Barns, Barns, and More Barns!
Day two of our Palouse photo workshop began at 6:30 am! Since day one had stretched from 7 am to 8:45 pm, it was a somewhat groggy group that gathered in the lobby of the Holiday Inn Express this morning. Once we were settled in our caravan of cars, we were told that our first stop was to be a double barn, and the group seemed to perk up a bit. These two barns are in the small town of Oakesdale about 30 miles north of Pullman, our home for the week. Never happy with just one view of something, not only did we shoot the barns from the road, but from a longer distance away, and from the top of a nearby hill. Because you can never have too many barn pictures, right?
|
|
The subject of our next stop might seem a little strange to some, but we traveled a curvy, gravel road to the top of a hill to shoot the wind turbines. One of our leaders, Rad Drew, showed us how to set up our iPhone in a holder on our tripod, and set it on slow shutter speed which produced a really cool effect.
While we were there, another participant who happens to also teach classes in iPhoneography showed me how to do a vertical pano, so I practiced on the wind turbines.
And, one more perk from this stop, yet another view of the two barns we started with this morning. The barns are way back in the center of this landscape photo.
Our next stop was listed on our itinerary as The Wyeth House. It's an old, abandoned house sitting atop a small rise. I wasn't sure if it was actually known as the Wyeth House, or if that's just a name given to it by our two leaders. I tried to Google "Wyeth House in Palouse" and came up with many images of many different houses. So, I'm guessing Rad and John just used that name between themselves so they could communicate about the same house. At any rate, it provided some fun photographic fodder for the group.
|
|
After a break for lunch, we headed out barn hunting once again. First we stopped at a barn I had seen previously, a Salt Box barn on Ide Road. I wasn't sure exactly what that meant, so here's what I found on the net. "A saltbox house is a traditional New England style of house with a long, pitched roof that slopes down to the back, generally a wooden frame house. A saltbox has just one story in the back and two stories in the front." This barn definitely hits the mark with the long, pitched roof. It's in a beautiful mini canyon with an amazing view. If I owned that property, I would certainly have my house there as well!
Our next barn stop was billed as a "double barn" but it turned out to not be at all like the twin barns we saw first. In this case there was both a red and a white barn visible in the same landscape...kind of a neat picture. Notice too that some really cool clouds have begun to gather over the barns.
|
|
Speaking of clouds, LOOK AT THESE! We drove up to the top of a hill to photograph these wonderful storm clouds. I loved these views with the combination of the bright green crops, and the blue tinged storm clouds.
|
|
|
|
|
Those clouds finally opened up, and gave us a bit of a drenching. Good timing though, since it was time for our dinner break at the Black Cypress restaurant in Pullman.
After dinner came the highlight of the day. We drove to a location known as the Weber House. The Weber House is an old abandoned house which was built around an original log cabin. It's located near Pullman, and is one of the most photographed locations in the Palouse. The owners of the Weber House now live across the street and down about a quarter of a mile, and are quite used to having groups of photographers spread across the road from their home to the abandoned house. We spoke with the owner, Charlie, and he told us how much he enjoyed meeting photographers from all over the world. Our leaders, Rad and John, know Charlie, and always make arrangements with him when they are bringing a group. Charlie says they do have issues with people they don't know coming in at night to photograph, light paint, enter the house illegally, and to generally party and have a good time. Apparently there is a rumor that the house is haunted, so it becomes a "thing" for local college kids to enter after midnight.
The house sits in a beautiful field backed by rolling hills. That in itself is a wonderful image, but when the sun sets, there is a chance you will see a golden glow light up the front of the house. If you happen to be there when this happens, you'll never forget it. We spent about an hour photographing the house from various angles, and our leader, John, kept yelling, "it's coming, it's coming!" And I kept wondering, "What's coming???" And then I saw it. The light only lasted two or three minutes, but those minutes were magical!
|
|
And here's what made all the waiting worth it!
Comments
The effect of the wind turbines is fun. They almost look like lollipops. The eye follows the line they make.
Way cool vertical pano. Gives a great perspective of how tall they are.
The saltbox is nice. I like the s curve in the photo on the right that takes us to the double barn then out the left but made me go back to the right.
Gorgeous clouds!
Amazing pictures of the Weber house. What perfect lighting on that last photo producing such bold colors and lines!