Desert-parsley

The best carpeting of flowers I've found so far this season are the slopes above where the Goldendale-Glenwood Highway drops into the Klickitat; they are covered with Desert-parsley (Gray's?). The Klickitat and Mt. Adams are very scenic in this area. I took this photo in the evening, and hiked all over the upper slopes scheming where to take photos in the morning. Unfortunately a dense cloud cover moved in overnight and ruined the morning plans, killing the light and covering Mt. Adams.

Nikon D80
Nikkor 12-24mm f/4 at 12mm
Blend of 1/60 and 1/250 sec at f/16 and ISO 400

I like this John, but what is going on with the sky....it looks like a very hard grad line....it goes from a nice blue at the top to a gray color very quickly....

That was a cloud layer low in the sky. I could kill it, but it was what was there. Should I kill the contrast in the sky a bit so that it is not so noticeable?

I like how the break in the flowers meander up and seem to take you through the center of the two hills. Those hill lines are nice also.

The sky doesn't bother me. It looks natural enough IMO. I think the line up the center is so strong it divides the image a bit too much, but that said, I'd rather have it there than not at all. Overall it's a decent image. Probably not one of your best IMO, but still solid enough to file it away. Desert Parsley is harder to shoot than its more colorful neighboors. This is a good effort.

Thanks for the comments all. Marc, I'm glad to hear you note desert-parsley being tougher. I've really struggled to capture it, both on this trip and prior ones. My eye separates the green and yellow well when I'm there, but the camera seems to bring home a pretty flat photo.

Ah well, if all else fails just toss your dog out amongst 'em and click away... (And yes, we've heard all the "one ear up, one ear down" jokes .)

Both beautiful images. The dog must have been having a blast. I love the composition of the first image and the detail throughout. Great find and I'm interested to see the image that you missed with Mt. Adams being cloudy. That is one fo my favorite areas and I hope you return to it.

Way good on the parsley, John, and your pal is so cute.

Nice stuff, John. That is an exceptional patch you found.

Good job on the composition, I like the blend of the rolling hills. While the parsley is obviously flourishing it doesn't stir me like most of your other pieces. As you said it must look more vibrant on site, but to me looks a little "drab." Thanks for suggestions on the goldfinch, I will give it a whirl.

John: Work has been crazy and I've not been able to get the time to comment on all the posts of the past few days, including your fine shot here. As Marc noted this is a difficult one to capture; I've tried for years and never come away with anything close to as nice as this! Nice composition, really effective IMO, although if I had had my way I might clone out the one large, center conifer.

I'll echo what Marc A. said and also mention that the photo with the dog is pretty dang cute.