Old Farmhouse Orchard

I know I've been on a fall tree theme for a while now, and really want to switch to another subject, but I can't seem to keep away from trees! Not likely to change themes in the near future since I'm heading back out to Hood River and White Salmon later this morning. For today though, another view of the overgrown orchard at the old farmhouse near Woodland. It's a nice counterpoint to yesterday's photo. I appreciate the crispness and composition of today's view.

Through my Rainy Windshield #9

I took a wrong turn yesterday, and pulled into a drive to turn around during a spell of heavy rain. The drive led to an old farmhouse with overgrown orchard. Very colorful in the rain. I turned off the wipers and tried a rainy windshield photo for my series. I think it's too blurry, but I like the dark glow of a rainy fall day. Lucky to happen upon such a pretty spot for a turnaround.

Woodland Wonderland

Beautiful, glowing scene coming down the backside from the grist mill in Woodland over the weekend.  So many layers of leaves, and so much moss!

The Back 40

Another view of the back field at Holland America Bulb Farm in Woodland, Washington.  The front fields include a self pick area and viewing field with labeled rows of each variety grown and sold here.  The back field is larger with thicker bands of color and tulip variety.  Just before the fence line in this photo is a thin strip of yellow and pick tulips, which I know is barely visible in this bright fog.  This photo was taken after sunrise, and it really taxes the abilities of my camera to render extreme light.  Too bad I didn't notice the fence before the sun rose!

Linking to Good Fences.

Tulip Field Sunbreak

Finally a break in this rain week we've been having! I took advantage and headed to Woodland to check out the tulip fields at the Holland American Bulb Farm, which is quite a bit smaller than the Wooden Shoe Farm in Woodburn, Oregon but is also a lot closer. It was pretty foggy this morning, but at least the fields were in full bloom. During my visit a tiny strip of blue sky opened up for a short time, and I capitalized.  Technically it might not be a sunbreak, because the sun was still behind the fog.  But it made for a bright photo without all the shadows cast by the sun, and I think the photo does a good job giving the illusion of a sunny day.  There weren't any red fields to photograph, but at least I stuck to my goal, kept my zoom lens in the car and focused on the wider field view.

Cedar Creek Grist Mill

We headed up to Gifford Pinchot National Forest over the weekend to find the perfect Christmas tree as part of the National Forest Service holiday tree forest-thinning program.  Our drive up toward Mount St. Helens winds along the Lewis River, and this working grist mill is just off the main road.  On weekends you can come up here and get freshly ground wheat or cornmeal.  It's an idyllic historical spot; this photo was taken from the sidewalk portion of an old covered bridge as the roof shielded my camera from a misting rain.  I've photgraphed this mill several times in the last few years, but I've never been satisfied with the colors until today. I really like how the moss on the nearby tree turned out. In our rainy season the moss turns a rich shade of green, and I'm happy with how it photographed against the diffused foggy background.

Spring Showers #2

I think this is the photo that best shows the rain coming down, mainly along the top edge of the image.  This must have been one of the last photos before I headed to my car, because the rain was getting worse as the shoot went on.  By the time I got in the car it had turned to a full-blown Midwest-style downpour!  If I had some special gear to protect my camera, it would have been fun to try some photos.  I've seen people just cutting small holes in plastic bags; I should keep some on hand for any future rainstorms during a photo shoot. 

Early Bloomer

I thought this might have been the prettiest tulip yesterday at the Holland America Bulb farm. It certainly stood the tallest in a 'notice me' sort of way. One thing that shows up pretty well in this photo is that the tulips are really just starting to bloom. Maybe in a week or so the fields will be in full bloom, and then I won't need to use this narrow focus close up framing that works so well for individual flowers. 

Spring Showers

We've been getting a lot of rain this week. Not a bad thing for this time of year, plus I've been wanting to get a more rainy version of my closeup tulip photo.  Timing the weather has been tricky though.  Ideally I would photograph in a light drizzle or just after it finished raining, and I've been second guessing myself about photo opportunities all week.  Today I just went for it. I left this morning in a light drizzle for Holland America Bulb Farm in nearby Woodland, and by the time I got out in the field with my camera I was standing in a driving rain.  I had raincoat, umbrella, and puddle boots, but still managed to get drenched and hope I kept my camera dry enough!  I like the photos though, and I'll probably post several (I really hope you guys don't get tired of seeing tulips here this month!) The rain is actually visible in the photos, although not so much in this one.  Just one streak in the upper center of the frame. 

SOME BARN

Yesterday we had an unusual weather system for around here, a cold front with a sunbreak.  This sets up the potential for thunderstorms.  We didn't get any though; we rarely do.  But we got the cloud formations that come along with a thunderstorm.  And of course I had to hurry out to the Capay Valley (between those hills in the distance) to see how it would look in this weather.  For some reason I usually take the highway there and back roads home, but yesterday I took the back roads there instead.  I'm always amazed at how the scene looks completely different coming from a different direction.  I've never noticed this barn before.  Of course having this weather system churning didn't hurt.  How could you not notice that barn with the big cumulus cloud overhead?  The cloud is like Charlotte to the barn's Wilbur, skywriting "SOME BARN" for all to see!

Woodland Farm and Valley Oak

 Or...My 2013 New Year's Resolution

This photo was taken almost exactly a year ago.  I was browsing through my "seconds" folder yesterday and happened upon it.  I remember liking it a lot, but really objecting to that crooked telephone pole in the distance.  I remember returning to the scene to recreate the photo from a slightly different angle without the pole, and of course the light was never the same.  First off, today I happen to really like that pole.  But the other thing I realized when I was thinking about all the trouble I went through with this photo is that at this time last year I didn't know how to clone a little telephone pole out of a photo using Photoshop, and this is something I could easily do today.  This just seems crazy to me now.  And the fact is, I barely know Photoshop.

This really hit home for me yesterday too, because I had one of my favorite new photos printed at Blue Wing Art Gallery in Woodland.  (And I would highly recommend them for printing if you live in the Sacramento area!)  Al at Blue Wing corrected some of the issues with my photo.  On the one hand they were sort of minor, but on the other hand, they weren't easy fixes in Photoshop at all.  I was really in awe of this, and I know it's a little early for New Year's Resolutions, but I'm going to put some serious time into really learning Photoshop in 2013.

For me, Photoshop is a little like the old Rumsfeldian quandary in Iraq.  With Photoshop, there are the "known knowns", the "known unknowns", and then there are the "unknown unknowns" of which I'm becoming vaguely aware.  My goal is to use a less heavy-handed approach to processing photos in 2013.  I'm not super excited about the work.  I would much rather be out shooting photos with my camera than sitting at the computer and working on photos.  But I'm excited about the possible outcome.