Mt. Shuksan is located approximately 60 miles east of
Bellingham, WA in the Mt. Baker National Forest. This
magnificent mountain is one of the most photographed peaks in the
United States, partly because of its rugged beauty, and partly
because visitors can follow a scenic, paved road through farmlands
and forested foothills to within perhaps a hundred yards of where
this stunning photo was taken.
The park service has thoughtfully constructed a trail around Picture
Lake, complete with viewing platforms right at the water's edge,
specifically to give photographers the opportunity to snap photos of
the mountain reflected in the lake. And those viewing platforms are
well-used.
Tourists from all over the globe visit Mt. Shuksan and Picture Lake,
and people can be seen taking pictures with everything from camera
phones to professional landscape cameras. The season is brief,
however. This year, there was snow on the ground around Picture Lake
until the middle of July, and the first snow of the fall season
comes in early in November!
About the photo: This stunning photograph of Mt. Shuksan was
taken by photographer
Winston
Rockwell on October 22, 2006. It's hard to believe, but there's
over 5 feet of snow on the ground there right now (Nov. 15)! Mr.
Rockwell had gone in search of fall color, but he discovered that
he'd missed the best of the foliage by about 2 weeks. Still, the
weather was perfect, there was no wind, and the surface of Picture
Lake (yes, that's its real name) was smooth as glass. He shot this
image from a tripod using a Canon 30D with a Tamron SP 24-135 lens
at 24mm and a Hoya polarizer. The exposure was 1/25 second @ f16.
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