With summer coming to a close our family decided to go on a hike. We chose the Naches Peak Trail Loop. It’s a fairly straightforward hike even if you don’t hike regularly. It’s a reasonable incline, and there’s some amazing scenery. This time of year we were especially fortunate because almost all the snow was gone from the area and the flowers in the region were in full bloom.
This time I decided to leave my big camera at home. I really didn’t know what I was in store for, having never taken the hike, and didn’t want to lug a tripod, camera, and bag for five miles if the conditions made those five miles feel more like fifteen.
So why am I writing about the hike on a photography blog?
My mentor Gary Friedman from The Friedman Archives once said to me, “Any camera you have is infinitely better than the camera you don’t.” It turned out that while I was out on my hike I did still have a camera with me: my iPhone 6s Plus. And I have to say I was really impressed with how well the little camera worked. Was it as good as my Sony? Good is subjective, but overall I was pleased.
Getting there
The point of the journey is not to arrive.
— Peart
To get to Naches Peak Loop you take Washington SR 410 east from Enumclaw into Mount Rainier National Park. About 45 miles and an hour after leaving Enumclaw—and a few switchbacks—you’ll find yourself at the Tipsoo Lake parking lot. From there, you get to start taking in the sights. Sometimes even Mount Rainier will be out to greet you.
Mount Rainier was a little shy on this particular day, but you get the idea.
The trip shows 3.4 miles according to the map, but my GPS showed I had hiked just under five miles. I probably doubled a couple of detours along the way.
The map of your journey, courtesy of AllTrails.
Part of the Naches Peak Loop overlaps the Pacific Crest Trail. The PCT runs from the Canadian border to Mexico. It’s heavily trafficked during the summer months with hikers following the trail from Canada as far as Mexico. We met these two fellows, Bruce and Torre, on our hike too.
Meet Bruce and Torre on their excellent adventure.
Out and about with my iPhone
I tried to keep everything as simple as possible when I took pictures. I used the stock Camera app on my iPhone 6s. When I got home I did a bit of cropping and tone-map adjustment in Adobe Lightroom CC 2015 to make the colors of the day pop a bit more. I was impressed with the results. The iPhone 6s sensor packs a lot of punch for its size. I was able to make some impressive landscapes, and the beds of flowers and colors were breathtaking. What you see here was every bit as lovely as what I saw on the hike.
Macro photography with the iPhone
One challenge with the iPhone camera is that its aperture is fixed at a very wide f/2.2. Since you can’t change the aperture, you can’t control depth of field with the camera. The iPhone camera still shines in macro photography. If you can’t use the camera hardware to control depth of field, change your position to adjust it when possible.
Move in close, have a steady hand, keep little-to-no breeze around the subject, and use burst mode in the Camera app to help ensure you capture the photo the way you want. Activate burst mode by tapping and holding the shutter button. The more photos you take of your subject, the more likely you’ll get exactly the result you’re looking for.
Next I cropped and adjusted two of the photos in Lightroom—you could use GIMP or RawTherapee—and found the “shot within the shot.” What impressed me most was that there was so much detail in the original photo that, even after cropping, I still had a fantastic result I could share, print, or use as a wallpaper.
If you live in the Pacific Northwest and you haven’t visited Mount Rainier, go. You’re missing out on one of the best playgrounds in the world, and it’s practically out your back door. There’s nothing else quite like it, and you discover something new every time you go.
From the original comments
“Great work, David, and an even better job featuring the capabilities of the iPhone 6s+ camera. Your shots are inspiring and your write-up is very eye-opening!” — Chris W
“Thank you for the kind words! Much appreciated.” — David