Sweet Home herding photos (from July 23rd/24th)...

The photos of the show Lucky Critters did down in Sweet Home, Oregon are up on the web now (drill into Saturday and Sunday folders to see additional sections and the photos for each dog). I shot all of the photos of the duck and cattle herding. 40 dogs. Long day! Lots of fun! Got to shoot with my own gear this time too...(already had my Nikon D70 and invested in a long 70-200mm f/2.8 VR lens so now I have a capable camera/lens combo for doing sports photography like this).

Wendy also did some "job shadowing" at this show. She learned a bit about digital workflow (dumping the photos from Compact Flash, doing initial scrubbing, and cropping) as well as "selling" event photos to customers.

We're fortunate that Lucky Critters (Chris and Chalace) is willing to show us the ropes, and since they're moving out of the area soon - we'll be filling in for them on all future scheduled shows they've done! Whoo hoo! - awesome way to get our photo biz (In the Zone Photography) jump started.

Starting a photography business!...

Wendy and I are starting a photography business. It's going to be called "In the Zone Photography". We'll be specializing in event photography (sporting events, dog shows, and basically any event where the participants would be interested in purchasing photos of their performance).

We're just working through the early development phase now. Lining up resources and strategizing about marketing, etc.

JUST registered a new domain and created a "coming soon" site at http://inthezonephotography.biz/.

It'll be a hobby business for us. Just helping earn cash to pay for itself and extra traveling money (trip to Hawaii or Europe?).

Unidentified body...

Today they discovered a body in the ditch next to my office.

Chilling, ain't it? I hadn't even had a cup of coffee yet, and my boss asked if I'd noticed all the "hub-bub" going on outside my office window...

When I turned around to look, there was a yellow police "do not cross" tape around a big group of trees down in the ditch next to the parking lot. Two police officers where inspecting the area, and one went down to the ditch and took some pictures of, apparently, the body down under some bushes.

By the end of the morning, there were two fire trucks, several city vehicles, two mortuary vans, a police car, and lots and lots of police, detectives with dark glasses, and other officials wearing blue latex gloves huddled into groups and peering at the decomposing body down in the ditch. They'd go down to look in groups of 3 to 5. The local news camera crew was set up and rolling video. And there was a stretcher with a black body bag, and a blue tarp laying in an empty parking space.

It was surreal.

People from the office gathered outside the building to watch them, and there were people looking out the windows from inside the building too. Some took pictures. We were all waiting for the same thing... The body.

It had been laying down beside the creek/ditch for weeks apparently. They couldn't tell if it had been a man or a woman. The smell was awful - from the way everyone covered their noses when they brought the body up. Someone said that someone had smelled something last week and had thought maybe something had died down there...

One of the mortuary vans was black and the man was dress in black. The second mortuary van that arrived was white and there were two women with white blouses. They talked to the other mortuary worker for a bit, then the firemen loaded the body wrapped in the blue tarp on the stretcher into their van. Then they drove off with the rear windows of the van popped open.

The police took down the "do not cross" tape. The fire trucks left. They forgot a bundle of fence that apparently they'd used for something...

There was a story on the news that night about an unidentified body discovered by penitentiary workers earlier that morning on Fairview Industrial Drive in a ditch. And a clip of the detectives huddled and talking.

Surreal. Like a bad dream, or something I clicked through on the TV.

I'm glad they took the body away in the white van and not the black van, but I don't know why.

Blackrock Granny's Kitchen Wall Ride...

Had an opportunity to ride with a group from Santiam Bicycle today. Took the day off to go shoot photos of them riding. This is one pic I took of the "wall ride" on Granny's Kitchen trail at Blackrock. Thom is riding, and Troy is standing there for effect... These guys both work at Santiam Bicycle in Salem, and are the trail managers for Granny's (just like me, Wade, and Rich are the managers of Basic Training trail/area). It took them several months to build the frame, split the rungs, and complete this wall ride stunt. It's a monument to what freeriding is all about at Blackrock! Progression...

This is picture of me doing a 7' drop from the Billings Rims... It ain't a big drop, but it sure was awesome to be able to "show off" a bit for my brother Travis and his wife. This area is part of the Zimmerman Park up on the Rims. It was 105 degrees that day in Billings and since I'm used to operating at a lower altitude (like 1,000 feet) I got fatigued pretty quickly. The Zimmerman Park has a lot of XC mountain bike trails, and that's where I started out in 1998 when Wendy and I still lived in Billings. So that's another cool thing about having a change to drop off of stuff there! 

Our niece Mikaela's 6th Birthday... Wendy and I were in Billings on 7/11 and that's when her birthday is! They had her birthday party at Chucky Cheese pizza. It was a lot of fun. Took a bunch of pics... Posted 50 of them here to my personal photo album (private for family only - email me if you need the password). 

Shellburg Falls hike with family...

While my mom and dad where out here in Oregon visiting, we had an opportunity to go for a hike to the Shellburg Falls. These are fairly secluded falls just south of Silver Falls (which get very crowded with visitors) - so these falls are great to escape to... Didn't see anybody else while we were there. They really seemed to get a real taste of what Oregon is like while on this hike - temperate rainforest, some old growth cedar trees, and of course the falls...

I posted a bunch of photos from our Shellburg hike in our digital photo album (private for family viewing only - email me if you need the password).

Enjoy!

Fourth of July on the coast!...

My parents were in town for the 4th of July, and we drove out to Lincoln City to watch the fireworks over Siletz Bay. Before the fireworks, we went down to New Port and took a whale watching boat down the coast a ways (to Yaquina Head lighthouse).

Took lots and lots of pics (over 120!). Haven't had any time to dump them or do any sort of editing though. Hopefully will have a chance to do that soon, and then I'll post them in my gallery.

Mom and Dad seem to be enjoying themselves out here in Oregon. We're trying to give them a taste of Oregon - Wendy took them to Tillamook cheese farm (north of Lincoln City) on July 5th (I had to get back to work by 8am - so rode my motorcycle back early in the morning).

Herding trials photos (Scio, OR)...

Lucky Critters Photography has the photos I shot July 2nd/3rd (Saturday/Sunday) up on their web site. I took all of the photos that day - there were dogs/handlers in 3 different classes running two different courses on both days. Lots of dogs!

Lucky Critters Photography is scheduled for another herding dog show coming up later in July - and they have asked me to help out again for that one! It's cool to be able to shoot photos and actually get paid for it...

Here's link to my first "professional" photos that I've ever shot. What do ya think?

2005-07 Herding Trial - Scio (July 2&3, 2005) (there are folders for Saturday and Sunday, and folders for each class, then each dog/handler - so you have to drill in several layers to see the pictures).

Freelancer for hire...

Freelancer: the medieval term for a mercenary, a "free lance," which literally described a knight who was not attached to any particular lord, and could be hired for a given task.

On Saturday and Sunday (July 2nd and 3rd) in Scio, Oregon; I was shooting photos at a herd dog trials show. Lucky Critters Photography needed a fill-in photographer, and wanted to give me a try out as a freelancer. It was a lot of fun! Spent about 6 hours each day shooting with a camera with huge lens (a Canon EOS 20D with 70-200mm 2.8f lens) - running around outside the herding course to get best angles, and running back to the Lucky Critters tent with memory sticks full of photos. Got a little sun burned, and it's a good thing I do a lot of mountain biking - got my excercise!

The positive comments from dog handlers who viewed their photos after their runs were great to hear. There was also an artist that had a booth there at the show also, and when she asked how long I'd been a professional photographer, and I said "well, let's see... about 2 days now!"... She was blown away. Basically, I try to frame shots well - I try to make them compelling/interesting. Something you'd want hanging on your wall or as your desktop wallpaper/screensaver. We sold a bunch of photos and CD's at the show (Lucky Critters burns the CD's and makes the prints on-site within minutes after the dog/handlers run). The two days of "work" was worth it (I'd have done if for free (shhh!), but a split of the sales is all gravey)!

They'll be putting up the photos I took on their event photo gallery at some point. When they do, I'll post a link to it here so ya's can check out the pics I took.

Now, they have asked me if I'll be a back up photographer for them on a permanent basis. So that's fairly exciting! I said "SURE!". Can't wait for the next event!