Archive for the 'Oregon' Category

Civil War Battle for the Rose Bowl

Published on December 5, 2009 in blogging and Oregon. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

On Thursday I attended the Civil War game where, the Oregon Ducks battled it out with the Oregon State Beavers to decide not only who would be PAC-10 champion and have bragging rights in the State but also for the first time ever, decide which team would be traveling to Pasadena and playing in the Rose Bowl.  I decided to walk over from the UO campus, along with hundreds of other people, mainly drunk and obnoxious college students.  The crowd grew larger and more obnoxious as we approached the stadium with taunts beginning from both sides.  Now began the ominous task of seeking out my friend who had given me a free ticket.  This turned out to be impossible as there were so many people and for whatever reason my cell phone, despite having full bars, was not working for either calls or text messaging (thank you AT&T!).  After waiting 20 minutes in line to use the bathroom (apparently the beer was catching up to most folks at that time) I decided to just head in and get to my seat as it was nearing kick-off time.  Pushing my way through the crowd toward the gate I made it inside and searched for Section 12 which turned out to be sweetly placed on the 50 yard line.  Great seats and great view.  It was a little intimidating being a Beaver fan surrounded by cheering Duck fans.  Dare I root for the Beavers in the midst of the crowd?  Would they turn on me or accept the friendly rivalry?  Thankfully I had secretly worn a green jacket under my orangish pullover just in case I was questioned.  At one point the guy next to me asked “What kind of fan are you?  I don’t see any green?”  Thankfully my hidden green jacket saved the day.

The noise inside the stadium was deafening.  I mean it actually hurt my ears at some points, especially with the guy next to me blowing into his damn duck call.  And boy was it cold out.  Temperatures in the low 30′s.  With everyone in their seats it wasn’t too bad as all the body heat from the matrix kept it feeling warm.  But at half-time when everyone made their escape to the bathroom or to get more food and drink you could really feel the coldness seep into your core.  I welcomed the return of the matrix.

The game was awesome and just what I expected from two great teams.  It was pretty evenly matched throughout the first three quarters and I am sure the Beavers gave the Ducks quite a scare as they took the lead on several occasions.  But in the fourth quarter the Ducks had some great plays and came out the better team that night.  I can’t imagine the disappointment the OSU team must have felt to have come so far and fought and worked so hard but come up 4 points short (final score was Ducks 37 Beavers 33).  We’ll get ‘em next year Beavers!  Congratulations to the Ducks and their victory to the Rose Bowl.

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What’s The Rush?

Published on November 30, 2009 in blogging and Oregon. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

This morning was another typical Monday involving the morning commute to work.  I’m lucky that I only live 3 miles from my place of employment but it’s amazing what you can see along that 3 miles.  This morning in particular I noticed the hurry that people seemed to be in.  Were people really that rushed to get back into the office and into the grind after a 4 day weekend?  Apparently so as I witnessed countless acts of road rage, close calls from vehicles changing lanes abruptly and tailgating.  What’s the rush people?  Five minutes will not make a bit of difference in your day (unless of course you are an ambulance driver and then 5 minutes will definitely make a difference in someones life).  Take a deep breath and enjoy life.  Your job is not that important in the grand scheme of things and if you think it is you are seriously deluding yourself that 5 minutes makes a difference.  Then of course there are those that want to start their work day from their car along the way by texting or emailing from their phones while weaving and dodging through traffic.  Not long ago while I was walking my kid to school we were about to cross through the crosswalk and a driver blew through the intersection through a red.  I glanced up just in time to see them texting on their phone, oblivious to the carnage they came so close to causing.  Let’s get up a little earlier folks so we don’t feel the need to rush around like tomorrow will never come, because an error like running a red light may mean tomorrow never comes for a kid walking to school.

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Bad Blogger…Bad!

Published on November 10, 2009 in blogging, Oregon and photography. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

What a bad blogger and host I have been.  How could I not have posted anything during the entire month of October?  It’s not like there isn’t anything going on in October what with Halloween, harvest parties, the changing colors of Fall.  I gotta do better than this.  So for my first post in November I give you “Boots and Reflections”.

Boots & Reflections

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Wedding Weekend Pt.3

Published on September 19, 2009 in blogging and Oregon. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

This is Part 3 of the Wedding Weekend series. Parts 1 and 2 can be found here and here.

So we arrived safely at Elk Lake Resort at around 3PM and the wedding ceremony was scheduled for 5PM so we had a few short hours to acclimate and get changed. We met up with family and borrowed their cabin to change into our wedding garb. By this time the jalapenos from lunch were singing a different tune and it was really off key. Needless to say this caused some concern by other family members who wanted to use the bathroom but found it unusable. But let’s not dwell on that one distasteful event. After getting dressed we headed down to where the ceremony was to take place which was right along the lake. There were log seats for everyone and a canopy setup where dinner would be served. We sat and prepared for the bride to arrive.
Waiting for the Bride

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally amidst tears the bride arrived at the altar and the ceremony began.  About 1 minute into the ceremony my youngest son announced in a loud voice “I gotta go poop!!”.  Keep in mind that the altar is quite a distance from the cabins and thus anything that remotely resembles a toilet.  Since I was filming the ceremony my wife took him back to the cabin and ended up missing the entire ceremony.  There were some beautiful moments where the bride and groom shared thoughts poems and quotes with each other and then recited their own vows that each had written.  It was really touching.  It’s always uplifting to see, feel and experience the love between two people and to have those moments amidst the peacefulness of the lake and the beauty of the towering mountains was just a very special moment.

The Bride and Groom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the ceremony complete the newlyweds invited everyone to enjoy a wonderful dinner.  There was a choice of either prime rib or salmon.  I chose the salmon which was plated with a mix of potatoes, carrots and zucchini.  It was delicious as was the champagne that was flowing as free as a cascading river.  After dinner there was the cake cutting and bouquet toss.  Everyone then went back up to the cabins and changed clothes and prepared for the bonfire and s’mores (Mmmm…).  After some drinks and fun around the fire we all called it a night and retired to the cabin.  The cabin was quite rustic and smelled like you would expect an old cabin to smell.  It has a small living room, 2 very small bedrooms with beds that were apparently built for Santas elves and a cooking area.  I slept very poorly as I kept getting cold and it wasn’t until the morning light was peering through the blinds that I realized the windows were open slightly allowing cold air to seep in all night long.  It was at this time that I also discovered the thermostat for turning on the gas fireplace.  All in all it was a good weekend and a good break from the ordinary.

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Wedding Weekend Pt.2

Published on September 19, 2009 in blogging and Oregon. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

If you have just joined in you may want to start with the first post in this wedding weekend series, which can be found here. To recap, we arrived in Bend and enjoyed a wonderful pre-wedding family dinner. It’s now Sunday and the kids are awake and ready for the pool. But we need nourishment first and thankfully we have a free continental breakfast waiting for us courtesy of our wonderful hotel. We got downstairs before the rush of the hungry arrived and devoured everything in site. The kids got their fruity colored cereal and I got to make a couple of waffles in the cool waffle maker they had. I’m pretty sure they tasted so good because I poured and cooked them myself. After breakfast the boys were clamouring non-stop to head down to the pool. So we put on the bathing suits and headed down to the pool, which amazingly was devoid of all life. The water was really warm and the boys splashed around and indicated that they were never going to come out. Zachary, my oldest, was still having some fear about swimming and having water go over his head so we managed to coerce him into slipping on a life jacket and trying to float around a bit in the deep end a bit. After a short time he was swimming the length of the pool so we were pretty excited about seeing that. We were finally able to coax the kids out of the pool so we went back to the room and packed everything up to check out and head up to Elk Lake Resort where the wedding was to take place and where we would stay the night in some rustic cabins.

After checking out of the hotel we decided that it would be best to strap on the ol’ feedbag before heading out to the cabins, so we stopped for lunch at a place called Boston’s. It’s a gourmet pizza joint/ sports bar. The kids ordered pizza, the wife ordered an individual spicy chicken pizza and I ordered fish tacos. But before that came we enjoyed a delicious plate of nachos which was the best plate of nachos I have ever had. The jalapenos on the nachos destroyed my stomach later but looking back I still feel it was worth the suffering. Full from the meal we attempted to navigate our way out of Bend and onto the Cascade Lakes Hwy toward Elk Lake. If you have ever been to Bend you are aware that most of the intersections throughout town are actually round-abouts. Being a newb in town I had no idea how to get to the road we needed so I asked the gas station attendant if he knew. He gave me what seemed at the time fairly simple directions of going straight, turning right a Reed Market and going through and endless number of round-abouts until we were supposed to see a sign for Mt. Bachelor. We did everything as instructed except for the turn to Mt. Bachelor which resulted in us taking a 20 minute drive around Mt. Washington Road, which wasn’t too bad as we got to see a lot of Bend we hadn’t seen before. Finally after completing this large loop and ending up right back where we started we saw a sign for Mt. Bachelor and started the 40 minute drive over to Elk lake. If you have ever had the good fortune of driving this road then you are fully aware of how beautiful this drive is. I’ll conclude Part 2 with a few photos of the beauty of this area. Stay tuned for Part 3 of Wedding Weekend.

Mt. Bachelor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Devil's Lake

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Wedding Weekend Pt.1

Published on September 19, 2009 in blogging and Oregon. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Last weekend my sister got married.  She lives in Bend so we loaded up the car Saturday morning and began the 2 hour drive across the Cascades to Bend.  We took the Hwy. 126 route which took us through Sisters Oregon.  Sisters is a town I love to hate.  There always seems to be traffic that backs up along the only main street through town.  This time was no different and we spent a good 20 minutes traveling 1/4 mile.  Finally we made it through and proceeded toward Bend.  I actually enjoy the drive between Sisters and Bend which passes through the high desert with great views of the Three Sisters.  We arrived in Bend and after some misdirection arrived at our hotel, which was the Fairfield Inn by Marriott.  The kids were excited to be staying in a hotel, especially one with a pool.  We checked in and took a brief rest and then headed over to my sisters house where there was a big family dinner planned.  The dinner was incredible.  I enjoyed a plate of cheesy grits with shrimp (see below) which was absolutely delicious.
Cheesy Grits with Shrimp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also enjoyed some good margaritas although my 3rd was a bit strong (mainly tequila with a splash of mix).  Lots of good conversations and time spent getting to know the families better.  It was probably one of the more enjoyable evenings I have spent in quite some time.

Margarita Time

It was getting late and the next day was the wedding so after saying out good nights we headed back to the hotel and called it a day.  Even the cat was worn out.

Tired Kitty

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Exciting Times

Published on September 19, 2009 in blogging, Oregon and photography. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

It’s been awhile since I lasted posted to this blog. Lots of things going on that have been taking up much of my time. Here are a few things that I have been working on.

I’ve been experimenting with off-camera lighting after purchasing a pair of Cactus V4 wireless flash controllers. This allows me to control both my 580EXII and 430EXII flashes without having to have them on the camera hotshoe. I’ll be writing a review of those shortly.

I’ve also been trying to learn more about Photoshop CS4 and better detailing my workflow and different techniques for really making my photos “pop”! I purchased the book Adobe Photoshop For Photographers by Martin Evening which based on my initial quick review of various sections looks to be the best Photoshop book I have seen so far. I’ll be writing a review of that shortly as well.

Since experimenting with off-camera lighting I realized that I have much to learn about proper exposure and how to best set my camera in different circumstances be it a strong backlight situation or low light. I found a great book called Understanding Exposure (Revised Edition) by Bryan Peterson which I have found to be invaluable in explaining exposure as it relates to aperture, shutterspeed and depth of field. I highly recommend this book to anyone struggling with the relationship between aperature and depth of field and how to shoot in manual mode. I’ll be writing much more on this later.

Finally I attended my sisters wedding in Bend last weekend. The ceremony was held out at Elk Lake in the Oregon Cascades with the backdrop of the evening glow on Elk Lake and Mt. Bachelor in the distance. It was just an incredible time and I have a 2 part post coming up on that.

As time goes on I find myself needing to engage life more and get out there and experience it. It’s a blink of an eye and then we are gone so now is the time to take risks, overcome fear and pursue fully the things we want in life. I’ve got several exciting projects in the works that for the time being will remain under wraps. These are exciting times and I’m looking forward to sharing those with you soon so stay tuned…more to come.

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County Fair

Published on August 25, 2009 in blogging and Oregon. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

The County Fair is typically a big summer event. In the past several years though we have been disappointed with the quality of the fair as well as the cost. This year was no exception and added to previous years of disappointment. Twenty-four dollars just to get the family inside and then $3-4 per ride for the kids. But the kids enjoyed it and you can’t put a price on their happiness. We first toured the animals where they got to see pigs, goats, sheep, all kinds of birds (some that I had never seen before) and rabbits.

Pigs

Next we saw all the vegetables and produce.  People had decorated up their vegetables to look like different things like a submarine made out of a squash, or a porcupine out of a potato.  There were some pretty creative ideas on display.  We then checked out the flower diaplays with some pretty wild and beautoful flowers like this sunflower.

Sunflower

We also wandered through the photography exhibits and artwork but by this time the kids had had enough and were restless for the carnival rides.  We bought 40 tickets for $20 and let the kids choose what rides they wanted to go on.  There was a helicopter ride where they could control the elevation of the copter, a race car ride that went around in circles, a canoe ride through a waterway and several other little kiddie rides that they were tall enough to go on.  Finally my oldest son wanted to go on the big ferris wheel.  It was an incredible view at the top looking down on the entire Fair.

Ferris Wheel

All in all it was a fun day and the kids really had a great time which is the most important part.  See my Flickr site for additional photos.

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Sunflowers

Published on August 22, 2009 in blogging, Oregon and photography. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

We planted a garden this year. Nothing special, just some tomato plants, cucumbers, eggplants and failed spinach and lettuce.  It’s a small garden of 2 raised beds which are partially shaded most of the day (hence the failed lettuce and spinach) but it’s the only space we have to plant.  The tomatoes have pretty much taken over the garden at this point and we have a mega load of red and yellow cherry tomatoes.  The cucumbers are doing better than last year (we’ve harvested 3 so far with many more developing on the vine) and I can’t see the eggplants right now as the tomatoes have overgrown their baskets and engulfed them.  We didn’t plant any sunflowers this year but apparently we didn’t need to as what we planted last year laid seed and we ended up with two sunflowers in the middle of the garden.  Here are a few shots I took the other night.  More can be seen on my Flickr site.

 

Sunflower

Sunflower

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Waldo Lake Revisited

Published on August 17, 2009 in blogging and Oregon. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Last year in August we camped at Waldo Lake but this year we just made a day trip.  Waldo lake is one of the purest lakes in the world.  It’s waters are ultra clear.  On a calm day you can see 120 feet into the water.  We arrived just in time to head out on the lake in kayaks.  I got in one with my youngest son and headed across the lake to a secluded beach.  I felt bad for my son as every time I paddled with the oars it dripped water on his head.  But he seemed to enjoy the ride.  It was a bit windy so the water was choppy and on occasion a wake would spash us in the face.  So the boys enjoyed a nice day at the beach while I paddled around a bit on the kayak.  One thing I failed to do was put on sunscreen so my legs and top of my feet burned which is turning out to be quite painful.  But it was worth it.  Sitting out alone in the middle of the lake in a kayak just looking at the wonder of nature surrounding me was very relaxing.  As the day wore on we took a hike along the shore of the lake and then as the sun began to set I snapped a few photos (more can be seen on my Flickr site).  As soon as the sun went down the mosquitos came out in full force.  We all got chewed up pretty good but my eldest son got one right on the eye lid which proceeded to swell up.  We arrived home quite late but with wonderful memories on our minds.

Waldo Lake

Waldo Lake

Waldo Lake

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