I shot this image around 25 years ago on Mt. Hood, Oregon. Back then I shot mostly film with a 4×5 field view camera. I loved working that way!

This was a lucky day. A storm was pounding the west side of the Cascade Mountains and I was shooting up in the Government Camp area. I have been all around this mountain many times but never had I been in these conditions above the clouds.

As I was set up here, the clouds, once hitting the mountainside, would break up and blow across the pass at the base of the mountain as seen here. I would shoot a frame or two, then the clouds would cover the mountain, so I would wait a little longer until there was a break and the mountain was visible.

Now if you are a digital shooter you may know very well what can be done with image manipulation. In the days of film, not so much. If you made a print you could burn and dodge but cloning, extensive color manipulation, and all the things we use daily were not available. The times were simpler, right.

Back then, you still needed a bag ‘o tricks so I am about to share one of mine with you. Ready? The Double Cokin Trick! That was the ‘icing on the cake’ for this widely published image. So now you are wondering “what?”

A Cokin graduated filter ring allows several Cokin filters to be in the holder at once, so in this case I used the Tobacco filter (which mimics sweet light) on top and then a Blue sky filter on the bottom. It worked very well for creating a marketable image.

There you go. I just shared my secret trick. Haha

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