Nooksack Cirque

I borrowed Melissa’s camera and went for a hike to the Nooksack Cirque. Three guys from work and two from church joined me on the adventure. After hiking through the woods and through the glacier stream we reached the cirque with a glacier nested 2000-3000 feet above us on the cliffs which surrounded us on all sides.

Here is a map of the destination. We hiked to the bottom of the bowl in the center.

As I said we hiked through the woods…

and through the river.

You could follow the leader… 
or decide to go your own way.

Sometimes going your own way meant crossing a log…

or pondering how deep, cold, and fast a crossing is…

and then going for it.

Often we stuck together and helped each other out.

Though sometimes it was nice to go off on our own and enjoy God’s creation.

  

I also decided to try and do an HDR image by using  exposure bracketing on Melissa’s camera.

This picture is the normal exposure picture. Notice how we are a little dark and the glacier is a bit washed out. I also look like one big black blob.

This is the underexposed picture. The clouds, sky, and glacier have great detail but we are too dark.

This is the overexposed picture. You can now see our faces and can see that I’m wearing blue shorts and a black shirt, but the sky and clouds are washed out.

This is the HDR photo made using a free program I found called Picturenaut. The idea is that it uses all three to build one that has details in the bright and dark areas. For a first try I was happy with the results.