Mt. Saint Helens Eruption

Mt. Saint Helens: This active volcano had its last serious eruption in May, 1980, but had a minor but attention-getting eruption of ash in March 2005 (see photos in this gallery). Mt. Saint Helens was named by British explorers in 1792, after Baron St. Helens. It is only 50 miles from Portland, Oregon.

See the WikiPedia entry on Mt. Saint Helens.

This Shoot: Mount Saint Helens' last big serious of eruptions occurred in 1980, but in the last several months it had been rumbling again. On March 8, 2005, the volcano did erupt though not on the scale of the big 1980 eruption - but it does look impressive from the photos. (No one was killed and Portland didn't even really see ash.) The eruption occurred at about 5:27PM pacific time on that Tuesday, right as commuters were headed home from work.

This photographer was extremely lucky to be up at Pittock Mansion, photographing other things, when he noticed a crowd of people gathered around a viewpoint of Mt. Saint Helens. I had no real reason to be up there at that time - pure luck (I'd been lounging at a Starbucks an hour before, wondering if I should go shoot some pictures on this sunny afternoon). The photo you see above made the front page of the Portland Oregonian the next day, something that will probably never happen to me again.