Day Three on the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area

Sunrise over the Columbia River Gorge

Continuing my trip to the Columbia River Gorge, on the 29th we awoke and drove to Rowena overlook for the sunrise.  Next to the parking area is the Tom McCall Nature Preserve, where we walked out to near the edge of the cliff and shot the sunrise with flowers in the foreground and the Columbia River.  One thing I have not mentioned is that most of my pictures were taken with my Nikon D 800 and the Tokina 17-35 f/4 lens and a polarizer.  The yellow flowers are arrowleaf balsamroot, a member of the sunflower family.  Here is some interesting facts taken from the U.S. Forest Service "Nearly all parts of this plant were used as food by various Native American groups. The roots may be baked or steamed and eaten, as well as the young shoots. The immature flower stems could be peeled and eaten; the flowers themselves are good browse for wildlife. Balsamroot seeds are nutritious and oil-rich, another good source of food. The root could be used as a coffee substitute. It was also used medicinally" it is nice to see fields of yellow flowers and interspersed with the blue of the lupines.

Sunrise over the Columbia River Gorge

Sunrise over the Columbia River Gorge

Arrowleaf Balsamroot Blur

After sunrise was finished our next stop was Wahcella falls, where we hiked up to the grotto which gave us a great view of the falls.  Wahcella falls drops 65 feet into the Canyon and there is a 50 foot upper falls just barely visible above this.  The falls enter the Tanner River and flows down to the Columbia.  As we were walking back to the trailhead, the sun was shining through the canopy above the river in gave us mystical color in the River.

Wahcella Falls

Wahcella Falls

Color in the Tanner River from the Sun Coming through the Canopy

So finished the morning and we went to lunch at a taco stand which had very inexpensive and delicious tacos, plus Mexican soda, which did not contain any high fructose content and was delicious.

After lunch, we traveled back to the motel where we had presentations on post processing.  Later, we went back to Gorton Creek, where we worked the area again.  After we finished now came a problem, the sky was absolutely clear with no clouds.  Should we go up and wait and hopefully see if clouds come, which we did, and no clouds showed up, so off to supper and then back to download our pictures go to sleep for another early rise.

Gorton Creek

Gorton Creek

Gorton Creek

Gorton Creek As a Blur Processed with Topaz Simplify Plug-In

 

 

The Topaz special for this month is Topaz Clean, which will be 50% off from May 8 - May 31 with coupon code "mayclean".

Topaz Clean lets you smooth edges and surfaces in your photos. It's great for subjects like cars and portraits, and you can also use it to create some interesting effects as well. Clean has three main controls:

* Smoothness: smooths the surfaces of your photo. Useful for removing blemishes from skin, removing dust + noise, creating a "flatter" texture, and more.
* Edges: smoothly enhances edges with a unique process that looks "vectorized". This creates smooth and well-defined lines in your photo that work great on image features like hair and eyelashes.
* Texture: recovers and refines original detail in your image to keep it looking natural. For example, re-introduce original skin texture in your portraits to prevent your post-processing from looking too overdone or "plastic".

Topaz Clean is a great value: it's originally $29.99 but we're dropping it to just $14.99 for this promotion. It can be purchased at:
http://www.topazlabs.com/aff/idevaffiliate.php?id=850&url=http://www.topazlabs.com/clean