Friday, June 19, 2009

Idaho Sky and Landscape

Last night Jaren went out to make sure his fertilizer was still pumping onto his plants. It normally would have taken him 5 minutes or less. Instead he came in 10-15 minutes later telling me he HAD to take these pictures. He showed me the pictures he took on his phone - they were BEAUTIFUL. There was a full rainbow outside. I've never seen a full from end to end rainbow before so I grabbed my fancy new camera and dragged him out the door.

He got really excited as I was showing him the pictures I was taking (because they looked so good) and so he drove me from field to field to get different views and different crops in the foreground.

We cut it close because just about 5 minutes after we went out the rainbow started to disappear and it got dark.

It was such a cool sight. The rainbow was SO CLOSE it looked like it was just a quarter of a mile in front of us. Because we were so close I couldn't get a good picture of the whole thing. It was also raining and I wasn't about to put my camera out in that so all of the pictures were taken from inside the pick up.

I was messing around trying to see what would happen if I did different things to the pictures while editing and made the sky's more blue. But I couldn't bare to just post those pictures, so I posted both the originals and the edited ones. Enjoy!

The first picture I took. I made Jaren stop for this one, he was trying to move further out into the fields. But when he saw it after I took it he was glad I was so pushy about it.

What you should see in these pictures, but the clouds are blocking, is the Tetons. I'll take some pretty ones of them someday.
I like what the editing did to the blues and the rainbow colors and the green of the potatoes. It makes it look not so dark.
This is a newly planted alfalfa (hay) field. They plant grain over it so that if the wind blows (which is bound to happen here) it will protected the little hay babies. I should take a picture of the hay growing in, they look like teeny little propellers popping out of the ground. Once the hay is big enough, they will come in and kill the grain so the hay can grow in all pretty and plentiful.
I kind of want this one printed and put up on our wall. The blue is stunning. Do you see the second rainbow? It came and went, but it followed right along the bright one and I caught it in a few pictures.
This is a grain field. The rainbow had started to retreat a little. The super dark cloud up top is what I love about this picture (besides the rainbow).
Same picture, edited.
Down below I have another picture of the view of the sand dunes. This is what I see when I look out my back door. It's beautiful here, just wish we could move it closer to town.
This was taken from our driveway. The sky was red and the rainbow had come back. I love all of the different hue's of the sky with the green tree tops.
Here is the same picture edited. Makes the blues much more blue! But I like the red in the other.
This is the view from our backyard. What you see is potato rows, then the sand dunes, then the Juniper's (the name of the hill's behind the sand dunes).

This is my favorite time of year here. I love June and July because everything is so green. The weather is nice, warm and I think all of those things make me the happiest. August is great, too but for a different reason. As much as I love green (and I LOVE green, because it's life, everything is growing, it's beautiful) the grain turns golden during July and the contrast of the gold with the deep green of the potatoes is awfully pretty. September is fun because it's spud harvest and there is so much activity. Although, I see Jaren never during that month, I'm planning on riding around with him this year. I don't do too well being Jaren deprived. Which, unfortunately happens all too often from April to October.

It's times like these where I absolutely love living in Idaho. It's taken me some adjusting and getting used to, but doesn't it take anyone adjusting when you move somewhere new? The hardest thing is not having Jaren around a lot for 7 months and during the winter the wind. I don't even mind how cold it get's. It's just the wind that makes it 10-40 degree's colder. I can't think of a better place to raise kids and I'm close enough to bigger cities that I can go, get my fix and come back to the peace and quiet. I do feel very fortunate.

8 comments:

Kristina P. said...

These are gorgeous, Whitney!

andrea. said...

i LOVE LOVE these pictures!! great job! i really hope you frame one.

amber belmonte said...

very cool! last week after a storm we had a full rainbow by our house too! i wasn't able to grab my camera in time before it got dark and rainy again.. glad i can enjoy your pics :)

Christa said...

I think my favorite is the same one as yours. It's beautiful.

I really need to take some time to learn how to use Photoshop.

rychelle said...

the pictures are great!

what program did you use to edit them?

Jillene said...

The pics are AMAZING!!

Anonymous said...

Wow! Simply amazing! I am totally and completely jelous of your wonderful GREEN view!

Wendyburd1 said...

All the pics are stunning Whitney (can you post me or email what camera you have?) but that one you definitely should put in a great frame, a BIG frame and put it in the room with your new couches, it would look amazing!!! You are talented girl!!