Tuesday, October 13, 2009

What Stories they might Tell?

Back in the last week of July and into the first few days of August I took a usual pilgrimage back East to Wyoming/Colorado to hook up with brothers and friends and do some backpacking. Although I sometimes bitch about the lack of map reading skills on some folks part I still have the best time out there. You don't hear phones, TV's, Cars, worthless people taking up oxygen and the list goes on. You get to see country (hopefully) that very few will ever see because they can not or will not venture to such places, and all the better for the rest of us that do.

But what I am really getting at is while I drive on the interstate highways and the US highways and state highways I along with many others pass by buildings, structures of time gone by. Maybe they are houses, mills or stores but now they sit still as the world moves on. At one time they served a purpose as a home, or a place to buy goods and now they are the home to mice and other little critters. Who lived there? Who worked there? Are some of the things I wonder as I drive by or sit and take a picture of them. Why? when? How did this place become no longer needed by anyone? Will it continually waste away or will eventually somebody or something tear it down or destroy it?

We as a country are just over 230 years young and think about the progression and transformation of our surroundings. Just over a 100 years ago folks were going by wagon in long trains working their way out to Oregon where my family and I now live. Did any of them travel along the same lines that my vehicle takes me along when I travel? Did they think that someday all that great open land they saw would someday be split, divided, fenced and taken for personal wealth, gain or independence? The herds of animals they must have seen roaming around and facing the world and peoples unknown to them must have been a tremendous rush. There were no interchanges, or rest areas along the road. Every step was a scenic byway to them and not a posted scenic byway by the state or federal DOT.

I am starting a new gallery on my website area dedicated to these things. I have not got any photos in there yet, but keep checking it and it will grow. Think about those things as we live our day to day lives. Is there really a hurry to find the end? I think you need to veer from the road, path now and then to continue the adventure. Don't loose sight of where you are going but don't be blinded by having to get there in a hurry. In this post there is a shot of a house in far western Wyoming near the Utah border and the othe is in central Oregon somewhere between Burns and Bend.


Thanks for reading.


Tim

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

September - Fall is coming!

Hi folks,

Just thought about the blog and decided it would be a good time to get something out there if nothing else then maybe another photo! I just ordered some supplies from "documounts" out of Portland, Oregon so will be getting some more mattes, backboards and clear bags as this fall I need to push the photos......

The shot here is from last September when the family and I spent the weekend at a rental in Lincoln City, OR. Had a pretty good cliff drop from the back of the property but made for kind of an interesting photo on a Saturday evening. We are headed back to the coast again this coming weekend to stay in Pacific City which is just North of Lincoln City off of Hwy 101. Hopefully we will get a chance to eat at "Grateful Bread" an absolute awesome bakery/eatery! Will also try the Pelican Brewery while there as they have some pretty good brews!

Enjoy the shot and you can buy this out at my other site where I sell photos.........

Thanks for checking in! Tim -

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Young Deer

Almost mid-September and not much has been done. The continual, I'll get to it tomorrow night is my standard slogan. I am posting a shot of a couple of yearling black tail deer that I got some photos of while up in Sisters, OR.

I had been out on the McKenzie Hwy to try and scout out some other animals and gave up after driving and sitting in areas then just as I got ready to head back into town, these two and their Mother came wandering into range. So I had about one minute and a half to move around just a little and get a few shots. Their mother was far more leery and never really presented herself in a good position for the camera. I basically couldn't move much either as the usual snap of a twig and they are off.

Still working on other photos from Sisters and beyond and will get some posted out to my other site for purchase and viewing! Thanks for checking in!

Tim

Monday, August 31, 2009

Last Day in Augusto!

Wow! Eight months down and four to go as we just cruise through the year of 2009. I am still at a loss for how fast this has gone by and what little I think I have accomplished. Anyway....

My Honey and I spent the last weekend of August up in Sisters, Oregon and I say up as we live in Salem so physically it is at a higher elevation. We did this for the celebration of our ten year anniversary and just hung out, shopped a little, ate a little and relaxed a lot!
The shot included is of some geese just about to go behind the trees and you have Mt. Washington in the background ( a bit out of focus, my intent was the geese). I was trying to track them on the fly while my camera was locked into the tripod so was not the easiest thing going but got them anyway and the Mt. in the background was not even noticed until after I looked at my shots. I had actualy tracked them for about three shots prior and this was my last shot of the geese in siloutte.

I am working on some other photos from that early morning rise (5:50 AM, 38 degrees) and most are concentrated on the three sisters mountains and I got lucky and stumbled across some deer off McKenzie highway that didn't flee from me while I shot at a distance. I will post them another time soon and on my website for photo purchase. Just follow the links on the right-> ->

Thanks for reading

Tim

Sunday, August 23, 2009

August and Now Everything

I went out to check the blog and realized it has been a month since my last visit here. The title said it all as I was just getting ready to head to Colorado for some backpacking. Well, I did go and had a great time with my two older brothers, one sister-in-law, a nephew and a couple of friends from Summit County, CO.

The shots I have included are from the area as we did our trip in the 'Rawah Wilderness' in North/Central mountains just below the Wyoming border. Beautiful area, but unfortunately we did not get much wildlife coming around. Maybe two many folks or the dogs but that didn't hurt the scenery.

The shots included are a long shot of the area we were headed to up in the "High" country stayed over 9,000 plus the whole time. The other is just that, a trail as it passed a high country lake on the right. The lake was actually on the left but since I was shooting looking back it became on the right.

Another thing I tried with this trip was using a compact Point and Shoot camera. To be exact it is a Panasonic DMC-FS25, with 12.1 megapixels, but choose it for the digital stability when shaking (does okay) and the wider angle lens this shoots with. I am in the process of working some of the photos to see how large I can go before there is any pixelization.
Anyway, it was a great trip and will have more of these kind of photos on my Smugmug account for anyone to purchase.

Tim