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You probably wouldn’t guess that these photos were taken in February on the Oregon Coast if I hadn’t just told you so. Today was a brief but fun escape from reality to go explore Seaside to Tillamook with Jess, and the weather was perfect.

Here are some of the photos I took of the July 4th fireworks display on the Portland waterfront.  Enjoy.

At least all this rain is good for something.

Lots and lots and lots of pictures after the break.  Check them out.

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Why?  Because you don’t have to go anywhere to find subjects!

With this horrendous weather we’re having in California, I realized that my simple “stick the camera in a plastic bag” solution wasn’t going to address the problem of rain getting on the lens and mucking up the photos of the race tomorrow. I figured a hood might be my best bet, but after checking out the only camera shop I could find that was open on a Sunday, I was out of luck. They had a hood for my lens, but it was $40 and was an off-brand accessory. I set about trying to think up what sort of improvised hood I could come up with, when Joey’s friend Andrew stumbled upon the answer: red drinking cups usually synonymous with alcohol consumption!

Rather than using a bag for the camera, I rigged up the hoods for both lenses and decided to attach and tape a bag to each lens to make sure there will be no leakage between the hood and the bag. Now I just need to run to the store and get another bag for the second lens. That way I’ll have both lenses as options tomorrow.

One of my regular assignments from my aunt and uncle has been pruning trees on their property. At this point, after 8-10 trees, I’d consider myself a near-expert. So yesterday and today I decided to tackle the big tree. Here’s the pile I ended up with:

And the highest branches aren’t even cut yet.

Today’s weather was similar to what’s forecasted for the Bay Area next Monday, so I spent some time adjusting camera settings and taking some test shots panning on cars going by. I’m sure I weirded out a few passing motorists by taking pictures of them. Don’t worry motorists, I didn’t actually want your photo.

It looks like at ISO 400-800 I can get away with 1/125th of a second for objects moving under 20MPH and 1/200-320th for approximately 30MPH. It creates a nice minor action blur while maintaining clarity. As far as zoom, the 70-300mm lens is only useful if I’m at least 30-40 feet away. Any less than that and the 18-55 is my only viable choice. Wondering what on earth I’m talking about? The Tour of California next week, of course!

Last Wednesday while taking Harry (the dog) for a run, something odd and out of place caught my attention as we ran past the backyard of a house in the neighborhood. I backtracked a few steps only to see an owl staring straight back at me in a tree perhaps 15-20 feet away. I froze for a few seconds trying to process exactly what I was seeing, before cautiously walking back out of sight and immediately bolting the two minutes back towards the house and my camera. It was one of those I NEED this photo type of moments. I raced back hoping it hadn’t moved from its perch. It seemed relatively content just sitting there, so other than the squirrel that didn’t like its tree being taken over and was being vocal about it, I figured there was a decent chance it wouldn’t move.

I got back, and this was the scene.

The red circle is approximately where the owl was perched, and the blue squared is how much of the frame it would have filled with my 300mm lens.

I thought it may not have gone too far, so I searched around and actually found it in the same tree, just much higher up and behind plenty of branches in relative darkness. This made focusing and getting a decent exposure a pain.

I did manage to find one clear angle at it (other than the dense foliage in the way).

So as best I can figure out, it’s a barred owl. Which mostly makes sense. Searching online, it’s the only one that looks similar, but it’s primarily a more eastern owl that has only recently started expanding its range into Oregon and Washington. Do you concur, parents?

It was very close to being a dream photo opportunity, but I just missed it. I run by there fairly often, so I’m going to have to keep my eyes open.