Dec 26, Bend: Splashes of color in a black and white world

We drove into Bend last night in the dark, and weren't able to see the fairy kingdom made by frozen fog on trees and bushes until this morning. I took all of the photos in this post in color, and I didn't change the color in Photoshop. A few of the photos came out really well. Others are included to help me remember the day.

There was only a dusting of frost on the ground - no snow - but every branch and needle were covered in lacy white, making the green of the trees look more black than green by contrast. After this week, I won't be back to Bend for a number of months, so I've included a lot of photos in today's post. It was magical being out in these conditions.

First stop, Starbucks, where the papers were full of the news of the fizzled "device on Flight 253. This is when I realized what an entirely different feel the day would have had if the thing had gone off - not only for family and friends of the passengers, but for everyone. Of course, the news continued to be filled with bits about airport security failures, failures to make use of information in databases, etc. The consequences will not be over at the end of the day, even though (thankfully), the passengers touched down safely.

We stopped in a parking lot, because we wanted to take photos of various plants we'd seen along the roadside. There were a few colorful leaves on this dark green bush.

This one came out really well. It may help to enlarge it.

I took this because I liked the shape of the small trees. When I saw it, I liked the color in the otherwise-monochromatic scheme.

Heh. Iced mocha today? Actually, I've been getting cold coffee drinks lately, but not at McDonald's.

Aesthetically, I could have left this one out, but I like the variety of trees covered in frost.

Approaching the traffic circle.

This is one of the things I wanted to photograph. I like the deer in the wreath and the feathery white background. Bend has sculptures of one sort or another in every traffic circle in town, or nearly all of them. Some are realistic and some are not. I think the city has done a nice job trying to beautify the sterile new streets.

The exposure isn't quite right here, but I liked the sun glow on the trees that were painted on the door to Pine Mountain Sports. It looked very nice as we entered.

We stopped at Strictly Organic for some breakfast burritos, and this was the view out the window in front of the counter where you can sit down to eat. I've had their coffee before, and I think it's the worst I've ever had anywhere. In fact, after much consideration, I threw it out. But their burritos were fantastic.

The bell-shaped lights are reflections from inside Strictly Organic.

The "numbers" they give you that correspond with your order aren't numbers at all, but countries. Funny that we got Tanzania, because Lee will be there on his upcoming trip, so he was able to show me his route and where he'd be staying. I'm certainly looking forward to the photos.

More reflections, more frost. I like the shape of the arch in the bricks, too.

I took this out the other window. I like a number of the elments here, but the first thing that caught my eye was the unusual coloring of the trim.

Again from the cafe window: red, red, nice shapes of the bike rack, and a square within a square.

In the corner of the room behind us as we were eating, was this nice tree painted on the wall.

The counter where we ate was cool. I think it must be palm wood in laminated rectangles. The next photo shows what nature can do in Creative Design class.

Isn't that wonderful? The smaller dots look like a jaguar's coat.

I'm not sure why I included this one. It was just part of the moment.

Strictly Organic supplies water for dogs. But today a dog would need an ice pick.

Frosty bike. Cool bike rack design.

I've taken pictures of these grates before and liked the color better without the frost, but this time I noticed the type: It says, "Bend, Oregon - Est. 1905."

Oak leaves. I love the pale brown.

This is one of my favorite pix of the day. I took it through the windshield of the car, looking at the lacy white-on-white trees on the right, but it turned into a nice composition, and and love the colored sign, too. We were almost home.

May 15, Astoria's Doughboy Monument: Finding an angle

In the center of this photo is Astoria's Doughby Monument. I like the photo with its nice-looking historic houses, but there's one problem - you can barely see the doughboy. I'd decided to use this monument for the ShutterDay photomeme on my other blog, Astoria, Oregon, Daily Photo. And then I ran into the complications. You can see those below, and you can read my thoughts about the monument itself on the Astoria Daily Photo blog.

The closest I could get to making the background disappear was lying on the grass in front of the monument. Actually, it was so bright out, I didn't see the one wire or the edge of the lamp until I downloaded the picture.

Here he is in close-up.

I really like the expressive legs and feet with their vintage boots and the snarl of barbed wire - a nice touch by the artist.

This angle might have been interesting if not for the power lines. And of course, there is no longer a river view here.

Impossible. Here the doughboy looks like an urban street fighter.

Eeesh. Way too cluttered, but you can see the massive curve of the Astoria-Megler Bridge and also the access to the restroom housed in the monument. This is thoughtful. There are a few public bathrooms around town if you know where to look for them, but not a lot.

Also impossible.

Here's a photo showing the plaque. I was going to leave it large so you could read it, but I spaced out and sized it. You can read the text here on my other blog. Just scroll down.

I thought I'd include the commemorative bench. Click here for further info on the monument.

The doughboy may be one of Astoria's two free-standing public statues, but I'll keep my eye out for more.

Does your town have public sculpture?

Oct 16, Part 16 - Paris, Louvre: Wouldn't this make a beautiful Baroque garden?

This nice Baroque wolf lives in a courtyard of the Louvre.

Looking through one of the upstairs windows of the Louvre's Denon wing, here is one of the majestic corners of the wolf's "pen" with a tall pavilion.

Unfortunately, someone has plunked a modern modular office building right into the Baroque courtyard. Look at the wonderful curved staircases. With all the effort that's gone into making the halls of the Louvre a showcase for the art within, why ignore the view from the windows?

Here you can see the lamp, the pool, and the ornate balustrade.

Wouldn't it be great with some landscaping, fountains, paths, grass and flowers? I guess we can dream!

Go to Next Post

Oct 14, Part 20 - Along the Seine in Plein Air

Reluctantly, we left the beautiful and historic Jardin des Plantes, although we were pretty tired by now and the idea of going back to the hotel and finding dinner somewhere sounded good. In truth, I felt that if I sat down, I'd congeal into one of the sculptures in La Musee de la Sculpture en Plein Air, which is what we were now walking through along the Quai Sant Bernard.

An incipient volunteer tree along the Seine. It looked like a handful of sycamore leaves, actually, it was about a foot tall maybe.

This is the northern half of the Pont Sully, connecting the Ile St Louis to the Right Bank. There were lots of tour boats in the area with lights on and people puttering, getting ready for dinner cruises.

The light is really fading now as we walk along the Seine towards home. Even these goreous leaves are sort of blah in the dim light.

I have no idea what this was about, but it provided interest along the way. There were about 20 of them, mostly in t-shirts and pink lab coats with stuff written on the clothing in crayon or paint. Only the one fellow was made up in a mime face.

Here we are near the Institut du Monde Arabe - the amazing building of Arab culture, which we didn't go in.

This shows some of the celebrated window treatment of the Monde Arabe. Apparently the panels adjust with the intensity of the daylight so the interior stays illuminated to a pre-set quality. Someday I'd like to see it. I didn't realize it, but we were now very near the famous Tour d'Argent (Tower of Silver) restaurant (very posh and expensive), and a small museum of "the table," or cutlery or something like that that I'd been intending to see for a long time just because it sounded unusual. I was really tired and no longer checking the map or my walking tour for interesting stops. It was on the Quai de Tournelle, and we'd turned into the Boulevard St-Germain. The museum would most likely have been closed by now anyway.

The Boulevard is very old and is shaded by lots of well-grown leafy trees. It was almost dark, but the camera adjusted, so it looks like there's more light than there is. It was on our way back, nearly to the hotel that I took this photo in the evening light of St-Nicholas-du-Chardonnet, which we'd visited earlier in the day. We'd come nearly full-circle now.

And just beyond St. Nicholas, the final picture of the day. I love the glowing colors. The boulevard was colorful with plenty to look at, although most of the shops along the way were closed. We'd seen so much this first day. I was excited to be here, excited to have seen all that we'd seen on our walk, but I was losing focus, literally. My eyes, like everything else, were tired. It was time to go back, wind down, get a bite to eat, try to sleep if possible, and plan for tomorrow. My feet were starting to scream at me, and I was trying to tell them, "Come on, one more step, one more step, one more step."

Go to Day 2