Crater Lake National Park has, despite its relatively small size, got to be one of my favourite National Parks, despite only having visited it once, in winter.
However, nobody told me that July is the mosquito season in the Cascade Mountains in Oregon, and when they say mosquito season, they mean it!
At dusk, when I wanted to be photographing, there were literally swarms of them flying around. Approximately 25% of my photos have at least one blurry mosquito visible in the shot. Despite getting into the car as quickly as possible to move between locations, every time I would end up with 10-20 mosquitoes in there with me -- thankfully with a convertible I could drop the roof and drive off, before screeching to a halt half a mile down the road and quickly putting the roof back up!
To say I was rather itchy for the next few days would be an understatement.
Despite all that, I highly recommend anyone passing anywhere near Crater Lake National Park to go -- even in July -- as it's absolutely spectacular. I'm not sure I did a very good job of capturing that here, as I could feel my sanity slipping away while trying to shoot through a black mist!
Oh, and to just drive me that little bit more crazy, I managed to drop my remote shutter release on the way back to the car, necessitating me to retrace my steps in the dark with a torch to find it an hour later.
Two exposures (one for the sky, one for the land) blended in Photoshop and futzed with (probably a bit too much). Worth viewing large!
I'm a British software developer and photographer living in Vancouver, BC. I mainly photograph landscapes, cityscapes, night scenes, and water.
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beautiful view and tones in that sky and lake - and yes, mosquito time of year everywhere - and it's too hot to wear enough clothes not to be bitten - that image looks to be worth the effort
@shannew Thanks! Surprisingly this was one of the few places that wasn't not too insanely hot on my trip -- I had to walk over a patch of compacted snow to get to this spot, and you can see a bit more snow down by the shoreline behind the trees at the left, too. I was still in a t-shirt and shorts though, so got bitten plenty -- even got 8 bites on my head, despite wearing a hat!
This is a great composition. The colors are right on. I really appreciate how you explain to two shots. I Need to try this. Your stories behind the shots are great to read too. I now carry mosquito repellent in my camera gear. I too experienced the "mosquito July effect" ( I live in Washington) while hiking a 9 mile forest trail...40 bites later I was cursing.
FAV!