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Palouse Washington

Palouse County is in Eastern Washington. The landscape is amazing and the wheat farmers must enjoy the people coming to take pictures of their fields. I wonder what the reason for the planting patterns is. Some fields have winter wheat coming up, other fields have just been planted with spring wheat, and yet other fields have summer wheat stalks still standing. The soil is rich and dark, and in the golden sunlight of dawn and dusk it has a purple hue.  I didn't really have very good conditions, a lot of dust in the air from high winds, the high winds themselves, bands of clouds on the horizon during peak color, and no chance to scout around. Even with all that I was able to make some pictures I am really happy with. The first one from sunset on the first day. I was perched up on top of Steptoe Butte on a service road and I had really low contrast and nothing was popping, then as the sun came out from behind the clouds, I saw how the balsam root was glowing. I looked around and saw a bunch about 100 yards below me. I had about 3-5 minutes so I jumped the safety rail and ran down the side of the butte and composed this shot. I had to bump my ISO up to 400 because the 15-20mph winds were really whipping the flowers around and I needed to get my shutter speed down. I used a polarizer and a 3 stop ND grad filter. If I had more time and would have thought about it fast enough, I could have taken my polarizer off and got two stops back, but this is one of the better pics of the week for me.

Early Summer Balsam Root on Steptoe Butte.


I got up at 4:30 the next morning. I had no idea when the magic would happen and I didn't want to miss it. I was at the top of Steptoe by 4:50 and then waited about one and one-half hours for the sun to come up. As the sun comes up, the angle changes and so the shadows and light areas are constantly shifting. There is so much going on that it is hard to pick something out, then if you do by the time you set up, it may have changed. 


Palouse Washington


I plan on making a trip back here this summer or fall and spending two or three full days wondering around this incredible countryside. It is only four hours away and I was able to get quite a few good pictures in such a short time. Hopefully, with practice I can get better at capturing the essence of this place.

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