The Palouse

While attending the AVISTA NAIA World Series at the end of May we kept looking to the north. The World Series host cities of Lewiston, ID/Clarkson, WA set at the southern edge of the famous photographic region of the Palouse.

The World Series ended on Thursday, and we put the "if needed" day of Friday to good use. We drove across a good part of the western Idaho panhandle and eastern Washington. Early evening found us perched on the southwest slope of Steptoe Butte.

Steptoe Butte is the remnant of an ancient volcano and it provides a great way to gain elevation above the rolling Palouse hills. Our vantage point was about 500 ft above the surrounding hills.

These hills are windblown dust dunes resting upon a volcanic basalt plateau that is up to 6,000 feet thick in places. You can quickly go from the gently rolling hills to deep jagged canyons of the Snake River basin carved out of the ancient lava.

Here are three images that are a brief reflection of the Palouse hills. The first (Blue, White & Green) is a road-level image while the others are shot from the butte.

Blue, White and Green



Gentle Curves



Lone Tree



After just a few hours of driving around the region I know that I have but scratched the surface. I know that this a place I will visit again!

Tools:

Blue, White & Green: D7000 w/ Nikkor 35-70mm f/2.8

Gentle Curves and Lone Tree: D7000 w/ Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8

Post in ACR 7 & Photoshop CS6

NAIA World Series

We spent the week covering the AVISTA-NAIA World Series in Lewiston, Idaho. The host school is Lewis-Clark State College and they have a great stadium and do a great job organizing the event. When the home team is playing (it's a perk of being the host) they easily draw 4,500 - 5,000 to watch.

Nine teams qualify through regional First Round site and join LCSC for a 10-team double elimination tournament.

It's nice venue to watch baseball and it has numerous good locations to shoot the game when on assignment.

Faulkner University was the eventual winner, going through the tournament undefeated.

Here are some action highlights from the week. Enjoy!











The tools: Nikon D7000 & D90; Nikkor 300mm f/4 (w/ TC14II for some shots) & Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8

Processing: PhotoMechanic, ACR7, Photoshop CS6

Outside the Lines

We're back from spending a week in the interior of the Pacific Northwest.

The NAIA holds the Avista-NAIA Baseball World Series at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, ID

It was a week of good baseball and beautiful surroundings. There are several postings worth of images to share.

This first set is images from 'outside the lines'. I was covering the tournament for some of the teams, but there are lots of opportunities for looking away from the game action.









Tools: Nikon D7000 or Nikon D90. Lenses include Nikkor 300mm f/4 (sometimes with TC14II) & Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8

Post in Photo Mechanic, ACR 7 & Photoshop CS6

Park Bracket NAIA Softball

It's spring sports playoffs season. The first round of the NAIA Softball Championships are played at regional sites around the country. Four teams met in St. Joseph, MO

Park University was the second seed and the host for the event. It was the first warm week of the spring and it made for good softball and good photography.

Here are a few images from the action!













California State University San Marcos was the first seed and won the bracket with a 3-0 record. They move on to the Championships in Columbus, GA

Gear: Nikon D7000 w/ 300mm f/4 (and sometimes the TC1.4II); Nikon D90 w/ 70-200 f/2.8

Lots of sunscreen between games !!

Enjoy !

Market Day

One of our favorite Saturday activities is a morning visit to the City Market.

The City Market is located near the original site of the City of Kansas and the river landing that brought the people to the place that became Kansas City.

The Market consists of a square surrounded by buildings that hold commercial vendors, restaurants and the Arabia Museum. Most of commercial vendors are in food related businesses: fruits and vegetables, middle eastern groceries, bakeries, an Italian deli. The center of the square is the farmers market. Prepared foods, local fruit and veggies, arts & crafts and nursery plants are usually available. Of course with spring finally coming to Missouri the local items will proliferate.

It is always a great place to visit for a bakery treat, people watching, and many photographic opportunities. The square and the commercial produce vendors receive the morning light. The shapes and colors and lighting make for lots of fun to be out with the camera.

The following are a few samples of the images from Saturday. Enjoy!











Tools of the Trade: Nikon D7000 w/ Tokina 100mm f/2.8 Macro. Post includes PhotoMechanic, ACR 7, Photoshop 6 and the Nik Collection

Forgotten Images

A couple of the bloggers that I read on a regular basis have been talking about the value of taking the new post-processing skills that you have learned and revisiting an reprocessing images from the past.

That encouragement, along with a new e-book on processing landscapes, led me back to the images from an outing that is almost three years old. Debbie and I took a trip to Moab, UT where big skies, puffy clouds and castle-like towers abound.

These images are taken one evening as sunset approached. The first reaction of some people who have seen these images has been "Monument Valley!" I assure you it is not.

Moab is noted for the arches of Arches N.P. and for the courses of the Colorado and Green rivers in Canyonlands N.P. But upstream from Moab the Colorado valley broadens out for a few miles and it is ringed by these formations. If you look closely in the background of Road to LaSal and A Big Sky you will see the snow rimmed LaSal Mountains (famously seen in the background of photos of Delicate Arch or Mesa Arch and the Washer Woman).

Enjoy the images as I have in reliving the trip while inside on a rainy day.


Road to LaSal

Storm Castles

A Big Sky

Park University Men's Volleyball

Park University is a local school which is one of my primary sports clients. I have been covering events for Park over the past three years.

The Park Univ. Pirates won the 2012 NAIA National Men's Volleyball Tournament, and entered this season as the #1 ranked team in the country.

They opened the season the weekend of January 17-19 with their home Pirate Invitational tournament. I covered several games during the weekend. Here is some of the high-flying action

Park finished the weekend play 4-0, dropping only one game along the way.

If you have the opportunity go take in a collegiate men's volleyball game. The action is fast and high-flying!

All images taken with a Nikon D7000 & Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8, post processing in Photo Mechanic and ACR 7

Colorado Views

We spent the holiday season in the Fraser Valley of Colorado. As you might imagine being in this location led to hours of photography for me.

Here are a few images from the first days of our visit. Enjoy !

Fraser Barn

Parry Sunset

Byers Backlight