This was tough challenge, but I did manage to get this of the Fremont Bridge over the Willamette River.
More Sunday Stills Challenge contributions here!
A year ago today I found this ad on Craigslist:
Red Dun gelding Quarter Horse. Registered AQHA name The Talk of the Town aka “Willy”. 19 yrs old, great for beginner/intermediate. Used for lessons, shows, 4-H, trail riding, beach and rodeo. He is a gorgeous, smart and all around fun horse, but haven’t spent the quality time he deserves. I took lessons on him for seven years and he knows everything and more!
The month before, at the beginning of September, I had to put Nick down. He was getting so old that his teeth were worn down so much that he couldn’t properly chew his food. No matter what I tried, I just couldn’t keep weight on him. His last five years had been good ones; it was time to put him out of his misery.
I had planned on waiting to getting another horse until spring when the grass was coming on. Though it certainly couldn’t hurt to look and get an idea about the market, right? When I found the ad, he was pretty much everything I was looking for – and a dun! – despite being a couple years older than the range I was considering. And, he was relatively close.
I quickly replied to the ad and we waiting anxiously for a response. After trading several emails, the owner, who lived a hundred miles or so away from the place where she was boarding him , said she couldn’t make it on the afternoon that we’d agreed on, but to go ahead and go look at him anyway. I’d asked my trainer to come along because she knew what she was looking at better than I did.
We found the place relatively easy. Willy was out in the pasture with a couple other horses, and immediately quit grazing to come investigate and beg some treats. He was very friendly and not standoffish at all. My trainer assessed him and said that he was slightly sickle-hocked and a bit cresty in the neck, and with exercise his back would come up; overall, he looked pretty good.
Afterward, we agreed to meet that weekend at a local arena so I could try him out. I was so excited! When we got to the arena, he was already tacked up and his owner was warming him up. After being idle for seven/eight years while his owner was in the army, he needed a little warm up. I got on him and he was great, did everything I asked willingly. His western pleasure-like trot was to die for! That settled it, I was definitely in love. And the rest is history!
Who knew it would be so hard to find a decent vanishing point?? My attempt…
More Sunday Stills here!
Despite it officially being fall and heading into the rainy season, there was a surprising lack of fog or rain to get some water/dew drops!
Raiding the archives:
Crazy week, didn’t get a chance to check the Sunday Stills blog for the challenge until yesterday. But, I did get a picture of the resident mosquito that likes to hang around the computer.
Found this cool partial spider web on a fence post on my way out to do chores yesterday morning.
Pitch on a firewood log.
Some sort of pollinator… not exactly sure what it is.
Loaded-down honeybee on a blackberry blossom.
I love sunsets; there is just something magical about them that never seems to lose its charm, no matter how many you’ve seen.
Bit of a tough challenge this week 😉 Since I missed last week’s, I went for extra challenge of getting ones that haven’t been posted about.
Mother & Daughter
Getting ones hair done is often a family affair.
Playtime!
Okay, I couldn’t resist.
Got so busy last week that I missed Sunday Stills! At least there’s always next week. 😉
When I first saw the bee, I thought it had gotten too cold to fly, since it was pretty overcast. But then I noticed the white spider – practically the same color as the rose – with a death grip on bee’s neck. Without the two red stripes on its back, it blends in incredibly well. Did a quick Internet search and found out that the spider is a Goldenrod Crab Spider, which is either white or yellow, depending on what color flower they are hunting on, and they can change between the two colors.
It’s a toss up between the super macro mode and zoom – both are equally awesome!
The letter “F”.
Firepower
Friends
Field
God bless America and our troops! Have an great Independence Day!
I ordered this new beauty on Sunday from Amazon and got it late yesterday afternoon. I’ve only used it for a couple of hours and I already love it to death!
It’s a Canon PowerShot SX20 IS – it has 20 x optical zoom and 4 x digital zoom, which adds up to 80 x zoom altogether. No offense to Kodak, but I have only used barely even a quarter of the settings it (Canon) has to off and it has already proven itself to be absolutely amazing.
It’s bulkier and heavier than the Kodak, but I personally like having something to fill my hands, so that is a pro for me. The weight also seems to help reduce the shake produced from pressing down the shutter. The only complaint I have so far is that there is no leash on the lens cap, making it easy for it to slip off. So far my favorite setting has been the “Super Macro” which allows you to amazing macros without having to have a DSLR with a macro lens. I’m also very impressed with how it handles low light – took a couple of photos in the house with the auto setting and they were great. Can’t wait to see how it does at my next concert!
Here’s a couple sample shots I’ve taken:
From this…
To this:
A macro example:
Confession: these were all edited to B&W…
My loyal guardian, happy to pose for me.
I was not expecting to find this lurking in at the edge of the mud puddle, with the tadpoles – I think he scared me more than I scared him. It was a pretty warm day, so maybe he was trying to cool off… or maybe frog meat was on the menu?
Almost walked into it 😉
And what would this be without an “old timey” bridge photo? This is the Oregon City bridge, over the Willamette, by the way.
See what the rest of the Sunday Stills gang is doing here!
I didn’t realize until we got the challenge this week just how much yellow we have around here!
Rhubarb Curd. Yes, not exactly the most appetizing shade of yellow, but the delicious lemony flavor more than makes up for it. Want to try it, recipe here.
Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus minor), an interloper in our hay fields.
Farm plate.
Torching up scrap into more manageable pieces.
Butter cup patch.
Old broom handles come in handy for keeping stirrups straight when you’re not riding.
Enjoy more Sunday Stills contributions here.
Dad and I went and saw Christian Kane opening for Justin Moore at the Rose Festival CityFair. He puts on an amazing show!
Redtail Hawk with a garden snake.
The reflection of the window on Dad’s guitar.
I’m lazy…
Favorite TV and/or Movies. Definitely a challenge, it’s harder to get decent pictures of the TV than I thought! Good luck guessing!
(screen cap)
Answers:
1. Leverage
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
3. NCIS
4. 3:10 to Yuma
How many did you know?
Damsel Fly in the hay field
Pheasant Eye daffodil
And then because I misread the challenge earlier…
Spring’s not quite here yet!
First sign around these parts that spring isn't too far off
play time!
What's easier than hunting barb wire?
Alert driver 😉
For more emotions, click here.
Icicle edition!
Well, it’s that time of year again(is it really 2011?!)! Time to dig through the archives and find our best shots from the past year. Sure seems like ’10 went fast – a great year in photography, can not wait to see what 2011 brings.
*edit* Just realized I misread Ed’s post: best shot, not best shots. Hope you don’t mind this minor infraction…
When I looked up, the jet was right under the moon.
Country music with “a little gasoline”.
My absolute favorite shot of the Gorge I’ve taken this year.
We call it an “International Moon” 😉
Summer. What else can I say?
The perfect end to a winter evening.
And I thought cats and dogs didn’t get along…
This week’s subject is a potluck; free rein to do whatever we want!
Edyta, the resident “bobcat”. She likes to follow us everywhere, even if that means walking 3/4 of a mile through the woods.
The very attentive and loving Aussies….
“It’s hard work being the loyal guardian all the time.”
Now for something older… This past week I took on the mountainous task of cleaning out the Kodak EasyShare software that stores our pictures after they are loaded onto the computer, and transferring them to disc. Over 12,000 to transfer! Since it’s a potluck this week, I thought post favorites that I found in the archives. Here’s a few of them.. (WordPress is insisting on putting a few duplicates in the gallery).
My late contribution – had to battle WordPress this morning, it kept insisting on not letting me post a picture!
Self portraits… ‘nough said!
Fall foliage!
Took this right after a downpour and a patch of blue sky appeared long enough for me to run out and snap some pictures. Clouds made an interesting reflection on the leaf.
Macro Monday, fall edition! You know that fall is here and winter’s just around the corner when everything is covered in little ice crystals…
Our second frost of the year, hardly a killing frost, but cold enough to make you reach for a scarf and clean off the wood stove that sits all summer for a nice little fire.
My little contribution to the challenge this week. Found it at the grocery store! Mom, as well as several others were practically drooling over it.
Red and Green!
Got smoke, but no flames. A “small” forest fire on Larch Mountain, on the Washington side of the river, visible on our way to the Clark County Fair.
Couldn’t have had a more perfect challenge for this week, almost every day this summer has started out with some kind of clouds!
This one doesn’t look like it so much now, but at the time I thought it looked somewhat like a lobster.
Red sunset courtesy of the smoke from the wildfires in eastern Washington, Oregon, and California. I’m not that keen on the smell of smoke, it makes me feel a bit on edge even when I know the fire’s nowhere close, but it does make for some interesting light.
Looks a bit like a postcard, doesn’t it? Looks like some thunder heads behind the mountains – Some pretty big ones showed up a couple of days ago and I took pictures of them, but the air was so hazy with smoke that you could hardly see them in the photos.
