Rising Into the Heavens

On my trips up to the Pacific Northwest, one of my favorite places to go, if I have time, is to Mt. Rainier National Park. Unfortunately, there has been little or no free time to make a drive out that way, the last few trips I have made. It was pretty much going to be that way, yet again, on this last trip.

I was on my flight back to San Diego. We had just taken off from cloudy SeaTac airport. Just as we rose above the clouds, I saw my baby, Mt. Rainier, smiling at me, as if the mountain knew I had been far too deprived of her for far too long.

Luckily for me, I had my small camera bag with me on this trip and therefore was able to stow it under the seat in front of me. Of course, having a window seat on the left side of the plane helped, also.

When I saw this, I scrambled for my camera bag, grab my camera, popped my 24-70 lens on and took a few hurried shots before the plane passed on by or the clouds once again obscured her. The plane was still in it's take-off posture. I didn't care. I was pulling out my electronic device and taking this beauty. Nobody ever said a word. Cool!

Not only did I get a clear shot of Rainier, but I got some very nice atmospheric conditions, with the clouds in the foreground. Wow! Did those help or what?

I was able to take a few different compositions. One which I really want to show, but I have to fix it first. There was a noticeable scratch on the other window and there was nothing I could do to avoid it. I will have to remove the scratch in post-processing.

Later during the flight, I whipped out my camera, yet again, when we flew by Mono Lake and the Eastern Sierra mountain range.