Under Reconstruction

Well, this looks a bit of a mess at the moment!

I tried to make one minor change, and everything went to hell in a handbasket... good thing nobody saw the first few attempts.  They were awful!

I'm not all that charged up about what I'm seeing now, but there are some advantages over the previous settings.

Stay tuned, if you dare.

Whoooo are you?

I’ve been hearing about the snowy owls for days (weeks?) but had not had a chance to get out to the South Jetty to check them out myself.

I thought I’d missed my opportunity and that they’d moved on, but I ran into Sue Olson at lunch and she nudged me in that direction.

I can be a bit slow at times, so at first I didn’t follow the cluster of folks at the “uninteresting” corner of the parking lot.  Instead, I headed toward the south edge of the jetty, turning around at an opportune moment to capture this:

I couldn’t help but like it, but at the same time, I knew that this particular scene meant that I was on the verge of losing any usable light for bird photography.

After asking for help in locating one, I finally spotted the big male hiding in plain sight.  I must have been staring at him for three or four minutes before I actually saw him… at first he was masked by the very light sky.

I slowly, carefully (and probably needlessly) crept up on him, picking my way around the edge of the almost frozen marsh and through crackling grasses.

He didn’t care.  He watched me the whole way and didn’t budge.  He even let me get too close to be of any use… so close to the base of “his” tree that I couldn’t get a good shot of him.  It didn’t matter to him.  I was of such passing interest that he spent most of his time looking everywhere except at me.

But now and again, he’d stare me down.

I shot a lot of frames, but this is the one that I’m happiest with so far.  It’s a huge crop, even though I wasn’t that far away.  It’s noisy as hell, too, though I did what I could in Lightroom to mitigate that.  I still like it.

It feels rather intimate.

The fact that it’s the middle of January, calm and relatively clear was not lost on me.  Even though it was more than an hour past sunset, I decided to chance a detour to the Peter Iredale shipwreck and see what the afterglow had to offer.

Not a bad evening out, all in all.

Blue Hour Again

It’s been a very busy day on the river, and I haven’t been able to take much of it in.

By definition, the “blue hour” had been over for at least 20 minutes when I made the shot.

You could fool me!

It’s the Sinar Kutai riding at anchor just west of the Mill Pond area.  I love that the water is brighter than the sky.  There was actually clear sky overhead.  The massive cloud bank topped out a few degrees above the upper edge of the frame.

105mm @ f/8, 4 seconds, ISO 200.

A (couple of) Shot(s) In The Dark

I’ve never entered a photo contest before. 

I’ve been shooting for 35 years and more, but I haven’t entered anything in an actual contest.

That changed last week.  I entered two images.  If you like them, please feel free to vote for one!

http://www.coastweekend.com/yourcw/annual_photo_contest/

Mine are #218 and #220.

#193 in the series is another favorite of mine, for personal reasons.

There are some truly wonderful images in this set, many of them from this area, some not. 

The contest has a judged portion and a “Reader’s Choice” element.  All entries are in both pools. 

There are some very strong candidates, depending on your interests.  There are also some that shouldn’t have made the first round of a daily “keep or save?” edit on a cell phone, but that’s not something that I have any say about.

Coming This Saturday

Fall’s Really Here

I slept in today.  It’s been a really long time since I’ve done that.  I broke the surface to consciousness a few times and glanced out the window to see clouds, or a smattering of sun, or a fog bank, or, just before I actually got up, a howling squall that obliterated the view as it shook the doors and smeared raindrops across the window.

That would be fall.  A bit of everything in a short span of time.

I had it in my head to take a trip out Highway 202 with the specific intent of taking in and perhaps capturing the colors.

Well, it sort of worked.  The weather seemed to have taken a break as I drove southeast, but of course as soon as I arrived at Lee Wooden County Park, the rain started again in earnest, leaving me to re-think my kit and strategy.

It was raining hard.  I don’t usually attempt to use an umbrella when photographing, but I did today on several occasions.

An afterthought, added a day later:  The road in the frame above is a bit less than a year old, if I remember correctly.  I can’t help but wonder if the civil engineers involved envisioned that graceful sweep as they planned it out.  This is the view that drivers see as they pass by on Highway 202.  The road (lane, really) just seems to whisper “Come down here!”

It was an awkward trudge.  Bag over shoulder, tripod under one arm, brolly in the other hand.  But, I knew that I would like what I found at Fishhawk Falls and its immediate surroundings.

My polarizer has been a bit of a layabout lately.  I put it to work regularly today, though.  The difference in just a few degrees of rotation is amazing when dealing with water reflections.

From atop the Klaskanine River Bridge.  Not a typo… just one of many spellings of the word that you’ll find in both Clatsop and Columbia Counties.

Heading back toward home with the light fading fast, I caught a glimpse of these “Clatsop longhorns” in what used to be an elk “ranch” near Olney.  Really impressive horns!

As I got closer to home, the light was dimming fast, but I had to try to catch some of the calm on the water.  As a bonus, I was rewarded with the splashing of fish in spawning grounds behind me, elk bugling in the distance and ducks squawking all around me while I made a series of long exposures.

All shots in this series made with the A77 and 16-50mm zoom.  The first three used a Cokin polarizer.  Exposures and ISO settings varied.  Most were tripod-mounted.

A “Mini-Show” is Up and On Display

Nine of my images are now up on the walls in Astoria’s Baked Alaska restaurant. Some if the photos have been featured on this and my other blog, but none have been on public display as prints before.

The image area on each of the prints us roughly 12 x 18 inches, and all are professionally matted and framed.

Stop by and take a look, if you’re interested.

Scott