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The next leg of my great adventure took me from the wheat country of eastern Washington, south through the Palouse region. The Palouse area can only be understood by being there; preferably by standing atop Steptoe Butte and walking around it’s narrow cone-shaped apex. The vista is truely incredible. On this trip the sky was so filled with smoke from fires burning in Canada that I didn’t stay long…and it was HOT! When I arrived at my destination, Walla Walla, the lady at the front desk of the motel said it had been 115 degrees that day! Thank God for air conditioning. My poor dog, Yojii, was in desperate need of a huge slurp of water.
I like Walla Walla. The more time I spend in Walla Walla, the more I like it. It’s neat, clean and seems like it’s prosperous. Home to Whitman College, a small liberal arts college, it has a vibrant downtown that’s lined with sidewalk bistros and handsome shops that have the new-old look. One of my major goals in staying the night in Walla Walla was to try and contact an old acquaintance of mine from when I was a life-guard in Porcupine Bay, a campground which is part of Coulee Dam National Recreation Area, back in 1968. Over forty years ago! Dave Cosby and I spent one entire summer rooming together in a surplus government shack and shared duties as lifeguards at the campground swimming area. I didn’t make a lot of money that summer, but I have memories that more than make up for it. Dave and I met in his store, chatted a while (I think he was in shock seeing a face out of his past…four decades in the past) then left.
Next stop Boise for a pin-up shoot.

One of the must-do’s in Boise is a trip to the zoo; located in the Julia Davis park near downtown.  Our summer visit to Boise took us to the zoo early to avoid the heat and to see my favorites, the Siberian tigers.  Since their enclosure is located near the back of the compound we strolled through the birds:

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Giraffes:

Since our last visit they’ve added a lion exhibit:

However, with all the exotic animals for us to experience, the most exciting one was Calvin the Badger (at least for my wife…but I have to admit it was pretty cool too).  Calvin was on a stroll with the handlers and loves people…so they were having a problem getting Calvin back to her (yes, it’s a HER…but that’s another story) home.  She wanted to visit EVERYBODY!  One thing you do NOT want to do to a Badger is make it angry, so the handlers were gently coaxing her back to her place:

Another interesting animal is the Komodo Dragon:

Beautiful animals when you can take the time to actually look at them and not have to RUN from them.

Our final stop before the heat became too oppressive…the Siberian pair:

Blessings,

D.

At 486 feet above the waters of the Snake River, the Perrine Bridge is the highest bridge in the state of Idaho and the only man-made structure in the US where Base jumping is allowed year-round without a permit.  The jumpers often refer to it as Potato Bridge.

The heat was oppressive and nearly 100 degrees!  Fortunately, Twin Falls has an abundance of cool water to ease the stifling blast of summer:

Notice the kayaks in the water.  This was taken from the deck of the Perrine Bridge in Idaho

Cooling off in the mist of a waterfall.

The Twin Falls of the Snake River

Blue Lakes Country Club

Before leaving StanleyI slipped out of the room in the wee hours of the morning, shortly after  O’dark-thirty,  and drove back to the same spot I’d shot the stormy skies over the Sawtooth.  Early morning smells, to me, are normally heightened by the fresh air and higher relative humidity, however the skies had cleared and the rain from the previous evening had made the sagebrush smells more intense than the reed diffusers I use in my home.   And the views?  Incredible!

After checking out of the motel we went back to the same restaurant we’d dined at the previous evening, called ‘The Stanley Baking Company’ located at 14 Wall Street.  I highly recommend it for it’s rustic / outdoorsy atmospher AND the amazing food!  The waitstaff are friendly and the patrons are equally so and easy to speak with.  The natural surroundings seem to allay any stress or anger a person may be carrying around.  It is as if the splendor had spoken to the soul as much as the their sight.  I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to capture a ‘family’ portrait at our newly appointed favorite spot in the world, so we returned to the same vantage point and posed:

The road we traveled took us south and at the edge of town is the road to Redfish Lake, a beautiful high mountain body of water.  As we crossed the stream outlet I pulled over and hiked down to the rushing whitewater and found a pair of American Water Dippers (also known as a Water Ouzel) doing their mating thing.

These birds actually walk on the bottom of fast moving streams to feed!

Once out of the Sawtooth National Forest the scenery changed tremendously and the skies around us gave signs of impending storms.  The clouds, however were an awesome sight to behold:

Ann finished her testing for Montessori certification on Friday and we left for Oregon on Monday.  As usual we took the ’slow road’ so we could stop and smell the roses and I could take pictures of the roses.  We drove west of Kalispell on Highway 2, which may not sound like a ’slow road’, but believe me….it’s slow.

The weather was crappy!  Rain, and wind and gray skies!  We didn’t get out to smell the flowers until we were in Idaho at the Moyie Springs bridge…the second tallest bridge in Idaho.

We stopped in the bustling tourist town of Sandpoint, ID for a break and to eat lunch.  Now, along with the ’slow road’ principle, we’ve recently adopted another technique and that is one of eating at local, rather than brand-name, food places…call them ‘Mom and Pop’ places or local favorites.  They usually have much more interesting food and waitstaff and customers.  At one of the shops we asked for such a place from the owner and headed that direction, weaving our way in and out of cute little shops, but not buying much of anything.  To get to our place we had to walk clear to the other end of main street, but it was a neat little bistro.  I had the ‘organic’ chicken tostada, which was good but had an interesting spice that I couldn’t identify.  I don’t recall what Ann had.

We left Sandpoint after lunch and walking Yojii.  About 30 miles outside of Sandpoint we were stopped in a line of cars, which extended in both directions, that were blocked by a serious accident between a small car and a belly-dump sort of semi-truck.  The car lost.  The engine was ripped out of the car and tossed into the bushes by the side of the road, but no one died!  An incredible miracle in my mind.

Finally the rain started to clear, just about the time we arrived in Spokane.

The next day we drove to a wildlife refuge and were, for the most part, disappointed by it’s lack of wildlife.  So we drove north to an area I was familiar with from my college days: Davenport, WA and Porcupine Bay NRA.  A flood of memories filled my head as we drove.  The summer after my first year of college I took a job as a lifeguard at Porcupine Bay, a part of the Coulee Dam National Recreation Area and shared a ’surplus’ military style trailer with another guy named Dave Crosby or Cosby, from the dinky little town called Wilbur, Washington.  Next to us lived the campground maintenance man, Joe Riddlington, from Coulee Dam…his dad was the MAYOR of Coulee Dam (I don’t know why, but that impressed the heck outta me…heh).  The summer was filled with sun, girls, and water!

Porcupine Bay is nineteen miles north of Davenport, which is the heart of wheat growing country in Washington.  It’s claim to fame:  only one county produces more wheat than Lincoln county, of which Davenport is the county seat.  It’s rolling hills are covered by MILES of wheat fields….and OLD BARNS.

So, once we left Porcupine Bay, we drove the backroads of Lincoln County looking for photography opportunities.  I found that they are abundant.

The following day took us south of Spokane and into the Palouse Region of south-east Washington.  The Palouse is a rich agricultural area of gentle rolling hills and green fields that have been the subject of many photographers.  I’d only been through this area once before…three years ago…but it still held me in fascination and awe.  One of the best ways to see the Palouse is from Steptoe Butte, which rises above the surrounding countryside, and is home to dozens of electronic antennae (which are just not that photogenic!).

Steptoe Butte

The Palouse Region of Washington (taken from Steptoe Butte)

A site we’d had to by-pass three years prior was Palouse Falls.   The interesting thing about Palouse Falls is that it isn’t near anything….nothing.  It’s in the middle of nothing but sagebrush and more sagebrush…you HAVE to be going to Palouse Falls to get there.  Recently a crazy man paddled a kayak over the falls to break the world record descent in a kayak…184 feet!  What makes people do that sort of thing???

We ate lunch at the falls in the shady picnic area they had there.  Did I tell you that we were in the middle of nothing?  It was hot too!  Our trails in Glacier Park have warning signs that tell hikers the hazards of hiking that trail: Ursus Horribilus…aka Grizzly Bear.  At Palouse Falls they had signs, near the toilets, telling of the RATTLESNAKE hazard!  It said they FREQUENT the area!  We didn’t stay long at Palouse Falls.

Near Walla Walla, well actually surrounding it, there are hundreds (if not thousands) of wind turbines.  They line the canyon walls of the Snake and Columbia River gorges.  As we neared Walla Walla, we found some interesting imagery of mustard fields and wind turbines and drove a road that we probably weren’t authorized to be on…but didn’t see the NO TRESPASSING sign until we were leaving the gated road…heh…plausible deniability works for more than politicians.

Once we were beyond Walla Walla, we joined with I-84 and were swept by the hordes of tourists into Portland and our idyllic day of meandering was at an end but made myself a promise to return and do a ’study’ of the area and its old buildings and empty fields after the harvest.

Blessings,

D.

Session four took place the day after shooting the  “Water Ballet” session and took place at my favorite barn studio near Somers.  Keiko had suggested doing a barn theme and I had been thinking the same thing for several days before she mentioned it.  We met in the morning to catch the easterly sun sprinkling its light through the holes in the barn roof.

(click for larger image)

Session three and four was with Keiko S. another exquisite ballerina who dances for Marisa at Northwest School of Ballet.  In “A Night of Classics”, their spring recital I saw Keiko dance a selection from “Don Quixote” in a red tutu that was absolutely stunning!  Here is one of those images to show you what I mean:

Several of Marisa’s dancers answered my call for models and Keiko was one of them.  She shared with me her vision of the Ballerina project and I checked it out.  One idea was a barn on her property but I told her I had a better barn, but her water park selection was amazing!  We spent an evening together capturing images all around the park and even in the water!  Here are some of her images:

Thanks, Keiko!

My second Ballet shoot took place at a state park near where I live.  My model Meredith and her mother met me there on a warm spring evening just before sunset.  The place I remembered from a previous session I couldn’t find and plus we had other people to contend with that I didn’t want to be in the background.  We chose a spot above Flathead Lake and made it a part of the composition.  For those not familiar with Flathead Lake, it has the distinction of being the largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi.  The spot we chose was awesome and Meredith was too!