The Mud Bog

One of the stages in the da Vinci Days kinetic sculpture race is the infamous mud bog. At Crystal Lake Park in Corvallis, they create a deep, muddy mess for the racers to drive through before getting hosed off and entering the river for the next stage. Some never make it out (on their own at least). Most breezed through the long stretch of mud, only to get hung up trying to exit the course and climb back out to dry land. For human powered machines this is quite a work out, I'm sure. This pair of shots are of one of my favorite sculptures. In the second photo, the team is taking a quick pause to plan their attack after stalling out in that last crucial moment. I believe they were eventually successful at making the corner, up and out of the mud without outside assistance. Others were not so lucky.

 

Kinetic Sculpture Parade

On the second day of da Vinci Days, Saturday, the kinetic sculpture participants put on a short parade near the festival site. As the sculptures came back into the corral area, spectators converged to check out the contraptions up close and talk to the drivers. There was a fair amount of theatricality and fun to be had. This gentlemen was one of the racers and he wasn't shy about posing in his costume for the cameras and crowd.

Canine Frisbee

One of the events at da Vinci Days last weekend was canine frisbee. Saturday morning, I was there to take pictures and enjoyed watching as well. It drew quite a crowd and several people ended up with a dog in their lap while it chased after a frisbee that ventured slightly out of bounds. As I was focusing on a dog running toward me and preparing to capture the moment it ripped the frisbee from the air, I suddenly realized that the dog wasn't stopping. I looked up just as the frisbee bounced off my leg. I didn't get any good shots of that round, but I did get this shot of one of the dogs leaping for a mid-air catch with some of the spectators watching in the distance.

da Vinci Days Setup

I took somewhere around 2000 photos over the da Vinci Days festival weekend in Corvallis. That is not to say that they are all keepers. A few hundred will be though. I still have many to edit and there will be several more blog posts, I'm sure, with shots from the festival. This shot, I took early in the afternoon on Friday before opening. I was there to grab some shots of the setup, but I loved the look of the banners across the bike path through the park. Stay tuned for much more to follow from da Vinci Days!

Corvallis Spring Garden Festival

I did some volunteer work for Da Vinci Days in Corvallis. They had a booth set up at the Spring and Garden Festival so I took some shots at the booth and around the event. Of course, my wife and I enjoyed the outing on such a nice spring morning. 

A group of young musicians, the Ancient Ways Community Marimba Band, were there to perform interpretations of music from Zimbabwe. Below is a close-up I shot of one player's hands as she skillfully wielded the mallets. You can see more pictures from the festival on the Da Vinci Days' Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/davincidays