Merry Christmas

Happy Holidays to all my blog friends. 

Palouse Study #3

Continuing my Palouse series with a cheery crayola scene... Visiting the Palouse, I got a sense of the region right away, but conveying that sense in a photograph has been tricky for me. I think it helps to have a subject in the frame; it still shows the vastness of the terrain, and in fact maybe even more than with just open field and sky. And as for subject, I always love a red barn!

Flathead Valley

On our way to and from Glacier National Park we passed through peaceful Flathead Valley. Plenty of hay bales spread out in fields or freshly stacked in piles; and plenty of farm stands selling huckleberries. And lucky for me, a few red barns too!

Linking to Thursday's Good Fences.

La Connor

I thought this was a pretty farm up when we were up near La Connor earlier this month. We had an overcast day, but the young fields were still colorful.

Fences

Photo taken on the same high cloud day as my other red barn post on March 14. Just posting this one today as part of a Good Fences meme running every Thursday on Run A Round Ranch Report.  Plenty of fences in this scene, but it was the white fence (and of course the red barn!) that caught my eye.  This photo was taken pretty close to the Columbia River on the Washington side. I think a tiny bit of the river might be visible along the horizon line just under the distant hills. Those far hills, by the way, are in Oregon.

Almost Spring

The spring weather is showing up a little early here, with sunny skies and cheery clouds all week.  Those of you who follow the blog regularly know I have a fondness for red barns.  And in this weather, there was no way I wasn't stopping to photograph this idyllic scene!

November Rain

Or Through My Rainy Windshield #2.  After a very sunny October, our weather pattern has turned and given way to a drizzly November.  Today is another big errand running day, but I managed to take a little detour in between a drop off and pick up this morning to explore the countryside north of Camas and continue the "through my rainy windshield" series.

I Brake for Red Barns

Especially in weather like this!  These two are on a ranch between Livermore and Mt. Diablo.  The variety of green in the grass here is a good example of how the fields were looking earlier this week.

A Crayola Day

How 'bout this for a little red barn, oh so green hills, and cartoon sky?   It's a scene from my elementary school art days, straight out of a Crayola 8-pack!  One thing I've learned in my few years here is that if we get a good spring rain, it totally clears the air, and the next day we've got wonderful clouds and crystal clear visibility.  I've become a weather-watcher, and I'll drop anything for a photo shoot on a day like this!  We should get another rain Thursday or Friday, so I will have to head out again after that.  This is the far side of the delta, in Alameda County, and I saw a lot of barns this shape.  They seem to be cow barns, and usually way out in the hills like this.  This one definitely had the most activity in terms of vehicles and things. Looking at in now, with all those funny little vehicles, it looks like a scene from the countryside on a small scale model train track.

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!

Indiana

Well, no guesses yesterday, so I'll just give it away...I was in Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan last week.  All my photos are from Indiana.  I was there helping some family members move, but tried to find a little time each day to head out with my camera.  This farm is on a back road that I take to the beach.  I  like to imagine myself living somewhere like this, but I'm sure I would never want to maintain it.  As I've mentioned before though, I do love a red barn.  This one looks very "Indiana" to me.  As we were driving through rural Illinois I was drawn to all the white barns.  Especially with the white sky and ground.  I wish I would have had time to do some photography there too, because I really wanted capture one of those white "Illinois" barns as well.  Maybe next time.  Obviously there was some snow falling when I took this picture.  I was wondering if anyone minds that big snowflake in front of the barn entrance.  To post a comment you just click on the "comments" tab below the photo.  I know I'm getting a lot of hits each day, so don't be afraid to leave a comment! 

September 17

This one falls into the category of photos I'd like to take again.  We were just leaving the Apple Hill region outside of Placerville when I saw this pretty scene.  The sun was going down so fast though that I didn't dare change my lens because it would take too much time.  But I'd like to take this shot with a wider lens.  Just to the left of this scene was a black stallion.  I didn't even notice him until two golf carts came by, one after the other, and both drivers asked me if I was photographing the black stallion.  So I tried, but the fences and colors were just much prettier with the barn and grass in the shot.  f/5.6 at 1/200, ISO500, 80mm.