I use the long slow winter days to pour over archives to see if I found anything interesting. While going through thousands of photos I had shot in the Palouse region over the past few years, I found these four classic pastoral landscapes. Often, these would be of rusting shacks or vibrant red barns set against a lush farmland framed by a deep blue sky. It took a while to find these locations and find matching compositions, but these four worked.
Palouse
WA USA
The thunderstorm reason usually passes by the Palouse region a bit before the summer seasons. During the summer, one is typically greeted by bluebird skies over the rolling green fields. However, that is not particularly conducive to photography.
I wasn't hoping to get great weather in a trip earlier this year, but I was a bit more lucky with the weather patterns. Even though it was late June, cumulus clouds continued to roll over the region, an aftermath of a wet weather pattern. That lead to a nice pattern of shadow and light over lush wheat fields.
Palouse
WA USA
While Palouse has its star attractions for a photography, what brings me the most delight is wandering around the backroads seeking photogenic barns that stand out against the blue skies and the rolling green hills. I was lucky with this one
Palouse
WA USA
Once upon a time, I found myself roaming around the vast green fields of the Palouse, searching for pastoral scenes with rustic farmsteads, hidden barns and picturesque landscapes under a bluebird sky filled with sweeping white curves. That was earlier this year, and the summer I spent roaming in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest is almost over.
Here is one image to rejig my memory of the Palouse region of Cascadia.
Uniontown
WA USA
The beautiful green hills of Palouse are one of the largest producers of wheat in the country, producing 153.2 million bushels. The abundant rainfall, fertile volcanic soils and moderate climate help, but it certainly didn't get to this scale by practicing organic farming.
Here we see a crop duster on one of its many runs spraying insecticides on a field of wheat, getting dwarfed by the vast rolling landscape all around.
Steptoe Butte State Park
WA USA
The long halcyon days of summer have begun. And that means it is time for a trip to the eastern half of the state to once again to experience the beauty the Palouse region has to offer: rolling hilly terrain with a velvety carpet of freshly sprouted wheat and soybean, rustic farmhouses in a bucolic countryside with colorful barns peppered amidst the pastoral landscape. It also means shooting during the longest days of the year, with 4 am wakeups for photographing this divine landscape bathed in morning light, and staying awake till 10pm for capturing the last of the golden light. And driving around in dusty farmroads to find that one unique perspective of the Palouse.
So who wants to join me on this magical, albeit tiring, journey in June?
Palouse
WA USA
To be exhilarated by the fresh air and refreshed by the sweet water of the mountains,
to be woken up by a brisk morning walk or relaxed by evening saunter on the grassy alpine meadows,
To be thrilled by the snow in the winter and elated by wildflowers in spring,
To crave for a simple life in the wilderness....
When I spotted this herd lazily grazing by the rolling summer meadows in the heart of the breathtaking mountainous terrain of Kyrgyzstan, I craved for the simple life these herders had. Tough though it may be, this simple life seemed so much more fulfilling. I guess grass in always greener on the other side.
What do you crave for in your ideal 'simple life'?
At Bashi
Kyrgyzstan
