It pays to get up

Yesterday’s sunrise was sent to me by my daughter-in-law (I think) Heidi using her iPhone camera.  A simple message … “Good morning” … was attached.  There were some great and unusual clouds in the shot and I regretted not being somewhere to capture the event myself.  By the time I got her photo and got to my front porch the colors were mostly gone and the clouds were not to be seen.As we headed for bed last night Dianne and I checked the moon but was thinking about the morning’s sunrise. The sky was clear and cold.  I thought about going to Pittock Mansion for the next sunrise.

When I got up I looked outside to see a bank of clouds to the west and some light cirrus-like clouds to the east.  I grabbed the camera, some filters and the tripod and headed out.  I was the first one at Pittock and had my choice of places to plant the tripod. I got set up, pulled the zipper up on my outer layer, caught focus, framed and waited for the light.  As usual, I start shooting as soon as I think I see color… not my strongest suit BTW.  Another young man joined me and set up after casual greetings.  After about 20 minutes my hands were absolutely freezing.. gloves and all.  It was still about 10 minutes prior to technical sunrise but I’d had enough.  I headed to the car.

Once back at the car I saw another guy unpacking a video camera and tripod.  I wanted to tell him he was too late but I looked at the sky and the show was really just beginning.  I remounted the camera to the tripod and headed back out to the overlook.  After shooting about 20 HDR sets I really had had enough.  My fingers were so cold they hurt all the way to my armpits.

Was it worth it?  I think so.

Click on the image to see a larger version.  Thanks for stopping by.

Thunderbolts

If you follow this blog you may have heard about our friend, Barbara Keany.  Barbara is a very busy lady and spends countless hours shuttling her daughter, Celia, to and from swim practice and meets. I met Barbara a year of so ago when I asked her for some help understanding the mechanics of a swim meet I went to to see our nephew, Ethan, swim in. Barbara graciously taught me the way to find a person’s schedule and lane.  I’ve been taking photos of the Tualatin Hills Swim Club team occasionally this year and have learned a lot in the process.  In many ways it is more difficult than photographing birds but is good practice for the feathery subjects.

The Tualatin Hills Swim Club is hosting a 3 day international meet at their pool and Barbara arranged for me to have a deck pass so I could have the run of the pool area with hopes of getting some nice shots of the meet and the THSC swimmers.  I’m just beginning to process the files but ran into a few that made me happy and thought I’d share a few.

The new blog header shows Blaise Wittenauer-Lee swimming the 400 meter freestyle event.  I sat at the edge of the pool and prefocused on the center of her lane.  I’d pick her up as she entered my “zone” and followed along waiting to get in synch with her breathing rhythm.  My hope was that she’d breath on the side facing me.  I really don’t need a lot of shots of a swimmer where their face is not discernable.  Don’t get me wrong, I take a lot of those shots but they quickly get deleted. I’ve learned that the header image does not show up on the mobile version of my blog so the header photo is shown here.  Sorry for the redundancy created for folks viewing the blog on a browser.

The pictures below are also from the 400 meter event but from an earlier heat.  Featured are Lotta Novotny and Charlene Yuan.  All of these ladies were into the race and swimming their hearts out.  It was really interesting to stand near the team and listen to the coaches review a race with a swimmer of encourage them along during a race.  It’s a busy place, a swim meet.  I’m secretly glad that I did not fall in the pool.

The details:  Nikon D700, ISO 3200 or 6400, 70-200 f/2.8 or 28-75 f/2.8 lenses.

Thanksgiving treat

Di and I got invited to spend Thanksgiving with Devri’s family in Twin Falls, Idaho.  We knew that it would be a quick trip with 2+ days of driving and 2 days with family.  It felt a bit weird to break tradition of sharing Thanksgiving with Derek, Heidi and family but we just couldn’t miss a chance to see Devri, Chad and Kendyl again.  Off we went.

We got to Devri’s aunt Caroline and Uncle Wes’ place about an hour before Chad and family rolled in.  Just enough time to relax and get ready for what ever the next day and half brought our way. When the kids arrived we all started jockeying around to hold Kendyl. We got a bit of priority being grand parents but everyone got their turn and Kendyl just took it all with a smile and open curiosity. She’s almost 7 months old now and is making the anticipated progress toward crawling.  She is extremely tolerant of people poking at her, dressing her and generally trying to get time with her.  We have photos of so many expressions that we will come to know as Kendyl’s but for now I’ll post just one simple smile from a beautiful little girl.

I’m just guessing that you got a grin on your face too when you looked at the photo.  Perfect.  And, yes, she is looking at her Grandmother Dianne who has a way of coaxing a grin that lights the room.

Field trip with a friend

I enjoy taking people to Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge for their first experience.  My friend Carol agreed to go with me today and I jumped at the chance since the weather forecast was for sunny and warm… these days are limited.  We headed out shortly after 11:00, stopped to get a sandwich at the local Subway and headed into the refuge.

I have to admit that I was more than a bit disappointed when we made it to the east side of Rest Lake before we saw anything of real interest.  Maybe it was the time of day and sun.  As we cruised toward “three trees” I saw an American Bittern working the edge of the slough.  Cool.  For me this was the first bittern sighting of the season.  We pulled over and watched the bird work the edge.  It was really scoring food but we could not tell if the food was small fish, insects or something else.  Since most of the action was off the grass I was suspecting “insect”.  I was adjusting my camera support when the bird struck the mother load.  It was quick and both Carol and I were surprised pleased to see that I actually got a couple of sharp shots of the bittern skewering a frog.  Before we could say OMG the bird had swallowed the frog.. gulp.

I really wish that the background on the photo was better and that the frog was more evident.  But you know what…. part of the beauty of the bittern is its camouflage.  The photo will never be a prize winner but it is the first shot I have of a bird taking a trophy meal.

As we watched the bittern for a few more minutes it happened.  I heard geese taking off as a mass on our right.  The bittern looked up and headed into the grass.  The swans were all paying attention.  EAGLE!  I yelled at Carol that there had to be an eagle in the sky.  We started looking and saw a mature bald eagle pass from right to left as it headed to the west side of the lake.  It circled and came back toward us.  Darned if it didn’t swoop down and I yelled at Carol that it took something.  I was doing my best to get the camera on point and in focus as the eagle lifted off.  I’ve been attaching a 1.4x extender to the 200-400 and it really slows down the lens’ responsiveness.  Focus hunting.. damn, I hate it.  The eagle rose up and I saw that it had a duck in its talons.  Carol screams “a duck?”  Yup.  We both watched the eagle gain elevation and pass in front of us again.  I got lucky with the focus and held on for about 5 semi-sharp shots.  Wow.. what a show.

We both agreed that the day had turned out pretty well at that point.  I know that I’ll not soon forget the day with a friend when we got to witness some rare events and have photos to prove it.  Thanks for going along Carol.  I hope that we can see something as dynamic the next time.

A happy ending… and a rant

As of last night, and due in no small measure to my friend Eric’s ability and willingness to help, all of our “personal images” from 2011 have been restored and successfully backed up using GoodSync… the program continues to impress me with it’s efficiency and simplicity.  Lord knows I need “simple”.  That’s the happy ending.  Now for the rant.

I know that there are a lot of small businesses out there that are run by hard working people who try their best to offer a service or product that people need or want. I recognize in these economic times that surviving as a small business is hard… very hard.  There are a lot of empty store fronts in the towns I’ve driven through lately. Unfortunately, there are companies that offer up a service but their very structure and lack of skills keeps them from being successful.  Case in point:  Data Retrieval (http://www.dataretrieval.com/).

I landed on this company as a possibility to retrieve data from a Western Digital drive that went south without warning.  I found their website via Google and compared them to others in the area.  I called and talked to a lady about my problem and she told me that I could bring the disk in for a free diagnostic.  She also told me that if the data could be saved it would probably run between $300 and $1000.  GULP.  I figured that the disk was dead and I might as well find out if anything could be saved and what it would cost.

I went to the address of Data Retrieval… an upscale business park at the south end of Highway 217.  I walked into the lobbly and went to the business directory looking for the company or directions to Suite 400.  Hmmmmm…. danger signal… no company name on the board…. several companies listed in Suite 400 but not Data Retrieval.  I took the elevator to the 4th floor and walked into a large lobby with a lady behind a desk.  I asked for Data Retrieval and she said “that’s me”.  Hmmmmm….. We had a short discussion and she showed disappointment that I did not bring in their form to give her along with the drive.  She wrote my info down… name, address, phone, email…. and gave me a sticky note with a guy’s name and phone and email address.   Hmmmm…. that was my receipt?  Yup.  Why I did not trust my gut and grab the drive and run I’ll never know.  Again, I figured the drive was dead and of no use so I was just exploring. She told me that the drive would probably go to Seattle for the diagnostic.  Probably?  Hmmmmm…. another signal.

A day later I got a call from Mark.. no last name.  Dianne and I were busy with an engagement shoot so called back later.  Mark tells me that the heads on the drive are bad and that it would cost $1450 to rebuild the drive to see if the data could be recovered.  No guarantee.  I tell him “that’s a lot of money”.  He tells me “we need $300 to proceed”.  I tell him (nicely)… “stop, do nothing, incur no cost, return the drive”.  He tells me that it will be returned for my pickup.

Unfortunately, I am headed out of town for several days.  I’m in the far reaches of eastern Oregon and I get a call from someone in Ohio wanting to talk about my cancellation.  He leaves a message for me since I did not have a signal at the time. The man has a heavy foreign accent and leaves his name (could not understand what it was) and an extension along with the 800 number to call.  I call when I get back to my room and dial in the extension as the answering tree of options starts to frustrate me.  I get a message from a man who does NOT have a heavy foreign accent.  I leave a message saying that I want my disk back and to not do anything to it.  In the course of the next 2 days I get 3 more calls from the company in Ohio but no more messages are left on my phone.

I call back one more time and talk to their support person.  She asks me for my case number and I explain that I never got one… got a sticky note instead.  My bad.  She looks me up using my last name… go figure.  Then she tells me that David has been trying to get ahold of me.  I ask where my disk is and she tells me that it is where I dropped it off. I ask to be transferred to the guy who has been calling and get another message from a man who has a different voice and no accent.  Again, I leave a message that I want my disk and to not do anything.

When I get home I head down to get my disk back.  There’s a new lady sitting behind the desk and I explain that I am there to pick up my disk.  She says “what is your case number?”  I say “never got one. Got a sticky note instead… see it?” as I hold it up.  She looks perplexed and looks me up under my name… go figure.  I should feel good that they actually could find me I guess.  Then she gets up and walks off.  I figured that she is going for the disk and I start rehearsing my parting comments.  After a bit she returns with a guy in full business clothes.  I introduce myself and explain my situation and wish to get my disk back.  He asks for my case number.  AWWWWW… come on!  After he looks at my record on the computer he walks off.  I hear drawers and cupboards opening and shutting in a back room.  He reappears but has no disk in his hands.  He rechecks the computer and disappears to another part of the building.  On return he still has no disk.  He sits at the computer and I think he is wondering how to make a disk to give to me.  I’m revising and rehearsing my parting comments in my mind.  Finally he opens a drawer below the computer terminal and sees an envelope with my name on it.  He asks my name and hands me the disk.  Then he shows me that they really did issue me a case number… wrote it on the envelope.  I look at him and explain that it would have been helpful if they had actually given me the number.

The disk is in my possession and I’ve accomplished what I came for.  No money exchanged hands… that’s good.  Now I get to actually deliver my parting comments.  You don’t really want to know but the gist of it included terms like “flaky”, “inept”, “unhelpful”, “confusing” along with some others.

My lessons are:  (1) trust my gut and when it says “RUN” I should run.  (2) if turning over personal property… even if it is broken and useless… get a receipt.  Yeah… I know better. And lastly (3) get a case number… it will just make life easier.

Thanks to friends and a significant amount of time spent retrieving the data from a different ‘bad” disk I/we now have our files back and fully backed up.  I’m right where I started about 2 weeks ago and I hope that the perfect storm of disk failure doesn’t do us under again.

My message to you is “BACKUP”… somehow, but do it.  I’ll leave you to your own judgement about calling Data Retieval to help you if you find yourself in a position where they may be a source of recovery.  Ask for David or Mark.  Good luck to all of us.

It’s amazing, really

Dianne and I have been photographing the Sherwood Relay for Life for several years now. Between team pictures and events within the Relay we have time to wander the camp and visit with the many people who are participating. The stories are always engaging and frequently stir emotions beyond words.

We take our cameras along when we wander and photograph the scenes as they present themselves. We’re always on the lookout for small children and love to capture them with parents, siblings, friends. It was in this situation a few years ago that I saw a young girl with her mother sitting in their camp. I don’t remember the exact situation but I stopped and motioned or asked to take a photo. The two of them rearranged a bit and I shot a photo. We talked briefly and I moved on. That was the beginning of what has turned out to be another of those amazing relationships that the camera has created.

Jennifer, the mother, emailed a few weeks later after seeing the photo on the Sherwood Relay gallery on our website. She liked the photo and wanted to buy a copy. I explained that the photos were provided free of charge to the Relay organizers and the American Cancer Society and that I could not sell her one. I offered to prepare a file for her to print and gradually she relented on the payment and accepted my offer.

A year or so later Jennifer emailed again and asked about taking family photos. We gladly accepted the request and that is how we met Jason and the rest of the blended family. Two wonderful parents minding over 4 kids.

Then, recently, Jennifer emailed again. This time she explained that she and Jason were getting married and, in her words, would be honored if we would do the wedding photos. Are you kidding me? Again, we gladly accepted and began to take the photo role to another level.

Well, the wedding is coming soon and as is our practice we met with Jennifer and Jason for a “pre-wedding shoot”. We do this with all the couples who’s wedding we cover as a way to get to know the couple better and to break the ice with the camera. We gain a lot of experience with how the couple behaves for the camera and with us. I think it is one of the most valuable things we do as approach a wedding shoot. Last night we spent time with Jennifer and Jason at Rood Bridge Park as the sun went down. We’ve had great fortune with the couples we have photographed during weddings and these two nice folks rank right at the top in terms of being photogenic (read that… great looking couple) as well as fun and interesting to have a conversation with. Even with the predictable problems using some new camera gear they hung with us and put up with the delays that the newness caused.

We are very much looking forward to spending a day with them soon as they wed. In the interim we get to shoot the entire family prior to the wedding. Jennifer has plans for a specific picture during the wedding. The pressure is on but we are confident that we will be able to fulfill her request. Until then, meet Jennifer and Jason….

Swim and learn

I’ve been fortunate this year to be a small part of the Tualatin Hills Swim Team. Don’t jump to any conclusions, I’m not in the water but I do get wet on occassion. A nice lady named Barbara helped me learn my way around swim meets when I went to watch my nephew Ethan swim in a Nationals meet last summer. Barbara taught me about heat sheets and how to find my way around the perceived chaos in order to photograph Ethan. I took some shots of her daughter, Celia, at the same meet and put them in a small gallery for them. To my surprise, Barbara came to me via email and asked if I’d consider taking photos for the Tualatin Hills Swim team this year. I’m a sucker for a challenge that offers me a chance to learn about the task of photographing most anything. With birds, landscapes, brides, seniors and grandkids I’m thinking I need to get a grip on my need to learn.

I went today to the middle of a three day meet at the Thunderbolts home pool. I knew that Barbara and Celia would not be around until afternoon but Barbara is good about giving me suggestions about the type of images the team website can use. I grabbed my camera and a couple of lenses and made the pool about 10:30. It took me a bit to figure out where the Thunderbolt team was based and to get acquainted with the way the meet was being run. I’m always amazed at the pace of a meet. The folks who organize and run these things have it down. Very little time is wasted as they move through a seemingly endless set of heats for each event.

I ended up with about 250 files overall. After edits I’m down to 50. Thirty of these are pretty nice images of swimmers, coaches and the Tualatin pool. The rest are record shots that may be of some use to Barbara on the website.

During the break between the morning and afternoon events I walked onto the pool deck with intent to get some HDR image files that I hope to use as a background for some posed portraits of select swimmers on the team. That is only an idea in my head at this point but I hope that Barbara can help me coax a few of the swimmers to pose for me one day.

Here are two treatments of the pool during the quiet time between swim sessions.

There is nothing real about the above image. It’s been worked and re-worked. I like it.

Similarly, the image above is an HDR image that has been through a variety of filters and adaptations. Do I wish that the letters spelling “Thunderbolt” on the close banners were facing toward the camera? Do you think?

The goal of the day was to get some images of the swimmers and coaching staff. I set out to do just that. I shot until the card was nearly full and packed up to go home. I got to say Hi to Barbara as I was leaving and she was settling in for an afternoon of waiting and watching Celia swim. I hope that she did well in her races and regret not having time to stay until the end.

If you click on any of the images in this post you should get to see a larger version of the image.

I’m always impressed by the fitness and commitment these young people have to their sport. I’m also very impressed by the parents like Barbara who log more miles than a UPS driver getting their kids to practice and meets.

Next week is a big week with the cameras. Tomorrow Di and I do a pre-wedding shoot for a couple who’s wedding we will shoot in August. Saturday we have a wedding of a wonderful young couple that we featured in this blog earlier this year. We’re looking forward to Kimmie’s wedding being held in the beautiful The Nines hotel in downtown Portland. Then, the day after the wedding we have the wonderful opportunity to photograph international ballet star Gavin Larsen. Gavin was the Principal Ballerina for the Portland Ballet until she recently retired. She’s graciously agreed to allow artist Wayne Rivard to direct her posing as we photograph her. The images will be turned into another work of art as Wayne presents his interpretation of this graceful and elegant lady performing her art. I think that we’ll just collapse on Monday.

Pacific Crest Triathalon

Maybe one word says it all…. WOW!  We joined Derek’s family and inlaws to support 14 year old Riley in his first triathalon.  He was one of 4 young men to enter the Olympic distance and in the 12-14 year old age bracket.  To say that Riley has been motivated to train for this race is a dramatic understatement. He’s pretty much lived and breathed to train for this one and his target was to beat the time of another Central Catholic HS guy who raced it last year.  He knew what his expected times would be in each of the three stages… 0.8 mile swim, 29 mile bike, 10K run.  He spends time stretching and is working on power conditioning.  He’s the most nutrition/diet aware 14 year old person I’ve ever met.  For that matter, he is vastly more aware of nutritional needs than most people I know.  The kid is on task.

Running is Riley’s strength and we are all anxious to watch him as he moves to Central Catholic HS next year and runs cross country for them.  He’s a very capable cyclist who was supported by a neighbor who lent him a very nice tri-bike and set of wheels for the race.  The gear was amazing.. full disk rear, bladed deep dish front and a wonderful Bianchi frame. Swimming is his weakest sport since he really just started to swim a few months ago.  In the times I’ve seen him swim he has advanced his skills and ability to swim straight.  When I looked out over Wickiup Reservoir at the start of the race I was astounded at how far it looked to each of the bouys he had to circle.  He swam well and came out of the water pretty much as he had predicted.

Transitions are tricky and the details will eat you up if you don’t have a lot of experience.  He knew exactly what he wanted to do and set out to do just that.  Dang, all that wet skin and things to remove and put on.  Dang, sunglasses are hard to fit under that sleek aero helmet.  Dang, the cleats sure need to be aligned to grab the pedals.  You get my point.  Adrenaline, excitement and a bit of anxiety all taught him a lot of lessons in the first transition point.  Guaranteed, if he does another triathalon he’ll be on top of the transition logistics and skills.  No doubt in my mind.

We had hoped to jump ahead of him to get photos on the bike.  Didn’t happen due to traffic so we headed for Sunriver and the next transition.  I’d rehearsed the shots I wanted to take the day before and knew that I could huff and puff to the transition point after seeing him come into the area at full speed.  That part worked well for me and the transition to the running gear seemed much quicker and efficient for him.  Maybe that watch band was a momentary problem but that can be dealt with as you move out onto the course.

We all headed for the finish line knowing that we had about 40 minutes to get there.  I thought I could catch him for photos as the course was near my path to the finish.  I’d tried it in practice the day before but darn that kid is fast and I missed him totally.  On to the finish.

One of the most wonderful things I’ve heard was the announcer’s voice saying “Give it up for 14 year old Riley McCammon from Happy Valley, Oregon” as he entered the finish chute.  I was positioned to catch him under the finish banner and Dianne caught him as he approached the finish line.  Due to my position I was the first of our family to reach him to congratulate him on a spectacular win.  He ate the running course and finished well ahead of his age-category competitors.  He finished first in the age category and 37th out of 504 entrants overall.  His time was faster than all the entrants in older age categories until the 20-24 age group where he would have placed 6th.  A wonderful reward for Riley and his family (we all know that there wouldn’t be such good results without great support by his family).  The results page can be found here:  http://www.racecenter.com/results/2011/res_co11.htm.  My favorite photos, at least initially, are below.  Oh yeah, I know what changes I’ll make to my procedures to do a bette job of catching Riley in the next one.  Practice, practice, practice.  What fun.

photo by Dianne using a Canon G10

BANG! POW! OOOOOH!

As good friends are apt to do, Eric texted me yesterday with an invitation to at least think about going downtown to the Rose Festival fireworks display.  His lovely wife, Traci, was going to go with him so that was another teaser for me/us to go. Time with these two is always good for our energy levels and spirits.  We agreed to go and then watched as the sky clouded over and dumped buckets of rain as we ate dinner.  Not good.  I looked at the weather radar and saw that it was clearing to the west so we had a chance to stay dry.  Turned out just fine.

We wandered down the eastside esplanade and found a location among other photogs out with the same idea.  We sat on a ledge and talked as we waited for the 10:00 show.  Dianne and Traci took off on a hike and Eric and I sat and talked.  About 9:30 the barge with the fireworks came up river and positioned itself right in front of us.  Now that we knew generally where the show would originate we adjusted our location to a place on the spiral walkway up to the Morrison Bridge.  Soon the ladies rejoined us and the show took off. Our vantage point offered us a nice opportunity to get some reflections on the water and to have the Hawthorne Bridge, OHSU and the Koin Center to be in the frame.  About the only additional thing I could have asked for was a bit more breeze to clear the smoke more rapidly.

The following are a selection of the top 24 images I shot.  I ended up with about 50 images that I like but these stand out.

For the geeks with interest these were all shot with the D700, 28-300 mm lens at 2 seconds and f/11.

Dianne was shooting the G10 and came up with one of the more interesting images of the night (IMHO).  This little camera suffers in low light but the movement in this frame is pretty sweet.

All in all, it was a great evening with two friends.  Now if the weather will just allow some roses to bloom it will be a great start to the annual Rose Festival.

Welcome home, Kendyl

It’s a big moment when Mom, Dad and baby arrive home together for the first time. Now the transition to “on their own” begins.  Devri’s sister, aunt and grandmother were at the house with Chad, Devri and Kendyl when we got there last night. Juggling a need for a bit of privacy, a hope for some quiet time and the start of a schedule for Kendyl and a bit of “family time” we ate and basically just marveled at Kendyl.  Once Devri gets some well deserved rest and recovery the three of them will adapt to the newness of being 3 instead of two.  My prediction?  Won’t take long.  Oh yeah, Fischer, the labradoodle, still needs to make his reentry.  I suspect he’ll adapt/learn quickly as well.