The Palouse, Washington

A couple of house keeping comments first. Can't believe I haven't posted a comment since February. Too many things going on in addition to taking care of background stuff on this site. It should be running error free now.Secondly, I added the link to my Flickr account. I encourage people to check it out from time to time as I am continually adding content from my database. Between Flickr and Smugmug, I am endeavoring to bring these up-to-date with a reasonable sample of all the various things I have captured over the last 20 years or so.....

Now for The Palouse. Thanks to both of my brothers, I finally had a chance to visit and photograph this wonderful place in June. In reading one photographers blog, he called it the Tuscany of the US. Having visited Tuscany, I think it is a bit much, yet it does have its own charm which is its rather significant beauty, but I am sorry, there is not the Italian cuisine and atmosphere. What makes it so special are the undulating loess hills covered with their green spring growth of wheat and other legumes. The Palouse Losses is essentially windblown sediment that formed the rolling hills, much like sand dunes along a beach and it explains why the dirt roads are sooo dusty. Anyway, early mornings and evenings provide wonderful highlights and shadows enriched by the various shads of green of fresh growth and some of the brown sediment showing through.A favorite spot for photographers and gazers to visit is the 3,612 ft high Steptoe Butte. Personally, I find the road up a little nerve racking, but nothing like the back roads of the Colorado Rockies. From this elevation, one is granted a panorama of farms, hills and valleys. The image above is of one photographer taking pictures at sunset from half way up the Butte. But one needs to expand their visit beyond Steptoe to enrich their visit as there are other wonderful vantage points, barns, towns and other interesting images to capture and explore.

In getting ready for my visit to The Palouse, I do what I most always do, invest a fair amount of research before-hand on spots worth visiting and try to get as much information location data as I can. From this data I build a POI (point-of-interest) file in Google Maps which I can access from my smart phone or computer. Unfortunately, I discovered that a fair amount of the Palouse is out of cell phone coverage so one would need to use some type of off-line map or other GPS like a Garmin or rely on a printed map.As I was exploring the internet for photographic spots and information on the Palouse, I ran across Teri Lou Dantzler's Photographer's Map of the Palouse. It turns out that in 2010 Teri spent a lot of time developing a detailed map of the various sites in the Palouse to sell and to use for her tour service. But wouldn't you know it, in 2014 the Pullman Chamber got a hold of one of her maps and duplicated it for the public without any recognition of remuneration for Teri's hard work. The Chamber's map is here. One of the first things I did when I got to Pullman was to visit the Chamber visitors center and pick up one of their maps. Personally, I found their map really confusing and it was just too general to figure out which roads to take and where exactly the spots were located. Also, as I drove around the various back country seasonal dirt roads, I developed a healthy respect for the time and hard work Teri put into developing her map. To make sense of the area, I ended up buying an Atlas & Gazatteer of Washington. In the end though I purchased a set of Teri's maps. I highly recommend this as you will have a significant better starting point and save you a fair amount of frustration. At $25.00 it is virtually the same price as the Gazetteer. Even better, you go on one of Teri's workshops.

There is a wealth of photographic sites beyond Steptoe Butte and by using Teri's maps or her service will allow you the best opportunity to maximize your time while in the area.A couple of photo tips. The best times for shooting are about an hour and a half before sunset and after sunrise. This allows one to maximize the shadows that are created in these rolling hills. Doing so means that you are probably up at 4:00 am and back in bed at between 10:00 and 11:00 pm. Also, this tends to be an area for a long lens, particularly if you are in one of the viewing hill-top areas. One needs at least a 300mm lens and even longer is better to be able to isolate the patterns you see.

Best

Eart