A clear sunny day is ideal for most people, but photographers aren’t most people.
After two hikes in moody, rainy, changeable weather, I’d gotten a bit spoiled, you see. I thought every weekend would be like that, with fog enveloping trees and conditions that shifted every minute, but even the PNW experiences the steady weather of summer. Which is how I found myself in a race against the sun going up the mountain to Annette Lake.
In the early parts of the hike, the sun hadn’t burned through all the morning clouds yet, and hadn’t reached the deeper portions of the trail. The cascade of water running down the rocks at the beginning of the trail still looked lush and green from the evening dew.
What a difference a couple hours makes! The sun had almost completely burned off all the clouds in the time it took me to get another half mile to the lake, eat lunch, wander around, and come back along the ridge.
There was maybe an hour between these two shots.
Annette Lake itself was very pretty, with crystal clear waters and plenty of logs around the edge for people to sit on and have lunch. There were dogs splashing in the lake, and although the path around the lake got dodgy in places, I could see that some folks had made it to the other side. You can see them in this picture… if you zoom in to at least 200%. Which should give you a sense of the scale of the surroundings.
I didn’t get too many pictures of the lake or the forest on this day. The sun was harsh and bright, and while the experience of sitting at the lake & eating a sandwich with the light on my face was glorious, it did not make for great photography. And this is how it goes sometimes.
