Featured: 'Hells Canyon, Oregon, in June and October' by Tilman Paulin

tilman

All-Pro
Location
Portland, OR
this year we were lucky enough to visit Hells Canyon on two occasions... On June 1st for a day and then a weekend in the middle of October for two days.

Hells Canyon is North Americas deepest river gorge and located between Oregon and Idaho. We stayed in Enterprise on both trips and did day hikes (although it should be a great area for backpacking too - if you're not afraid of rattlesnakes and poison oak... of which we saw neither :) )

On our trip two weeks ago we drove to Buckhorn Lookout on the first day (we had already done this hike in June).
On the second day we drove to Hat Point, which is the high point on the Oregon side.

Gearwise, I used my E-M1 with the Olympus 12-60mm that I'm trying at the moment (after not really "connecting" with the 12-40mm)

The whole set with some more shots on flickr:
2 days at Hells Canyon

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Trip to Buckhorn Lookout and hike along Imnaha River Canyon:

Driving across Zumwalt Prairie:

October:
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Zumwalt Prairie by tilman paulin, on Flickr

June:
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Zumwalt Prairie by tilman paulin, on Flickr

October:
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Zumwalt Prairie by tilman paulin, on Flickr

June:
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Zumwalt Prairie by tilman paulin, on Flickr


Arriving at Imnaha river canyon and hiking along (and down into) the canyon side:

October:
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walking down the Canyon by tilman paulin, on Flickr

June:
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Imnaha River by tilman paulin, on Flickr


vegetation in October:
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the way back by tilman paulin, on Flickr

vegetation in June:
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mountain lupines by tilman paulin, on Flickr


some more October shots:
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lunchbreak by tilman paulin, on Flickr

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Eureka Viewpoint by tilman paulin, on Flickr

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Day 2 - Hat Point

Snake river in the distance:
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Hells Canyon by tilman paulin, on Flickr

this trip switchbacks straight down into the canyon:

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switchbacking down by tilman paulin, on Flickr

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black and white and green by tilman paulin, on Flickr


nice spot for a lunch break, but windy :)

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lunch break on Monday - Hells Canyon by tilman paulin, on Flickr

going back up, the remains of summer:

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the remains of summer by tilman paulin, on Flickr

last farewell glimpses towards Hells Canyon and Snake River in the evening:

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snake river by tilman paulin, on Flickr

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farewell Hells Canyon by tilman paulin, on Flickr


back on the road, catching the trickiest bit of the drive before the sun goes down and we lose daylight.
It's 23 miles on gravel, single lane... But fortunately only about 4 miles of it are this hairy :)

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going down by tilman paulin, on Flickr

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hold your breath and just keep going :) by tilman paulin, on Flickr
 
Hey All,

Great images!

I know that country very well! First summer job BLM 1977 all summer helicopter work mapping soils and vegetation types outta Baker including all along the Snake. You like it the way you saw it try a heli sometime! A graduate degree outta Union (near laGrande) I know Zumwalt and such well. Great pics - I especially liked the different seasons images.

-Ed-
 
Hey All,

Great images!

I know that country very well! First summer job BLM 1977 all summer helicopter work mapping soils and vegetation types outta Baker including all along the Snake. You like it the way you saw it try a heli sometime! A graduate degree outta Union (near laGrande) I know Zumwalt and such well. Great pics - I especially liked the different seasons images.

-Ed-

Thanks Ed! Yes, a helicopter ride through the canyons must be incredible! (although it was very, very windy )
I'm definitely a bit envious of your BLM job. :) Would have loved to be able to spend more time there. It was definitely very hard to leave and drive back to Portland.

cheers,
Tilman
 
The prairie in June looks absolutely wonderful! Impressive in October as well, but June is just so much prettier.

We found both to be equally beautiful and impressive. The amount of wildflowers in some places in summer is marvelous. But seeing everything bathed in gold in fall was incredible too (the gorgeous sunny weather certainly helped :) )
Glad we could see it at two different times of year! That definitely added to the experience.
 
Great set! I love how almost all of your images have a scalar reference, something to latch onto, to get a true sense of the expanse of space. It made me feel like I was right there in the landscape.

Thanks! :) Yes, that's one way that living in Oregon has changed my photography. The landscape can be so vast that you really want to capture it all. But you need some reference points, for scale and depth. E.g. in panoramas I always try to get some foreground too, so that you don't get the typical "strip of distant mountains".
 
Wow, very, very impressive images!
I keep coming back to them and am developing some serious GAS. But I'm afraid it's the old story of: it's the photographer
and NOT the equipment!

Thanks for the set.
Jan-Marten
 
Thanks Jan-Marten! Glad you like them :)

A huge help is of course the location and the gorgeous weather. :) Being at a place for the second time (or even more often) definitely helps as well.

If you really want to buy some new gear ;), you could try one little thing that I'm using for a few weeks now:
I'm setting my white-balance with an "Expodisc2". It's basically a milky white plastic disc that you hold in front of your lens and point at the dominant light source.
On my hikes I do this once per day/weekend, preferably at mid-day light, and then it's set for the rest of the time.
Sometimes it's only a subtle difference to the white-balance-presets, but I'm pretty happy with the results so far.

cheers,
Tilman
 
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