the FIVE-STAR PROJECT [2].

# 2 | Eldorado Peak, North Cascades National Park, Washington [2010]

Canon 20D, 1/160th sec, f11, ISO 100, 163mm (260mm @ 35mm equivalent)

This is one of those photographs that made me re-think my approach to making images. Matthew and I were climbing to our high camp on the shoulder of Sahale Peak, attempting the north face of Mount Buckner, when I glanced over from high on Sahale Arm at this scene unfolding around Eldorado. It was late in the afternoon, so the shadows cast from the ridgeline above the upper Eldorado glacier were long, angled, perfect. The cumulus clouds piling together above and behind the peak, immense. There was motion happening, and emotion, something ominous, but peaceful, mysterious.

My camera was in the Clik chest bag I always carried, so easily accessible. I grabbed it and the little kit 55-250mm Canon lens, swapped it from the 18-55mm kit, zoomed to what seemed right, and snapped the photograph. Shoved the camera back in the bag and continued climbing, intent on reaching camp before dark. So now, I look at the photograph, remember the hurried process, and wish I had spent more time. More time composing, so I would have allowed into the frame the bottom of that ridgeline at the lower edge, which would have removed more of the cloudless sky out of the upper edge. Balance.

So when I was considering changing my camera system to an older, full-frame body, and discarding my collection of zoom lenses for a new collection of a few particular primes, I thought of this photograph. How, if I had been forced to shoot through a prime, had to move and zoom with my feet, in other words, it would have made me pause, slow down. Because sometimes slowing down is necessary, needed, in order to make better photographs. And in doing so, maybe I would have caught that lower edge of the frame and re-composed.

Still, I tend to be hard on myself, overly-critical. And this image is one of only a handful that capture, for me, in the way I envision, the silence of the North Cascades. I can hear the shadows moving like whispers across the glacier. I can hear the clouds building, rolling, folding, effortlessly overhead. Looking at it, I am made aware, reminded, of the quiet found only in the mountains.

Five stars.