Mount Rainier Enshrouded in Clouds

This is Mount Rainier showing the effect of high mountains creating their own weather. We saw a long line of people heading to the top of the mountain despite the clouds. Without the clouds, though, this would've been a completely sunny day. Mount Rainier is a volcano and the highest mountain in Washington state. It is considered a premier destination for mountaineers all around the world.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Norris Geyser Basin panoramic image

The Norris Geyser Basin area, in Yellowstone National Park, as viewed from a hillside at the southeast side of the basin looking northwestly over geysers and fumaroles. Of the many geyser basins in Yellowstone, Norris is the hottest. This northern part of the Norris Geyser Basin is called Porcelain Basin and the feature below us is Porcelain Springs. The colors in the hot streams come from different species of bacteria that can survive in high temperatures. Living things that can live in high temperatures are called extremophiles, and have been of great interest to biologists.

This image is the result of combining 2 images together and is at a 3:1 ratio. If ordering prints, make sure to keep that ratio in mind.

While we were hiking the trails around the Norris Geyser Basin, a couple of people wanted to have their picture taken with us, just because we're twins. So we accommodated them. Made us feel like celebrities.

It's not just a picture, it's a story!

Lassen National Park's Cinder Cone in the morning, from the north-east

During the time of the Reading Fire, in August, 2012, we approached the Cinder Cone, Lassen Volcanic National Park's largest cinder cone. We thought we'd try to get a view of Mount Lassen from the top of the cinder cone by looking westward from it's summit. But because of the fire, there was too much smoke in that direction, so we only hiked half-way up before turning around. We had taken pictures of the Cinder Cone as we hiked toward it and as we headed away from it. After we got back to camp, we looked over the images and realized that this feature was dramatic by itself.

This image was made by merging 3 images together and then cropped to a 2 to 1 ratio. It would work well as a 20" by 10" picture.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Skiing near Mount Lassen, Lassen Volcanic National Park, CA

Richard Robinson poses in front of Mount Lassen in Lassen Volcanic National Park at the end of a two-night ski-packing trip.  The Lassen National Park Highway is closed through the park during the winter making it available for cross country skiers and snowshoers.

Remember it's not just a picture, it's a story.

Subway Cave: a lavatube cave near Lassen Volcanic National Park

Subway Cave is a lava tube cave near Lassen Volcanic National Park, in the Lassen National Forest. Lava tubes form when lava flowing out of a volcanic eruption cools and forms an upper crust, but lava underneath is still warm and fluid and eventually drains out, forming a tube. When parts of the roof collapse, entrances are created. Subway Cave has two roof collapses about .3 miles apart, which allows visitors to take a short hike from one to the other. The visitor can then return to the start through the cave or take a surface trail back.

Northeastern California has at least 300 such caves, but few are as high or as easily accessible as this one, being right off a main road. The cave entrances have cement stairs for easy access. The actual lava tube continues further along than where the stairways are located, but these parts of the cave may be considered less stable and therefore more hazardous. We've hiked into the extended parts of the cave to explore it more and found that the tunnel split. Very fascinating, these features, especially when you try to imagine what the flow of hot lava would look like when the tube was forming.

Anyone wishing a print of this photo will need to keep its dimensions in mind when ordering.  The dimensions that our online photo processing offers that applies to this image is 2x1 (or 8.5x17 legal size paper).

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Burney Falls and springs at McArthur-Burney Falls State Park

Burney Falls is within the McArthur-Burney Falls State Park in California. Burney Creek splits into 2 streams at the brink to form 2 waterfalls, but the rest of the cliff face oozes spring water in huge amounts. The park is in northeastern California in a volcanic region that includes the Cascades, Modoc Plateau, and Lava Beds National Monument. The water from rain and melting snow percolated through loose volcanic rock and travels sideways after coming to an impervious layer deeper underground.

This image is a composite of 8 separate images taken with a film camera, scanned into the computer, then combined. The separate images were taken in the vertical direction. We were in the park on the Fourth of July. The park was packed with people and parking was a problem. This view was just off the road along a side walk that stops at a viewpoint. The walk continues down to the creek where you can stand in front of the falls across a pool. Some people even took a dip in the water.

Remember, it's not just a photo, it's a story.

Mount Lassen and the Chaos Crags during the Reading Fire, August 2012

 Mount Lassen is a volcano at the southern end of the Cascade Range. It was the last volcano to erupt in California, in 1914 through 1917. During our visit in August, 2012, there was a forest fire northeast of Mount Lassen near a feature called the Chaos Crags. It became known as the Reading Fire. The road through the park was closed, but we still could get in at the southern end and loop around outside the park to get to the north end. While camping near the north end of the park we took our canoe and kayak out onto Manzanita Lake.We paddled from the south end to the north looking for a variety of angles to photograph the scenery around us.

This image was taken while sitting in a canoe and involved capturing 3 images and using the computer to combine them. This process is referred to as stitching or merging. You have to make sure that about 10 to 20 percent of the edges of each shot overlap and that the camera settings are similar, then the computer can find the parts and put them together seamlessly. Mount Lassen is at the right, the Chaos Crags are at the center, and the smoke from the Reading Fire is at the upper left.  This image is best printed at about a 2 to 1 ratio, so an 8 x 16 inch page would work best.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.