The Rolling Hills of the Palouse (Eastern WA)

coscorrosa

I took last Friday off and spent three nights and three mornings in Eastern Washington a part of the state that I'm not familiar with at all. Here are some of my favorite shots from Steptoe Butte, a place I'll definitely be returning to in the future. I met up with Danny (dseidman) for the best sunrise of the weekend on Monday morning (shots 2-4).

Most of these were taken with a 100-400 lens, which I almost never use for landscapes, but it came in handy here. Actually in some instances it was too short (on a full frame body). A 2-stop and/or a 3-stop reverse GND were used in some of the sun shots. The wind didn't make things easy either, but it's great watching the sun rise and set from a vantage where you have a full 360 degree view with awesome scenery below. In just a few minutes the light and shadows change dramatically.

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ront

WOW, Ron, these are just great!! You really did a nice job. I really like #5,6 and 8. I knew you guys would get some excellent shots and you did!!

Ron

dseidman

Ok, you win.

Seriously, these are all great! My favorites are 1-4 and 6-10. How many images did you come home with? That must have been fun having to sort through 3 days worth of shooting... You definitely came away with some impressive images.

Abiciriderback

Hey Ron

Very nice now you know what I mean about the wind don't go by weather reports if you are going up steptoe and it's just going to get worse in late June-thru August as far as wind. Time to find the more intimate canyon shots.

Ray Still

coscorrosa

ront wrote:

WOW, Ron, these are just great!! You really did a nice job. I really like #5,6 and 8. I knew you guys would get some excellent shots and you did!!

Ron

Thanks Ron!

coscorrosa

dseidman wrote:

Ok, you win.

Seriously, these are all great! My favorites are 1-4 and 6-10. How many images did you come home with? That must have been fun having to sort through 3 days worth of shooting... You definitely came away with some impressive images.

I think on an average session (sunrise or sunset) I had about 150-200 exposures, which probably works out to about 100 shots or so after bracketing exposures (and extra exposures due to the wind). The first sunset and the last sunrise had the best light. Really cool place, I'll have to head back later this year.

coscorrosa

Abiciriderback wrote:

Hey Ron

Very nice now you know what I mean about the wind don't go by weather reports if you are going up steptoe and it's just going to get worse in late June-thru August as far as wind. Time to find the more intimate canyon shots.

Ray Still

Yeah the wind wasn't great, but I've shot in windier places, the main problem was I had to use the 400mm lens to get the compositions I wanted so the effect of the wind is magnified (due to the magnification and the larger lens which is more likely to be affected by the wind). I think I'll make a return trip in fall after all the fields have been harvested.

astockwell

3, 4, 10 and 12. 4 has great layers to it. Great light, and the butte (mountain) sillouetting is great. #3 is great also for the same reasons, just wish maybe there was a little more foreground exposure, 10 and 12 have great lines and patterens in them. Awesome set overall though. What use of grads if any?

-Andy

schmoo

Really nice work, Ron and Dan both! I've not heard of this place until recently when you guys totally showcased how gorgeous this place can be.

I can't get over how beautifully abstract the land is out there, and the low angle of the light is just perfect to set it off.

coscorrosa

astockwell wrote:

3, 4, 10 and 12. 4 has great layers to it. Great light, and the butte (mountain) sillouetting is great. #3 is great also for the same reasons, just wish maybe there was a little more foreground exposure, 10 and 12 have great lines and patterens in them. Awesome set overall though. What use of grads if any?

-Andy

Thanks Andy, I agree that the foreground is a little underexposed on some of these, I'll tweak them eventually, and now that I just calibrated my monitor, I might have incentive to fix some of my other photos too.

Most of the wide angle shots had either a 3-stop hard or a 3-stop reverse GND (some of them are blends of multiple exposures too). The ones that were looking right at the sun had the reverse GND, the other ones the normal GND.

coscorrosa

schmoo wrote:

Really nice work, Ron and Dan both! I've not heard of this place until recently when you guys totally showcased how gorgeous this place can be.

I can't get over how beautifully abstract the land is out there, and the low angle of the light is just perfect to set it off.

Thanks schmoo - it's a wonderful spot and one that I had neglected completely until now. Even though it *seems* a long way away, it's only about a 30 minute longer drive than all those beaches in Olympic National Park that I go to all the time. So I'm going to have to stick it and Palouse Falls into the rotation.

astockwell

coscorrosa wrote:

Thanks Andy, I agree that the foreground is a little underexposed on some of these, I'll tweak them eventually, and now that I just calibrated my monitor, I might have incentive to fix some of my other photos too.

Most of the wide angle shots had either a 3-stop hard or a 3-stop reverse GND (some of them are blends of multiple exposures too). The ones that were looking right at the sun had the reverse GND, the other ones the normal GND.

Never used a reverse GND, might be worth looking into.

justME

Wonderful series -just a joy to view these.

PHOTOempt

these are lovely - i just discovered these posts through dan's 'sick of these yet?' thread. this looks like a wonderful place to visit, and both of you have really captured the essence. the sunrise was spectacular, but i also really like the details of the patterns and textures of the hills. beautiful work - thank you for sharing, and for getting up so early!!

bryanj87

Wow, these are great. Washington has such diverse landscape, and you've done a great job capturing it.

coscorrosa

astockwell wrote:

Never used a reverse GND, might be worth looking into.

I've found it pretty useful so far, especially when you want a little more detail in the sky, it's not quite as harsh as a 3-stop GND.

I've only had it for a few months, here's a shot from my first outing with it that convinced me it was a keeper:

coscorrosa

PHOTOempt wrote:

these are lovely - i just discovered these posts through dan's 'sick of these yet?' thread. this looks like a wonderful place to visit, and both of you have really captured the essence. the sunrise was spectacular, but i also really like the details of the patterns and textures of the hills. beautiful work - thank you for sharing, and for getting up so early!!

Thanks! It's rare to encounter such an abstract landscape, there's an endless array of compositions. We lucked out with that sunrise, but on "normal" days with little cloud cover and a lot of sun you can get some cool patterns and textures and shadows when the sun is low in the horizon.

coscorrosa

bryanj87 wrote:

Wow, these are great. Washington has such diverse landscape, and you've done a great job capturing it.

Thanks Bryan - Washington is awesome, I've severely neglected the eastern part of the state but plan on remedying that over the next few months/years.

Doug Solis

beautiful series Ron thanks for sharing. #4 is a wonderful image I could see this one framed and hung.