Coast Guard Practice

On the scenic train ride back to Rockaway Beach from Giribaldi, we saw the Coast Guard operating in the bay. It appeared that they were practicing helicopter ocean rescues. I kept shooting as the train went on Northward. I was using my telephoto lens from the shaky train. I had to keep the shutter speed pretty high to avoid blurring from camera shake, hence the nearly frozen rotor blades. Here is my favorite shot. It's from a ways out and I did get some much closer shots that I'll share on Flickr. I like this one with the rocks in the foreground on the left.

Steam Train

We just got back from a few days in Rockaway Beach, Oregon. I took a ton of photos, of course. I've started editing them and I'll try to post a few a week. Here's the first!

We started our vacation with a scenic steam train ride from Rockaway Beach down the coast to Garibaldi and back. The trip was 30 minutes both ways with a 30 minute stop in Garibaldi. Before we departed, I took some shots of the engine as it let off some steam while people boarded. There was still some fog rolling in off the ocean and it was about 1pm, so the sun was more or less directly overhead. Generally, that's not the best time for taking pictures, but this, and some of the others from the ride turned out well.

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.

Western Basset Hound

I shot a party at a private residence over the weekend. It was a western theme and the client has two basset hounds that were roaming the yard wearing bandannas. I couldn't resist the opportunity to get some shots of the dogs whenever possible. Here is one of them. His name is Charlie and he was very friendly. I have another shot of him on his side, begging for a belly rub. Charlie was less camera shy than Otis, the other dog. I did get a couple good of shots of him, as well as the two together, but this is my favorite.

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.