Thursday, September 27, 2012

Strong Wind, Weird Light (one)

vicinity of Lowden, Washington

After crossing the passes at Mount Rainier National Park I had the GPS set a course for a drive-in theater in Milton-Freewater, Oregon, a few miles south of Walla Walla, Washington. With half an hour or so to go, I came out on a flat plain with heavily irrigated fields. I could tell there was a lot of wind, and the stormy sky had some of the weirdest color I've ever encountered.

detail

When I got out of the car to try some pictures, the wind was nearly as fierce as back in Kansas, where I'd also encountered light that seemed very different from what I'm used to back east, but not anywhere near as strange as this. I also noticed that the ridge I was heading for was simply covered with big commercial electric generating windmills.


vicinity of Lowden, Washington

I stopped for pictures three or four times in a space of less than a mile, and then took some very careful notes about the look and feel of the place and the light. I suspected—rightly—that the captures at default settings would look dull and drab with none of the strangeness or excitement of the situation.

2 comments:

DerekL said...

That looks like some pretty typical Pacific Northwest light... It's both a bane and a boon.

Carl Weese said...

Sure, I suspect that the light/sky-color that struck me as so strange in Kansas is also quite normal looking to a local.