Virginia City and the Tetons

We took one day to visit Virginia City, Montana. It was a drive through ranch country to a town that is both old and new. Virgina City was a gold mining town in the 1860's and has a colorful history with all the violence, gold, and politics of any great Ghost Town, but it is not Ghost Town it is the county seat in the present time. We toured the town looking at all the old buildings that look much as they did 100 years ago. We ended the day by going to the Opera House to see the Drunkard. We also visited Nevada City three miles down the road to visit the Music Hall and play a few of the old musical machines.
One other day was spent going to Jackson Hole and Jackson, WY. The weather did not cooperate for us on this day. We were plagued with rain and clouds covering the mountains so picture taking was poor. Then to end the day I went to the gallery of Keith Fay my favorite artist of the area and his gallery was closed. I am not sure why. I left a note and hope to stop by on the way home. Would be good to see him again. He is not 86 and broke a hip last winter. When we say him nine years ago he said he wasn't going to die so his artwork was not going to go up in value.
I did recover some of the picture taking on the way to Riverton, WY when I got a great shot of MT. Moran reflecting in the water. I also hope to get some pictures as we return to Oregon.

Yellowstone Vacation

Well we are now at the Lake condo at Big Sky, Montana. The first two days we spent short days going to West Yellowstone and the uper loop of Yellowstone. We have had some rain most days but not for any long period of time. At least it doesn't interfere with the touring. After not being back here for nine years my first impression of Yellowstone would have to be a amount of growth that has happened since the 1988 fire. I was in Yellowstone during the fire and know all the cries from people about how they should have not let it burn at first and the Rangers saying the fire was part of the natural process. Well the trees don't grow as fast as they do in Oregon but the number of trees in the burn area is much more than I expected. The problem is that trees live longer than we do and the time it takes a long time for the new forest to grow and it does not fit into our lifetime.
The the Lake Condos are same as always and we do see a lot of animals right our our window. The moose is still around. We have yet to see the cow but did see a yearling. Both have been around we just missed the cow. The beaver are in the lake and a pair of cormorant are almost always in the tree or nearby. The say there have been bear around but not this week.
The Sunday trip around the upper loop was good for animals but also presented the first disappointment. They are repairing the road to the Artist Point, the best place to see the lower falls of the Yellowstone so we could not drive there. Looking for animals is always interesting the first time you see something you are all excited because you don't know if you will see them again then after awhile you say. “Just another elk.” Of course you are always looking to get a better picture of that great bull elk or bison but I think we have done well with those two. The coyote we saw was by the luck of stopping a view point and it just walked by. I was also surprised that we did not see any elk at Mammoth usually there is a large herd around town.
On Monday we made the short trip to West Yellowstone so I could get some pictures of the painted bison and visit the wolf and grizzly center. I was surprised when I loaded the painted bison on flickr they got 30 views in three days. The live bison pictures don't do as well. The visit to the wlfk and grizzly center should be our only chance to see the wolf or grizzly bear. At this time of year most of the grizzly are at higher altitudes and wolves just don't stand by the road.
The Tuesday drive around the lower loop allowed us to see Old Faithful and drive the north side of the Yellowstone canyon to get a picture of the lower falls. As bad as the road was along the north side of the canyon, I would think that next year it may be closed so they can repair it. Of course there a many other waterfalls to see and I got pictures of many but Old Faithful and Lower Falls are just two things you have to visit if you are going to be in Yellowstone. The last time we were in Yellowstone we did not see many bison. This year elk and bison are plentiful. If fact nothing gets your attention more that a herd of about 30 bison coming down the highway toward you. The people behind them had to wait and when they are coming toward you want the picture and then I don't want them to think my car is challenging them in anyway. So it did take a little time to get through that bison jam.

Photoshop CS3

My big adventure this summer has been learning Photoshop CS3 and how to use it to improve or modify my photographs. Oh yes, there is the basic how to change exposure or highlights or even put two photographs together, but now I am working with a big step up from the old Photoshop 6 and gaining a little understanding of what happens and when is it best to use a function.
I will admit that working through the lessons that came with the program and the book I bought gets confusing and sometime a little boring. Yet the lessons do show me how the different functions that change the photo but I am sometimes not sure just what function would do the best job on a given photo. All of the basics are great and now I can merge several pictures together without using the stitch function in my camera. This gives a little more freedom of shooting several shots and merging as long as you keep the camera in about the same place for all the shots.
I have been looking at many of the pictures on Flickr and getting some ideas of things to do. Two functions that I am really excited about are the merging of two or three pictures with different exposures to produce a picture with a wider range of light values. I have yet to get much for pictures that will work but basic experimentation has been interesting. The second is OOB (Out Of Bounds) that produces a photo with some 3-D effect. A search of Flickr gives 6,600+ examples of this procedure and is my biggest work right now. I have used this on a number of pictures and look at the examples to try to get new ideas. The tutorial on OOB provides some basic steps in the process but looking at the pictures you can see that it is only the beginning. You also need to look at the picture in a different way to see how to make it OOB. You see a couple of my examples in this blog and more on Flickr.

Block Party

We had our neighborhood block party. For the third year we have made it an Ice Cream Social. Since Tony next door is the local Tilamook Ice cream man for the local fairs it is a logical thing to do. He has his wagon that he sets up at most activities in the area. We didn’t get the wagon because it is fair time but we did get a discount on ice cream, free cups, and people bring toppings.
We had about 75 people show up and a few forgot about the party. Everyone had a good time. Marilyn played the roll of teacher again and had a number of games for kids of all ages to play, like garbage can races and water balloon toss.
Again this year the fire truck came and gave rides to kids of all ages. This was a big hit with everyone.
In addition we collected food for the food bank and got 50 pounds of canned food and $29 for the food bank.
More pictures on Flickr.

Oregon Coast Aquarium

We made the annual trip to the Oregon Coast Aquarium with the granddaughters Joanna and Stevie. On the drive to Newport we pasted the hillside painting of the reclining nude. Last year it was the Mona Lisa and because of an accident caused by someone stoping too soon that resulted in a death, the ODOT had block the roadside so you could not stop beside the road. For some reason this weekend the cones were pushed back so we were able to stop and get a picture along with a slug picture. I think the granddaughters were more interested in the slug than the painting. They named Slimy. Anyway I put the painting on Flickr and tagged it Nude so have been getting some hits.
It was overcast, so went to the aquarium first and made the normal tour. This year the changing exhibit is CLAWS so we get to see crabs, lobsters, etc. It was Sunday so the aquarium was crowded and I included in my Flickr pictures some I had taken earlier this year. Also with my new camera in the shop I was using my old camera and don’t think it takes some pictures as well as the new camera. The aquarium does change some with the new exhibits and then births that occur or animals that come in for rehab. One of the interesting ones now is the baby wolf eel. The wolf eel is such and ugly animal to me and it has been interesting to see them grow over the last two weeks. They also have pictures and other information about the eels. I also enjoy watching the birds flying through the water.
After the aquarium we were off to Agate Beach where I cook hamburgers and the girls play on the beach. It was a little windy but still they love the time on the beach more that looking at all those fish at the aquarium. Their attention span is very short at most of the exhibits. The touch tank is one of their favorites and they also enjoy the Passages of the Deep with the tunnel through the three different ocean habitats. The shark habitat is always a big draw for everyone and crowded on a Sunday.

Neal Gladstone

Well it is the end of July so it is time for the Neal Gladstone concert at the Tyee Wine Cellars. As always we was greeted by an enthusiastic groups of his fans. But then it was not just Neal they were there to see. There are his “Friends” and each plays a special part in the group.
More extensive bios are given on the web site and I have trouble picking my favorite. Audrey has such a great voice, Kendall play a wild guitar, and Dave a great harmonica. Dave has been absent for a while off doing his own thing. Did I mention Dave also has a PhD in Mathematics?
The crowd all seemed to have a favorite they wanted them to sing and they covered most of them. They especially love I’m a Liberal, which you can enjoy the video on his web site.
Well so much until another year.

Potluck

On Sunday we attended an old fashioned Potluck at the Cliff and Gay Hall’s place in King’s Valley. They have restored the original King’s family home build in 1846 and purchased 160 acres surrounding the home. They are in the process of making this land into a nature preserve.

The people attending were basically three groups: the neighbors, tennis players, and physicians. Cliff is a retired physician and Gay plays tennis. Of course the tables were loaded with a great variety of food and drinks. Everyone enjoyed a great meal and conversation and then several of us took one of the provided maps to take a tour of the farm. All of the animals were in hiding but we did have a great walk.

Most of the pictures I took were around the farmhouse as most of the land is covered with newly planted trees and tall grass. The Luckiamute River runs by the farm as well as another small creek runs through the property. The returning of the land to a nature area is a continuing process and the local school children have helped in planting some of the trees.

More pictures of the event can be found on the flickr photos.

To the Beach

Most of the time our trip to the beach is a one day trip, but this time we got to spend three days at a friend’s home watching her cat while she was in the valley getting medical treatment. So that means Pearl, the cat, gets a picture right up front. It also meant that I got a chance to do many different things and take a lot of pictures.

Of course there are the walks on the beach and although we did not get into build sand castles we did meet a family that was busy building their sand city. they were even able to keep their dogs from getting into the act of digging into their wonderful city.
When you are there for a few days you can go to some of the tide pools at low tide and enjoy the rocks and starfish exposed by the low tide. You never know just what you will find but it is fun to wonder around and see any interesting plants for animals on the beach. Of course there are the birds that are there all the time, but the starfish and mussels are often hidden under the water, We found one couple prying some mussels off the rocks for there dinner and many colorful starfish.
We also drove south along the coast to visit two enjoyable spots. The first was Strawberry Hill. Here you can always find a number of seals on the rocks or swimming in the water. Since we were there at low tide, we were able to get down on the peach to see the animals up close and personal.
The second place we visited was Heceta Head Lighthouse. We did not actually visit the lighthouse but did go the pullout that looks back at the lighthouse to get some great pictures. This is only about a mile from the sea lion caves so many times you will get to see sea lions on the rocks below. It was a good day for pictures and for sea lions so a good time was had by all.

We also visited the Oregon Coast Aquarium but will be back there next week with the grand daughters so will save the pictures and discussion until then.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

“Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” comes to Corvallis. I will admit that I do not watch the show. Well I have seen parts of it a time or two but it is in Corvallis. We didn’t make the trip out until Friday when they were moving in the furniture and other household items. It is just amazing what they can do in one week – teardown a house and build a new one. And not a small house. As stated in the Corvallis Gazette Times -
“What Chapman committed to was building a state-of-the-art, 4,000-square-foot home in a matter of 106 working hours. That means coordinating around 2,000 volunteers, from Legend employees to subcontractors to community members.
“The key to building a quality home in the time we have is to build a quality team,” Chapman said.
The new house will have four bedrooms, three and a half baths and new landscaping, as well as a new water system. From the foundation to the paint to the brand-new living room lamps, the entire project will be complete by the end of the week and will be almost entirely done with local workers and products.”
I have provided links to two of the stories the start and end. Today the family returns and gets to see the new house.
http://www.gtconnect.com/articles/2007/07/08/news/top_story/1aaa01_makeover.txt
http://www.gtconnect.com/articles/2007/07/14/news/top_story/2aaa01_makeover.txt
That was not all that was happening. You stopped at the Nazarene Church and there you caught a school bus to the site about a mile away. This is a big project and the neighbors have everything from construction equipment to tents as the workers gather to create the home in 7 days. You had a very limited area that you could stand and watch the action.
The volunteer spots were quickly filled and for them some of it was stand and wait but while we were there they were cheering as each new truck arrived with household items and then quickly carried it inside. I was able to see and get a picture of Michael. I will admit that I didn’t know who that was but when people were getting pictures taken with him and getting his autograph I new I had to get a picture first and ask questions later. Some people we talked with had been there every day maybe even twice a day. Always hoping to see one of the people from the show and to be amazed and the speed at which the house was done.
Of course there was the toy drive and collecting money for the family in various ways. The Rock School was there with their very young band and the local company that rents air filled bouncing equipment was setup and for a donation kids could play.
It was and interesting experience even if you don’t watch the show.

Berry Heaven

We are now in berry season. One of our friends said when they moved here they thought they were in “Berry Heaven”. The strawberries are about gone but we are into blueberry, raspberry, marionberry, and others. A few days ago I went out picking blueberries. They were plentiful and good. It only took about 20 minutes to fill my bowl and head for the nearby McDonald Forest and Peavy Arboretum for a walk.
The three-mile hike through the forest was great many spring flowers are still blooming and the weather was just right. It was a little warm on the uphill climbs but with breaks to take pictures made it a very pleasant time.
The next morning it was blueberry pancakes for breakfast. We have also had some ice-cream with the berries. One of our friends also had some marionberries that she shared with us so we have been enjoying some of the wonderful berries of Oregon.
I should also mention that the Washington cherries are coming into the stores and are a great as ever. There is something about fresh fruit and berries that is so much better than the frozen or canned.

IFYE Coast Trip

The last day of the IFYE Conference was to be a trip to the Hatfield Marine Science Center and the Oregon Coast Aquarium for dinner. We could not enter the aquarium until it was closed and the people were gone so we had to come in the back door at 6 PM as the regular visitors were leaving out the front. That meant that we had a day at the coast.
The Hatfiled Center does have a few exhibits but I think the biggest draw for the people planning the conference was we could be there before it closed and we could have the auditorium for our final meeting. During the day there were three other tours we could take until meeting at the Marine Science Center at 3:30.
I chose the lighthouse even though I had just been there. The other two were basically visiting the waterfront tourist area. Great for the people out of town but not so nice if you have been there many times. I was hoping for some good pictures of tide pools or a different view of the lighthouse. And then we did not visit the interpretive center on the last visit so that was a draw.
Well the day started out great. We got on the bus at 10:30 and started to the coast. While the other groups could choose from the many restaurants on the waterfront for lunch we were to eat at Izzy’s. That is fine because the buffet has a great many choices and great salad bar to keep everyone happy. The only problem is we all ate more than we needed.
But that is were the problems started. When the bus driver tried to turn the engine off in the bus it wouldn’t stop and then when it did it wouldn’t start again. Well at least we were at Izzy’s. While we ate, they ordered in another bus from the valley and a mechanic. In addition they called one of the other buses from one of the other tours to take us to the light house after lunch. After all they had nothing to do until about 3:30.
So we were off to the Lighthouse and I started at the interpretive center before walking down to the lighthouse. About half of the group started at the lighthouse. The walk to the lighthouse is about a fourth of a mile and provides some great views. Since it was high tide the tide pools were eliminated but I had hoped to go up in the lighthouse or climb the hill to get a different view of the lighthouse. Well since we didn’t have our own bus the time at the lighthouse was cut short by about 45 minutes. So the climb up the hill was out and with twenty people from out group and the other people visiting the site the line for the lighthouse was long and only a few can go in for each visit. I opted for the beach. There were the usual large number of birds and seals on the rocks and the birds were building nests. A number of the gulls were catching small fish to eat but I could only get a shot of a gull in the water not flying through the air with a fish.

Oregon Garden

I have been spending the last few days at the National IFYE Conference (International Farm Youth Exchange) that was held in Corvallis. I didn’t take part in the planning but tried to help out, when they needed and extra hand. There are often little things you can do to help out, so that was me, just helping out.
For the daylong tour I choose the Oregon Garden and the Willamette Valley Vineyards. The Oregon Garden is always a nice place to visit and the great flowers gave me a chance to tryout my new camera. Of course the beauty of the garden is not just the flowers. Many of the plants have very beautiful leaves.
So weather it is a close-up of a flower or a larger view of many of the plants and flowers together, you can spend a long times enjoying the view and taking pictures. I only have a small portion of the pictures I took on flickr but tried to put on some of the better ones. Of course some of the view can only be appreciated in person. I did take some panoramic shots where I could use the Photoshop program to join several pictures together and that was great. But you still miss something without being there.
Of course, after a walk around the park and/or a ride on the tram a person can get hungry. The little café at the garden has a very nice place to eat outside and some great sandwiches to get you through the day. This was also a great time to talk with some of the other people attending the conference. Most of them I didn’t know but we all had shared a common experience in the exchange so it was fun to share experiences.

Oregon Coast Pictue Trip

Well the trip to the Oregon Coast was good and bad. I did get a lot of pictures but it was very cloudy and we got caught in rain about the time we where going to head down to the tide pool. We did see whales. At least two probably a mother and baby right next to the shore but all they would show us was a fin and maybe their back as the would blow.
I tried many things since all I was to do was take pictures. Got some reasonable shots of birds flying and many lighthouse shots. I wish I had a bigger zoom as the birds were nesting. Some were on the nest and other were gathering grass for the nest. There was also the rock out in the ocean that was covered with birds. Most of these shots required a higher zoom.
Some very nice flower shots and I do enjoy the close-up shots of the flowers. While I was shooting flowers and just looking around a song sparrow landed on some of the flowers I was observing so that required another eight shot to try to get the perfect shot.
Since this was a trip organized by Rush Hour Photo, there was another couple on the trip and I rode with them. They were new a Corvallis and very nice people. Paul Rentz, President of Rush Hour, and Andy, his friend, where along to help identify animals and flowers. Part of the cost includes processing at Rush Hour and I am looking forward to any input that Paul might have as a professional photographer on the pictures I have taken.
Of course I have been busy with photoshop to see what I can do with the pictures. Since it was cloudy, some adjustment of light and color was done on most of the pictures. Then of course you really don’t want the parking lot and viewing platform in the pictures of the lighthouse so they had to be removed. The last was the combining of the lighthouse with one of the seagulls I caught flying by. All the pictures of the whale were a waste. Even if I had more zoom a fin is not that exciting and then if you really zoom in will you be where the whale decides to surface the next time?

You see a sample of my work here ,more is posted on Flickr, some are in process, and some have been deleted.

Chip Ross Park

Spring and early summer can be a great time to go for a walk through OSU forest property and Chip Ross Park. The wild flowers are in full bloom and if you ignore the pollen in the air you can enjoy yourself. The flowers even make a good excuse to stop and look (rest) after a hard walk up the hill.
Right now the grass pollen is very high so my eyes are paying the price until about July 4th when the pollen could goes down. I did my first walk up over the hill and park and it was great I don’t always take my camera but did this time. I didn’t really do much with the photos except size and cut back the exposure some. In the bright sun it is easy to over-expose the picture and is easiest to just adjust in photoshop.
Since it was my first walk of the summer, I did pay the price the next day in sore legs. I hadn’t used those muscles for a while. I will be back on the hills soon. We aren’t getting much rain so the path through the forest is relatively dry and the views are spectacular.

It's Flower TIme

While on our recent trip to Everett, Washington we had about an hour to wait before we were to attend a service so we headed to the Legion Park. It was raining so not a great day to be in the park but there was a baseball game going on and some people were working in the flower garden. Marilyn grabbed her book and did some reading. I got my umbrella and camera and headed to the flowers garden.
I enjoyed taking close-up pictures of flowers last summer in Colorado so thought this could be fun. In addition to all the beautiful flowers, I had all those drops of water on the petals that you see in many pictures. Well the flowers did not disappoint me. I got a number of great shots of flowers and I will not claim to know the names of all of them. Now that I am back home and have them on my computer the question becomes what to do with them. Since I used the macro setting and the spot focusing, most of the flowers were in focus and the background was out of focus. I will not be showing you the ones where the reverse happened. I will just delete and move on like it never happened. Isn’t that one of the reasons we love digital photography?
Well I really liked a number of the shots but wanted to play with them just a little. After all I had just gotten the Photoshop CS3 and need to see just what it can do. I will be the first to admit that I don’t know how to use many of the features in the program but it does have some interesting filters that can be applied and a new tool for easily selecting part of the photograph. I also had seen a picture in one of the shops or maybe it was at the art fair we visited where they had taken ta picture of the flower and put it on a black background.
So what you see is some of my playing. The rose placed on the black background is a simple but effective presentation. The purple flower is just as it was taken except for sizing. The lilies and clematis where manipulated using some of the filters and artistic effects you can add to the photos.
I have other photos and I will soon get a book on using Photoshop so I may soon have even more fun playing with the pictures I have taken.

Visit to Bavaria

We paid a visit to Bavaria without leaving the Northwest. We spent a day in Leavenworth, Washington. There ware no special events in Leavenworth for the day we were there but we did get to wonder through all the shops, eat sausage, drink beer, and visit the Nutcracker Museum.

Leavenworth is a very beautiful city. All of the downtown has been created to look like a Bavarian village and most of the shops sell tourist items for the area.

Our visit to the Nutcracker Museum was very interesting. The number and variety of nutcrackers could keep you looking for hours if you were to look at each one. It was interesting to see all the different cultural influences that are shown in the various designs. It is not just the Christmas Soldier.

Of course you can’t visit the area without having some traditional beer, sausage, sauerkraut, and music. For dinner we visited a restaurant that had live music and both the band and a number of the people eating at the restaurant were wearing the traditional lederhosen.

Other than food and lodging we didn’t do much to support the local economy. We did buy one pottery rooster that Marilyn was sure would fit right in with her other rooster in the kitchen.

Home Sweet Home

It is good to get home. No matter where you call home it is nice to get back to your own bed and familiar surroundings. Living out of a suitcase can be fun for a while as you discover new people and things but it is always nice to be home.
Getting from Tennessee to Oregon was a major case of hurry up and wait. We got to Knoxville airport and checked in for our flight. About 45 minutes before we were to leave they said that due to mechanical problems the plane was still in Chicago and they would update us as they knew more. So after an extra hour and half wait we were on our way to Chicago. At that point the scheduled four-hour wait in Chicago didn’t look so bad. Others around were missing or hoping to catch connecting flights. One lady with two very small boys had only 30 minutes to catch an international flight. I hope she made it.
Well at least the Chicago flight boarded on time. Then we had to wait about 40 minutes to take off. Only two runways were being used because of weather problems. But we were off to Portland, Oregon. I managed to get a nap on the way and just as I woke up and looked out the window I saw Mt. Hood in the setting sun. It was a nice sight to see.
At least our bags all made it and it was an uneventful drive back home. But now it is back to the yard and garden. The weeds did not take a vacation.