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The Entrance
Photography and Digital Painting
The Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area is a fabulous place to visit, except in the middle of a nasty wintertime ice storm. Due to the microclimatic conditions in the Gorge, an ill-timed winter drive on I-84 (Oregon side) or SR 14 (Washington side) can be a nightmare. The original photo for this scene was obviously not taken in the winter. I took it on a fine autumn day as I wandered on sand bars in the middle of the river at Rooster Rock State Park. Clothing is optional at this particular site, but I decided modesty was best, much to my wife’s relief.
You are gazing eastward along the river at the entrance to the Columbia River Gorge. About 15,000 years ago, a 1,000-foot wall of water raged between those mountains during the Missoula Floods. The result of an ice dam collapsing somewhere near the Canadian border.
The river slices east to west through the Cascade Mountains to form the Gorge. Off the upper right corner of this picture, but out of sight from my camera, sits Mount Hood, towering some 11,000 feet over the river. Lava flows from this monster volcano have caused the river to bow out around the mountain’s base.
If you think the mountains on either side of the river are spectacularly steep, you are correct. I pumped a bit of vertical exaggeration into the final artwork to give the mountains some extra relief. I might also be guilty of slightly saturating the colors to enhance the image’s visual contrast.
Ultimately, this artwork is a fusion of photography, digital painting, and digital transformations. However, try though I might, you need to be standing knee-deep in the river to get the real feel of the Gorge and have this visual delight mix with the tactile pleasure of sky, sun, wind, and water.
