Columbia River Gorge Panorama

Mike Jordan · Jun 19, 2005

This panorama of a section of the Columbia River Gorge Senic Area was taken at an over look called Women's Forum on the Old Columbia River Highway that was the main road up the Gorge until I-84 was built. You can just see the Vista House that sits on the cliff on the right and which is another historical site along the old highway. This shot is looking East up ther river and if it was a clear day you could almost see Bonniville Dam in the distance.

This was a 4 image series stitched together with Panorama Factory.

This one is a single image and a gradent neutral density filter that I was hand holding in front of the lens (that's why there is a little flare in the upper right corner, the sun was behind me and I didn't hold the filter flat to the lens hood).

Mike

Dweller · Jun 19, 2005

*waves* howdy neighbor

The Gorge is one of the places on my "must go see" list with my camera in hand.

I think my location says Portland but I am actually in Aloha.. just a stones throw away

Welcome to the board.

Digital Matt · Jun 19, 2005

Excellent shots. Great job with the stitching

Mike Jordan · Jun 19, 2005

Waving back... Hi there Dweller. You are close, just up TV highway from Hillsboro.

If you haven't hit the Gorge for the waterfalls, sunsets and sunrises at least a few dozen times by now, you are missing out on a lot.

The waterfalls along the Old Highway are gorgous (even if surrounded by people) and if you are into hiking a little (or a lot) there are some really great ones from a half mile or so back to several miles back (and from a inital 500 foot trail climb up to about 4000 foot hike). There is a Portland group that hits all the good spots on a regular basis and also know where some of the better places are that don't show up in some of the guide books... of course they are half mountain goat and half crazy to get into some of the places they do.

Silver Falls just east of Salem is another great place for waterfalls. It's a little easier to get into with a 5 mile hike to see 10 waterfalls (still a few steep places but survivable). Lots of places all around here that if you enjoy doing scenic you are going to have to start visiting. It's always good to run into another Northwesterner and a close one at that.

Mike

Mike Jordan · Jun 19, 2005

Thanks Matt and thanks for looking.

Mike

mentos_007 · Jun 20, 2005

:hail: superb! Neat images!

Mike Jordan · Jun 20, 2005

Thanks Mentos.

LaFoto · Jun 21, 2005

These are wonderful, and as always, a mountainous landscape will make me look twice an three times, for my eyes feast on these views, what with the flat land surrounding me - which has its delights, but then it is always lovely to see something else.

And if photographed in such nice weather and from such vantage point, even better.
And I still haven't figured out in the least how this "stitching" is to be done.
Thanks for sharing, Mike!

jlajoie · Jun 21, 2005

Those are great shots! Man, I miss Portland and the surrounding area!

JonMikal · Jun 21, 2005

nice work! how do you guys do this stuff so well??????

Mike Jordan · Jul 9, 2005

Stuff moves down so fast sometimes that I miss replies on my posts. Thanks LaFoto, Jlajoie and JonMikal.

LaFoto, stitching can be easy with the right software and a series of images that are pretty close in exposure, focus and composition. Once you learn some of the basics, it's then a matter of finding the right scenes to try it on. Although a tripod really helps, you can do it freehand on scenes like this.

JonMikal, it really helps to have this kind of scenery very close.

And practice, practice, practice. It helps to know when the best light is for a given area. For the Gorge shots, late evening and early morning are the best. And clouds help. It took several sessions out there for me to find this out.

Here is a 7 image panorama from the other side of the Columbia River...

The place I took the first two pictures from is on the other side and back to the right (west) a couple of miles.

Mike

LaFoto · Jul 10, 2005

Oh wow, how nice is this!
Well, I might need to have the right camera (or does my little compact Canon allow for stitched photos? There is some feature there... where is my manual?) --- and then I am seriously lacking in some landscape of the kind that you are showing us here. Breathtaking! Here, everything is just FLAT, FLAT, FLAT.

John E. · Jul 10, 2005

Great view, pictures, and stiching. The light on the 2nd picture is suberb .

Mike Jordan · Jul 10, 2005

Thanks John. That 2nd one was done with a +2 neutral gradiant filter I was hand holding in front of my lens. You can see in the upper right corner a little bit of reflection where I didn't have it up tight on the lens cover and the sun behind me reflected at the edge. The last one the clouds are blown out in spots as this was taken before the others and before I got the neutral grad filter and before I started taking shots with exposure for sky and land and merging them together in Photoshop. I need to get back there on a day with good clouds and light again and re-do them.

LaFoto, don't give me that flat, flat, flat, comment. I lived in Germany for 3 years and you have some VERY impressive mountains just a few hours south of you.

Some of the best scenery I've ever seen, and mountains that only our Rockies wouldcome close to rivaling was down in Switzerland. I went up the Jungfrau while I was there (4158 meters, almost 14,000 feet high). I was amazed at the scenery and waterfalls in that area. So use that excellent mass transit you have in Germany and go find a mountain.

Thanks for the comments and looking.

Mike