It's been 20 years since Mount St. Helens blew its top in May 1980. In that moment, it ceased being the symmetric, snow-capped Northwest icon that photographers loved to photograph. What remained was lifeless mud, ash and mountain rubble.
Featured in a new book by veteran Northwest nature photographer Marka Lembersky, the active volcano in our midst reveals opportunities to capture images of a landscape in transition.

thoughts soon focused on what tasks would face me the next day at the office. Little did I know it would be weeks before my colleagues and I were permitted to closely inspect the devastation, first viewing it from the air and eventually landing our helicopter...