Soft

Not a lot to say about this one. It's another photo from my walk along the river walk on Monday.

I haven't had a lot of time to go out and take photos with only an hour of sunlight after I get home from work. I'm often busy for that hour with other tasks. I'm dreading the end of daylight savings time, which will mean almost no sunshine at the end of the workday.

Red and yellow

Here are a few more photos from my fall afternoon walk. These were taken along the Pendleton River Parkway. I took the walk near sunset, when I knew the light would be great.

By the way, I love fall colors.

Fall

I went on a stroll yesterday and took some fall photos. With these I experimented with light and focus. I'm just getting familiar with the new camera and this was the first real try at taking photos with it. It was fun and I'll likely have a few more photos from my little excursion.

New camera

I am excited, and a little nervous, to announce I have a new camera. My wonderful husband ordered me an early birthday present. In honor of the occasion, I have this self portrait. Yes, it was taken in the bathroom. Yes, all the lettering is backwards because I used the bathroom mirror. Yes, that is a shower curtain behind me. Hey, it's the only mirror in the house with good light.

The wine-to-be

This is another photo from my winery visit last Friday. Winemaker Ashley Trout is taking notes on a sample of wine-to-be. Inside this big white bin was two-and-a-half tons of grapes just starting their fermenting process.

This photo wasn't the most exciting, that's why it didn't run with Saturday's story. But I like focusing on the sample up close, with Trout doing her work in the background.

Bounty

I had the privilege of visiting a Milton-Freewater area winery on Friday. Just before I left, the sun came out of the clouds and shone across the vineyard. It was a great chance to catch it lighting up the grapes nestled in the leaves.

How to throw an atlatl

These are three photos of Tracker Denny, an 11-year-old boy with a talent for throwing an atlatl.

An atlatl is a weapon predating the bow and arrow, used by American Indians in this area. On Saturday, Tamastslikt Cultural Institute had an Archeology Celebration, giving visitors like Tracker and his family a chance to try using tools their ancestors used.

As archeologist/anthropologist Tom Bailor explained it to me, an atlatl works like those plastic extenders people use to throw tennis balls for dogs. But this throws spears. These three photos give a good impression of how it works — a key being the second photo with the point of release shown.

I didn't use these photos in the paper because the quality isn't the best, and, as always, there's limited space.

Barbed wire

When I was in Lowden for the Frenchtown Rendezvous on Saturday, the sunset cut a beautiful golden swath through sprinklers in a neighboring field. I took this photo peering through the fence to that field.