Our photo club, the Camas Camera Club (Camas is a small town about a half hour from here) was invited to do a group display in the Camas Library Gallery. We meet in the library every month, so we already have a relationship with them. We were each able to exhibit three pictures. I chose three of my favorites:

However, after having them printed out I decided I really didn’t like the way the horse picture looked – it was just too dark. It’s the first time I’ve ever had my digital pictures professionally printed, so it took a bit of trial and error to get them looking the way I wanted – but the horse picture just wasn’t working out. Luckily I had just been to Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge and took this picture, which I really liked, and substituted it at the last minute.

Our club was all using the same black frames from Costco, so they would be inexpensive, and all match, and so we would all be on a level playing field. The frames were 11×13 I think, and came with a mat sized for an 8×10. Some folks didn’t use the mats, or used Lightroom software to make mats that were part of the image, and did some really creative things. When I first showed the picture of Barclay to the club, folks suggested I should edit it to make the tongue stick out past the edge of the photo. So I handed it over to Dave and let him at it.

It came out very cute! Because the picture is a tiny crop of a bigger photo, it doesn’t really have the resolution to go 8×10, so I had it printed as a 5×7, on an 8×10 sheet of paper, and then framed that. To my complete surprise, when Dave and I arrived at the gallery opening (a little late because I had to get off work and go all the way across town to Camas) …

Barclay’s picture was the first one in the gallery to sell! A gentleman said his daughter had three Eskimos, and he bought it for her! I really didn’t expect that, in fact I thought I would get to hang it up at home after the gallery was over! What a thrill to have my picture sell to someone like that! Everyone in the club was jealous, and they were all teasing me that from now on everyone would be taking nothing but dog pictures!

Tomorrow the gallery display will be taken down, the Barclay picture will go to it’s new home, and the other two pics will come home to me. I may not be done showing though, I hear someone in the club may have found a coffee shop that would like to have our pictures displayed in it. I guess I’d better go get another Barclay print done – got to give the people what they want!

At the zoo

On July 30, 2012 By stefrobrtsIn photography1 Comment

We spent most of Sunday at the Oregon Zoo. I figured it would be a target-rich environment for photographs, but for some reason my camera was acting up and overexposing everything in auto-exposure mode. I ended up taking most of the pictures in manual mode, which of course meant I messed a lot of them up trying to get the hang of it. I guess it’s all good practice. I think Dave was getting some great pictures on his cell phone, and if he ever figures out how to get them off the phone and onto the computer, I’ll share them!

It’s been a few years since we were at the zoo, and they had some new exhibits, like the Black Bear enclosure. It was very open and you could get great views of the bears doing their thing.

In this picture they are at one end of the enclosure, but it actually stretches quite a long ways, with lots of trees and different surfaces and stuff for them to do.

Being the symbol of our country and freedom and all that, it seems so weird to see an eagle just hanging out and preening it’s feathers like every other bird.

These lovely little Egrets were in another aviary enclosure, and we watched them for quite a while. Beautiful and very active birds, and not very big – about a foot tall or so.

I don’t usually spend a lot of time with the elephants, but this time they seemed to be up to interesting stuff, and we found ourselves hanging out for a bit to watch.

They had also remodeled the Africa exhibit since we last visited, and the views of the big cats and hyenas was excellent.

I think our zoo went without lions for a while, so it’s nice to see them back.

These little birds were in the walk-through Africa Aviary. They were having a grand time eating and tussling over the bowl. I was delighted to catch the little guy holding a pea in his foot and eating it! I have a special love for birds. I never get tired of watching their birdy-mannerisms.

The Rhino was sleeping, but the Hippo was hanging out where we could see him.

These lovely guys live with the Zebra. Their faces look kind of llama-like to me. They’re from different continents, so I don’t think they are likely to be related.

This guy looked like a wise old man.

And there’s nothing goofier than a knock-kneed Giraffe seen head-on.

And that was the end of our day at the zoo. It’s always a good way to spend a day. Never disappointing.

Goodnight…

Paddlin’ on Horseshoe Lake

On July 29, 2012 By stefrobrtsIn Uncategorized2 Comments

I pulled out our rubber raft and dragged Dave out to Horseshoe Lake in Woodland, WA for a little paddling.

Dave looks pretty happy for being away from his couch and video game!

I always wear my lifejacket – it’s not flattering, but it’s safe!

Duck and baby duck

Some fishermen in a boat just like ours

What a pretty and relaxing place

Fancy big houses on the lake

Where I Live vs Where I Work

On July 28, 2012 By stefrobrtsIn work2 Comments

The other day we were doing a petsitting job at a client who lives on the hill behind us, way up at the top, with a beautiful view of the countryside. I looked through my binoculars and realized just how far their view extends from way up there.

Zooming in, I can see the transmission towers in Portland. And even closer…

That’s Portland! It’s down in a river valley, so it’s just peeping above the ridges. I wish there had been better contrast, but you can just make out the skyscrapers, and the Fremont Bridge. I go over the Fremont every day during my commute, so I know how tall it is, but in case you don’t…

Awesome Photo by Paul Lowry on Flickr

It’s HUGE! It’s very tall, and a double decker. And just think, from that hill, 25 miles away, it is just a little splash of color down in the valley.

So that’s the difference between where I live, way up in the country, and the city, far far away.

Saturday Market

On July 15, 2012 By stefrobrtsIn Uncategorized2 Comments

Local Non-profits had booths setup at Farmer’s Market in downtown Vancouver last week, and Dave went down to man the Magenta Theater booth all afternoon. While he was handing out flyers, I went and had a walk around the market to see what was available.

Fresh Flowers:

Fruit from the other side of the mountains, still too cold here.

A very cool bike! Recently I’ve become interested in bikes. Not so much because I want to ride one, I just got a crazy idea that they would be kind of fun to work on.

Check out that motor!

I wandered over to Turtle Place, a strange little half block of art and environmental displays. The center of it has this fountain.

Wandered on down the road, past Willie

Saw the old church where we used to hold our plays when it was a performing arts center. Now it’s a church again.

Saw this lovely flower blooming against a backdrop of purple hydrangeas. My favorite picture of the day!

Heather, look what I found! Just for you!

I have been on a mission to try and capture the wind. I thought these flags, with the grass up on the balcony leaning over, illustrated it well.

Back around to the clock tower in the park.

Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge

On June 28, 2012 By stefrobrtsIn Uncategorized3 Comments

Yesterday I came home from work and wanted to have some no-money fun, and we found some almost-no-money fun instead – we tossed the dogs in the van, picked up a dinner to-go, and headed out to the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge. Because it’s a refuge the dogs had to stay in the car, so we did the driving loop. We saw many of the usual inhabitants…

Ducks! (yes, I know there’s a proper name for these guys other than ‘ducks’)

Lots of Red-wing blackbirds.

Bunnies!

A big white bird! It’s a Great Egret. First time I’ve seen one during our visits here.

Pelicans!

It was a beautiful afternoon.

Way off in the distance, I saw something watching us.

We continued along the waterway, hoping to see something exciting around every turn.

Part of the meadow was mowed, and at the far end of it I saw something, but I couldn’t tell what until I zoomed in…

A family of coyotes! Complete with pups! How exciting! That’s a first for our visits to the refuge. We hear coyotes all the time at home, and occasionally see them (and we suspect they ate our cat a few years ago), but I’m much happier to see them here, where they are free to be coyotes.