Landscape

Purple Mountain Majesty

Approximately 10,000 people attempt to climb Mount Hood in Oregon each year. About 130 people have died trying since records have been kept. If that is not making you a bit uncomfortable, the 11,240 feet (3,426 m) tall mountain is a potentially active stratovolcano. The chances of eruption are between 3 to 7% over the next 30 years so the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) characterizes it as "potentially active", but the mountain is informally considered dormant.

So lets go back to enjoying the flowers now. This is the view from Columbia Hills State Park in Washington state. When I visited here last May, the bluebonnet like Lupines and sunflower like balsamroot were in their decline. Nevertheless the late golden hour light from the sun almost on the horizon produced a dazzling display of the snow covered peak 50 km away to the southwest as well as the wildflowers a few feet in front of me. For making this image, I employed a technique relatively new to me called Perspective Blending to counter the ill effects of using a Wide Angle lens which makes molehills out of mountains.

This was not the mountain that inspired Katharine Lee Bates' patriotic song, “America the Beautiful” but Mt. Hood surely deserves better so I used a longer focal length on the same lens to show her Purple Mountain Majesty

(Facts from Wikipedia)

America the BeautifulBalsamrootCascadeColumbia Hills State ParkGolden hour.LupineMajesticMajestyMt. HoodPurple Mountain MajestiesSunsetThe DallesWashingtonduskgreeneryhillmeadowmountainpeaksperspectivesnowsunlightvolcanowildflower