Monthly Archives: July 2021

Color, Shapes, and Textures

“Meadow Contrasts”
Heatherwood, Summer

This small meadow vignette is full of contrasts: disc-shaped yellow rudbeckia flowers, spike-shaped green grass, ball-shaped blue thistle, and reddish-purple penstemon. A soft diffuser filter helps blend them together.

Different vignettes like this abound in Heatherwood’s meadow. This is its second year and it has started to fill in rapidly. In a couple more years, it should be a solid mass of color, shapes, and textures.

Related Images:

Blue Fescue and Rudbeckia

“Meadow Multiple Exposure”
Heatherwood, Summer

I couldn’t get what I wanted with vertical panning for this vignette. I then tried a series of vertical images to create this garden abstract. I enjoy working a subject to try to create the feeling I am trying to achieve. I have several failures for each success. However, I learn from each one.

Related Images:

Another Creation

“Meadow Pan #2”
Heatherwood, Summer

Continuing my exercise from yesterday, I picked a grouping of grasses and vertical spiked perennials for my subject. I was inspired to create the pans for today and yesterday’s post by Laura Zimmerman, a fellow workshop participant in a recent John Barclay workshop in the Palouse. Laura’s work takes in-camera motion to a much higher level than what I have previously seen. Thank you Laura!

Related Images:

How Many Ways Can I Photograph Our Garden?


“Meadow Pan #1”
Heatherwood, Summer

How many ways can I photograph our garden? So many times I walk through the garden and create images with just a little different perspective that what I have done so many time before. I photograph in monochrome, infrared, color, macro, wide-angle, underexpose, overexpose, HDR, on my stomach, up on a ladder, time lapse, long exposure, and on and on. Today’s challenge was to make images using a soft diffuser-type filter. For this image, I picked a section in our meadow that was full of summer color and did a gentle vertical pan.

Related Images:

Which Way ?

“Delma’s Gift”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

This small Japanese lantern and the rock marks a division in Heatherwood’s Japanese garden. Which path do I follow? Do I take the easy path toward the sound of the water? Or do I venture up a curving path to explore up above? Each path has its own little surprises. Take your choice …

Related Images:

IR Practice

“Woodland Garden Path”
Heatherwood, Summer

I am getting ready for an infrared photography workshop with Tony Sweet on Whidbey Island. I thought I needed to do a little practicing. In this section of Heatherwood, we are trying to create a woodland garden. It is a work in progress, and right now we have only small trees and a few “sun-loving” shrubs planted. The dark bark provides a striking contrast to the IR highlighted trees. In a few years, hopefully the ground will be covered with shrubs, ground cover, and shade-loving perennials. The envisioned garden path will provide the contrast needed for an IR image.

Related Images:

Collapsed

“Collapsed Barn”
The Palouse, Washington

How much longer can this old barn stand. From the shape of the roof, the barn looks like the top had collapsed recently. I initially zipped by this old structure, then decided to turn around and do a little exploring. I respect the private property of the Palouse farmers and stick to the roads that pass by these abandoned structures. This one looked pristine with no trampled down grasses or litter around the building. I left it that way for others to enjoy.

Related Images:

Iconic Palouse

“Red Barn & Clouds”
The Palouse, Washighton

It was a beautiful day to capture an iconic Palouse red barn scene. The sun was out, highlighting the barn front, while the clouds provided a contrasting background. The plowed field circled the barn framing it in the scene. The barn just seemed to “pose” for our workshop group in this beautiful setting. Great morning!!!

Related Images:

Bygone Days

“Elberton Church”
The Palouse, Washington

The town of Elberton has as a history similar to many of the late 19th century towns in the Palouse. It flourished for a while, then went into an irreversible decline.

In the 1870’s Giles D. Wilber built a water powered sawmill which provided lumber for nearby farms and barns. The Oregon Railway and Navigation Company build a rail line through the valley in the early 1880’s. The town was plated in 1886 by Sylvester M. Wait and was named after his son Elbert. By the end of the decade, Elberton had a sawmill, flour mill, post office, two general stores, blacksmith and wagon shop, two grain warehouses, livery stable, and a church. During the 1890’s, the town continued to grow. Fruit trees were planted as a major crop. By 1900, the town had a population of 400.

After the turn of the century, the town began to decline. The sawmill moved to Idaho after all the nearby timber had been cut. The town experienced a devastating fire in 1908 and severe flooding in 1910. Elberton then rapidly declined.

During my little exploration, all I could see that remained of the town was the railroad trestle, the church, old building foundations, a few pieces of farm equipment, and several remains of old non-native landscape shrubs and trees. It was an interesting off the beaten path excursion.

Related Images: