Interesting Photo of the Day: A Meadow of Flowers on Mount St. Helens

Interesting Photos

A carpet of brightly-colored flowers leads the eye toward the solitary tree, and the sun setting behind it on the Boundary Trail, Johnson Ridge Observatory, Mount St. Helens.

Photographer Cody Wilson says he originally walked past this scene in his search for the perfect image. He wanted a shot with flowers in the foreground and the volcano in the background, but he couldn’t find a pleasing composition, so he came back to this meadow. It’s as well he did, for this shot is a beauty. The flowers are Explorer’s Gentian and Scarlet Indian Paintbrush:

“A meadow of flowers growing in the eruption area on Mt. St. Helens, USA” by Cody Wilson (Via Reddit. Click image to see full size.)

Wilson used a Nikon D800, with a 14–24mm lens to capture this shot, and he exposed at ISO 100, f/16 at 1/8 of a second. This shot is a single image, but he says that usually he would focus stack by taking around seven images with different focusing points and put them together in Photoshop. Wilson uses a Really Right Stuff Series 3 Tripod to get his shots when he goes hiking.

One other thing the photographer mentions: if you’re going to be out after dark on the Boundary Trail, beware of the giant frogs!