Sunrise from about 3/4ths the way up on Steptoe Butte in the Palouse area of Eastern Washington State.
On this morning the whole area was heavily socked in with low clouds and scattered showers. It was also windy. On the lee side of Steptoe Butte the mountain at times created it's own hole in the clouds allowing us to shoot through the opening. These holes came and went quickly so images had to be shot when openings developed. During one such opening, just for a minute an area of ground fog developed creating even more mood. It lasted less than a minute.
jaggedhorizon wrote:
Beautiful - I really want to get to the Palouse one day, but I realise that one has to get lucky for conditions like these.
Just go end of May, first of June. If you are there for a few days you are likely to get interesting weather. I was there 5 days, and each was different. The good news about Steptoe is that even if you have a cloudless sunrise or sunset your will get fantastic images. What you mostly need is light form the side to give dimension to the rolling hills. The only bad light there is full overcast flat light.
Starfire8 wrote:
A very nice image, Steve! I don't see many images of Steptoe Butte or the surrounding area with fog.
David
I was surprised as well. It was basically a full overcast morning with a bit of wind. The cloud level was about 3/4 the way up Steptoe. So the lee side of Steptoe blocked the clouds at times and opened up a hole to shoot through. Then the light hitting the damp ground created the ground fog. It changed second to second so the variety of shots we got that morning was huge. There is an interesting time lapse of this happening on our trip in this video. Start watching at 15:25 to see the time lapse.
