Photography tour, exhibit slated for July festival

In conjunction with the return of this summer’s Concrete River Festival in Colfax, the Friends of Whitman County Library are sponsoring the “Palouse Sampler,” a free photography field trip Saturday, July 27, starting at 7:45 a.m. at the library and concluding at 7 p.m.

The trip will be guided by Dr. Otto Stevens, a retired Spokane dentist, and assisted by Aaron Cowan, a local photographer. Registrations are now being accepted. A $17 gourmet lunch will be served at the Bank Left Gallery and Tea Room in Palouse. The tour, which will be done in a car pooling mode, is free.

In addition to the tour, Whitman County Library will host a Palouse Photographer’s Exhibition during all three days of the festival sponsored by the Colfax Arts Council. Photographers interested in the tour or in displaying their images in the exhibition are asked to contact Kristie Kirkpatrick at the library. She reports booking for the tour has been brisk.

Dr. Stevens grew up on a dryland farm in north central Montana, where all eight siblings completed all eight grades in a one-room country school. All of them completed college.

Stevens said the variation of 1,400-foot altitude and 14 inches of precipitation on the west edge of the Palouse and 2,400-foot altitude in the mountain foothills and 22 inches of precipitation on the east edge in Idaho, should allow the group to see some crops that are still green in Idaho, and photograph wheat harvest in full swing near Dusty.

“Having led free field trips for 13 years, we will see pioneer barns, a one-room school, churches, homesteads, farm machinery, Palouse panoramas and the 58 wind generators that were installed west of Oakesdale in 2012,” Stevens said.

“Far more photo opportunities than a person would find in 11 full hours without having scouted the route more than 5,000 miles,” he said.