palouse

Greens of the Palouse

Its that time of the year again when the Palouse gets a glow-up. Brown rolling hills after the winter slowly transform to a resplendent green, both from the winter and spring crops. Colorful barns and grain silos dot the undulating landscape, interrupting the flowing fields of wheat, soy and canola. Yellow crop dusters take to the air to fly sweeping loops over this wavy landscape, spraying fertilizers and pesticides. While it is no organic farming, it certainly is a productive corner of the state.

And photogenic too. The few weeks surrounding this time offer optimal conditions to capture the pastoral landscapes from the high vistas and from the dirt roads that wind through the landscape. Old renovated farmsteads and beautifully restored red barns offer subjects for the detail seekers too.

Here are a few showing the view from up above.

Palouse
WA USA

Spring Storms

The month of April often draws thunderstorms and sudden squalls to western Washington, drenching the landscape and drawing away in a very short time. The primary driver is the rise temperatures in the western Washington as the days become longer. Regardless of the reason, the onset of this weather pattern paints the skies with dramatic clouds and lighting that lend themselves well to photography.

Out in the Palouse region, I caught the tail end of a spring thunderstorm. This composition juxtaposing windmills on a rolling green landscape against the dark ominous background worked very well with the angled lighting of the late afternoon.

Palouse
WA USA

Summer Greens

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

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2023 Photography Calendar

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My 2023 landscape and nature photography calendar is now available for sale through Lulu

This calendar showcases a wide variety of landscapes from the frozen slopes of the Arctic and the Pacific Northwest to the sun-drenched cities of Italy. With the pandemic easing, we have been blessed to be able to travel and explore the different corners of the country and the world. And this calendar has captured my favorite memories and experiences.

And remember, this calendar is for a good cause - all proceeds will get donated to Sierra Club Foundation. We are gifted to have such amazing public lands, and having visited 54 National Parks and many more wilderness areas, I have come to realize the vital importance of our public lands system in protecting and preserving nature, culture, wildlife, and landscapes for the future. The Sierra Club Foundation helps secure protections for public lands and waters, promote healthy ecosystems and communities, and fight for clean air and water, and build a diverse, inclusive environmental movement that reflects and represents today’s American public, and prioritizes important connections between environmental health and social justice.

Seattle WA
USA

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Shadows and light in the Palouse

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The warm yellow hues of the late afternoon light, juxtaposed against the gentle shadows on the rolling terrain of the region, add the right bit of drama and depth to a scene that would been boring under the mid-day sun.
Here is one such composition where the light highlights the undulating terrain.

Palouse
WA USA

Rolling Hills of Palouse

As I was driving around the afternoon after a drifting thunderstorm, I found many of the classic pastoral scenes inspired by this region, such as the rolling green hills anchored by a lone cypress or a farmstead, of red barns framing green fields of wheat, of puffy white clouds marching endlessly into the horizon.

Here is one such scene from the byways that crisscross the Palouse region.

Palouse
WA USA

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Aftermath of a thunderstorm

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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

Rolling Greens of Palouse

The velvety greens of Palouse have me salivating for a trip to eastern Washington in summer. It is a landscape remarkably different from the urban scenes of Seattle, the lush forested landscape of the PNW or the snow-capped summits of the Cascades. And in the right light and location, Palouse really shines.

Steptoe Butte State Park
WA USA