The Palouse… where does one start? How about with where it’s located? The Palouse is a farming region found on Washington state’s eastern border with Idaho. As I started my drive from Spokane down to the Palouse, I saw a sign marking the start of the scenic byway I’d chosen. It had a picture of rolling hills, a sheaf of wheat and a puffy cumuli nimbus cloud. I smiled! And thankfully the Palouse brought all of this as well as the most amazing contrast of light.
While in the Palouse, I also decided on my new photographic project… Chasing Light. I’ve long held the belief that the effect of light, more than anything else, makes for a great photo… so I’ll chase light… while I continue to explore locations that remain “off the beaten track”. Hope you enjoy… more to come!
Caption for photo above: ”Rolling Thunder”. Spotting what will make for an interesting black & white photo versus a color photo does require a slightly different eye. The lonely trees on the horizon, with the domineering storm clouds above, made me hit the breaks for this shot. I jumped out of the car, crossed the road and while the first raindrops started to fall, captured this 7 shot, moody panorama in the northern region of the Palouse.
“The Hills are Alive”. Steptoe Butte… what a beautiful place to spend an evening… watching as the setting sun dances across the rolling hills beneath causing all kinds of colors and shadows to emerge. For the first time, I used my polarizering filter in this 7 shot panorama. The filter worked its magic in cutting the haze as well as helping to get some really good color saturation. I can alsmost find myself getting lost in the yellows, browns and greens of this shot.
“Spring Rolls”. The Palouse is famous for it’s great lines, light and colors… and this weekend trip produced all of the above! A field of canola blossoms with freshlyly plouged ground in the foreground and the shadow of the rolling hills in the background. It’s rare that the color, lines, light and clouds work together so well in a shot, which is why I hit the breaks as I was driving along one of the scenic byways to capture this 7 shot panorama.
“Cutting Up the Field”. Although the vibrancy of the color in the Palouse at Spring is something to behold, the interesting lines and contrasts are an equally fascinating photographic study. I took a long evening drive and was starting to get a bit frustrated with my inability to find a spot I wanted to camp out at while the sun set. Then I came across this field, about 15 minutes before the sun set. The dual direction of the lines in the field was really interesting… and I find as the eye finishes looking down the first set of lines, they catch the direction of the next and continue through the shot. This is a 7 shot panorama.
“Screensaver”. I called this shot “Screensaver” as it reminds me of some Windows screensaver image that comes pre-installed on your PC. The single cloud above the canola field and ploughed foreground created in my mind quite a fun little image.
Over the next few weeks I’ll post a few other interesting shots I caught in the Palouse. Next weekend I’ll be chasing light at Zion National Park again!