A 14th Birthday - In The Style of Monkeypaw

Yesterday was my daughter's 14th birthday. So what did I do? Took her on a photo hike through Minto Brown's flooded terrain.

Yup.. her feet got wet. The water was still "flowing" over the road and we had to get past that to see more of the park. She cowboy upped and was rewarded with a photo shoot of epicosity. Happy Birthday!

Here are some of the images I walked away with:

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Above is a series from the first pond on the left as you enter the park. Below is a series of some rocks.

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Below is a series after we past the water running over the road.

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Lastly is a series of reflections I pulled from the water's edge.

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I hope you enjoyed the image. I know we enjoyed the two hours of shooting. She got some amazing images as well. 

A weekend at the beach

It amazes me how much beauty there is at the coast, even when you leave the beach. I am planning an outing for my photography club to this particular location.

Have you ever been camping in a yurt? I have; many times. It is always a great experience. If you haven't or even think I am making the word Yurt up, you should check it out.

A yurt is like a cross between a cabin and a tent. They have heat, power, and some even have cable hookup for those of you that understand what camping it about. The yurts can each sleep five people and a select few in Oregon are pet friendly.

Leaving the yurt, you are just minutes, walking, from so much natural beauty.

And you are only ten minutes from Newport's Historic Waterfront.

Check out SouthBeach State Park, at $40 a night, it makes a weekend at the coast affordable and just as enjoyable as the $120 a night motels.

 

Our Weekend with Wags and Friends

This weekend we were blessed with the opportunity to spend some time with a new friend, Wags. During the flooding in Salem, the Willamette Humane Society called out for help to their volunteers. The facility was evacuated due to the rising waters. We arrived after so many troubles with road closures and after a short time, we went home with three friends, a dog and two cats. 

I would like you to say hello to Wags. 

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Wags is a 2 year old Border Collie mix, and has almost as much energy as he does love. He is completely house broke. And while he had a few accidents the first night, he was nervous and had a case of the runs. After that first night he was accident free.

This weekend was our 6th wedding anniversary, and we had plans to go to coast this weekend. But because we also answered the call to help we had to make a choice. We had already asked our friend Liz to come over and watch our cat, so we confirmed with her that a couple of extra cats would be okay as well. Liz, being the kitties lover she is, welcomed the extra feline friends. So we took Wags with us to the coast.

Wags bonded with us completely. He was a complete companion. He loves other animals, he loves people and rarely left our side and he is always happy. He was so at home with us in our Yurt that he even smiled while he slept. It was hard for us to take Wags back. The bonding my wife and shared with him was deep. 

In addition to wags we brough home Bunny Boo and Duece. Both loving kitties and siblings, although they completely different. Bunny Boo, in the first photo is a playful and energetic girl that love playing almost as much a snuggling. Duece, is a calm quite boy that is shy at first, but warms up for some snuggles soon enough.

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Come on down to the Willamette Humane Society for and take on of these future family members home or if for nothing else, come down and see what you can do help, and say hello to Wags... it won't take long for his loving personality to touch you like he did us.

Oops... "Acts of God"... they can suck

So a few weeks ago we had an incident of large branch (200+ pounds and 12' long) falling from a dead tree in our backyard. Funny thing is, it was only mildly breezy that evening. When it hit the ground it sounded like an cherry bomb going off, followed by what my wife said sounded like someone trying to break into the house as the smaller branches exploded and sprayed the backside of the house.

We were lucky. No damage.

So today I get a text message from my wife with this image attached: 

That's right, one of our trees fell onto our neighbor's house and the sad part is that it wasn't the dead tree mentioned above. Now the two trees that were downhill from the one that fell are leaning more, looking like they might come down as well. So now we have three trees needing to come down, including the dead one, one to clean up, a fence to repair and trying to console our neighbors who lost the backside of a nice little shop/shed structure and could have damage to their roof. Now we have to talk with our landlord about removing the three trees. Scary stuff, just glad that nobody was hurt.

Tree removal - $0

Fence Replacement - $0

Roof Repair - $0

Shop Repair - $0

Insurance Deductable - $500

Everyone's Safety - Priceless.

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Keep yourselves safe and make sure to watch the sky... it seems to be falling more and more frequently.

Experimenting With Nathan

Nathan of SmithFineArt.com came over to my house yesterday with an idea. We set up, settled in and began experimenting. It is so much fun to experiment with photography, especially when the idea comes from the creative genius that is Nathan.

We set up a projector as a light source and my finest bottle of Vodka as the subject... I know.. it's not Grey Goose, but I do happen to be on a budget.

 

By projecting different images on the wall, we were able to shape the light. Many of the projected images were made on the fly, as we shot.

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Nathan also has this nifty little program on his Mac that creates varying patterns. Using some special techniques, we were able merge multiple patterns to get some cool results.

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Nathan will be teaching this method at the March monthly meeting of the Salem Digital Photo group, salemphoto.org. Come check out this amazing Salem Oregon Photography Club.

Thanks Nathan for all of fun and education you bring to my creative life.

 

A Winter Wonderland

So today marked the first snow of the year for our little region of the world. At my house, we got a light dusting, and I wasn't too inspired to go out, but that changed over the course of the morning.

I wasn't initially inspired to fo go shoot because I suffer from Fibromyalgia or FMS. It is a condition that causes chronic fatigue, constant pain and a slew of other things and is thought to be caused by hyper-active nerve receptors. There are time where being touched can cause pain.

FMS can be a real demotivator when what is called a flare (when symptoms are at their most impactful) happens. Today is a day where I am flaring. Flares are triggered by stress, anxiety, physical exertion and even changes in the weather and extreme cold or heat.

Well, the last week has been particularly brutal for my symptoms as the weather hasn't been all that kind to those of us in the area with FMS. So this morning I got up and knew that I wasn't up for getting out. As the morning progressed, I became more and more restless and more and more irritated that I wasn't out taking advantage of the rare snow day. I knew where I wanted to go, what shots I wanted to get and damnit, I was pissed I was letting my FMS keep me from doing that.

At 9:30 I told my wife I was going out and asked her if she wanted to go for a drive. She jumped up, threw a coat on and we headed out to a location I knew would have more snow that we did, one that I photographed just before Christmas. Below are the results.

Now the first of the two images in the set immediately below is from today. The second image is from a few weeks ago. I wanted to show the difference a change in weather can have on a scene. It is the same scene with a change of the weather. This is proof that a scene can and does change with different variables.  

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The below image is from today. This is from the cemetary I stood in as I shot the two above images. While the skiy in the below image has been enhanced, the image is not a composite. The sky is how the sky was.

The below image was shot as a single image, then processed three times for different exposures and then merged to HDR to balance the snow, sky and non-snow elements.

All in all, it was an amazing day out. It took only an hour and a half from leaving the house to getting home, and took about 15 miles each way. I shot for a total of 15 minutes in two different locations. My pain levels are high right now, but I very happy with the results and feel it was worth the trip out of the house.

I love winter, even it isn't nice to me all the time.

Be safe out there.

A Day with Nathan

For those of you who have not met Nathan Smith of SmithFineArt.com, let me introduce you. Everyone; this is Nathan. Nathan; this is everyone. 

Nathan is the creative mind behind SmithFineArt.com. He is a family man with a wonderfully supportive wife and happy, but somewhat shy son. Nathan carries an energy around him that is very contagious and uplifting. 

When Nathan isn't behind the camera or glued to his monitor processing his work to perfection, he is spending time with his family, playing video games or driving around location scouting. 

 

Nathan is also one of the organizers for the Salem Digital Photo Group, leading us through the group's giving events like our annual help portrait event. He also teaches workshops on Lighting and post processing for the group.

 

Take the time to look at Nathan's work and see for yourself what a wonderful craftsman and artist he really is. If you take the time to get to know the man, you will a better person for it.

Thanks Nathan for all that you have done and will do in the coming years. Your friendship is greatly appreciated.

My World - A view of the world how I see it

Last weekend was fantastic from a creative point of view. Exhausting and fantastic all at the same time. Starting with the Kitty shoot Saturday at the Willamette Humane Society, moving into a planning session for my photo group's workshops. It was a long and rewarding start to a weekend. 

Then Sunday came early, 5:00 AM to be exact to prepare for winter shoot at a local park.

Then Sunday afternoon came and it was time for the shoot with Nathan Smith of SmithFineArt.com. Pardon the raw look to this, it is merely a first draft; the final will look super-d-duper.

After the shoot with Nathan I hung out while a couple of other photographers spent some time shooting him. While they did their thing, I assisted with lights and shot some background plates.

Once I got back home, I began editing. Until my student came over for the weekly mentoring session. Yup... that's right. I am mentoring a person for the year. Helping guide this individual to discovering their true potential and find their path to creative enlightment. This will be an annual project with a new student each year. So far it is going swimmingly, although after the assignments I handed out this week, this individual might not feel the same way.

I did more creatively this weekend than I did over the entire summer (June to August). It feels great, but I am exhausted and ready for some sleep.