[/caption] The month of August is one of the best months to visit Oregon’s wine country. This is especially true in the Willamette Valley. The warm dry air mixed with the incredible rolling hills that blanket the area is proof enough that Oregon is truly wine country. I find that the wineries around Forest Grove, Dundee and McMinnville offer some of the best views of the vineyards as well as some of the Cascade mountains in the far distance. There are also more wineries within a short distance from one another which makes it easier to photograph the landscape. August doesn’t offer you the opportunities of photographing the grapes but the vines are a very lush green and make for spectacular photos. I chose this particular photo since it shows the vineyard perched along a rolling hill facing due south as well as the vastness of the vineyards. The oak tree with the tire swing as well as the clear blue sky and lush forest also adds to the beauty of the setting. To get this shot I made sure to stand in the shade since the sun was still pretty bright since there were no clouds in the sky and it was about 4:30pm. However, you can see the shadow from the oak tree in the foreground which helped create a lot of character in the shot. Since I was wondering all over the winery I wasn’t using a tripod so I made sure to keep a steady hand every time I took a shot. I was using my Sigma 17-70mm lens and attached my CIR-PL and warming filter due to the harshness of the sun and the glare in the sky. I had the ISO at 100 and the white balance at -1.7 which caused the aperture to be set at F-5 and the shutter speed at 1/125 second since I had the camera mode in Program/Normal. I set the focal length at 70mm since I was standing near the tasting room and the vineyard was rather far away. I wanted to maximize the telephoto so I could frame the vineyard along with the oak tree, forest and blue sky.