The Palouse – A Visual Journey with the Fuji X-Series – Part 2

What a great trip it was! In our previous blog entry we shared the first photos from our escapade into the stunning Palouse region of southeastern Washington. Thank you for all your kind comments, shared stories and questions.

The most appealing feature of the region is, ironically, the lack of popular spots such as Half Dome in Yosemite or Antelope Canyon in Arizona. The Palouse is for each individual to unravel and photograph. Every corner, every dirt road hides a visual gem to discover and some of them are only visible to you.

While we made some preparations before the visit, such as studying excellent maps of Palouse by Teri Lou Danzler (you can get them here), the majority of our images came from exploring small rural dirt roads. The abundance of patterns and stunning visuals offer huge opportunities but you need concentration and strong composition skills. On the topic of composition, the process of elimination is especially important when photographing Palouse. Sometimes the visuals are overwhelming so each corner of the frame must undergo a very strict assessment. In fact, we spent a considerable amount of time just looking through the viewfinder (without pressing the shutter button) and trying to extract individual elements from the scene that would create a congenial whole.

And the Fuji X-T1 large viewfinder was such a joy to use. Being able to see the final composition, colours and exposure makes a huge difference. The days when I had to look at the back of the camera to check the photo are gone.

All right, enough of this! Here are the images.    

They are all taken with the Fuji X-T1, Fuji X100S, XF 14mm F2.8, XF 55-200mm F3.5-4.8 OIS lenses. Some JPEGs (Velvia film simulation) are straight from the camera (only minor contrast adjustments), some using the new Fuji film profiles in Lightroom 5.

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Next time, something different: “Photographing Palouse – behind the scenes,” will include more tips on how to prepare for and photograph this visual paradise.

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More anon.

 

2014 © Olaf & Kasia Sztaba Photography. All rights reserved.

 

13 thoughts on “The Palouse – A Visual Journey with the Fuji X-Series – Part 2

  1. Stumbled onto your site recently and love it.Have gone through your Archives and find all your shots to be razor sharp.l would like to know roughly how many percentage of your work is handheld vs tripod and do you apply any sharpening in post process.My photographs from the XT1/35 1.4 set up is much softer than yours ( even those on tripod).Any secrets on how the XT 1 should be set up?

  2. Thanks for the mention of my maps. So glad they helped out and you had a great time. Hope you have a chance to visit during harvest. It is a totally different experience. I’ll be touring there August 28th- 31st.
    Thanks again.

  3. I’m not a color guy but these undulating landscapes create a fantastic abstract palatte of color, shape and texture. Really great stuff. And that barn is a killer composition.

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