Tag Archives: mt rainier

Morning Tahoma

An early morning flight was needed for a trip that I needed to take for work, and it was taking me south. The departure time was before the sun was due up, but I hoped that I might get a view of Mt Rainier (also known as Tahoma) as we headed south so I had selected a seat on the left side of the plane. The plan was a good one even if the quality of the window of the jet was not. I have not seen such a scruffy window on an airliner in ages! Some random repositioning of the lens to try different parts of the window resulted in some reasonable shots. Nothing special but nice to get when you have to be up early anyway.

Bizjets Approaching Mt Rainier(ish)

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Sometimes you can get too fixated on image quality and forget the overall image. I was hanging around at Ruby Chow park one weekend when some jets were approaching Boeing Field. I got some shots as they came overhead but then switched to getting shots of them as they got close to touchdown. The view down the runway is looking straight at Mt Rainier. The jets in front of the mountain look great. Very quickly, the heat haze can make the clarity not as sharp as I would normally expect of myself but, actually, the shot is fine at full scale. Just enjoy the image and don’t fret about the details.

Mt Rainier Catches the Evening Light

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Our hotel in Seattle had a roof deck which we sat out on prior to going out to dinner. Looking south across the city, you can see Mt Rainier. In the evening light, the mountain was glowing. It looked great and was accentuated by some cloud formations across the summit. Sadly, from this location, the bottom of the mountain is obscured by buildings but it was too good a site to let that stop me taking some photos.

Clouds over Mt Rainier

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On one of my days off – taken in order to get my PTO balance down – I headed out for some aviation exploration. The weather on this day was not great but, since I had struck it lucky on some of my other days off, I guess the odds were bound to swing the other way at some point. While it was cloudy in Seattle, looking south to Mt Rainier, the sun was out on the mountain. That didn’t mean it was cloud free, though. There was a lot of cloud forming over the summit as the wind blew through so I shot a few images to make a pano of the mountain. It would have been a great day to fly around the mountain but sadly that wasn’t to be.

Views of Mt Rainier On My Way Home

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The drive to Mt St. Helens takes you south passed Mt Rainier. The weather was pretty crummy as I headed south so I didn’t get any views of the mountain as a drove. However, the weather had improved markedly by the time I headed home and the sun angle had come around to illuminate my side of the mountain. Consequently, I stopped a couple of times on my way back north to take some pictures. I want to do some hiking on Mt Rainier at some point but this was as close as I have got – at least on the ground.

Sailboats, a City and a Mountain

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As we made the crossing of Puget Sound on the ferry, I stood by one of the side openings to watch what went by. I was looking down the sound towards the city of Seattle. The silhouette of the city was obvious with buildings like the Space Needle showing up. Mt Rainier was in the background but a lot less clear given the haze in the air. With some sailboats in the water between us and the city, I figured I had to take a shot.

FedEx and Mt Rainier

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No great story with this one. I was at SeaTac for a different arrival on the outer runway. A FedEx MD-11F was making an approach to the inner runway while I was waiting. It provides a good alignment with Mt Rainier in the background so I figured it was a shot worth taking and I was pleased with how it turned out. Given how little I have photographed recently, a shot like this from before everything got locked down suddenly seemed like something to share!

Clouds Over Rainier

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If you live in the Seattle to Tacoma area, you get familiar with the phrase “the mountain is out” or “in”. This refers to Mt Rainier which can be shrouded in cloud or out in the sun. As a 14,000’ mountain, it is the most obvious landmark around here. It also drives its own weather systems so the clouds on the mountain are always worth a look. Not so long ago, I was quite taken by the cloud development over the mountain which was a bit different to what I am used to seeing. The boat in the front was not helpful but I wanted to get a shot of the mountain so went for it.

Mt Rainier Just Before Sunrise

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I was heading east for a work trip that needed an early start. We got airborne from SeaTac before the sun came up and turned to the east after departure. We were heading towards what I thought should be Mt Rainier. However, I couldn’t see the mountain. I could see a cloud that was above the majority of the cloud bank which I assumed was the mountain but I couldn’t be sure.

As we came around the south side I was able to see that the cloud was indeed once that was forming over the windward side of Mt Rainier. The east side of the mountain was uncovered and, even though the sun had not yet come up, the early light was enough to give a view of the mountain. I was using the M6 which is not so great in low light but, even so, I was able to get some shots of the mountain as the plane headed on its way.