Readers’ wildlife photos

November 28, 2025 • 8:15 am

Today’s photos come from reader Jim Blilie. Jim’s captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

I haven’t been getting “out” much since July when I badly injured my gimpy left knee.  Full knee replacement is coming but It’s not clear yet exactly when.

I’ve been having some fun participating in a Facebook group for black and white landscape photography.  I’ve been revisiting many of my old images in software (Lightroom), creating what you might think of as “new prints” in black and white only.

These are all landscape photos from Washington and Oregon.

First a group from Cannon Beach, Oregon, a favorite retreat for us when the summer weather at our home in Klickitat County, Washington gets too hot.

Then three from the Palouse, the rolling loess-soil, wheat-growing region of Washington State (primarily) near Pullman, Washington, where our son Jamie is now a junior studying engineering at Washington State University.

A photo of Mount Hood taken in winter from our place.

A photo of Norway Maple (Acer platanoides) leaves taken this past spring in Oregon.

Finally:  A photo of Baker Lake, taken in September 1989 on a kayaking trip.  This is scanned Tri-X Pan film.

18 thoughts on “Readers’ wildlife photos”

  4. Great pictures of our Pacific Northwest. Cannon Beach and the Palouse (opposite sides of the region) are fantastic places to see and visit.

    Reply

    1. I actually find it harder to produce the tones I want in B&W (digital images) than in the color images (which were the originals of all of these except the Baker Lake photo).

      I follow the Zone System, as explained by Ansel Adams (1902-1984) in his books, The Camera and Lens, The Negative, and The Print (still three of the best books I’ve ever read on photography technique). I also find Fred Picker’s book Zone VI Workshop very useful. Adams (and Edward Weston, among others) has been a life-long inspiration for me. (The maple leaves photo was inspired by this photo by Ansel Adams (I have a near-photographic memory and can almost always remember images, landscapes, and landmarks).)

      I apply the Zone system methods to my “development” of images in Lightroom. (Lightroom is not the best tool for doing B&W images; but I’ve learned how to manipulate it to get what I’m after.) My primary cameras have an electronic viewfinder, which, after I got used to it (it was very weird at first) I really love. One of the best things about the viewfinder is that it provides a preview of the final image, including exposure, so I almost never miss exposures now.

      I am also having fun revisited a lot of my old B&W negatives (after making high quality scans of them.)

      I did a lot of B&W darkroom (wet) work in my youth. I learned it at my Dad’s knee; he always had a darkroom in every house we lived in. I even loaded my own film cannisters from 100-foot rolls of Tri-X Pan and Plus-X Pan.

      I recently scanned through all of my Dad’s just under 5000 B&W negatives and I’m having a lot of fun with those as well.

      Reply

  6. Guessing the kid made the jump across the watery divide.
    Did you catch the exact moment, or this was the best of many?

    Reply

    1. That shot was one of those “decisive moments” (per Henri Cartier-Bresson) where preparation pays off. He (that’s our son, Jamie, at age 14) probably jumped a few of those; but this was the only photo I got.

      Yes, he made it across. 🙂

      Reply

  8. I think you’ve posted here before…?

    These are excellent – keep up the good work, and thx for kindly sharing them with PCC(E) and us.
    You live in a really beautiful part of the world.
    best,
    D.A.
    NYC

    Reply

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