3.13.2012

We had a freak snowstorm on March 13. My wife and I also had an out-of-town visitor. Combining the old, and formerly tried-and-true dictum of the postal service with our tourist guidance service, neither rain, nor sleet nor snow will keep us from showing off Silver Falls State Park. 

On the road to the park. 

I shot this in the driver's seat. 

Not recommended. You can almost hear 

that creepy music from the beginning 

of Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining."

A stop on the way.

3.16.2012

Maybe because March 16th is my wife's birthday and I was subconsciously inspired. More likely it was a matter of set and setting. I set out to take a ride, with the eventual aim of finding a location where I had happened upon a few months earlier. I eventually found it, but not before stopping at a high creek and reaching a dead end. After rediscovering what I was looking for, I continued on, ending, appropriately enough, at a roadside memorial on the banks of the Abiqua Creek.

January, 2012

I've played around with the idea of watermarking my photographs, primarily to protect them from being downloaded and re-purposed. I thought, in fact, of beginning the practice with these, the first photos of the new year. In the end, I have decided not to watermark them. It's not that I assume the best intentions in people or anything like that. It's just that I feel a watermark would take away from enjoying the images. I want people to see my photographs as close to the way I envision them as possible. So, no watermark--this photo-blog operates on the honor system...

Looking North–1.8.12

Walnut Trees, Evans Valley Road–1.11.12

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Below is a series of photographs taken on Friday the thirteenth of the frozen ditch along the Evans Valley Loop. I always like finding this seasonal phenomenon. The thin ice catches motion and creates its own world, inhabited by still creatures...

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Canby, Oregon–1.28.12

Mollala, Oregon, 1.28.12

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Canby, Oregon–1.30.12

Canby, Oregon–1.30.12

Three Graces, Canby, Oregon–1.30.12

Canby, Oregon–1.30.12

Shortly after taking this photograph, the man who lived next door came by and kind of startled me. He stood behind me and asked if he could help me. I told him I was "just taking some pictures." Pictures sound so much less threatening than photographs. I asked him how long the house had been empty. "It's not," he replied.

Canby, Oregon–1.30.12

Catching up... again.

With 24 hour news cycles and instant messaging and all that, I really need to reduce the lag time from the field to the Net, again...

The Willamette River, from Keizer Rapids Park, 12.11.2011

The Willamette River, from Keizer Rapids Park, 12.11.2011

The Willamette River, from Keizer Rapids Park, 12.11.2011

The three photos below were taken in Paso Robles, on a wine-tasting weekend. None of them have been Photoshopped (as yet). The first photo (the tree) looks, to me, as if it had been shot with Kodak's Plus X. Dave's Dogs truck and the tree close-up were taken in Paso's town park.

Paso Robles, California–12.18.11

Paso Robles, California–12.18.11

Dave's Dogs Panel Truck, Paso Robles, California–12.18.11

Next up, January, 2012...

TRACTOR GRAVEYARD

I got my first camera in 1966. It was a Minolta Hi-Matic 9 rangefinder. My father bought it for me, in Europe. He went for business. He asked me if I wanted him to bring anything back, besides records by the Beatles and the Stones. I asked him to bring me a camera. Now, Leica makes some pretty fine cameras and they happened to have made them in Europe. Rollei made cameras. Hell, Hasselblads were supposed to be good. My father bought himself a Minox-- like a spy camera. He would sneak shoot some snaps of women's shoes in store windows in Rome and Paris. Now, before you draw the wrong conclusion, my father was in the shoe business. His idea of designing was to take pictures of the latest styles and have the factory he worked for copy them.

The first pictures I took with my Minolta Hi-Matic 9 were in a graveyard. I thought it would be creative and cool.

I just got my Canon G9 back from having it repaired. I'll spare the details, but the point is, although it is not a NEW camera. It seems, for the purposes of this introduction to a series of photographs I took the day before yesterday. They were taken at what I think of as a tractor graveyard. Almost a hundred mostly Ford tractors in various stages of rust and deterioration. The lot is usually locked up. I noticed it was open and activity going on the other day. I was on my way to the opthamologist for an eye exam. I had some time to kill afterward. Bearing in mind I had just had my eyes dilated for the exam. I could hardly see, let alone drive. Bearing that in mind, I headed back toward the graveyard.

I think the potion's effects on my vision started to diminish as I got to the graveyard. Or at least I would like to think that...

Last Class

Last Wednesday was my last after-school photography class at Walker Middle School, in West Salem. It was an odd class this time around-- all boys, which never seems to happen. There ended up being just four of them. The sun appeared and we decided to spend the first of the last class outside. The photographs below are of the walkways at the front and west side of the school. My Canon G9 was out being repaired so I ended up using the old Casio--a good little camera.

Minto-Brown Park, 10.29.2011

None of the following have yet to be processed through Photoshop. They are as the camera captured them...