Palouse Falls

All comments welcome.

Excellent job Ian! Very good composition and I like the sky! 7/7an. Take care

Wonderful composition. I think the light is bit harsh.but its wondrful still the way how you started from left with that dip and reaching to the falls and then wonderful clouds.

Wonderful composition. I think the light is bit harsh.but its wondrful still the way how you started from left with that dip and reaching to the falls and then wonderful clouds.

Excellent shot ^^^ Warm regards

 

***Ali***

A different vantage point from the usual. I suppose the light is strong, but this has to be a difficult place to work with when it comes to exposure. The strong light helps open up the shadows, yet you have held the sky successfully. Great work Ian!

I prefer this image because the falls are lower and not exactly centered. The hint of a rainbow in the background is nice. When did you take this photo?

Thanks all.

 

Mark, I think the overhead clouds really helped to reflect some of the sunset light downwards into the canyon. The exposure was indeed tricky; but, a strong grad in the sky allowed a long enough exposure that some detail in the canyon could be captured and brought out with some liberal dodging.

 

Ryan, I too prefer this longer 2x3 version. I only posted the tighter 4x5 because some people on another forum seemed to question the necessity of so much of the foreground area. So, I was interested to find out if that was a generally held opinion.

 

As for when this was, the short answer is June 11, 2008. The day after it snowed in NE Oregon and SE Washington closing a number of mountain passes. The paper ran the headline "It's Juneuary".

 

 

The Long Answer:

 

My trip to the Palouse was part of a massive, packed-itinerary road-trip that I undertook in June. It was as much about seeing the continent as it was about photos (although I seem to have done fairly well). I covered 18,000 km between June 3 and July 1.

 

I arrived in Pullman about 1:00pm June 11 and decided to blow my budget on a hotel for a couple of days. I unpacked, recharged all my equipment and then headed straight out to the falls.

 

I photographed the falls in early sunset, and then when the canyon grew too dark to balance with the sky, I headed out to look for a foreground to shoot the sunset against. I only manged to find a small patch of surprisingly early Queen Anne's Lace (edit: it is white yarrow) somewhere near Hooper just east of Washtucna. I spent the night back in Pullman.

 

I then spent the 12th in and around Pullman, Colfax and slowly worked my way westward towards St. John.

 

I had discovered that the main roads were too busy to pull off safely in the hopes of catching any "passing clouds" moments. So, I started to drive all the 'seasonal' roads and unserviced roads. They were all fine until I found a Gasline road near St. John. The gate was open off of Hwy. 23 so I took the road. But, the driving got tougher and tougher with a very pronounced rut in the road. I would have turned around but there seemed no where to do so. I could smell the long, overgrown grass roasting, creating a sweet caramel odour as it scrapped across the bottom of my car!

 

So, I was thrilled when I arrived out the other end (at the Endicott-St. John Road). Except the gate at this end was locked with a low-hanging chain! So, I pondered what to do for some time. I then made the mistaken choice to drive across a plowed (but unplanted) field and aim for the main road. All was fine until I got to the road edge where it suddenly dropped 2 feet. My wheel hung in the air and I was thoroughly stuck. (I would have been fine just 10 feet further to the left!)

 

I did manage to wave down a very friendly local who dropped me in town and I went into the service station only to be told that the guy's only tow-truck was broken. Luckily he knew some locals who might be willing to pull me out with their farm truck. They did and all was fine (they refused to even let pay them something for the trouble!). They seemed genuinely impressed that I'd managed to get as far as I did in a little Mazda Protege.

 

The sticky loess soil clung to every inch of my car's undercarriage though. When I got back to Pullman I ran it through a car wash twice (with extra-charge under-carriage blaster). It still clung on. I would later drive all the way to San Fransisco, over the Sierras, into Bishop, and up to the Inyo Mtns. before the last pieces of the soil finally broke loose. This is despite further car washes in South Oregon and in Bishop, plus even some rain.

 

Anyways, back to the story, I manged to carry on and explore the area around Endicott for the rest of the afternoon before heading back to Kamiak (no nice views) and Steptoe (where I stayed) Buttes for sunset.

 

I spent the night in Pullman again and then spent the early morning of the 13th on the very western edge of the Palouse looking for places where the natural silvery grass was growing in streaks amongst the wheat (I really loved that effect). After noon, I explored the startlingly barren and dry area just slightly west (no photos though).

 

I then drove throughout the rest of the day and into the night, through Portland and out to the Oregon Coast about 1am, caught a road-side nap, and then drove north and photographed the Astoria bridge around 5:00 am.

 

--

 

When I get some time, I might put together a blurb book tracing my route with photos (largely for myself, family and friends).

 

 

 

 

I'm headed through Bishop and the Owen's Valley area, at the end of March, Ian. I hope you left something for me to photograph there! Sounds like a great trip you had, keep up the good work,

Jim

Great scene, Ian! I like how you've balance the foreground and the sky here. It gives the waterfall a nice sense of subtlety.

Jim, thanks for the comment.

 

There are two trips at the very top of my list once I can afford them. One is to go to the tip of the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland. The other is to go back to Owen's Valley and head into Death Valley from there.

 

I really only made it to the Bristlecones and to Mono. I would love to spend a week in the area and really explore it. There is a LOT of IR potential in that landscape. I expect you'll have a wonderful time.

 

It was hot (115-120 F), dry and parched looking when I was in Bishop in mid-June.

 

 

J Quantz Jr., thanks!

 

 

Thanks for sharing your story Ian. That Palouse soil can be outright messy. I always keep an extra pair of rubber boot in the trunk just in case I have to cross a wet field. Even the dirt roads right now with cause you to get stuck if you are not careful. Ry

Very nice love the lighting. This is a much better capture than the one I got congratulations. Ronda