Northwest Art and Air Festival

We checked out the hot air balloon launches on Friday and Saturday. Last year, we could only make it for the Friday lift off and they didn't launch due to wind conditions. This year, Saturday's wind was pretty mild and the balloons had some great hang time over the field. I was able to take some shots as they lifted off in a tight grouping since the wind wasn't whisking them away.

Car Show

The weekend before last, my wife and I checked out the car show in downtown Albany. I had been to it the year before. Even though I'm not much of a car buff, I do enjoy looking at vintage and attractive cars. I don't know cars, but I know what I like. This classic Corvette caught my attention. When I was editing the picture, I decided to try it in black and white. The car is white, so you don't miss anything there, and it gives it more of a classic vintage look.

4th of July Fireworks

I haven't posted in a while. I've been pretty busy with projects and life in general. I'd like to find time to post more and get out and shoot more as well. I have some professional projects lined up as well as a couple of personal trips that should give me some opportunities for nice photos to share. For now, I did take some pictures of the fireworks display in Albany, Oregon on the 4th. I found a nice place on the bridge where I could setup my tripod and capture the fireworks as well as the reflection in the river and one of the platforms that extends out over the river where people like to view the show from. Here is one of my favorite shots. It was taken with a very long exposure to capture several different individual volleys. I took several shots with pretty much the same composition but I really like the way the various fireworks came out in this shot without crowding each other too much, which happened on some of my attempts. I like the way the platform came out too with the light from the street lamp and people remained still enough that it's not too blurry.

Balloon Disappointment

The Albany Art and Air Festival is a big event every August that kicks off with early morning hot air balloon launches. The festival lasts three days, Friday though Sunday, and this year it happened to be my birthday weekend. We planned a camping trip to the coast so we were unable to attend much of the festivities. However, we got up at the crack of dawn on Friday morning to catch the balloon liftoff before heading out on our camping adventure. Dozens of balloons and support teams, plus hundreds of spectators covered the field at Timber-Linn Park. The first balloon to go up would carry a US flag into the air. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and due to winds that were slightly outside of the safety envelope, none of the balloons were able to take off that morning. They continued to fill the first balloon and monitor the winds right up until the decision was made to stay on the ground. The crowd began to disperse. We were certainly disappointed that we could not come back the following day, but there's always next year. I took this shot shortly before leaving. I sympathized with the young lady's expression.

Dog Days of Summer

I did some volunteer work for SafeHaven Humane Society over the weekend. They had their annual "Dog Days of Summer" event downtown in front of the courthouse. There was a fairly large turnout. One activity is the 5k walk. Before it kicked off, everyone who wanted to participate posed on the steps of the courthouse with their dogs for one big group picture. I took a tighter shot with a longer lens, but I wasn't able to capture the very edges of the group or much of the surroundings. I switched to the wide angle and snapped a few shots.