USA
The Old Creek – Near Elliston, Montana 2009
I’m always intrigued by a colorless photo. It was getting dark, but snapped up a little extra light to get this one. This is on the other side of the first branch of the creek about HERE. I remember at one time there used to be a lot of frogs in here that we’d catch, but that was back in the 80s. All those frogs must have grown up and taken jobs in the city though, because I didn’t see any more there…
Abandoned Church on The Way To Bend Oregon
Another shot of the old abandoned church in Grass Valley, OR. You can see it from the highway HERE, look in the back-middle of the Google map to see it. 
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Grass Valley Methodist Church – Oregon 2009
We’ve driven by THIS old abandoned church 3 or 4 times and finally decided to stop and take a few shots – will post more later, but this one was my favorite from the mix and is one of the first I’ve used Adobe Lightroom for. It’s definitely a program that I’m going to keep in the arsenal going forward – Thanks Christine!
Pumpkin Hunting 2009 And The Girls Playing in The Leaves
The girls had their costumes on and we had a need for some leaf raking anyway, good photo ops. I don’t think I had a shot with the dogs in it yet. Welcome to the shots doggies.
The other ones were when Tanner and Lydia came over for the festive occasion and we spun out to the pumpkin patch to pick our own for the Toivola Pumpkin carving party. I carved a fairly shotty Patrick, Spongebob’s best buddy…
Our Cabin on The Little Blackfoot Near Elliston, MT – 2009
We’ve had THIS cabin for my entire life but I haven’t been to in much since moving to Seattle, maybe 2 or 3 times in the past 10 years at best. We seem to be gaining land as the creek has eaten into the opposite shore over that time. It’s amazing how fast it can change the contour of the land in that short amount of time. We played a lot of lawn darts, shot a lot of target practice with a laundry list of guns, road a million miles on snowmobiles, hiked, caught loads of fish and buried a few animals (Toby is buried HERE, and FatCat is HERE).
It’s funny to think back to what we did before this technology age; there was always “something” to do there. We were always excited to get to go to the cabin for the weekend…
I’ve always been a fan of the “Aged” look of a photo, and the memories here certainly take me back – I couldn’t decide on what I liked more so I whipped up one with a bit more time to it. They both make me miss Montana a little bit…
Old Truck Overgrown With Bushes
I half hesitated to even put this one on – HDR always looks good with old rust and tall grass. The color has so many different colors for the grass. However, this is a pseudo-HDR as I took in in RAW format, but just did tone-mapping on it. What’s that you say? It looks blurry? Yea, that’s because it was. I’m a bit upset with the way it turned out because I didn’t use a tripod because we were on someone elses land. Still “alright”, but that’s all I give it, personally…
Long Black Road – Maui, Hawaii
This one was another stitched together shot I took but then couldn’t figure out if I liked it better in color or black and white. It’s a 8 foot long print, so if you could, go ahead and tell me which is better…
Pieced Haleakala – Maui, Hawaii
We went up to the top of Haleakala for the bike tour that let’s you coast for about 20 miles down the mountain top. I don’t bike much, but I figured it would be a good time to snap up a few photos. It turned out that I really enjoyed the bike trip down the mountainside. If you search through here you’ll see a lot of the photos I took right when I got my 20d – for the trip actually. This one was about 15 separate photos and just stitched them together in Photoshop. Yes, I know there are a handful of apps that do it for you, but I didn’t know about them at the time. 
A Shot of My Oldest Bean – Happy 5th Lilla!
I’ve tried getting this shot with all my kids so far, but this one sticks out the best – It’s Lilla, just minutes after birth; mohawk, sass, and all! She’s not got the mohawk anymore, but she certainly has the sass! Happy birthday Lilla!
First Day of School Fall 2009
Lilla and Chloe got their new backbacks and thought they were pretty cool! They get along really well so that’s an absolute benefit! We’ll see if they treat their little sister this nice when Millie gets old enough to play with them!
Driving back from Montana in 2005
Again, just had the new camera in 2005 and on the drive back home had an ominous cloud cover that really made for some dramatic lighting. This is the latest one I’ve printed out and framed up at my house – looks pretty good.
Rounding The Corner – Biggs, OR 2007
This was another one of our trips to Bend to visit Heather’s dad. They’ve really got a lot of good shots in the town. This one was actually directly in front of my shot of Dinty’s but just pointed towards the town.
Miriam’s 5th Birthday Party
Took a few snaps at Miriam’s 5th birthday party before we went to Montana. Everyone was pretty happy at the fiesta and I think I really got a good one at the start here of Hannah’s pirate eye. The cats and dogs even got a few photos-worth in here! Happy 5th Miriam!
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
I took this one in 2007 on a trip we took to NYC for work. It was a Manager-Tools course (that actually was pretty interesting) and right when I got my current job. I had just been dinking around with HDR a little bit at this time and didn’t have a real good grasp on it, but I snapped this one (well, 3 of them at different exposures) from my hotel window at Newark Airport.
It worked well because the plane was pretty much not going anywhere so it was easy to get the few shots at different exposures. I hadn’t been there since 2001 and caught one of the last games of the old Yankee stadium before it got plowed down. They really did need a new stadium, that one was very old.
Alki Beach Tree Cover
May 2008 – We always go to Alki in the summer at least a couple times. It’s good to watch the kids play in the water and it’s good for people watching for sure. The beach can be a little rocky, but what do you expect in the Pacific Northwest? There is some sand down the way, but that’s usually taken up elbow to elbow so it’s not worth it to try to squeeze in there. 
The Shoe Tree Near Shaniko OR, 2008
I had to throw in the colorless (mostly) version of THIS photo. I really love the starkness it causes and gives off a bit of eeriness. I thought this a better shot than then one of used underwear next to it.
Skitter Falls – Road to Hana, Maui, HI 2005
This one will always have some special meaning. It was a good find on our trip around Maui via the Road to Hana. We saw this waterfall from the highway and trekked in a little bit to see it. My goal with it was to catch the waterfall with a long shutter to smooth out the water, it worked nicely. I was knees deep in the water with my tripod and nearly fell over a time or 2, but the shot worked nicely.
Deadwood Beach, Maui Hawaii
After the ride on our bikes down Haleakala in Maui, Hawaii, 2005, we stopped at this store to pick up lunch, but behind the store there was this beach that they didn’t tell us about – had some really nice looking views…
A Few Flecks Of Frost
Again in the “back 40″ behind my house. Had a Halloween bug maybe since this was in October, but it really does make for some good shots when the leaves are changing color.
Barbed Wire Bothell
We’ve got a lot of wild blackberry bushes out behind our house – I took this shot I’d say in maybe October 2008 behind my house. Makes for some good dramatics certainly…
Two Trees Near Dayton, WA
This was right first when I got my 20d and we were heading down to Walla Walla in 2004. I honestly don’t remember what we were going down there in the middle of the summer for. Heather was pregnant and Bob was with us. Maybe the Alumni baseball game? I’m not sure, but I really always liked the colors in the area and this is another point to it.
Abandoned House Near Goldendale
We’ve driven by this house a handful of times over the years. It’s right outside Goldendale, WA and near the windmills that are going up along the Columbia river. It was amazing how clean the house was on the inside – you’d think varmints and bushes would overrun it, but maybe the owners of the land keep it clean or something. It’s scarily interesting and just off the highway.
I just got myself a new wide-angle lens (and 4gb memory card) this week when I went in for just a battery charger. It’s an addictive habit the guy at the shop told me.
Preying Mantis Party
I didn’t see a lot of preying mantis’ growing up in Montana; it was a bit too cold. However Hawaii seemed like the perfect place for a few (million) of them…
