Tag Archives: Palouse

Return to a Favorite Spot and Have Fun

Posted on May 15, 2009 | 1 comment

Winn Road Barn in Snow by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

One of my favorite barns to photograph is near the town of Weston in eastern Oregon. I have photographed it at all times of the day and during all seasons of the year. I have met the Winns who now live on the property where the barn stands. The following description will provide some history about this beautiful and well preserved structure.

Wind Road Barn in Snow Close by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

From Highway 12 going south toward Weston, take the Winn Road left off the highway. The barn sits in the valley to the right and is visible from the road. Ralph Moon built the barn for about $2500. The owner, George W. Winn hand sawed every board that built the barn in the spring and summer of 1916, using his harvest crew. The lumber was clear grain Douglas fir delivered for $11 per K, the ground was scraped flat,, and a foundation was laid in April. The barn was completed for hay storage by harvest time. Half the barn had 10 stalls for horses and the other half had 25 cow stanchions. The original shake roof lasted over seventy years and the red paint originally used was a mixture of white lead paint with red ochre and linseed oil added: very durable. There are no posts in the entire structure which is now used for storage.

I enjoy photographing this barn from many angles and positions. All the photos in the post were taken on a winter day which is one of my favorite seasons to shoot this barn.

Winn Road Barn in Snow 1 by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

If you are ever in this area be sure to take the time to view this unique and well preserved structure from the past.

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Posted in Palouse Landscapes

Tagged agriculture, barn, homestead, landscape, Palouse, photography

Add “pop” to your images – EFX Color Pro revisited

Posted on May 11, 2009 | Leave a comment

Red Barn near St. John by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

Sometimes you capture an image that you like because of the composition but the conditions don’t show the vision that you pictured in your mind. I have found that using EFX Color Pro by Nik software can add some “pop” to an image that otherwise would be very ordinary. I talked about this package in an earlier post but I just want toe reemphasize its usefulness.

The original image at the top of the page shows the finished image that I had hoped to achieve. I will go through the workflow that I used to create this image. The first photo below shows the image as I captured it in camera. I liked the composition and the basic elements, but I knew there were several things that needed to be done to satisfy my eye.

Red Barn near St. John original

First I imported the image into my Aperture library and added a bit of vibrancy and straightened the image slightly. Next I removed the telephone pole in the left side of the image using Photoshop CS3. At that point the image was ready for a little extra “pop” . I used the EFX Color Pro plugin for Aperture in my workflow to help me accomplish this. The first step was to add the Tonal Contrast filter to the image which gave me the result as it appears below.

Red Barn near St. John with tonal contrast filter

My final step was to add the polarizing filter that is available to give a bit more definition to the clouds. The final image is shown once again below and I think these slight modifications create more impact.

Remember as you are shooting, always capture the best image you can in camera and then provide slight modifications to add the impact you seek. I have found EFX Color Pro by Nik software to be an extremely helpful package for this purpose.

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Posted in Palouse Landscapes

Tagged barn, clouds, landscape, Palouse, photography

Diversity in the Palouse

Posted on May 8, 2009 | Leave a comment

Old Red Barn and Corral by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

At the mention of the Palouse region of eastern Washington, a picture of rolling hills and wheat fields usually enters our mind. This region is well known for the beautiful patterns and textures that accompany the dry land farming that takes place.

As you become more familiar with the region, you will find that much of the land is used for raising cattle. The lush agricultural fields are left behind for an arid and rocky landscape that is the home to cattle ranches. The barn that is shown at the top of this page is located on a ranch that is ten miles northwest of the small town of St. John. About a mile from where I photographed this barn, I met a rancher and his grandsons as they were herding ten bulls into a field for breeding with about one hundred and fifty cows. He told me the story of how his great grandfather had settled this land in the late 1800’s. His family has lived in the region in the same house for four generations.

Hopefully you will visit this Palouse and experience the tremendous diversity that exists with the land and its inhabitants.

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Posted in Palouse Landscapes

Tagged barn, landscape, Palouse

Look for the Unexpected

Posted on April 28, 2009 | 1 comment

Rainbow in the Palouse by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

I was exploring around Colfax Washington on my way to Yellowstone National Park and noticed that the colors that the Palouse is renowned for are a bit late this year. The winter wheat is starting to show some green but many of the fields are still brown just showing dirt.

Fortunately I was able to find color in the form of a rainbow in a rain squall that was moving through the area. This is pictured in the photo at the top of this post. It seems there is always something interesting and beautiful in the Palouse even if it is not what you expected.

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Posted in Palouse Landscapes

Tagged agriculture, farming, landscape, Palouse, rainbow, wheat

Show Your Work

Posted on April 22, 2009 | Leave a comment

Red Combine at Work by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

As I have worked over the last few years with my mentor Scott Bourne, he reminds me of three things that will help you to become more successful. They are the following:

1. Show your work

2. Show your work

3. Show your work

He says this to provide emphasis of how important it is to show your work. Getting your work in front of people is so critical to your success in selling. Remember that no one will probably show up at your front door looking to buy your work.

Find any avenue that you can to show your work. I will be showing my work at Walla Walla University in an exhibition for alumni weekend in a couple of days. I taught at the university for thirty four years so many of my former students and colleagues will come by to see my work. It will provide a good opportunity to display my work as well as let people know about the business that I am now involved in.

Below are some of the pieces of artwork that will be displayed during the exhibition. They will all be large gallery wrapped canvases.

Chocolate and Caramel Mounds by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

Fading Light by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

Wheels in the Wheat by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

Evening Light in the Palouse by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

Remember look for any opportunity you can to follow the advice of “Show your work”.

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Posted in Palouse Landscapes

Tagged barn, clouds, combine, harvest, harvester, landscape, Palouse, Steptoe Butte, tractor, wheat

Replenish Your Creative Juices

Posted on April 20, 2009 | Leave a comment

Threatening Sky over Cemetery by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

There are times as photographers that we need a shot in the arm to put inspiration back into our work. We may become stale because of overwork, lack of interesting subjects or some other reason. The following article posted by Scott Bourne on Photofocus provides some ideas that may help you turn on your creative juices.

Three Steps to Getting Out of a Photographic Rut

Give it a read and see if it helps you generate some new ideas and enthusiasm for your photography. I found it to be simple and useful advice.

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Posted in Palouse Landscapes

Tagged creative, landscape, Palouse, photography

Different Views Can Add to the Story

Posted on April 17, 2009 | Leave a comment

Old Cabin Closeup by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

While traveling in Whitman County recently I came across this old cabin. I stopped by the side of the road and hiked about a half mile to a closer vantage point. I was very interested in getting close to the cabin to see what was inside. Unfortunately there was nothing of interest inside so I decided to take a close-up to show the aging shingles, wood and the barrels as seen in the image above.

As I started to leave, I felt the urge to show a bit more of the setting from a different perspective. This view shows some of the surrounding landscape and the old cabin that looks to have been deserted for quite some time. This is shown in the photo below.

Cabin and Barrels by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

As I moved farther away I decided to include the truck pictured below which shows at least someone had been there in the last decade or so. Each of these perspectives from a different viewpoint adds a bit more to the tale of the old cabin. In your photography try to include different angles and focal lengths to tell a more complete story.

Cabin and Truck by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

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Posted in Palouse Landscapes

Tagged homestead, landscape, Palouse

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS Review

Posted on April 16, 2009 | 1 comment

ef100-400_45-56lisu_586x2251

EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS

I have owned this lens for over two years and it has been a real workhorse for me because of its versatility. This is not the sharpest, fastest or most convenient lens that I own but when I combine what it gives me shot after shot it is indispensable to me. I will discuss some of the things I don’t like about the lens and then talk about its positives.

The push pull zoom is something I still don’t care for. It takes both hands to manipulate it if it is in a locked position. Fortunately I haven’t had any of the dust problems that some people have talked about because of this design, but I find it to be inconvenient. Also the lens for me seems a bit slow on the auto-focus. This has become very evident to me when I am trying to lock on a bird in flight.

Now to the reasons why it has become my favorite walk-around lens. The tremendous versatility it provides because of its zoom range is valuable to me. I find that I use this lens for shooting landscapes as well as wildlife. I may have the lens mounted on a tripod capturing an image of the patterns and textures of the terrain when I notice a bird come into my vicinity. I can immediately adjust to capture that image without changing my lens. This has even become more of an advantage as I have changed to the 5D Mark II with the full frame sensor. I really enjoy being able to use the 100 mm at its full focal length for the landscapes.

The lens is also fairly light to hand hold and the IS feature works very well. The images are sharp and only start to soften slightly as I use the maximum aperture f5.6 at 400 mm. You will find it is important to remember to turn off the IS when you mount it on a tripod and turn it back on again when you hand hold. I fail to do this once in a while and the image sharpness does suffer.

Below are some images that I have taken with this lens in the Palouse that shows its versatility.

Road to the Clouds by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved - ISO 200 f/13 1/320 200 mm

Ring-necked Pheasant by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved - ISO 800 f/5.6 1/250 260 mm

Red Combine by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved - ISO 200 f/10 1/500 400 mm

Red Barn with Fence by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved - ISO 250 f/11 1/500 120 mm

Mule Deer in Flight by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved - ISO 1600 f/5.6 1/250 400 mm

I would highly recommend this lens to anyone wanting a good quality walk-around zoom lens. Thanks to its versatility and portability, I think you will find it will become one of your favorite tools as well.

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Posted in Palouse Landscapes, Wildlife in the Palouse

Tagged animal, barn, clouds, combine, deer, harvest, harvester, landscape, mule deer, Palouse, tractor, windmill

Explore and observe

Posted on April 14, 2009 | 1 comment

Old Barn and Windmill by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

While traveling in the Palouse, I am constantly staying alert for a new barn or location. There are literally hundreds of miles of gravel roads that many times have old abandoned homesteads with houses, cabins, barns and all the outbuildings. These can provide a great opportunity for images.

The barn pictured at the top of this post is one of those deserted homesteads. It is readily accessible as it is located near the junction of Highway 12 and Highway 127 about 30 miles north of Dayton. The barn is visible from the road and after about a quarter mile walk you come to the main house on the homestead. The windmill as well as other small buildings will provide many opportunities for photos. One word of caution, be aware of rattlesnakes that can be found in these areas.

Many times it is not possible to get a property release in these situations due to the fact that the homestead had been abandoned many years before. Hopefully you also can be rewarded with new finds and opportunities as you explore.

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Posted in Palouse Landscapes

Tagged barn, homestead, landscape, Palouse, windmill

Image adjustments with Color Efex Pro 3.0

Posted on April 12, 2009 | Leave a comment

I have been using the Nik software Color Efex Pro 3.0 plug-in for Aperture for a couple of months. It has become an integral part of my workflow on many images. I will be showing a couple of adjustments to an image that I feel are valuable and very easily applied with this software.

I enjoy shooting large agricultural equipment in the working environment so that is what I will use for the demonstration of this program. My favorite equipment company for images is John Deere because the bright green and yellow colors always stand out so well against the landscape or sky. The first image below is the original image as it was captured.

Combine at Work 1 by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

In the 2nd image I added a polarizing filter that is available in the Nik software. This filter has several adjustments available. They are set to the following defaults:

Rotate – 90%

Strength – 100% (60%) In parentheses it shows the opacity that I set for this image.

These adjustments with this filter give a little more pop to the image and also takes away some of the glare.

Combine at Work 2 by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

In the 3rd image the tonal contrast filter was applied. The adjustments that are available are shown with their defaults and my adjustment in parentheses.

Highlight contrast – 30 (15)

Midtone contrast – 30 (15)

Shadows contrast – 30 (20)

Combine at Work 3 by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

I feel this filter gives a little more definition to the image. Each of these adjustments was slight but each one helps to enhance the image as I had seen it. I hope these adjustments are clearly demonstrated event though the images are small.

This software program has many other filters which are easy to apply and the opacity can also be adjusted. Another important feature is that you can apply multiple filters as I demonstrated to the same image. I hope you have found this information to be useful and consider adding this useful program to your workflow.

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Posted in Palouse Landscapes

Tagged agriculture, combine, farming, harvest, harvester, John Deere, landscape, Palouse, tractor, wheat

Tag Archives: Palouse

Return to a Favorite Spot and Have Fun

Add “pop” to your images – EFX Color Pro revisited

Diversity in the Palouse

Look for the Unexpected

Show Your Work

Replenish Your Creative Juices

Different Views Can Add to the Story

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS Review

Explore and observe

Image adjustments with Color Efex Pro 3.0

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