Last weekend, a quick 700-mile trip into Oregon's Union and Baker Counties began rolling decades ago when Waitsburg photographer Bill Rodgers studied botany and geology and then worked professionally throughout the western states. His familiarity with the timeless forces shaping the Earth's subsurface informed his love for the mystery and beauty of the landscapes above.

This outing was to seek photographs for Volume VI of "The Blues," to be published later this year by the Blue Mountain Land Trust (bmlt.org). We enjoyed sunshine, pelicans and meadowlarks, emerging arrow leaf and Hooker's ba...