Mount Hood Oregon

This is a shot I took of Mount Hood it is the highest point in Oregon and the fourth highest in the Cascade Range. The highest is Mount Rainier in Washington. Followed by Mount Shasta in California. Then comes Mount Adams in Washington and then come Mount Hood.

This photo is available for purchase at SmugMug along with other work of mine. 

Mossby Bridge

This is the Mossby Bridge built in 1920 it is the oldest bridge in Lane County Oregon and is still in use today.

Grave Creek Bridge

This is the Grave Creek Bridge in Cottage Grove Oregon.

Multnomah Falls

This is Multnomah Falls in Oregon just south of the Historic Columbia River Highway in the northern part of Oregon. Even though it was in a drought year the run off is still quite good but, I still want to catch it in a good year. Also this was shot in August. 

I had to process this quite different than I normally process my images due to the high contrast in the shadow and sun. I did not plan the timing I was just on a trip with my family. The best time of the day would be in the morning or evening when the contrast is low. Normally I would crank the contrast up but on this image it was already too high. I was not happy with the detail in the highlights. Luckily I shot in RAW and was able to save a copy of the shortest exposure at a -1 setting and process it plus my normal bracketed series in my HDR software and even then I still lowered the exposure in the HDR software. There are many advantages to shooting in RAW. Like correction for lens distortion and chromatic aberration and many more. I had to break out a few new tricks to save an image that was not shot at the "perfect time". It's nice to find new challenges and not settle for the normal process. When you are not happy with the results process the image again and try something new not every image is the same. The more I shoot the more I find that you can break the rules and shoot any time of day and break other rules as long as you are creative. Enjoy your photography and never stop trying new things.

The General Buster Keaton Cottage Grove

I found this advertisement for the movie The General by Buster Keaton filmed in Cottage Grove Oregon in 1926. In the movie a bridge is sabotaged and collapses and the train was left and became a tourist attraction until it was scrapped for the metal during World War II.

I like the old advertising an the side of buildings and barns. I have a previous post Barns of Petaluma that has an advertisement for Coca Cola on the side of a barn.

I thought about not correcting the perspective but, after processing it both ways I liked the corrected perspective because you can read the words at the top a little better. You could correct the perspective in camera using a Tilt Shift Lens also.

If you are interested in watching The General here is the movie via You Tube.

Dorena Covered Bridge

This is the Dorena Covered Bridge in Cottage Grove Oregon built in 1949.

AGS Auto Parts

When I saw this auto parts store in Cottage Grove Oregon I thought it would be perfect for HDR. It seemed like a very small place to have an engine rebuilt, but I imagine most of the is in the back of the store.

Barn U.S. Route 395 Oregon

I found this on barn on U.S. Route 395 north of Burns, Oregon. U.S. Route 395 had very little traffic you would not see anyone for hours. The day before we drove and we were running on fumes we had not seen a gas station for quite a while. Then we saw gas stations with great prices we would pull in and the pumps were all locked up, we even saw a house that had a pump in the yard. It was about 7pm on Sunday and they had closed at 5pm then we came to Lakeveiw Oregon and saw another gas station that was locked up also. We saw a police officer talking with some locals and stopped to ask where a gas station was and there was a Chevron less than a 1/4 of a mile down the road. The funny thing about U.S. Route 395 was you would not see anyone for hours, stop your car and then people came out of the wood work wanting to know how your car was running (which was comforting because of the lack of cell service) and if you knew how to read the no trespassing signs. Then someone else would drive by and you had a funny feeling that they had just talked to the last person that drove by. Someone stopping was the news of the day. I do not trespass if there is a sign and most people relax when they see the camera I have even had people say I could go in if I did not disturb anything. That is what I am trying to do with the camera preserve the past and show people what is out there if you look around. The last thing I want to do is destroy it. Imagine if someone had destroyed this barn and its beauty.

Antelope Oregon

Antelope Oregon is a small city in  Wasco County. In the 1980's the town grew again when followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, who had started the city of Rajneeshpuram on the nearby "Big Muddy Ranch", began to move in. Rajneeshpuram was an intentional community (or commune) of Rajneeshees. On September 18, 1984, Antelope's charter was amended by a vote of 57 to 22 to change the name of the city to Rajneesh. The Oregon commune collapsed in 1985 when Osho revealed that the commune leadership had committed a number of serious crimes, including a bioterror attack (food contamination) on the citizens of The Dalles.  A short time later Rajneesh was indicted on federal immigration charges, attempted to leave the country, and pleaded no contest to two of the 34 charges and returned to India. On November 6, 1985, the remaining residents, both original and Rajneeshee, voted 34 to 0 to restore the original name, which was never changed by the Postal Service. The Big Muddy Ranch is now owned by Young Life and has been converted into a camp known as "Washington Family Ranch."

Here is a short film about Rajneeshpuram

Trucks Grass Valley Oregon Winter

I had a chance to return to the Trucks Grass Valley Oregon during the winter.

Abandon Church and Horses

This is an old abandon church in Grass Valley Oregon. I found this site sounds like they are going to restore this church. I would love to see that done. Then I saw the horses in a field right next to the church with the snow. The white horse cooperated with me and got into position. When I processed the image I decided to try the Oil Paint filter of my recently updated version of Photoshop CS6. I felt it the texture of the horse hair and field was perfect for an experiment with that filter. The second image of the horse is the oil painting.

IOOF Cemetery Grass Valley

The sky seemed pretty ominous when I saw tomb stones sticking up along the horizon I turned the truck around and got these shots. The Cemetery was in the middle of nowhere just north of Grass Valley, OR. I saw the farm in the background and thought that they must have relatives buried here and thought I should include it in the shot.

IOOF is Independent Order of Odd Fellows they care for cemeterys. This is the Grass Valley Cemetery.

Old Farm and Windmill

This hay farm is located just north of Shaniko Oregon and south of Grass Valley on Highway 97. The windmill was in great condition it was made by Aermotor Wininmill of Chicago the only windmill manufacture in the United States that was founded in 1888. The house was home to hundreds of pigeons.  It appeared that the farm was still in use, there were tire tracks and the barn had fresh hay in it.

This house was two stories but you would have to be very brave to tackle the battered staircase. The house also had a rock foundation.

Philips 66 Kent Oregon

I have shot this Philips 66 in Kent Oregon on Highway 97 several times.  It's is amazing what an image shows that we forget about. The most obvious thing is the Orange Crush sign on the roof. You can also see the fuel pumps are made by Gilbarco, a sticker in the window for Wynn's Oil Company another sticker for Salem Cigarettes and a sticker for certificate B restaurant. This station has been closed since gas was 66 1/2 cents per gallon that was in 1979. I have been trying to show the cars going by because there is no reason to stop anymore since the station is closed. I got that in the second shot. I was not happy with previous attempts.

Shaniko Oregon

This is a little ghost town called Shaniko in Oregon that is located on Highway 97. There is still a hotel and quite a few other buildings. In 2000 there was 26 people living there.

I printed this one it is printed on canvas 16"X20 and is hanging in my bathroom.

 I have another post about Shaniko it is a restored gas station.

Restored Texaco Shaniko Oregon



This restored Texaco gas station is in Shaniko Oregon. I wish the covers were not on the pumps, they were covered by a sturdy cloth cover and locked down with two padlocks (one on each side of the pump). On the same trip I found another restored gas station Wenatchee Washington.

Trucks Grass Valley Oregon

These trucks are in Grass Valley Oregon. While I was getting a couple shots a man came out and showed me how to get into the field so I could get closer. There were a couple of donkeys that my children got to play with. Everyone in Grass Valley was very nice it is the type of town where everybody waved as they passed by.

The Dodge truck below is equipped with a snorkel

Crater Lake Oregon

Crater Lake is located in Oregon and is the deepest lake in the United States followed by Lake Tahoe located on the California Nevada border and then Lake Chelan the third deepest in the United States located in Washington state. I have tried to capture the deep blue color for years only to be disappointed by the lack of color and detail. The top image is HDR followed by the seven images that were used to create the HDR version. In earlier posts  I have explained the process, but this time I decided to include the bracketed images to give you a visual reference and simplify the idea of HDR. The bracketed images (-3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2 and +3) following the HDR version were combined in HDR Efex Pro 2 to make the final HDR version. As you can see none of the bracketed images really capture the full dynamic range of the scene. From the cameras meta data I can tell the images were captured at 12:30pm this is a time when the dynamic range is the highest especially because there was no cloud cover just strait sun light. If I had taken the shot at sunrise, sunset or on an overcast day the image would have had a totally different feel and possibly less dynamic range. That is one of my favorite things about HDR photography it opens up the possibility to shoot all day and get a totally different feel. In the past I would have had to accept the limitations of traditional photography or wait for a more "acceptable" time or day (with less contrast) to take the the images. But thanks to technology of HDR software and since I was traveling with my family (I did not have the luxury to wait) I grabbed what I could get and shot on a tripod with a cable release to limit the possible movement in between shots so I could process the image as an HDR. In the end I was able to get an image I was a lot happier with hope you like it.

HDR

-3 exposure compensation

-2 exposure compensation

-1 exposure compensation

No exposure compensation

+1 exposure compensation

+2 exposure compensation

+3 exposure compensation