Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Crater Lake trip

3 months after the previous post, I have time for this page again. Probably many people stop bother coming back to check for update. If you do, don't be shy to drop a line to say hi :).

When: It was end of Jan when the snow was still there in Crater Lake. A lot that we had hard time going around.
Where: Crater Lake, OR
What: So I got called for a Crater Lake trip. It was a long 8 hr drive from San Jose. We didn't leave the area until midnight due to some technical problem. After 4 guys in my car taking turn to sleep, eat, drive... we got to the area around 7:30am Sat morning. We drove around and around the whole day w/o any place to really stop and "collect" nature through the lens. Most of the scheduled places for Sat was blocked due to poor road condition. So we headed to Diamond Lake for lunch break.

This is what I got at Diamond Lake. Not the best I wanted but ... oh well. It's done with Nikon D90, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8

Shutter Speed: 1/4000sec
Aperture: F/3.5
Focal: 40mm
ISO: 200
Exp compensation: -2


Shutter Speed: 1/2500 sec
Aperture: F/3.5
Focal: 34mm
ISO: 200
Exp compensation: 0



We headed to Crater Lake to once again prove the cloudy day is really cloudy.

Sunday morning, we had appointment with Mr. Sun at around 6:30am. We were there right on time. TOO ontime that rushing was needed to get to the place. HIGHLY recommended: snowshoe, waterproof boot. waterproof pants, EXTRA jackets, gloves. At one point a friend with Canon 5D markII stop working ?!?! My cokin P filters was started to ice-up. I could see ice powder on my filters, tripod, backpack... Anyway, here's what I got at Crater Lake with Tokina 11-16mm

Shutter Speed: 1/500 sec
Aperture: F/3.2
Focal: 16mm
Exp compensation: -1



Shutter Speed: 1/4 sec
Aperture: F/11
Focal: 14mm
ISO: 100
Exp compensation: 0



Shutter Speed: 2 sec
Aperture: F/11
Focal: 14mm
ISO: 100
Exp compensation: 0



After Crater Lake, we started to make round trip to the rest of the water falls as planned.
First stop was Clear water.
Beautiful place. One thing to keep in mind. Don't ever think you can cross the waterfall walking on a log covered with moss... especially when it's raining/snowing! Bad bad bad... idea. I didn't know until I took second step on this log, felt, hit my D90 with Tokina 11-16mm attached with 2 Cokin P series filters. Next thing I know I'm waist deep in cold water with left hand holding tripod and camera up in the air (lucky I guess). I then found out my water proof boot really did a great job ... holding the water... in.
Some of the damage:



The result:

Shutter Speed: 1 sec
Aperture: F/13
Focal: 12mm
ISO: 100
Exp compensation: -0.3


Shutter Speed: 2.5 sec
Aperture: F/10
Focal: 11mm
ISO: 100
Exp compensation: -0.3


Then Watson fall ... Beautiful place down stream. Upper fall is beautiful as well but would be hard to get a "wow" effect. This is one of my favorite with a touch of HDR to it. Turns out great and I've got quite a few feedback as "avatar" world.

Shutter Speed: 2.5 sec
Aperture: F/11
Focal: 17mm
ISO: 100
Exp compensation: 0


We then headed back to Crater Lake for another try at sunset. But it was a waste of time while we should be start driving back. It was started to get cloudy again. So we started our 7+ hr driving trip pass 6pm. Didn't get home until almost 3 when I have to work 8am Monday morning. I now keep wondering how stupid my face was at those meetings on following Monday.

Lesson learn: Don't think you can walk on log. Even if you know and did try successfully before, don't do it!! At least not with an expensive camera and everything else on you. AND make sure you will have a good rest Sunday night if you planning to work on Monday. Because it would be impossible to sleep less Friday through Sunday and work normally on Monday :)

Bonus video

Part 1



Part 2


Part 3