Marymere Falls Trail, Olympic National Park, Washington
The Forest Before the Falls
On the trail to Marymere Falls, a moss-draped snag stands in a clearing of ferns, framed by giant trunks.
When I wrote about Marymere Falls, I described the walk in as a green room. This is a picture of that room, without the waterfall.
Two huge trunks frame the scene. On the left, a dark, moss-covered tree runs up the edge of the frame, with a lighter, straighter trunk just behind it. On the right, an enormous trunk fills almost a fifth of the picture, its bark thick with moss, and from a branch above it, long strands of moss hang down like curtains.
Between them, in the middle distance, stands the subject: a dead snag, a broken tree trunk with a few stubby branches, every surface draped in shaggy moss. It's lit softly against a background of lighter green, so it stands out as a dark, strange shape, almost like a figure standing in the forest.
Around it, the forest is layered with green. Behind the snag, a dense wall of young trees and shrubs in bright, fresh green, lit where light filters through. Higher up, dark green conifers with drooping branches. In the foreground, large fern fronds sweep across the bottom of the frame, deep green, slightly out of focus, close to the lens.
I composed this frame like a stage. The two big trunks are the curtains, the ferns are the front of the stage, and the snag is the actor standing in the light. Your eye goes through the ferns, between the trunks, and lands on the snag.
The light under the canopy was soft and dim, with no direct sun. That's typical in this kind of forest, and it's ideal for photography. Bright sun would have created harsh patches of light and black shadows. Under the canopy, the greens stay rich and the moss keeps its texture.
In processing, I kept the shadows deep and the greens natural. The forest is dark, and I wanted it to feel dark, with the snag and the young trees behind it glowing softly.
It's a picture of an ordinary corner of an extraordinary forest. On a trail with a waterfall at the end, it's easy to walk past scenes like this. They're worth stopping for.
From the bag
Sony A7R III · Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM II · 35mm · 2/5s · f/9 · ISO 100
At 35mm, the long end of the 16-35mm, I could isolate the snag and the two framing trunks without including too much of the surrounding forest. f/9 keeps the snag and the trunks sharp, while the ferns closest to the lens fall slightly soft. In the dim light under the canopy, 2/5 of a second at ISO 100 was needed, which requires a steady support. Base ISO keeps the deep shadows clean, which matters in a frame that's mostly dark green.