noticeable. Also, looking at this image, there is some veiling and ghosting on the upper
part of the image - the sky was overcast but relatively bright in comparison with the dark forest
floor.

This was a fine group of trees. They are not world records like the ones in the next valley north, but
there was probably over 50 trees like this in just a couple of acres. So, taken all together it is pretty
breathtaking.

The image creates confusing scale, but I did have a part of a measuring tape in the pack that I usually
use to measure the length of fish to make sure I can legally keep them.

So, the Douglas Fir on the left is actually almost exactly 3 meters in diameter.
The Western Red Cedar to the left in the background is 3.9 meters in diameter.
The Western Red Cedar beside that tree, on the right is 3.3 meters in diameter.
The Sitka Spruce on the far right is a mere 2.5 meters in diameter.

Like I mentioned, not any kind of record, but still impressive, at least to me. I do think though, that I need
to recalibrate my scanner. It's not giving me the usual sharpness. So, I'll fool around with it and see if I
can improve the scans.

Also, when inserting the image into this forum, the sharpness is significantly reduced in comparison to the
original on my screen. Sad

At least that's my excuse! Laughing

Colonnade
Pentax 645
Zodiak-8 - 30/3.5
Velvia 100F

yinyangbt · Expire: 2012-12-27

Laurence · Expire: 2016-06-19

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

at least not lens issue, fingers are crossed to solve it.

Laurence · Expire: 2016-06-19

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18