Yaquina Head Lighthouse

Just to change things up I thought I would take a break from the Palouse and post another lighthouse photo today.  This one is of Yaquina Head Lighthouse in Newport, Oregon.  This was taken in early July when there were a lot of flowers blooming.  The park didn't open it's gates until 8am so I had to park outside the gates and hike in about a mile to get the sunrise photo you see above.  These hikes are fun because you are all by yourself in a beautiful local and everything is quiet and peaceful.  Very enjoyable way to get a little exercise. 

Swipes

Canon 5D Mark II 1/15 sec f/32  ISO 100

These photos demonstrate a technique called a swipe.  Using a longer shutter speed, usually around 1/15th to 1/8th of a second you move the camera across a scene while taking the photo.  This causes the photo to be blurred along the direction you moved the camera.  The result is a more artistic interpretation of the scene.  Here are a couple of my attempts at swiping. 

Canon 5D Mark II 1/10 sec f/32  ISO 100

Iconic Palouse View

When I first saw this scene, I knew this was going to be for me the iconic view of the Palouse.  You've got barns, hilly terrain, wheat fields, a leading line leading your eye to a single tree and even some clouds in the sky.  However, it's one of those scenes that unless you're carefully looking for it, you would drive right by it.  But fortunately, I was with Dan Sniffin, a photographer with an uncanny sense of composition.  He was the one who discovered this very out of the way location that worked to the delight of everyone in our group.  I would love to return here at either sunrise or sunset.

Palouse Tree

This photo was taken on my last day in the Palouse.  In an earlier blog post I had a photo of this same tree taken from Steptoe Butte.  For this one we drove right up to the tree and got the opportunity to place it more prominently as the main subject.  I usually don't get too excited about trees, but this scene was as pretty in person as it is in the photo.  Once again I used the leading line of the curved edge of the field to lead your eye to the tree.  I only wished that the sky would have had a little less cloud and a little more blue.  But hey, didn't have control over that one.  Anyway, this is still one of my favorite shots that I got of the Palouse.