I found myself fascinated by the various vehicle tracks we saw in the fields of the Palouse on this trip. Otherwise pristine fields would have swoops and swerves and loops and whorls running through them. I figure they must be the tracks left by farmers, out doing some type of work in the field. But I do not know their origin for certain and within that gap left by uncertainty is some room for imagination. Maybe they form a pattern only visible from above. I mean, certainly they form a pattern of some type, but I am imagining one of deliberation and intent. I am sure the truth is probably fairly mundane so I will enjoy my mystery... and images of these paths laid out in the greenery.

Hasselblad 500C/M
Lomography Color 400

Tags:   Hasselblad 500C/M Lomography Color 400 I still don't know what Lomography Color 400 is but it ain't Portra Palouse wash Pacific Northwest green Medium Format

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So Steptoe Butte may be the most popular spot in all of the Palouse. It makes a lot of sense given that it is one of the highest locations in the area and offers panoramic views looking down on the rolling farmland. If you Google "Palouse" most of the resulting images you see are from this butte. If you Google "Steptoe Butte" most of the resulting images will also be from this butte. But what you see far less of are photos of the butte itself. That has been on my mind for the past couple of trips but I have never quite found good photos of the butte. You can see it from just about everywhere given its height, but it loses a lot in translation, never looking quite as tall or imposing as it is in reality. If this was medieval Europe there would be a castle or other fortification atop it... but it is trickier to make a photo that captures the commanding nature of Steptoe. Anyway, this latest adventure out to the Palouse saw us exploring new sets of backroads, several of which ran as close to Steptoe Butte as roads get without actually going up the butte. So I used the closer proximity to try for some new photos of Steptoe.

Hasselblad 500C/M
Rollei Infrared w/ R72 filter.

Tags:   Hasselblad 500C/M Rollei Infrared Palouse Washington Infrared Medium Format Pacific Northwest Steptoe Butte black & white

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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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Catching up on some older images today. This one had suffered from some intrusive light leaks that were going to require a bit of work to clean up so it had sat in my To Do folder for some time. But with Photoshop's updates to the healing brush (specifically the addition of the Remove tool) I finally felt like tackling this one. Getting rid of the light leak turned out to be relatively easy, for which I was glad. I have been letting this image lie around because I liked it enough to not just get rid of it but also was not looking forward to the work it was going to require. In this case I just had to let the tools I needed evolve some more.

It is commonly said that patience is a photographer's best friend. Normally we think of this in terms of finding the right light or composition or whatever. But patience manifests itself benevolently in other ways as well. Knowing there is something to an image I have exposed, developed and scanned that I want, but being patient enough to figure out what it is or how to get to it is worth being mindful of as well. When I scan photos I often tend to work on only 50-75% of them right away. Those are the images I know exactly what I want to do with. But the rest are images I felt strongly enough to take the time to scan but do not know what to do with them (or how to do it). Being patient with those images, even if it means they sit on a hard drive for months or years has resulted in something good more times than I can remember or count.

This is true beyond the mere editing of images as well. Being able to look at an image and imagine its potential future value and then being patient enough to wait for that value to manifest is also a wise skill to develop. In this regard I think of family photos, or other images where the photo itself may not be anything special but the subjects in the photo may be. Every time we get in cool, old historical photos at work I think of this. Those photos have accrued a value far beyond what they possessed when they were first made. Or photos of loved ones now deceased. Those too gain a value greater than what they originally possessed. To be patient with an image and not discard it or forget about it because of what you realize it could be is a good thing to keep in mind as a photographer.

Reality So Subtle 6x12F
Kodak Ektar 100

Tags:   Kodak Ektar Reality So Subtle 6x12F pinhole 6x12 pano panoramic film Medium Format Glacier National Park Montana Continental Divide Logan's Pass National Parks Rocky Mountains landscape lensless

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The Palouse is one of those areas where there really is no bad time to visit. Granted, I generally travel out there in the spring, but I have passed through it during summer and fall as well and seen some amazing photos of it in winter. Spring is its most popular time of year because the fertile landscape blooms in the greens of crops growing. Personally spring is my favorite for the weather, which unlike the gentle, almost rhythmic, undulation of the landscape can sweep through dramatically. We had bright sun, then puffy white clouds, then beautiful overcast skies and then hail and dark, brooding storm clouds. We could stand there and watch the patches of light sail across the landscape, highlight one hill after another. And if the light wasn't just right, we simply waited and watched and it would eventually come back as the sun flitted from one cloud break to another. It was quite lovely, if more than a bit breezy.

I took along a few cameras on this trip; loaded down a bit heavier than usual as it was going to be less about on-foot travel and more about in-car travel. So I had my Hasselblad (of course), the Fuji G617 (which is responsible for this image), a Reality So Subtle 6x12, a Zero Image 6x6, a Reality So Subtle 6x6 (because one pinhole was loaded with color and the other with B&W) and then my Olympus XA. I actually used all the cameras pretty equally, but so far I have only seen images from the Fuji G617. I had a roll of Fuji 160C in 220 tucked away in the fridge and that came along. 220 is a great format for the Fuji and the greens of 160C are a great match for the Palouse. The stars aligned.

Fuji G617
Fuji Pro 160C

Tags:   Fuji G617 Fuji 160C Palouse Washington One of four 6x17 film pano panoramic green Pacific Northwest Medium Format dappled Colfax

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