Jim Salge Photography Blog

Baldface Bust…

There are some hikes that I plan out years in advance. This year I knew that in early June, I needed to hike the Baldface Circle loop to shoot the ledges of rhodora at sunrise. I’ve seen so many stunning pictures in hiking trip report forums showing the dramatic displays of blooms, and needed to experience it myself. One of those trip reports came from my friend and photographer Kevin Talbot, who accompanied me on this hike, as well as his wife Judy and dog Emma.

This year, wildflowers across New Hampshire have been very early, and the sub-alpine zones have been no exception. The rhodora on Mount Chocorua was in bloom last weekend, so I knew the hike had to be earlier than I had planned. I’ve also heard notes that it’s been a poor year for sub-alpine rhodora blooms, and once on the plateau, we noted the same thing. There were almost no flowers!

In spite of the lack of flowers, the Baldfaces are some of the most beautiful ridges in the Whites, and we were confident that with any light, we could come away with some special shots. Up on the summit of South Baldface, we found some patches of rhodora, and waited out a cloudy sky that showed promise of clearing to the west. It was one of those situations where the light show was going to be a ten or a zero. We got a zero. A few cloudscape over rhodora, and back to the camp…imagining what these scenes would look like with a soft sidelight!

Sunrise held promise as well, but there were evident obstacles as we awoke at 4am. First off, it was windy! VERY WINDY! The landscape was in motion, and it was hard to hold the tripod still. Second, there were thick clouds, with a band of clear sky near the horizon. Another all or nothing sunrise that amounted to no color. The clouds did offer some nice shapes to shoot, as did the creative stonework on the plateau near the summit.

The last obstacle to landscape shots was the thick smoke that came in right after sunrise. There are evidently dozens of wildfires in Quebec burning out of control, and the haze came in about as thick as I’ve ever seen it in the Whites.

 The trail down was an endless road of ladyslippers and bunchberry…so we did get some great flower shots.  I’ll share those next post!

Overall, no light, no views, no rhodora…probably no shots to go into the fine art portfolio.  However, it guarantees that I’ll be back next year.  Lets hope that the rhodora takes the year without blooms to put energy back in the roots, and puts out an exceptional bloom in 2011.