Fall is in the Air

Hi ya!

Here in the NW we are getting closer to a new rain season, and where we moved from in the Rockies they are getting ready for a new snow season. The autumnal equinox is coming up so we will officially be in the fall season.

Cyclocross is getting in gear in Oregon, but I don't have a bike to race on as I sold it to another guy so he would have something other than a mountain bike. I am not in shape either so basically it is good all around.

Last week I had gotten a few shots uploaded to my smugmug site, but not this week. It has been pretty busy and I am hoping to get something done this upcoming weekend. I am starting to get some display photo work done to put out in local businesses if they have some wall space. Will keep you posted on anything that is out there in the public for view.

As I have probably said a few times before, when the skies are not raining and clouds are minimal we get some awesome sunrises here at the house. You can not see Mt. Hood in this shot but a fantastic sunrise back in July with some sun rays coming through. Enjoy!

Thanks for checking in and hope you enjoy the photo. Please feel free to go out to my smugmug site and browse through there.
Tim -

Posting sans Photo

Well, I am trying to get to a weekly thing going and sometimes it is going to mean no photos. Just sitting down and taking the time to post. At least I am not posting a bunch of stuff from 'youtube' for you watching enjoyment.

Post 9/11 and the sun rose today, once again in the east just south of Mt. Hood from my house view looking back at the Cascades. I will have to unload some digital photos one of these days and see what is what as I get a few shots almost every morning. I did get a couple of photo galleries updated on "SMUGMUG" over the weekend and am trying to at least do about a half-dozen a week. Check it out if you get a moment the link is over on the right. I am also in the process of going through some paper work to see about getting set up with another photo outlet called "iStock" which is a stock photography place. I can upload and hope people, businesses or what have you will download my photos....for a fee of course!

Saw that Brian Marcroft was putting up a little whining on his blog about lack of frame sales for his small business. Go check out his stuff and see if anything is maybe in the line of what you could use for a new bike frame. I am thinking about going back to some mountain biking, but haven't really made that commitment. Maybe Brian could build me a large frame (he is shorter than I) and I could build some middle of the road machine to do my damage on. We'll see about all that as the 'Funding' issue always comes into play.

My co-workers all thirteen of them, out of 1,250 have posted trips for the Bicycle commute challenge put on by the BTA out of Portland. It is currently eight more than posted trips all of last September so I have made a small improvement on getting people to try bike commuting. I am actually seeing more folks doing some bike commuting around Salem, especially going from West Salem across the bridges to work on the Marion County side. So it is pretty cool to see others whom I do not know putting their legs to good use. To them I tip my beer!

I'm going to call it for now. Keep looking forward, have no regrets and learn something new everyday! Tim-

Nothing Big

Howdieeeeeeee!
Not much happening, well actually a lot is happening but I am failing to keep up with it all. I don't think there will be photos in this post as I have spent a little time on the files but not enough.

I did get a couple of shots loaded into the 'Smugmug' site. When you are out there you sometimes have to dig through the various categories and galleries and at the bottom of each there should be a date that shows last update. Sorry it isn't more convenient but you can not always choose the weapons you go to war with!

Labor day w/e came and went and I spent the better part of Saturday and Monday helping with Eugene Celebration Stage Race, doing wheel support. Pretty good courses and a great way to wind up the road racing season. At least it looked liked the racers were enjoying the courses. I couldn't believe the amount of attacking in the 'masters 35/45' group on Saturday! Glad I was driving my car full of wheel sets. Sheesh!

School starts tomorrow for all the grades in the Salem-Keizer SD, all that is except Kindergartners. Our daughter will a first grader and seems pretty stoked about getting to the class room and being at school for the whole day instead of the half day of last year being in kindergarten.

Bike Commute Challenge kicked in for the month of September here in Oregon and is sponsored by the BTA (check the link over on the right). I am the volunteer coordinator for my employer this year and have about 24 people signed up out of 1250 FTE's. Pretty sad, but people love their cars and will not think about other transportation. I try to bike commute to the day job at least three days/week. Sometimes I take a day with my honey as she works two blocks away on the same hours so at least it is two people in the car instead of just one.

Well, hope all is well in your neck of the woods. Will get something more interesting in the next posting or two.....maybe some bug shots? bye for now!

Hood River - Mid August

Okay, I am able to head to Hood River, Oregon for a weekend with the family but can not get photos posted to my smugmug web-site! I promise to myself and all those fans, I will be getting some of the categories updated this weekend 8/25-26. Follow a link on the right side of this page to get there and if you like something, feel free to make a purchase!

Like I said, we went to the HR for a weekend to hook up with my wife's friend and her husband who were up from the San Fran area. First time I or any of us had spent any time in the area except for passing through on i-84 or one visit for a Thomas the Train thing. Have stayed up North from there in Trout Lake, WA. which is basically at the foot of Mt. Adams fantastic view from there.

Anyway there are quite a few things to do in Hood River, good eats, places to stay and activities such as biking, hiking, wandering around and of course "Wind Sports!" tons of folks hit the columbia gorge to Sailboard or Kiteboard, you choose your fancy. Our friend is the old school person and does the sailboarding so have put up a shot of some folks out doing their thing.


Also spent some time doing what they call the 'Fruit Loop' in the Hood River valley, which is basically a ton of spots to stop at and get fresh fruit and other assorted goodies from the many orchards, wineries and local folks who make a living off the land. Included is a shot of some lavendar growing as part of 'Hood River Lavender Farms'. The relaxing scent from those plants was simply amazing. Pretty fun thing to do and would recommend it for anyone spending some time there. Great scernery and super folks to talk with about their products, etc.

Hey couldn't forget to throw in a shot of a small flower from our back deck, you see you do not always have to travel to find some beautiful things!

Well it was a short weekend as they always are. Hope things are going great in your world, as things are going pretty darn good in our world. From Salem, OR. Bye for now - Tim

Mourning Dove - Sunset & a Blimp

Well here we are the close of another weekend the second full one in August! I have recovered quite well from last weeks State TT's and got in a good little ride with Scott's Tuesday night rides this past week. I took Monday and Tuesday off as it really was getting old going to the day job every Monday and Tuesday.

Since I had some time off I was hoping I was going to get some photo work done, maybe like posting out to Smugmug and cleaning up files on the PC here at home. Got a few files cleaned up but nothing new posted and now am aiming for this week - week of 8/13/07.

Back towards the end of July I was spending an evening with my Pentax ist-DS out on the back deck near the bird feeders. I keep a Sigma 135-400 lens attached and mounted to my tripod for some of the closer work. I am still a bit skeptical on the glass work of this particular lens but some other landscape shots have come out quite nice, so I will keep it for a while longer. Anyway, I was able to be still for a long enough time to allow some Mourning Doves to continue feeding off of seed and insects from the ground. I took this shot between two slats on the deck and have cropped in to get a closer feel.

The same evening, I got bored with the birds so tilted the camera on the tripod and took some shots of some tall pines just a few hundred yards away. Looks kind of cool with the darkness of the trees, the clouds drifting by all the while the sun is setting beyond the Eola Hills.

A couple of days later while having dinner I look out the window and there is the 'GoodYear' Blimp cruising by! Not sure where they were going and never saw anything in the local paper about it, so obviously was not that interesting to many. My daughter thought it was really cool as this was the first time she had seen one and my first time in the last 20 years or so!

Thanks for reading and feel free to drop a line at tim@trephotos.com anytime you like.

Bye,
Tim