Kamiak Butte, Part 1: The Skies and Views

The first post from my Kamiak Butte camping trip will focus on images that either involved the sky, the sun, or views out to the Palouse. The first image almost looks like I used HDR on it, but I did not. I used a graduated neutral density filter to darken the sky; otherwise, it would have been whitish and overexposed had I exposed properly for the flowers in the foreground. This really helps bring out the distant rain shower on the right. I used f/16 to get the foreground and background in focus; I wanted both to be clearly discernible. The flowers in the foreground are arrowleaf balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata). The view is from the West End Primitive Trail, which is new as of last year.

The second image comes from the summit; the small flowering trees in the foreground are serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia), also known as saskatoon. As in the above image, I used a graduated neutral density filter to darken the sky. This enabled me to expose properly for the foreground while still emphasizing the darkness of the clouds. F/14 was sufficient to get everything in focus.

Below is the view from the first image, but excluding the sky, focusing more attention on the countryside in the background. I used f/16 to get everything in focus. I did not use a graduated neutral density filter with this one, but still used a polarizing filter (as I usually do).

Below is an image of the sun shining through a forest of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) and other deciduous trees and shrubs. I got the sun to look like that, with the rays coming out of it, with these techniques: using a narrow aperture (f/25), situating myself so that the sun was just peeking out from behind a tree (making it more of a point source), and using a focal length on the wider end of my lens' range (again, to make the sun even more of a point source).

Below are two images from just after sunrise on the top of the Butte; one includes the sky and one did not, and I decided to include both as I could not decide which one was better compositionally. The low, angled lighting and consequent areas of light and shadow really bring out the contours of the Palouse, better than any other kind of lighting. I used f/20 because I wanted everything in focus.

Below is a cluster of serviceberry flowers (Amelanchier alnifolia) with the ridge and the Palouse in the background. The yellow at the bottom belongs to distant, out-of-focus balsamroot flowers. I used f/18 to keep some distinguishable shape in the background.

The image below is probably the weakest of the set, at least technically, but I thought I'd post it anyway because I like it compositionally and editing could possibly salvage it. It's just overexposed, really. I used f/4.5 to blur the sunrise and the tree in the background.