It was difficult to choose a favorite image from this hike - eventually I settled on this one, though I have a few pinholes that come in a close second.
Rowena Crest will always be one of my "seasonally favorite" places of all time. While the balsamroot shout their sunny little heads off, garnering accolades from many photographers, in my heart of hearts I will always side with the bumblebees in my preference for the fragrant, lovely lupine.
Oh, and another interesting thing about this hike - it was done at sunrise on Mother's Day, and the fam joined me in Mosier for a second hike that same day - but by then it was blazing hot, and three out of five Nelsons bailed about a half mile in. As for the other two... that's a story for another post.
Not-so-inside tip... at the end of this hike, you can find a little trail that dives off the top of Tom McCall Point, down a hill and through a stand of dead and smooth-trunked trees, and then heads steeply up the hill (in a south easternly direction). The trail follows the top of that hill, skirting a fence and private property, eventually reaching an access road, and then seems to disappear. But the take home message is that you only have to head a minute or two down that trail to find a peaceful, out-of-the-wind lunch spot, away from the gaggle of people that can linger at Tom McCall Point.
Image made with my Hasselblad 500 C/M.
Tags: hikes of 2023 hike hiking gorge columbia river gorge oregon pnw pacific northwest spring blossom bloom wildflowers flowers flora floral floralscape lupine sunrise rowena crest hasselblad hasselblad 500 C/M medium format film analog morning
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stereoscopic weave
Mitaki-dera Temple, Hiroshima, Japan
Tags: poem stereo
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Working with the Fuji G617 is such a deliberate process. Usually it involves really evaluating the scene, thinking over if it warrants one of four exposures you will get on a roll and if it will fit the 6x17 aspect ratio. This is a fairly decent bar to clear, in fact. Then if it the idea has this much merit there is the setting up of the tripod, the setting of shutter and aperture, checking the focus to make sure it is at infinity and hasn't gotten maladjusted in the bag, making sure the shutter preview lever is closed before removing the lens cap, calculating exposure and then compensating exposure for the center spot ND filter. Threading in the cable release, arming the shutter, firing and advancing. Often I pair this camera with strong ND filters for really long exposures so that requires additional calculations and a few more steps. Suffice it to say that usually each image requires enough time and thought that I have a pretty good memory of each of them, even by the time I get home, have the film developed and then scanned - a process that can take days or weeks. Having said all that, I don't remember making this image at all. It makes me chuckle because I really like this image and I am glad I made it but this one escapes my memory. I don't remember this scene in general, which doesn't surprise me much since we spent a lot of time amongst various rolling, green hills. But including Angela in the scene, right where she is, caught me by surprise. The Fuji G617 viewfinder is not 100% accurate. Far from it, in fact. So it is possible I did not see her there when I was framing. And I did do more work on this trip with the camera handheld since I had enough light and fast enough film and wasn't going for super long exposures. So maybe I handheld this, intending to get the road leading into the hills and didn't notice her down there. But the framing strikes me as too deliberate to be coincidental. So apparently I made this and then plain forgot about it. That is a bit unlike me but also not unheard of either. Then again, I was so often completely enraptured by the landscape that I had a lot on my mind at any given moment, so I can give myself a bit of a pass if I don't remember every photo I made on this past trip to the Palouse.
Fuji G617
Fuji Pro 160C
Tags: Fuji G617 Fuji 160C Palouse film Washington Colfax green 6x17 pano panoramic Pacific Northwest landscape
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IG - www.instagram.com/bellakotak/
Shop this color palette (PS & LR) here - onlythecurious.com/products/zephyrs-light
for this piece i wanted to challenge myself and explore what's possible when i blend reality with AI elements.
I generated these flowers on MJ a few versions ago. Was actually really fun to play with possibilities!
Hope you like it and let me know what you think!
Tags: bella kotak creative photography midjourney ai flowers florals advertisement editorial
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Tags: nikon plena z8 nature crab
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