Rattle My Cage by MilesMorganPhotography

I’m the last photographer in the Pacific Northwest to visit Palouse Falls. I’m not even sure why I hadn’t been there. I just never got around to it. So I was actually quite content to shoot here while on a recent trip with bosom buddies Ryan “Swifty” Dyar and David “Breezy”Thompson. We were supposed to be elsewhere, but the weather wasn’t cooperating, so we did a complete reversal and followed what we determined would be the most promising atmospherics in the western half of the US. On the first night, I elected to stay up top at the standard overlook since I didn’t have a “classic shot” from here while RyDyGuy and Breezy dropped down into the canyon to an area Ryan had been scouting for years. After getting lovely “Chip light” – to be explained in a future post – I figured the next morning I would drop down below with Ryan and see if I could find something more fresh.

Up and at em well before dawn, we trudged up the trail through the baked out grasses towards the rocky path that descends into the canyon. I had been warned the day before about the snakes slithering everywhere in this area. Ryan was talking loudly: a technique that works well in keeping bears from getting up close and personal. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I didn’t think the snakes would give a crap about his lecture on Acid Reflux and it’s effect on the 2016 Presidential Election. I tucked in nice and close behind Ryan and off we went.

As the trail transitioned from grass to an extremely narrow loose shale strip overlooking a rather unpleasant looking drop, the margin for error in our footing dropped significantly.

Mid sentence Ryan choked on his words, and froze dead solid in his tracks. If you know anything about physics, you’ll remember that Newton once casually mentioned that “an object in motion tends to stay in motion”. In other words, Ryan had a 220# slab of beef mount his backside. Someone needs to invent human brake lights. I vaguely heard “SNAKE” during the moment of impact, which finally consummated my relationship with Ryan after all these years. Being a pilot, I’m supposed to be quite cool under pressure, so naturally I freaked.

“WHERE!??!!! SH$%?!! HOLD ME!! SUCK THE POISON OUT!!!!!”

Time stood still. The morning was dead calm and funeral home quiet, so I steeled myself for the shrill rattle which I knew was going to signal the fact that I was about to become lunch for the first time in my life. Probably payback for all the Turkey sandwiches I’ve eaten. But nothing came. It stayed dead calm and funeral home quiet. I spastically scanned the ground in front of us with my headlamp, looking for the coiled terror of the satanic snake, which I envisioned being the size and shape of a Bentley. Nothing. Had it camouflaged itself into the rocky path so well that I simply couldn’t see it?

Ryan: “Oh snap. It’s just a rock. My bad”

Cool story, Bro.

I was LOST on the direction of the processing on this image, so HUGE thanks to my RyRy for taking the time to get me pointed down the correct path. OR, if you hate the processing, it’s his fault.

via 500px http://ift.tt/1Pd1QoM