Sparks Lake View

I took this image a couple of years ago, 2017, in mid-August.  It was the summer of smoke and haze from all the wildfires that ran thru the forests of Oregon.  Sometimes odd conditions can make for interesting images.  The little yellow flowers on the islands were in bloom again this year but well past their prime – they were full on in the image below and added a lot to the image.

Click for a larger view.  Let me know what you think – comments welcome

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End of the Path

It has been a little over a month since I started down the road to getting the blurriness out of my vision.  Finally this morning I got the new prescription glasses after surgery on each eye.  I went out to the Owen Rose Garden for a test.  I think it will be a while before I am fully adjusted to the new set up.

The two images below are what my fellow photographers would call “the low hanging fruit” and I guess that is true but it was a test.  I shot the test using manual focus on my 100mm Macro lens and then combined a set of images in Photoshop.  Certainly nothing special bu it seems to work.  Click for a larger hopefully clear view.

Hope to see some of you Friday evening at the Emerald Art Center.

 

 

Lights in the Forest

When the Calla Lily are in full bloom in my backyard it is a sure indication that likewise the Dogwood are in bloom on McKenzie Pass.  I went up this morning following my gym time with the hope of finding a group of blooms set off against the dark forest.

The image below will look much better full screen so just click on it.  It is just what I was looking for and it took some ‘lookin!’ to find it.   The light was still soft from the overcast sky and the forest was still wet from recent rain but there was no wind and the branches of the dogwood spread out in front of the dark forest just as I had hoped.  Comments are always welcome.

Welcoming the Sunrise

The Camas Lilies are in bloom out at the West Eugene wetlands albeit they are a bit past their prime and we have not had rain for a few days so they are starting to wilt a bit.  I normally try to shoot these fields at sunset but we have had nothing but boring flat blue sky for the last few days so I decided to go out early this morning.  The fields were full of purple and green and I got out there in time to welcome the sunrise.  Lovely way to start the day.  Comments as always are more than welcome.

Upstream

I have been reading a set of essays by Mary Oliver.  She is a favorite poet/author of mine and sadly just recently passed away.  I found this passage last evening and it seemed that the image below fit nicely with the writing.

“Come with me into the field of sunflowers is a better line than anything you will find in here, and the sunflowers themselves far more wonderful than any words about them”  (Mary Oliver – Upstream, 2016)

 

Rainy monring

It seems that lately April is self identifying as January and day after day of rather cool and wet weather has followed one after the other.  Sometimes weather like that can produce nice photo opportunities and some days it tends to keep one indoors.  Today I found myself indoors.  Cup of coffee, the music from the Peer Gynt ballet on the stereo and doing a bit of house cleaning – perhaps that will help bring on real Spring.

I have this basket on one of my bookcases that I purchased a number of years ago – just liked the hand woven rustic nature of it.  The pear tree in my back yard is in bloom so I just concocted a still life – the basket with a branch of the blooming pear tree.  This is a 5 shot stacked image and I did tone it a bit.  Kept me entertained this morning and I have a great book in the works right now for the afternoon.   Hoping for sunshine tomorrow which will prompt an evening trip to the West Eugene wetlands to photograph the Camas lily.

Comments, as usual are always welcome.

 

 

Magical Places

Over the past couple of months I have been fortunate to visit two magical art and ecology institutions in Oregon.  In February I stopped for a return visit to PLAYA at Summer Lake (http://playasummerlake.org/) in the heart of Central Oregon at the edge of the Great Sandy Desert.  Today I stopped at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology (www.sitkacenter.org)  located on the Central Oregon Coast just north of Lincoln City.  Two very different ecosystems  that share a magic that can best be described only by being there – peace infusion.

I have heard about the Sitka Center from friends here in Eugene who have conducted workshops over there and one who just returned from a 3 month residency.  I have been wanting to head that way for a some time – not sure what kept me from going.  Today was the day – windy and rainy – iconic Oregon Coast weather.  Along the way I stopped at Devil’s Punchbowl between Newport and Lincoln City near Otter Rock.  I had hoped for surf large enough to spout up thru the bowl for a dramatic image but the surf was just not big enough to get that to happen.  So consider this a scouting trip and I will be hawking the websites for a day when the surf comes round.  Still it is always great to be on the Oregon Coast.

The above image is just an overview of the area.  The next image is of the punch bowl.  Would love to see the surf come pounding thru that opening and erupting in the bowl.  Perhaps next time.

I drove on up to the Sitka Center and got a tour from a very gracious young woman named Kimberly.  Great location, studio space, quiet and creatively spacious.  On the way out I stopped to photograph a small stream that crossed the access road. The skunk cabbage is just coming into bloom – love the way they light up the green field.

I think the next trip up there calls for an overnight stay – evening and morning light.  Thanks for looking.

 

Happy Easter!!

A little image that to me shows the beauty of Spring on this Easter weekend.

Hope you have a wonderful day.

 

Roadside presents

Over dinner in Burns, OR one evening I was reading an article about all of the tourist things that there are to see and experience in Harney County. The authors noted that if you wanted to see the sites you should be prepared to do a lot of driving.  True enough.  One does not want to leave Burns without a full tank of gas and while there are a few other spots on the back roads to fill up in case of need the establishments think highly of their product – be prepared.

One of the nice things about traveling across the desert and over the mountains are what I have come to call roadside bouquets.  The first image is far from the desert.  It was taken near the top of Santiam Pass at a spot I have been aware of and shot for some time and have never really scored a ‘good’ photograph.  Shot this one on Friday morning on my return to Eugene – overcast, soft light and no wind.

Driving across the desert, especially in the autumn, the rabbit brush and the bitter brush are all in bloom – yellows of various shades against the gray/green of the sage and the dead stalks of plants at the end of summer.  I found this small bouquet along the road between The Narrows and Frenchglen.  Rain had brightened the scene and really made for nice contrast.

  Now to find some autumn color a bit closer to home – Eugene color is starting to come on.  As always click for a larger view and thanks for looking and reading.

 

Ferns – Black and White

I posted on Facebook yesterday a color image of ferns that I found while out for a walk.  I liked it but went back and revisited the image and converted it to Black and White.   I like it even more.  The following is from my Artist Statement that I use in shows and exhibits so some of you may have seen/read this but I think it really applies to this image.

I have been delving more and more into Black and White photography. Focusing on textures and patterns has allowed me to recognize the simple beauty contained in the natural world. By using Black and White for a lot of my current images I want to give the viewers a chance to experience the symmetry of the images without the distraction that color can sometimes inject. Nothing wrong with color – works for many of my images – but sometimes I think it gets in the way of experiencing the subject in an elemental way.

Thanks for looking and reading.  Click on the image for a larger view.