Striking it rich

During a week-long vacation we went gold panning on my boyfriend's land in Southern Oregon. Surprisingly we panned about $100 worth of gold, we guessed, in small flecks and dust from the spring runoff flowing through the stream.
To the left is black sand picked up by the large magnet included in our gold panning kit. It helps to tell the difference between the sand, which can glitter like gold, and the gold itself.
Below, the waters of the stream swirl around one of our gold pans filled with the sediment we later sifted and sorted through to find gold flecks.

Color and light

The carnival came to town this week, but I took this photo during Round-Up back in September. My fear of rides kept me off whirling dervishes of death, but friends were more than ready to go for it. So I enjoyed myself taking photos of all the bright lights.

Shadows

A few weeks ago I went to the Pendleton cemetery to get art for an article which we ended up using file photos for. It was one of the transition days of spring, which have been going on for a month now, when you don't know at any given moment if it will be sunny, windy, rainy or if it will still snow.