217

A couple shots from a different drive home, the not so back roads, 217 to be exact.

enough

Enough NSP, enough track....a couple shots I've taken on my way home from shoots.

Shot a lot of track this week, still have more to shoot. By the end end of the week I will have shot 3 district meets and the 1A/2A state meet. Glad the weathers nice and the competition is good. Botht of these shots are from the Midwestern League meet in Springfield.

Music

Shot "action" at the OSAA Band and orchestra last Thurs, Fri & Saturday. A couple of long days and there really wasn't much action, although there were some momnets to be had....when the triangles were busted out, it got crazy as hell...The music was good, even great in many cases. I enjoyed the orchestra day the best, the string orchestras were my favorite, I love the violin and there were some very talented kids playing. The shot of the director here might be the best shot I took all three days, but I think this guy wanted to kick me out of the auditorium, the shutter on a 20-D is pretty loud and in a silent acoustically tuned auditorium it's really loud. I'm afraid I might have truly disturbed this guy, and I felt bad for it, because he was really into it. I tried really hard to shoot when the volume of the group went up, but I didn't get many more shots like that one.

Roadside stop

Had to drive to Redmond for NSP on Monday. It was the first good road trip I've made with my Jetta, drives so nice, didn't mind the 6 hours of driving(round trip) for 45 minutes worth of work. The trip home was real good because the sun along the North Santiam river and it's canyon was pretty nice, nice enough to get me to stop a few places. These are a couple of examples from those stops. Not real happy with the digital shots, hoping the black and whites turn out more to my liking. Finally pushed the first roll thru the hasselblad. Plan to develop that film sometime in the next week or so. The waterfall shot is a little side stream that feeds into the Santiam just East of Mill City. It was unnerving to be sitting only 10 feet or so off of hwy 22 with cars and truck blowing by at 60-70mph, the semis really rattle a person!

New Month

This morning I took down my photographs from the Silver Creek Coffee House. I had the wall for the month and sold 2 prints. It was pretty cool to walk down the street and see the sandwich board that said Artist of the Month Ted Miller, Jr. Hope I can find another wall to fill soon, at the very least it's sparked me to get in the darkroom and start printing some more. I had some good help this morning too=>

Silver Falls

Thought I would put a shot from around here, a scenic. This is from a couple years back on a late evening ride I took with my constant co-pilot E. The pic is of Upper North Fall in Silver Falls State Park.

A Couple more shots from our cruise. Both of these shot are from Manzinillo. I was very hesitant to go into this town. Where the ship was parked it was industrial shipping containers cranes freight cominging and going, I had my doubts about this place. Nancy and her folks went into town to do some shopping and had good things to say about the downtown area, so I went. I could have wandered arounf this place for a while, it was one of those places that I was wishing I had something more than just a point and shoot. The houses built into the hillside intruiged me, one next the other with a stair way clear up to the top off the hill. I want to go back and walk these stairs and watch as the light passes over them. The other shot is and example of the decorative iron work that was all over the place, you can see the the iron work on the windows in the other shot too, I could spend a lot of time exploring these designs, it was very cool.

Beautiful Sunday morning today. Too bad I have to work. A long time frame with very few teams, what a way to spend a Sunday. Wouldn't mind so much but it's in Beaverton, and I've decided that there isn't anything to take pictures there. Instead of hauling the Hoss around I think I'll take the Holga and see what happens.
This shot is a Holga shot, one of the few I have digitized. Not sure there is much irrigation equipment sitting around the city of Beavers, but the Holga can transform the oridinary, if you look at it right. Have a nice day.

My show has been up at the Silver Creek Coffee House now for a couple weeks, and will be there thru the month of April. The show consists of 12 traditional black and white prints, and 15 color prints which are all digital. The image shown here is the only one that's sold so far. Not sure what to make of that other than maybe a coffeee house isn't the place to sell a photograph. I'm pretty happy with the presentation, and it's pretty cool to walk down the street and see the sandwich board outside of the shop that say Artist of the Month Ted Miller, Jr.

Spring Break

What a week last week was. Went to on a cruise on the West Coast of Mexico, San Diego to Alcapuco and then other stops at Ixtapa and Manzinillo. I had no idea what to expect, was thinking it was going to be resort touristy, and to a degree it was, but it was also old and weathered and hard and hot. I didn't take any of my cameras, rather I used my mother-in-laws point and shoot digi....it did the job for the most part, a couple times I was wishing I had the 20-D. I might have to go back to manzinillo and spend some time there, the dragon street lights really caught my attention, as did the wrought iron work in the window of the apartments. An old town homes built on a hill accessed by stairs. I can show you better when I get back from my next trip there. The shots: Alcapuco from the ship,
the dragons on the street light in Manzinillo, our ship tendered of the coast of Ixtapa...more will follow. In the meantime I'm trying to get ready for a showing this Friday at the Silver Creek Coffee House and Wine Bar...wish me luck!

There it is. I now own a Hasselblad. So, now will I find my way back into the darkroom. Will it make me a real photographer?...I'm pretty happy though, I can't afford this right now, but the price was too good to turn down. Picked it up from a friend who was happy to pass it along to somebody he knows. It has a sentimental value to it, it was Hank's first Hasselblad, and now it's my first...The vibe is good and I'm anxious to run some film through it.

It's late, should be in bed--after 1am, but I'm having a belated St. Patty's beer and an early St. Pookies day beer, my best bud's b-day today, happy day Rob, Griz v BC what a present, the Griz head to the sweet 16. Enjoying a Widmer's '06 NW Red, very nice. Shot the OSAA State Dance (and drill?) I set and shot the teams, keep thinking I would rather be doing the action, but the teams is easier work. Might post a couple of the groups later, right now some things that are completely unrelated to anything, a shot of me, what the hell, by one Roland Simmons, photog extrordinaire....The other is a shot, pissed and waiting to get on Walker road, man I hate driving in Beaverton.

Goodnight now.

Another shot from the 4A boys. I really like this one, it has an intensity I love to see in athletes. #40 knows there will be a foul called, so he made sure to get his moneys worth. Not a dirty play, but a hard foul with a message. By the way #40 was named player of the game.

Spent this last week shooting the 4A boys state basketball. The 2A I shot last week is something special, but so is the 4A.......well some of it. The championship was kick ass, as was the semi-final game that South Medford was involved in, buzzer beater in OT, March Maddness indeed.

The championship featured teams with outstanding junior stars, Kevin Love of Lake Oswego and Kyle Singler of South Medford. The game was pretty good, came down to the end when South Medford missed a last second shot, but not by much. The 2 junior stars played pretty good, but both sides had outstanding supporting casts. I have to say I really enjoyed this tourney, more so than others I've shot in the past. Looking forward to next year.

Champions

Spent most of last week in Pendleton. Long beautiful drive down the Gorge, with no time to stop and take any pictures, took plenty while I was at the 2A tourney, plenty. Shot every game in the tourney, 22 games in all. I was happy with most of the stuff I shot, although I got a little burnt out the last day, the championship games. Kinda felt Like I had shot everything there was to shot and everything was looking the same. This shot was different though. This is from the 2A Boys championship game, Santiam Christian vs Oakland. Santiam was ahead most of the game, and by 9 or so points most of the time it seemed. Oakland would battle back and get close and Santiam would extend the lead again. Somehow with a minute or so to go and Santiam seemily comfortably ahead, Oakland dropped in a couple of 3 pointers and were all of a sudden down bu 3 three with a couple of seconds to go. Anyway they made a 3 as time expired, true March maddness stuff, and that's when I took this shot. The funny thing about the shot is that I caught the Oregonians photogs strobes and lit the whole scene up quite nicely for me. The kid who made the 3 is being hugged by #15 in white, center right of the pic. Oakland went on to win in double OT.

watered down

Spent most of last weekend shooting a swim meet, 11-14 year olds, long days, and it all looks the same after awhile, like the first race! Didn't want to post photos of that, mostly because I did think I did a very good job shooting it, but the people selling the pix said that sales were pretty good. Thought I would post something not sports related. I have a thing for railroad tracks and roads and views with a vanishing point in general. These tracks are somewhere between Woddburn and St. Paul, Oregon. This view would be very non-descript if not for the sky. Had to wait for a train to pass by before I could snap the 10 or 12 shots to get this one.

Well I managed to make it to both games last night. Left Theo's game a little early and made it to the HS game right around half time. Missed the senior night tribute, but what the heck. Theo played some pretty tough D and hustled after some loose balls, I was pretty happy I went.

The HS boys won a tough one against Woodburn. They did so by making a ton of free throws and attacking the basket. Woodburn made a couple of charges and hung in, but the Silver Foxes took care of business at the foul line and won.

Tonight is the final home game for the Silverton HS boys bx team. I shoot action photos for them which I sell at the end of the season. I probablyhave enough shots to offer a pretty good collection, but would be happy with a few more. At the same time tonight my oldest son has a basketball game. I don't get to see too many of his games as my schedule usually conflicts withhis game schedule. Now I have a problem....not sure which way to go here.

It's been a while since I've posted here, it's been a while since I've written period. Instead I've been napping once I have the house to myself in the morning, a very bad habit. Mayber I will start posting more pic and more words. maybe maybe not, we'll see