Category: Southern Oregon

Day 37 – Yellow Woods

YellowWood2

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
-Robert Frost
I managed a walk in Lithia Park this morning before the rain set in. I have to say the colors were amazing and the reflections in the lower duck pond took my breath away. I went with a painterly treatment and texture effect on this one and it immediately put me in mind of one of my all time favorite poems… probably because it was introduced to me by one of my favorite teachers, ’round about 4th or 5th grade.

Day 34 – Snow Geese

SnowGeese

Snow Geese

Oh, to love what is lovely, and will not last! 
What a task
to ask 
of anything, or anyone, 
yet it is ours, 
and not by the century or the year, but by the hours. 
One fall day I heard
above me, and above the sting of the wind, a sound
I did not know, and my look shot upward; it was 
a flock of snow geese, winging it
faster than the ones we usually see, 
and, being the color of snow, catching the sun 
so they were, in part at least, golden. I 
held my breath
as we do
sometimes
to stop time
when something wonderful
has touched us 
as with a match, 
which is lit, and bright, 
but does not hurt
in the common way, 
but delightfully, 
as if delight
were the most serious thing
you ever felt. 
The geese
flew on, 
I have never seen them again. 
Maybe I will, someday, somewhere.
Maybe I won’t.
It doesn’t matter.
What matters
is that, when I saw them, 
I saw them
as through the veil, secretly, joyfully, clearly.

-Mary Oliver

I’ ve been trying for months to find the time and right weather conditions for a trip over the mountain to the Klamath Basin Wildlife Refuges. My calendar and the weather forecast finally aligned today so I said “I don’t care what else I have on my to do list. I’m going.” And I’m glad I did. I came home with over 300 images though I suppose most of them will have to go to the recycle bin. Those critters just refuse to sit still. But I was pleased to see some snow geese at Tule Lake and though I did see a few bald eagles and even got their portraits this image spoke to me most about the joy seeing the birds lift off in a flock as one. I thought about using Mary Oliver’s poem Wild Geese, which is my all time favorite but I thought “No, everyone has heard that one.” So when my google search turned up another Mary Oliver poem about snow geese, I was delighted, as I am delighted to share it with you.

Rooflines

Rooflines

I have been dragging my feet on posting an image of the week because I didn’t have anything new I really liked. I kept going back to so barn photos I captured this week and trying different processing and finally came up with this one of a barn I love with lots of crazy intersecting rooflines treated in Topaz impressions with a Van Gough preset with opacity reduced a little to let more detail through.

Dreaming of Spring

DreamingofSpring

I’ve been suffering from a bad case of the winter blues mixed with serious cabin fever. I though since I went to Cuba in December I didn’t need to plan a warm winter trip for January. I was wrong. Won’t make that mistake again.

Anyway, I’m plugging away at Photoshop artistry and started playing with these orchard blossom pictures and came up with this composition I call Dreaming of Spring. It went through a lot of steps of blending and filter gallery and Topaz Impression and the addition of an artistic border but I’m pretty happy with the final result.

Leaf with Raindrop

LeafwDrop

The Japanese Garden in Ashland’s Lithia Park was in full glory this week. But I found myself fascinated with the raindrops lingering on the ends of the leaves. I did one sweep through the Garden with a wide angle lens then went back to the car and got the new 180mm macro which won the day with this image of Japanese maple leaves with a raindrop and a beautiful soft yet colorful background.

Breaker

Breaker_color

Well, I missed the image of the week altogether last week and I’m running late this week. I guess that means my life is full. Took my Mom to the coast to celebrate her 84th birthday last week. We enjoyed pretty good weather but there was a storm lurking offshore so we also got some pretty good wave action. It took a few tries but I caught this one just at the critical point. Just added some saturation and sharpening in post. I also tried this one in black and white but I liked the color version better.

White Horse

White_Horse2

I have to admit I have been dragging my feet on doing the image of the week this week. I think it is because my volunteer activities are starting to interfere with my having time for photography so I am feeling a little snarfy about that. But in the end I found something in the archives to work on and here is a nice picture of a white horse and hopefully next week I will be able to get out and do some shooting!

Grizzly Peak Spring

GrizzlyI haven’t done much with Topaz Impression lately so I thought it was time. This image of Grizzly Peak was done in the style of Georgia O’Keefe. Hmmm, what if Georgia had come to Southern Oregon instead of New Mexico? Anyway, this was shot last week when things were more springlike. I know for a fact that there is more snow on the mountain today and I’m not sure how the trees fared in the recent winds. But, I now know a good spot to go and capture the changing moods and seasons of Ashland’s own special mountain.