Near and Far: Idaho Route 32

Good Evening:

If you live on the Pacific Coast and love to visit Idaho, “Near and Far” becomes a great excuse to plunge into your library. But I’ll try to control myself.

Route 32 in Idaho is one of the greatest roads in the country for photographers. If you love to shoot landscapes and have never visited America’s most underrated state, please add Route 32 to your list of future photography travels.

“Potatoes.” Photograph Taken Along Route 32, Idaho, 13 August 2008

Note that if these had been red potatoes, the blossoms would have been pink. Potatoes are not ready to harvest until the blossoms die. Nowadays, farmers simply use sprays to kill the blossoms when they want to gather the crop. In the old days, farmers had to wait. One year during the Great Depression, the blossoms on my grandfather’s farm simply would not die, so the family couldn’t harvest the potatoes, whilst the potatoes themselves kept on growing. By the time the blossoms finally died off, the potatoes had grown to 4-5 pounds. Each. Since this was the Great Depression, they ate a lot of meals that consisted only of potatoes. But they did eat well.

Route 32, Idaho, 13 August 2008.

Typical Route 32. You can stop anywhere, pull over, step out, and take a decent shot.

Clouds and Their Shadows

I’m not certain that this is another Route 32 shot. All I did was point my Nikon D40 out the window and snap. See what I mean about Idaho? Good photography is pretty easy up there.

Vonn Scott Bair