Blue Hour, Nighttime Over Mount Hood

 

Our recent hiking adventures in the Cascades provided beautiful sky photography aplenty. The destinations included Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier in Washington State and Mount Hood in Oregon. Our first camping location near the small town of Lyle in southern Washington to give us a close proximity to Mount St. Helens, also gave us a little hint of what we were to see (Mount Hood) at the end of our trip. This view of Mount Hood, some 30 miles southwest of our campsite, provided us great blue hour and nighttime photo opps right from the comfort of our camp. The image above was captured at 7:50 pm PDT on August 23, 2025 and is a 1/320 second exposure at f/9, ISO 1600 and 43mm focal length. A portion of the road leading up to the campsite can be seen at lower right.

7:55 pm. Similar view. 1/200 second exposure at f/10, ISO 1600, 70mm focal length.

8:05 pm. Tent with distant Mount Hood in background. 1/100 second exposure at f/6.3, ISO 640, 24mm focal length.

8:06 pm. Similar image, same exposure settings.

9:43 pm. Stars over red headlamp-illuminated tent. The hazy, dark form of Mount Hood is at lower left. 8 second exposure at f/1.8, ISO 2000, 35mm focal length.

10:13 pm. Milky Way looking south. 8 second exposure at f/1.8, ISO 3200, 35mm focal length. 

10:21 pm. Milky Way with a ghostly Mount Hood at lower right. 6 second exposure at f/1.8, ISO 4000, 35mm focal length. Nikon Z6ii camera.

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