REFLECTIONS ON MT. HOOD

JUNE 20, 2025

                                       MT. HOOD AND IT'S REFLECTION, MODIFIED TODAY THREE YEARS AFTER THE FACT.

Another quick one this week. Let’s look at just one image, taken three years ago on one of my very infrequent trips across the river to Vancouver, Washington. I have been here long enough that I have an ingrained prejudice against one of our largest suburban areas. Vancouver is another example, like Beaverton and Gresham, of tiny farm towns that have somehow grown into gigantic suburban conglomerations despite every effort of people like me to fight sprawl in our fair city. Vancouver achieves a special place in suburban hell in that it is not even in our state! In fact the entire reason for Vancouver’s existence is as an anti-urban doppelgänger just across the river, representing everything that Portland is not supposed to be. Our urban planning maps for the last thirty years have left the area north of the river as the “Great White North”, with absolutely no details, as if only monsters dwelt up there. That nickname also reminded people that even though Portland is consistently ranked as one of the “Whitest” cities in the nation, it was still not White enough for some of the people who chose to live across the river. Light Rail has never extended North of the river for the simple reason that people there have feared that Portland’s relatively minor amount of diversity would follow the rail lines and sully the suburban vibes in Washington. Anyone who tells you that this is not so is just plain lying, even though Vancouver is in reality way different than it used to be, since so many Portlanders have moved there. At least I hope that no matter how long I live into the Twenty-first Century, I will never have to hear about the "Twin Cities” along the Columbia.

                MY ORIGINAL SNAPSHOT. PRETTY WASHED OUT, BUT AT LEAST THE HORIZON IS FAIRLY STRAIGHT. YOU MIGHT BE SURPRISED  HOW MUCH BETTER THIS VARIANT WITH THE MOUNTAIN SLIGHTLY LEFT OF CENTER IS TO IT'S SISTER WHERE THE MOUNTAIN IS SLIGHTLY RIGHT TO CENTER. YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE ME.

Well I’ll try to end that rant, but the reality is that even though I’m sure that the vast majority of the people of Vancouver are no doubt as nice as can be, they live in an environment totally foreign to my own. This is the land of strip shopping centers, endless developments, and a lot of the retail that has never bothered to put down roots in Portland. In fact, it is our small taste of the vast majority of the American landscape that is stridently “Not Portland.” I am also very prejudiced against any place that uses numbers for both directions of the street grid. I am completely discombobulated when I confront a completely forgettable intersection labeled 248th Street and 162nd Avenue.  But it is still the Northwest, and the mountain still has a way of showing up in the most unexpected places to prove that despite everything, it is still America the Beautiful. This view of Mt. Hood and it’s reflection is captured on the shores of Vancouver Lake. Don’t tell anyone.

               LOWER THE EXPOSURE IN BOTH THE SKY AND IT'S REFLECTION AND THINGS START TO POP. WHILE YOU ARE AT IT, INCREASE THE WHITES AND THE CONTRAST TO HIGHLIGHT THE MOUNTAIN ITSELF.

The original snapshot was obviously overexposed. The sky is washed out, but at least the horizon is not totally wonky. I did all the usual exposure modifications, but the color rendition is still a little wishy-washy, for lack of a better term. The answer, or at least my answer, is to each for the crop tool to eliminate some of the sky and the foreground. I am a big believer that if you are capturing a grand landscape like this one you might as well go much wider than normal. This crop, which make the frame two times as wide as it is tall, allows the mountain to assert itself in the midst of what is actually a pretty quiet landscape. The crop is much wider than anything that can be achieved with a normal wide angle lens, and the mountain remains larger in the frame.

                THE BORING BLUE SKY ENCOURAGED ME TO CONVERT TO BLACK AND WHITE. NOW THE WHITE MOUNTAIN IS EVEN MORE THE CENTER OF INTEREST, AND MOST OT THE LITTLE SUBURBAN DETAILS ARE LOST TO THE BLACK FOREST ACROSS THE LAKE.

As usual in my pursuit of not making another snapshot, I then converted the file to Black and White. I feel that the contrast and detail achieved in monochrome more than makes up for the loss of color. Black and white also allows for deeper exposure modifications, so that I can get rid of any suburban angst across the lake in a deep watery black.

                                       TODAY'S SQUARE CROP DROPS THE WIDE VIEW FOR A STRONG EMPHASIS ON OUR ICONIC MOUNTAIN. WHAT IS LOST IN BREADTH IS MADE UP WITH IMPACT. I HEAR A COASTER CALLING IN THE BREEZE!

The final variant that I created this morning flips the entire script. The square crop totally centers the mountain and it’s reflection in the frame, and fairly shouts “Mountain!” It’s up to you to decide which rendition you like best, as long as you admit that the “crop is the thing.” This comes in the week where one of my post processing programs has announced that it has a new AI Crop tool which will take care of selecting the proper crop for your image. Yet another nail in the coffin of photographic civilization. Why don’t we just let the camera do everything and abandon all our artistic efforts so that my image will be no better or worse or different than yours? Somehow I don’t think this is what we had in mind when we picked up our first camera.