Roadtrip Images

The Palouse region in Eastern Washington is a very unique photography destination. Rich farmland in a sea of rolling green.

The Palouse in Eastern Washington is a rich farming region known for its seas of rolling green hills. The land is mostly planted in wheat although other grains are grown there as well. In the spring after the wheat has come up and the fields are all green, tons of photographers descend upon the area in search of unique images. Late May and early June are peak times for the photo workshops that bring many of these photographers in.

The region is dotted with small farming towns that can serve as a base camp for these photo expeditions. Most are headed for Steptoe Butte State park where the butte rises 1000 feet above the rolling farmland and provides a wonderful vantage point to shoot from. You’ll need a long lens to be able to isolate some of the fields. Bring a 70-200mm zoom for sure and even longer if you have it. It can get pretty windy up there so bring a jacket.

In our previous post we were in Palouse Falls State Park which is about 80 miles away. Many of the photo workshops will include this in their itinerary if time permits.

We had been on Steptoe Butte on several occasions by now and had a feel for when the light was best. We also learned that shooting into the late afternoon sun produced some nicely saturated images. Shooting the fields with the sun at your back produced rather lackluster images. You need the alternating light & shadows to make these scenes come alive and that meant side lighting or shooting into the sun.

For the featured image above it was a case of catching something that added some additional interest. In this case the truck with the dust trail that was backlit by the sun. The scene by itself was pretty nice but the truck and dust trail added some perspective to the image. One, it gives a sense of scale to the size of these fields but two, it shows the human element of the farmers working the fields late into the day. The sun was almost setting in May and they were still out working.

We were at the Palouse in early May so many of the fields were still being cultivated and planted. By late May and early June when the photo workshops arrive everything should be a lush green. These brown fields were interspersed with green ones so that also provided an interesting color contrast.

As I mentioned above, bring a telephoto lens if you want to shoot the Palouse successfully. The featured image at the top was shot with my 80-400mm lens at 230mm.

Another view of the fields can be seen below.

I had been shooting a number of compositions that evening from a vantage point on the side of Steptoe Butte. We had settled on this location to shield us from the incessant wind plus give us the angle to the west that we wanted. I noticed this truck making its way along a farm road and he was generating quite a dust trail. Being late in the day this dust trail was being back lit by the setting sun. I knew I wanted to add this to the composition but I had to get that set before he got there. Fortunately I had been shooting the area he was about to drive into before so I swung the camera around and quickly set it up so he would be near the bottom of the photograph.

I waited for him to enter the frame and then shot several images as he made his way across. I had a feeling that it would look best at the 3/4 point so I made sure to get an exposure there. Indeed, that’s the one you see at the top. Many times it’s that unexpected element that adds extra interest to the photograph.

Another scene from the same vantage point was looking northerly towards some wind turbines off in the distance. There were also a lot of alternating brown and green fields that added some nice color contrast. This was shot late in the day so the side lighting on the hills created some nice shadows. The wind turbines added an interesting element to the scene. You can see that image below.

There was a lot of activity going on during spring planting. When we arrived on the butte one afternoon a crop duster was working some of the fields in front of us. I grabbed the 150-600mm telephoto and followed him around for quite awhile. I had to zoom in all the way to 600mm to get him large enough in the frame but with a fast shutter speed and image stabilization in the lens I was able to get some sharp frames. You can see one of those below.

The Palouse is definitely a photo worthy destination to add to your bucket list. Target the end of May or the first part of June for best results but be prepared for some company. Lots of other photographers will be there with the same idea.

It was a nice stop on our way to the Canadian Rockies and eventually Alaska.

The featured image is available as a free wallpaper download. See the Shop page for more info.

Nikon D850 with Nikkor 80-400mm at 230mm. f/11 at 1/50 of a sec. ISO 64 for the featured image.