Rainy Day Recess

At least, rainy at first. Yesterday, I found myself blessed with a free morning, and made a little jaunt to Kamiak Butte. The day started out rather soggy, but that ended up being a blessing - the rain left some attractive water droplets on flowers and plants, as you'll soon see. Once the drizzle had stopped, I enjoyed several hours of overcast lighting and almost no breeze, which is close to perfect for photography. Kamiak Butte itself was looking quite nice. This winter/spring has been wetter than the last, so everything is greener and the wildflower display has been a bit more impressive in my opinion. The balsamroot are past peak and looked a bit beaten down by the recent rain, but there were plenty of other fun plants to photograph.

We'll start with some closeups. Here is ballhead waterleaf (Hydrophyllum capitatum). I was intrigued by the water droplet encasing the stamens. This image would have been quite difficult if there had been any sort of a breeze. F/5.6.

The next two are closeups of paintbrush (genus Castilleja). F/4.2 for both of them. Silly me, I didn't take the time to figure out which species of paintbrush these are, and I'm frankly not very good yet at telling them apart.

Below is a larkspur, probably Nuttall's larkspur (Delphinium nuttallianum). I've photographed larkspur before, but had yet to have good luck with a shot this close. F/6.3.

Next are some images that, while still relatively close, involved using narrow apertures to preserve more or the background, in contrast to the isolation sought in the images above. The first shows a little group of paintbrush, with flowering shrubs and the Palouse in the background. I stopped down to f/13 to have some of the background discernible.

This next one is similar, with desert parsley instead of paintbrush. F/18. I think it's narrow-leaved desert parsley, or Lomatium triternatum.

This one is a flowering shrub or tree of some sort that I haven't yet identified. Anyway, I don't usually include a cloudy sky in my compositions because it will look bland and washed out. In this case, however, a bit of filtered sunshine peeking through the clouds illuminated the foreground enough to create a nice contrast with the sky. The entire image could use a bit of lighting work, but I think it's on the right track. F/11.

The next one was a bit of an experiment. Instead of focusing on a flower as I often do, I focused on the stem/leaves, intrigued as I was by the numerous water droplets. I think this is also Lomatium triternatum. F/16.

Finally, two landscapes. The first was one of the earliest images of the morning, while it was still sprinkling a bit. While I would have liked just a bit more definition in the farthest background, I like the effect of the Palouse contours fading to gray. It really captures the atmosphere of the morning.

Second is some desert parsley, probably Lomatium dissectum, with the slope of Kamiak and the fields of the Palouse beyond. I don't know that this shot is terribly captivating, but it gives a good sense of how the place looks right now.