In Eastern Washington state, the Palouse is a unique geographic region rich in agriculture and characterized by gentle rolling hills covered with wheat fields, which look a lot like sand dunes. They provide a magical patchwork of textures and colors that are a magnet for landscape photographers, appearing on many (most?) of their bucket lists. So it is fair to ask why did a couple of wildlife photographers would head up to Eastern Washington to take landscape pictures. Well a bunch of our fellow photographers decided to head up there, and we thought we could try something different. The worst that could happen is that we had fun with our friends. Well, the worst didn’t happen and we had a challenging and rewarding trip.
A highlight, and high spot, in the area is Steptoe Butte, which towers over 1,000 feet above the surrounding farm land.
From its top you can get wonderful views of the rolling hills and local farms.
We went in mid July so we were in between the spring green and late summer brown wheat fields but did manage to catch a few golden fields of canola
The Palouse is know for its colors including the natural greens and browns of the wheat fields, and the unnatural red of its barns. This can lead to what some call the Palouse flag – red barn, white clouds and blue sky.
In addition to red barns and golden fields, an iconic photograph target is the old trucks. It seems like every other farm had an old truck somewhere visible on the property. One of the best known is on Almonte Road. It had the added benefit of being able to get both trucks and a red barn in the same picture.
One of the great things about the Palouse is myriad of photographic opportunities. Many times it didn’t matter which way you looked, there was a photograph.
Even though this was a landscape trip, we did manage to find a few birds to photograph. One morning we found this sharpe shinned hawk taking off with its catch in our motel parking lot, one of the easiest wildlife photgrpahs we have had.
This blackbird took the more normal amount of work, many shots from far away, taking advantage of today’s camera’s large sensors and cropping like crazy.
While one of the attractions of the Palouse is the step back into time
It was still up to date, with electric car charging stations in key spots. This gas station, established in 1923, was also home to a couple of electric car chargers
Next stop, Africa, and a return to chasing that perfect wildlife shot. Read about it here