Scouting the Palouse
I love photographing while scouting for great locations much more than going somewhere I already know will be good. There’s so much more adventure when you don’t know what to expect, and I love the joy of discovering great subjects and locations that are new to me.
I’m in the Palouse region of eastern Washington state along with professional photographer Wolfgang Kaehler, just getting started teaching a photography workshop. We arrived yesterday, and on the way here scouted out some of the locations we planned to take the students to during the workshop.
In this case Wolfgang was already quite familiar with the area, and knew some areas that were expected to be good. But nature has a way of being unpredictable, and crop rotation by the local farmers only contributes to the unpredictability.
Of particular interest was locating some canola fields for their vibrant yellow flowers. But of course most of the fields were wheat. But it was a great adventure driving along the many country roads (many of them only gravel or dirt) and looking for great fields, great barns, and great vantage points. We were lucky enough to have some great clouds to make things more interesting. We stopped many times to capture some images while scouting.
It’s very easy to get so caught up exploring and looking for great scenes that you neglect to keep track of where you are, what you’re seeing, and which places you want to visit again (and what time of day you think will be optimal for those locations). Fortunately, Wolfgang was well-prepared. We kept track of where we were and where we were headed on a map. Ideal locations were marked, including whether they were best in the morning or late afternoon. So now we have a great list of locations to share with the students, and should get some excellent photography this week. It’s all about proper planning…
Explore posts in the same categories: Workshops, Photography
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:18 am
Often the fields NE of the Pullman airport have peas and other legumes planted giving different shades of green and some white when in flower.
June 22nd, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Be sure to photograph from the top of Steptoe Butte, its a great place as the sun sets.
The Palouse is one of the harder places to photograph from IMO, the ‘road system’ there doesn’t seem to have any rhymn or reason to its layout.
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:48 pm
Yes, indeed there are lots of legumes planted, though these seem to be coming up a bit late this year so there aren’t a huge number of the white flowers on them. But they are out there, and the different shades of green are excellent. As for Steptoe Butte, that’s on the list for tomorrow afternoon!
I also totally agree about the roads here. In fact, today we were traveling on a road that was on the map and on GPS, but it suddenly ended in the middle of a wheat field!
June 29th, 2009 at 11:25 am
While I admire your photography and wish I could comment cleverly about depth of field and good light - I’m just a lowly traveler trying to find some answers and you seem to be the only one out there that doesn’t want my blood and first born just to ask. I’m planning on traveling from Missoula MT to Walla Walla 2nd wk of July - I WANT TO SEE THE PALOUSE. Can you help me decide on the best route and how/where to get the best opportunities to view the magic? Here’s the clincher - I only have ONE DAY - so I need a “highlight” kind of plan - if you have suggestions I would be very grateful - THANK YOU - Sky
March 1st, 2010 at 3:17 am
Thanks for posting. I went to the Palouse on a photo tour by Jack Graham a couple of years ago about the same time of year you went. I was awestruck by the scenery and really want to go back there sometime. (It’s about a 6 hour scenic drive from where my daughter lives in Portland.) June is so beautiful there, but I’m wondering how the scenery would be at harvest time. I also loved the canola fields. Did you get to see the art center that had the wonderful iron work fence made out of old wheels and gears of all types? It was very cool.
March 1st, 2010 at 10:29 am
Kathleen,
Thanks very much for the kind words. Yes, the canola fields are incredible! And I did indeed see and photograph the “art barn”, which was great fun.
I’m sure fall harvest would be a good time to be there, but not nearly as good as when we were there!
Tim
March 31st, 2010 at 8:57 am
With the advent of GPS the ability to navigate in the Palouse is in many respects easier, however it appears a number of road designations as noted on the GPS are different from those posted - a different challenge.
April 1st, 2010 at 7:16 pm
Jim - A good point! One of the things that is relatively unique to the Palouse region is that from year to year the location of many roads changes. This is obviously only really applicable to the dirt and gravel roads, but it can be a real challenge. There were several times on this workshop that Google Maps on my iPhone didn’t agree with the maps in the published book, but neither of them agreed with the roads we were actually driving on. On some level that made for a fun adventure, but it also has the potential to be a frustrating challenge.