Steptoe

Wheat fields and the town of Steptoe, from Steptoe Butte in the Palouse area of Washington. Taken a couple of weeks ago. The wheat, like the wildflowers all over the PNW, was a little behind schedule so many of the fields were a little thin.

D300, 300mm at f/16. Initial processing in Lightroom 2.4, playing with the Camera Profiles, black point, curves, Clarity and Vibrance, plus a slight ND grad at the top to overcome some atmospheric haze.

Love how the light is just skimming across the top of the hills. Good idea to use the gradient filter to counteract distant haze which is a pretty common "problem" when shooting from here. I was there 4 weeks ago, looks like things have come along quite nicely since then.

Super nice Greg. I love the inclusion of the town in the abstract landscape.

Love the light and shadows and as Sean said, the town included.

Very nice Greg, it's so beautiful out there, I can't wait to go back myself.

Hey Greg,

Love the tight comp here and the light looks good, it just seems to my eye that the contrast should be adjusted as the image comes accross as a little flat.

Thanks very much for the compliments and comments, guys. This is one of those instances where the third time's the charm. On my previous two visits it was so windy, even trying to use my truck as a windbreak, that I had to lean on the tripod to keep it upright. Needless to say, some soft images and not even good enough to claim I was doing something impressionistic.

Rick: I'd be interested in hearing about your system, monitor and calibration. I work on both PC and Mac with a monitor that is calibrated although middle-of-the-road quality-wise. What looks like a rich, snappy image on the big monitor sometimes looks noticeably flatter and lighter when viewed on the MacBookPro laptop screen, and sometimes goes too dark on a basic PC system.

Love those rolling hills and the nice morning light on the grain tower Greg. How low down the Butte were you for this shot?

David M. Cobb

Hi David,

This was taken from the side of the road just below the top of the butte, and just before sunset. It looked good at sunrise the next day also, but the light was a little flatter then.

Thanks Greg, the light is so crisp I just assumed sunrise, there is usually more haze nearer to sunset.

David

Greg,

I'm viewing it on a fully calibrated system (both at work and home) and they both give the appearance that you pulled too much out of the shadows, giving it a bit of a flat look. It could just be personal preference...

Check out Zack's post in M&N for his Palouse image...that's how I envision this could look....contrast wise.

Thanks for the feedback, Rick. Zack's shot is a stunner and certainly has more punch to it. Mine was taken when there was quite a bit more haze in the air, and the use of the 300mm (450 equivalent with the DX) resulted in a "soft", low contrast image. It wasn't a matter of pulling anything out of the shadows, but rather bringing in the black point to add contrast and lessen the effect of the haze. I'll play with this some more and see what it looks like with more contrast.

I've never seen a comp with as much of a close up of those silos... I think the comp works really well. Thanks for the explaining the shooting situation, that makes sense.

I really like the richness of the greens and the contrast here. POV is different from many Paloose shots. Town really adds scale. Well done.