The Mountain and the Moon

It seems like Ron and I haven't been able to get out to take any photos lately.........because of a combination of things, i.e. bad weather, septic problems, teaching, work, tending grandchildren and church responsibilites, just to name a few. But yesterday the sun was shining and we had nothing pressing on the calendar so we loaded up the truck and "ran."

Mt. Baker was bigger than life, so we headed in that direction. It's not that often that the mountain is that clear and beautiful, so we took advantage of a rare opportunity. We drove up to the Mt. Baker Ski Resort area, (which was closed) and hiked up one of the ski runs a little way. My favorite mountain to photograph is Mt. Shuksan, and I never tire of how incredibly gorgeous it is.

I tried something that I've never done before........HDR photography. (High Dynamic Range) The photo below is a normal shot of Mt. Shuksan.....just one photo shot.

Here is the same shot, but processed using HDR. You take several shots using underexposure and overexposure, then combine them in software to get the best of everything.......darks and lights and a lot more detail. There was a huge difference.

On the drive home, we were driving south along Highway 9 toward Sedro Wooley, and we looked over at the Twin Sisters and the moon was just coming over the horizon. We pulled over to the side of the road and jumped out of the car. We were in the right place at the right time. Wow, what a sight! A photograph just doesn't do it justice.

The unique thing about this photo, is that the sun was just setting so you get a pink glow to the mountain, but the moon was rising at the same time. Perfect timing! How often does that happen?