Rock Creek Rainforest

Light diffused by high clouds shining onto Old Growth Sitka Spruce and Western Red Cedar forest in the Rock Creek Wilderness, Central Oregon Coast.
A good friend and I backpacked into the Rock Creek rainforest last week, and finished the trek up to the headwaters day hiking. This rainforest is a very special place to us and a tremendous example of the ancient world that used to encompass all of the Northwest Coast Range. We have returned many times to marvel at the many layers of striking beauty here; fording back and forth across the large stream and numerous cascades, huge trees, ferns, and a spectacular abundance of life. We have scaled the ridges, explored the tributaries, surprised a Black Bear one time and many Elk (I don't necessarily recommend going during rutting season). For all its natural marvels, it is not, however, a place that lends itself to photography. In fact, I wavered on whether to even take my camera this last outing. It's not the pictures that mattered, but the wilderness experience.

We camped in the most idillic spot imaginable, just a foot or two from the stream on layers of moss in an open glen, the type of small opening that is common in the valley areas here. Just outside camp was a Sitka Spruce roughly 12 feet in diameter, shelf mushrooms you could practically climb onto, a small waterfall, a Big Leaf maple with six feet of Club Moss tassles and a Barred Owl calling from somewhere nearby in the evening.

This photograph was taken near camp. I processed it with intentionally dreamy effects accentuated further by the naturally soft light. It's a photograph of how I always remember the place.

Love the dreamy look and fabulous edge contrast...but the greens seem a bit too dark.

My first impression upon opening this was, as Kartik said, that the greens were too dark. But the more I look at it and the more I refer back to the times I've been in these environments with these lighting conditions the more I think the way it's presented here is the best way to do it. IMO one of your best forest scenes.

I'm considering the D3x to replace my D2x...what kind of file sizes are you getting with your 1DsMkIII and are you seeing it tax your computer???

I was definitely striving to capture the dark feel of rainforest environment here. Afterall, the exposure was 6 seconds at f/14, ISO 100 at the time. My file sizes are 21-25mb for a RAW and 50-65 for a finished TIFF. Not enough to tire my computure out too much most of the time.

The soft focus effect looks a bit overdone to me (maybe cut the transparency down by 1/3), otherwise this is pretty much the type of shot I've been trying to get for a couple years now.

I like this one quite a bit Marc. It's structured very well and shows off the ridge of ferns along the creek just as well as the highlights on the limbs above. Makes me feel like I'm there for sure.
I like the processing overall.

Your soft glow technique has really grown on me, and this is the perfect type of photo for it. I've hiked in here a few times and the old forest has its own special atmosphere that the camera doesn't exactly reproduce in the way we sense it. The glow does a great job of bringing that feeling back.

I'm assuming that you've been to nearby Cummins Creek? I find it equally as impressive. There are some flats of gigantic sword ferns and old Cedars that I've had my eye on for a while now. Just waiting for the perfect foggy morning.

Wow, I really like your stlye and comps, this is no exception. The fact that so many of your images come form areas that are in the northwest and Oregon in perticular is inspirational to me. Wonderful.

I often check the PNW forum just to see what's going on up there.. and this time I just had to comment. I'm loving the wild feel to this Marc, there is so much depth and space to explore, really a beautiful scene. Sometimes I find your application of glow a little more than I like, but here I'm loving it, and the dark presentation works very well for me. I need to find a way to get into some dense forests at some point this year.. Southern California isn't exactly ideal for that..

Great shot Marc. Great depth and color here. I really like those fern frons in the forground.

1Ds MK III my foot, this thing is oil on canvas! Marc, it's gorgeous.

Aaron, I've been all over Cummins Creek, Cape Perpetua and Drift Creek as well. Some beautiful areas there. Far too few of them in the Coast Range. Thanks.

Great dreamy effect, and the water motion looks really nice..

For the dreamy effect, you nailed this, Marc. The soft focus, detail and highlights on the moss are beyond any superlatives that come to mind. Deceptively simple yet powerful composition.

I would think you would need pretty calm conditions for a 6 sec exposure here. The glow effect works well here. Do you use an adjustment layer to get the Orton effect in specific places or is it a matter of adjusting opacity?

I use an adjustment layer, David. I don't need the effect to be even thoughout the image.

Lovely! The balanced composition is very restful; this is a very peaceful scene. No nits here.