Backup plans…

I seldom travel to the same photo location more than once. There are so many places on my list to visit that venturing back to my favorite places always tends to come in second. This summer was an exception.

Last year I visited Palouse, which is a region of the northwestern United States that encompasses parts of southeastern Washington and north central Idaho. It is undeniably my favorite place for landscape shooting. There are rolling hills, decrepit barns, beautiful puffy clouds, and friendly natives. I decided to go back for a second visit this year during harvest time near the end of summer.

Before leaving for the trip I analyzed my photos from the first trip to determine what I liked, what I disliked, and what I could do differently to improve them. The puffy clouds and blue skies were unbelievable, but what were the chances that they would make another appearance? I needed a backup plan. Previously I captured an image from Steptoe Butte that I love named “Fifty Shades of Green”. Since it would be harvest time, the rolling hills would be yellow instead of green. Regardless of the skies, it would be a shot that I would have to get.

How could I improve on it, though? Last year I shot the abstract image with a D800 and cropped into a slice of the image that stood out to me. This year I decided to bring my 800mm lens to capture the scene from Steptoe (this time on a tripod, though). I had yet to see any images from Steptoe taken at that focal length, so it seemed like a good plan.

I stood on Steptoe Butte and scanned with my eyes for potential compositions that were far off, however I could never find them through the lens. Ever. I resorted to looking through the viewfinder and panning across possible compositions row by row across my field of view. That is where I found things that were invisible to the naked eye. The entire process was intriguing. It was like the first time you discover macro photography, only the opposite.

The puffy clouds never made an appearance during this trip, but I would still go back either time of year. The trick is just to always go with a plan. To see more from the Palouse trip last year visit my gallery and select “USA”. To read the stories behind some of those photos check out my blog posts and select the “USA” filter on the right. It is a magical place.

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“Patchwork Hills” Signed Print^* on Exhibition Fiber Media
(up to two week delay possible if Susan is traveling)
$15 flat rate domestic shipping & handling
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“Patchwork Hills” Unsigned Print on Exhibition Fiber Media
$15 flat rate domestic shipping & handling
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Unsigned prints are shipped within 7-10 days.
^*Signed prints are limited to 10 of each size.