Palouse in Black and White

I’d mentioned in our July 2018 Adventure post that, even given the limits of photographing the Palouse from Steptoe Butte, I had a field day.  The contrast in textures, the low angle of the sun and my ability to get in close with the telephoto zoom I keep in my camera bag (oh why didn’t I run back to Beast and pull out the big gun?) allowed me to make a range of images.  At the time I wondered whether they were better color images, or actually black and white images.  In working with them, I realized that they were both, although they had to be developed differently.  Since I’ve never seen anyone show black and white images of the Palouse, I figured I’d show you my results.

Not many words here, but more than a couple of images.

Much like the images I made on the Santiam River, once I saw something - this time from an iPhone image - I started to explore that type of image.

At that stage of a process, all you can really do is try to be as imaginative as you can in the image making, . . .

and to be receptive to the possibilities. 

It’s not quite a run-and-gun approach where you just make one image after another, hoping that one will turn out well . . .

because each image is made very consciously, balancing aspects of the scene that you are exploring along with previous experiences with similar types of images, . . .

but there is not the certainty one feels when making other images.  It really is a process of exploration and image making, with the knowledge that you have to study them later to really make the discoveries that can move you forward.

Thus, one has to work the images at home - both in color and black and white - to get the most out of them.

In any event, I think I still need to do a lot more work on my black and white developing skills.