Palouse Sky
In spring and early summer, I focused most of my photographic attention on long-lens shots of the Palouse hills looking down from the vantage point of Steptoe Butte. I was fascinated by the abstract patterns that could be found through the compressed perspective of a telephoto lens. As the vivid colors of that season have given way to a more uniform golden hue of mature crops, I have spent more time down at ground level, exploring miles of dirt roads. The long telephoto lens now stays in the camera bag, and wide-angle lenses are more frequently my optics of choice. As a result, the sky is almost always in the frame, and I am therefore particularly eager to venture into the field when clouds are plentiful (still a fairly unusual occurrence at this dry time of the year). In this latest set (all taken on a single day at the end of August), the cloud-filled sky is a common theme, which lead to my choice of title. Another common theme is a lonely road (or even tire tracks through a wheat field) curving off into the distance. I think there's a metaphor in there somewhere, but I'll leave it to the viewer to figure out what it means.
This set may seem a bit light relative to some of the previous collections in this ongoing Palouse series, and it could be considered as simply an addendum to the previous set called Ripened Palouse. I had hoped to take a variety of pictures throughout the month of September while the fields were harvested. However, while taking these pictures, I noticed a slight headache, and by the next day it became clear that I had come down with a case of COVID-19 (something I had thankfully avoided until now). I'm sure that being vaccinated reduced the severity, but I was ill enough that I have not ventured back into the field since. Hopefully, October will be more fruitful.
Thanks for your interest!
