A few weeks ago I did a post about a small winter hike I did. This is the story of a little side trip I took to try and get a unique picture. For me being an amateur photographer this was a totally experimental endeavor and one I thought would fit well with the Behind the Photo contest. Let's get started. :)

The View From The Trail

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So here is the view of the hole from the trail below. A little hard to see through the trees but it is there in the middle of the picture.

Another shot with a few less trees. I had seen this hole before on previous walks on this short one mile loop trail. This trail provides numerous views of snow capped peaks in the Central Oregon Cascade Mountains. I thought based on the general direction of the hole that there might be a view of either Mt Jefferson or Three Fingered Jack through the hole. I decided on this day to scramble up there and take a look.

Scrambling Up The Rocks

After a short walk through the trees and under brush I come to the bottom of the rock pile. You can just barely see the hole in the middle of the picture.

Winding my way around the rocks I get my first good close up view of the hole.

With in striking distance now! Looking closer I notice that it is not just one rock but two or perhaps two lava flows that never melded together. Perhaps this was a lava tube at one time. I just thought the seam between the two rocks that runs above the hole was a nice bonus to my trip up the rocks.

The Money Shot (well kind of) :)

Well I was more than pleased that Mt Jefferson actually lined up with the direction of the hole! :)
As I mentioned before though I am an amateur photographer and had never really tried anything like this before. So with my lower end Nikon D3300 and the 18-55mm zoom lens that came with it... here are the results.

This was taken at a 55mm focal length. So with an increased depth of field here was my first try with auto focus on.

Same settings with a little more focus concentration on the mountain

And one more for good measure. With the little screen on the back of the camera and in the sunlight viewing the shot for me is never easy. Until I get home and load them on the PC and run them through Lightroom I really don't know what I have. :)

I used photo merge in Lightroom on the three shots and created an HDR just to see what would come out.

And this was photo merge > panorama in Lightroom on the three shots.

One last shot of the hole with an 18mm focal length. Mt Washington can be seen on the left of the image.

A Last Look Around

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A panorama from my perch on the rocks with The Three Sisters in the distance and the hole just barely visible on the right side of the picture.

So I was pretty ecstatic that the mountain and hole lined up for this picture oppurtunity! Since this excursion I have acquired a new telephoto lens that is forcing me to learn more about the operation of my camera and using my tripod. Overall I was pleased with the outcome of the pictures but look forward to going back and trying again with more knowledge and equipment! :)

Photos taken by me, @oldmans, with a Nikon D3300 and some Lightroom post processing.

Thanks for looking and enjoy your day!