Mt. Adams from Hood River

Working my way around a panoramic view from my afternoon in Hood River.  Pear tree facing south, rainbow facing west, and now Mt. Adams facing north.  This also came as a surprise to me.  The elevation changes so much that at any given time you could see no volcanoes, one, two, three, or on rare occasion four.  From this view in the hilly blueberry field, you can see Mt. Adams to the north and probably see Mt. Hood to the south, but the southern view was completely clouded over, so I'm not sure. Love all the snow on Mt. Adams!  I'm sure Hood and St. Helens will look the same once we get a clear day.  I missed seeing these snow peaks during out hot summer.

Hood River Valley

I took a little ribbing yesterday for not eating that pear, so I feel like I should put my location in context.  I was heading up the foothills along the edge of the Hood River Valley (aka the fruit loop), on a tiny named road that was really a driveway to what looked like a family compound at the top. Pear orchard to my right, and blueberry field to my left, slowly scanning the orchard for photos.  When I got to the top and turned around at the family compound, what a surprise to find a patch of bright rainbow in the valley!  One of the things that makes rainbows so wonderful is their unexpectedness, and especially at a time like this, when it wasn't even raining where I was.  I spend a good bit of time on this rainbow, and also another scene which I'll probably blog tomorrow.  So when I drove down the hill, I had forgotten all about the pears, and felt completely full from the great luck I'd just had finding a rainbow in a valley.  A rainbow photo has been on my bucket list since moving back to the Pacific Northwest, and even though rainbows are more plentiful here, I had never been in a photo worthy location when one popped up.  Hopefully someone will eat that pear though.  It did look pretty yummy! 

(One technical side note on this photo.  I used my polarizer, and it made a huge difference in how vivid the rainbow looked.  This is how it looked to me, but without the polarizer the camera captured it more washed out.  I was not imagining I'd get such good results, mainly because I don't like using it in water reflection shots, since it takes away the reflection.  So this was a learning photo for me.  Polarizer and rainbows: good)

Blueberry Field

Green and red, but no blue in this photo; yet the red is the edge of a large blueberry field in McMinnville.  Blueberry fields are pretty common in Oregon and in Southern Washington, and I absolutely love the red color but I've been struggling with how to photograph it.  I'm on the lookout for a field in rolling hills because the red line pattern is so pretty, and it's just too hard to see photographed on a flat landscape. The rows aren't visible from this side angle, just a sea of red.  I liked the fence though, so for now I settled for this graphic composition with the fence line zipping the scene together.