Into the Archives: Palisade Sunset

Palisade, Colorado, April 2, 1996

Scanned Polaroid

I had not planned to spend all morning taking dust out of scanned photos, but I wanted to get into my prints and negatives, see how they would come out, and get a few online. (I didn't do the spotting as completely as I would have if I felt like I wanted to devote the time today.) I had started with a completely different subject in mind, and when I couldn't find those pictures right away, I began with this sunset. There are eight images on the page, all different, so come on over and check it out.

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June 30, Astoria: Brilliant . . .

It goes so fast. I looked out the window at just the right time . . . and then the ship came by.

June 6, Bend: Sunset at Anthony's

I took this sunset photo in beautiful Bend, Oregon, just outside of Anthony's fish restaurant the Deschutes River in the Old Mill District. Even in June, it was a bit cold for sitting outside tonight, although many were. I'd had a wild hare to get up and go, and I'd just finished the five-hour drive. I was pretty tired, mainly looking forward to a good dinner and a Margarita.

There was some kind of balloon event going on across the river, and hot-air balloons were being filled using gas fires. It looked pretty, and would have been inviting under other circumstances. I expect the balloons had been up during the day, and they were going to go flying again in the morning. It looks like Bend is right on the flight path between Portland and points south, which makes for something more to look at when the clouds are scarce.

Was it only last night?

Here's a pic I took as we were leaving New York's JFK airport last night. That's the skyline of Manhattan in the background, of course. We'd had a really wonderful week, and a fairly exhausting last couple of days, especially walking when the weather warmed up and got humid. This trip and New York were really special, and I'll be posting more when time permits - but I wanted to share this one photo of the skyline in the sunset.

April 29, Astoria: Reflected sunset

It was such a beautiful evening along the River Walk, and the sunset seemed to go on forever. Below you can see more of the pictures (including this one again, since I'm creating a separate post for my entry in the first "Reflections on Saturday" photomeme :) I think the orange, puple, pink, and gray all look pretty cool together.

NOTE, October 3, 2009: I decided not to pursue running a Reflections meme, because I really don't have the time, so I was thrilled to see James start one. Please check out Weekend Reflections and participate if you can!

April 29, Astoria: Gorgeous sunset tonight!

It's been pretty nice with the sun out, although it's still very cold for April. It looks nice, and I step out with "just" a sweatshirt and run back for my winter jacket, even on a day like this. The tree, by the way, is still firmly anchored horizontally in the pilings.

The little patch of garden is doing nicely. The columbine is blooming.

The ranunculus (red) and wallflower (yellow) are doing well, and the purple sage is looking good. The horsetails are also coming up. Technically, they're weeds, but I'll let them stay for a little while. I enjoy the green and they're such interesting ancient plants. There's something with a broad leaf that I should take out soon, some stray grass, and a few dandelions. I saw Jim pour vinegar over the dandelions around the edges of the building, and I was astonished. I'd never tried that (I have a whole litany of things I did try in a former life that didn't work, and another list of things I didn't try because I didn't want to poison the yard). Well, it worked! White vinegar for weeds! It's non-toxic, and it's cheap, too.

The clouds came and went today in a typical pattern of Astoria on an inconclusive day. I loved the shades and lines here, and I have a thing for peeling buildings when they look as cool as this does.

I worked late, as usual, and when the sky began to turn orange, I left for the gym with camera in hand. You never know what the sky will do. It had been raining, and everything was wet, but the clouds were thinning out. I took this from the Sixth Street Viewing Platform.

This was the view facing the other direction (up-river). Lovely colors.

I walked a little way down the River Walk and found this nice reflection before I turned back. I was planning to drive in the direction of the bridge anyway (just barely visible in the lower right of the reflection).

It was worthwhile. It was still and quiet, just a little damp from the rain, but not much. Only another photographer and a dog-walker were about on the River Walk behind the Holiday Inn Express.

April 14, Warrenton and Astoria: Beautiful sunset sky, beautiful light

I took this photo just outside the Columbia Fitness Center in Warrenton, just across the Youngs Bay Bridge from Astoria. It's a swampy area alongside the river, so there's a lot of plant life there.

I took this picture from the same location. It's less dramatic, but I like the image and the colors. The clouds were beautiful this evening, and the light was really nice. It was just after 7:30 p.m., so it's clear that the days are getting longer. During winter, it's dark by 5 pm, and in summer, you can still see light in the sky at 10:00. I enjoy the changes we get this far north.

I took this pic just before 7:00 p.m. as I was getting ready to go to the gym. The light had that special quality that told me there could be a really good sunset. You never know what form it will take, but a certain mellow quality in the light and certain moisture in the air usually give interesting results. It's better for ship photos, too, because there's less contrast. Too often, the white "castle" on the ship burns out, and I'm not good enough with the camera controls yet to get it right. When I exposed for the castle in some experiments the other day, the rest of the photo went dark. Anyway, I love this lighting.

March 25, Bend, Oregon: Winter's fading, trees are glowing

It's still cold enough that I'm wearing a down-stuffed jacket outside most of the time, but green things are coming up through the brown, and branches are turning color from the inside out. The best pix are near the end.

This bush and the grasses in the next few photos are just outside of Nancy P's bakery/cafe, where I photographed snow and frozen plants not that long ago. Inside there is quiche. There are lots of other goodies, too, but I usually get quiche and ice water for some reason.

Grass turning green from the roots up.

I love these colors. I don't know what the plant is actually called.

Beautiful long grasses.

We did that thing again where we went out for drinks and appetizers. We hadn't tried The Blacksmith yet, and thought this would be a good time. They didn't have Margaritas, so I got something tasty with rum in it. I like this photo of Lee.

Yumm. I forgot what they called this, but it was sooooo good. I felt bad because Lee didn't like his appetizer as much as I liked mine. We like trying things. I gave him some of this. I think it's a very tricked-out West Coast Yuppie Tex-Mex sushi. Whatever. It was great, not too hot, and the crispy things were so edible I ate them.

Bend has better cloud formations than Astoria about 9 times out of 10. It's a saving grace, because I like Astoria's climate much better.

Lee's having some remodeling done on the house.

As we got back from happy hour, the trees down the street were just catching the final glow of sun. They're getting red in their branches anyway due to the season, but set against the leaden sky, I found the colors remarkable and flamelike. What a nice sight to end the day!

March 20: Sunset from the Pier 11 Restaurant

It was a nice time of the evening to have dinner on the water, so we (Lee and I) went to the still-newish restaurant on Pier 11 - The Pier 11 Steak and Seafood Restaurant. Actually, our first choice for dinner had been the Urban Cafe tonight, but there was a wait and we were hungry. As we arrived on Pier11, this coot had also found some dinner. The image was interesting and I took its photo from the pier railing just outside the restaurant.

The rest of these photos were taken as we ordered and ate. The flat area to the left is the Washington end of the Astoria-Megler bridge.

I love the colors of this ship, the Senorita, registered in Grimstad. I couldn't find the Senorita online (and it has no tilde over the "n" on the ship), but Grimstad is a busy harbor town in Norway, so it could be the right point of registration. It's not a name I see often on the ships that go up and down the Columbia. This ship was just glowing in the sunset. It was gorgeous. My camera and I don't handle lighting like this very well, but I did try to get it. It may help to click on the photo and enlarge it.

Here three ships rest for the night on the wide, calm, Columbia River in Astoria just outside our window at the restaurant. Ducks swam, ate, dove, and caroused on the water below our window. Once we saw a sea lion break the surface of the water on its way up or down river.

As early evening faded to twilight, we watched the ships' lights come on, reflecting in the delicate ripples of the water. It was a calm night, both for the colors and for the surface of the water.

After a tasty chicken in marsala sauce and other goodies, we got up to leave the peaceful setting. You can see how close we are to the window, and how close the window is to the water. The entire restaurant is on pilings over the river.

Night settles in on the Columbia River. It's beautiful, isn't it?

Gold fills the air: Exceptional evening light and sunset at the Peter Iredale on an Oregon beach

The Wreck of the Peter Iredale at Sunset

Click on any of the photos to go to the album.

I almost missed this gorgeous evening light. It was raining and dreary, and I went shopping at Freddy's before going to the gym. Freddy's took longer than I thought, and the gym was closing. I hadn't been to the beach in awhile, so despite the rain and grayness of the day, I went. I was going to snap a couple of pix and go home, but the "new" batteries I'd put in my camera were not new, but very, very dead. I drove to the corner store on the highway and got new ones. Then I drove over to Hammond (another post) and took a few pix in the drizzle and fading gray light. Time to go home. But I saw to the west that the sun had broken through the clouds in a sliver of brilliant light, so I thought there could be something worth taking pictures of at the beach. Hoping for a nice sunset, I looped around once more and drive out to the Peter Iredale. Oh, my. I'm so glad I did. The air was filled with golden light, and I was in time to see the change of colors through an amzing spectrum. Not only that, but the rainbow on the landward side of the scene was a complete arc, growing stronger by the minute and then becoming a double rainbow - and what did I see perched on a pole in the midst of the rainbow? A bald eagle. I got his photo before he flew into the rainshine. In the album there's a photo of the rainbow's top curve, too.

The colors on the landward side of the hillock were rich and muted like a Romantic era painting.

Here's the bald eagle. At times like this, I wish I had good long lens, but that day will come.

The eagle flew off into the golden light.

The colors on the beach were muted, breathtaking and constantly changing. You can see Tillamook Head in the distance.

I didn't tweak this in PhotoShop except to boost the contrast the smallest trifle. This is how the camera saw the color of the sun's light diffused in the air. It was still sprinkling a little, and the air was wet and the slightest bit misty. I love the rows and rows of waves on our flat beach.

I took a lot of pictures this evening. Click on any photo to go the web album, and you can see the slide show or flip through the album of rainbow and Peter Iredale photos. I'm sure glad I didn't miss this evening at the beach!

Colors of Astoria in February

Some days just have better color and lighting than others, and this was one of them. I didn't know what this bird was, but I found it in my Birds of Oregon book. The white over the beak gives it away. It's a lesser scaup, a common diving duck that breeds east of the Cascades and winters here on the coast. The book says they can often be seen in flocks of thousands, but our birds here seem to live in small numbers. I haven't specifically noted this scaup before, but I think I'm becoming more attuned to the differences in birds here. I like birds, but I've never been as interested in their species as I was in mammals. That seems to be changing now that I'm living near so many of them. The young of scaups form groups "tended by one to three adult females." I guess this would take place east of the Cascades, so we don't see it here. I thought the colors of this photo were just lovely, and the ripples in the smooth water make me want to touch it.

I love the colors here, too. The infusion of blues like this doesn't happen every day.

I've taken pictures of this building many times, because it's hard to pass up the colors and shapes, but this time the lighting was rich and my timing was right. Look at the birds. I think they must be ducks.

I've always liked this purple hose on Commercial Street in its Victorian . . . thing (what do you call the bit that holds up the hose?). Today it seemed especially photogenic.

It was pretty chilly, but Lee and I bundled up and had gone for a walk along the river. This was taken about a block past the Maritime Museum. As we stopped to chat with Jan, I took a picture of the trees against the sky. I like the pale colors of the sunst and the delicate lines of the bridge.