A helping hand

Mervin Swearingen let me take his photo at the Helix Booster Club Crab Feed Thursday afternoon. I used another photo of him dumping steaming shrimp into a pan Friday's paper. I also liked this photo, but couldn't use it for the paper because it's not readily obvious what he's doing (dumping a bag of frozen shrimp into the steamer).

However, I really liked the perspective on this one, with his hands up close. I also liked the way the afternoon sunshine lit up his face. It's always nice to see volunteers helping out, and willing to have their picture in the paper.

Flight

A photo I took just before this appeared in Sunday's East Oregonian. Again, this is from my drive around Weston and Helix. As I came back toward Highway 11 from Helix, I pulled over near a grain silo to get a photo of the cloud shadows on the wheat stubble (see Monday's entry) and birds flew up nearby, darting behind the silo. When they reappeared I got two shots, this one being the latter. Before cropping, the silo was at the far left of the photo. I cropped this one down to emphasize the birds (so they didn't look like little specks) and the Blue Mountains in the background.

A little greenery ...

No, this isn't a photo from a previous summer. Yes, it is one from last weekend when I went to Eugene.

My mom took me on a little trail at the edge of town. Though we didn't make it far (deep mud and tennis shoes do not mix) I grabbed a bunch of photos in the late afternoon light.

It's easy to see the big difference in greenery between the east and west sides of the state.

Contrasts

This is another photo from my drive between Weston and Helix last Friday. I love the contrast in light on the grain silos.

Bright skies

Last Friday it felt like spring as I drove back from trips to Weston and Helix. I took advantage of the beautiful weather to pull over, climb out of my car, and grab snapshots along the way.

The wheat stubble seems to be sprouting already (seems like it was well into March when this happened last year). The semi-cloudy skies allowed sunlight to brighten up the green in spots, while adding contrast with the shade.

In this top photo I tried to capture the blue skies in a puddle. In the bottom one I tried to show contrast between shade and sun, earth and sky.

Shadow of a giant

The tallest building in town is the Pendleton Flour Mills. I took this photo a year or so ago (didn't keep track of the date) and it's one of my favorite sunset photos because of the stark shadow of the grain elevator against the evening light. It's also one of the few photos where I didn't have to edit by cropping or adjusting color. It's great as it is.

More fun with old photos

Since its dreary and dark outside, it seems a great time for me to go back through old photos. Most of my posts this month have been older shots. This one is no exception.

Again, this is from the train ride I took to Portland. This was as we came into the gorge and saw windmills lining the ridge. Unlike the other train photo, I didn't turn this one sepia. The colors are as they were during that December sunrise.