Watersports on the Prineville Reservoir

Ah summertime...Vacation time. Summer is short in Oregon. It seems we no sooner celebrate Memorial Day and the next thing one knows is that it's time to hand out trick-or-treat candy on a cold, dark 40 degree rainy night. On the west side of the Cascade Range, the good, hot summer weather really doesn't set in until after the 4th of July. But on the east side, on the high plain desert, sunny skies and hot days seem endless. The stark difference in weather between Western and Eastern Oregon is dramatic.

Every year several of our friends pack up their families, camping gear and ski boats and head off to Eastern Oregon for fun in the sun. The whole trip revolves around watersports. For the past few years, the location of choice has been the Prineville Reservoir. It was 5 days of nearly non-stop water sports...water skiing, wake boarding, tubing and jet skiing. With a messed up knee keeping me idle...while everyone played, I shot the action. Over 4,300 frames later, we packed up, pulled the boats in and headed back to work, paying the bills and house chores...Ah vacation time...only 51 weeks and we get to do it all over again.

Condon's Fabulous 4th Kid Races

As part of the Condon, OR 4th of July celebration, the adults had their Fabulous 4th 8K Run and 5K walk in the morning, and in the afternoon the kids took part in the traditional Kids' Races on the High School football field. The event is full of thrills and spills as the youngins competed in sprints, a three-legged race and a solo gunnysack race with distances varying based on age group. It was fun for all, and the victors claimed a shiny new Sacajawea One Dollar Gold Coin as a first place prize, courtesy of the Bank of Eastern Oregon.

See the photo gallery of the Kids' Races here: Condon Fabulous 4th Kids Games.

Condon, Oregon Fabulous 4th Run & Walk

Every 4th of July a small farm-based town of 650 residents in Central Oregon swells three times its size as family and friends gather to celebrate our nation's birth in a style reminiscent of a Norman Rockwell painting. Surrounded by miles and miles of wheat fields, the town of Condon, Oregon holds on to generations of tradition as modern times challenges the economics of being an isolated town with its roots tied to family-owned farming.

Known as "Condon's Fabulous 4th Celebration," annual events include breakfast in the park, a traditional small-town parade, a soapbox derby race, kids races and an impressive fireworks display at the High School. A couple of years ago a fun run and walk was added to the agenda of activities. The run starts 5 miles out of town at the windmill farm and ends at the town park. This year 15 runners hoofed the rolling road into town while about 25 walkers opted for the shorter 5K walk. It was a beautiful morning in a beautiful corner of the world. Life in Condon doesn't stand still...it just moves at a pace city folks don't appreciate often enough.

See the photo gallery of the run here: Condon Fabulous 4th Run & Walk.

My first photo assignment: Graduation 2005

Graduation is a time of nerves, excitement and anticipation...but this time I am not describing the graduates' feelings, I am speaking of my own. I was fortunate enough to be asked by the Beaverton Valley Times to cover three graduation ceremonies for their June 16th "The Class of 05" feature section. I photographed ceremonies at Valley Catholic HS, Southridge HS and Jesuit HS in Beaverton, OR. It was a great experience...Definitely a challenge to find the moments, get a good shot and get the personal information from those in a photo. All-in-all, I was very pleased to have 7 of my submissions published. Below are 3 of them with the captions as they were published.



Self Portrait - Valley Catholic High School grads (above, from left) Eric Choi and Glen Thonis take a pre-commencement photo Saturday, June 4, in preparation for their final appearance with their class.


Graduation Scenes - Jesuit grad Sacha Bernards adjusting Chris Dieringer's honor tassel as Laurel Bently looks on.


Ready To Go - Southridge senior designated hitter Cory Bence showed up for graduation Saturday afternoon at the University of Portland still clad in her softball jersey and firstplace medal from the Skyhawks' state title win.

More fun with the kids

As the Little League seasons wound down, I got out to a couple of softball and baseball games to shoot some more kids of some family friends. Shooting Little League continues to be great fun. The action...the expressions...the emotions...the drama...Little League makes for great shot opportunities...and some of them even have something to do with baseball.

See the photo galleries of game shots here:
Murrayhill Little League, Dodgers vs Reds
Oregon ASA Softball, Blaze vs Rampage
Murrayhill vs Tualatin Softball

Manchester United Premier Cup

Over Memorial Day Weekend 32 of the best U-15 boys and girls premier soccer clubs gathered at the Nike World Headquarters Campus in Beaverton, OR to compete in the U.S.A. Regional Finals for the Manchester United Premier Cup. Over 7,000 boys teams from 40 countries are vying for honors to compete in the Man U Cup Finals, which will be held in Hong Kong in July. For the girls, winning the Regional provides a berth to the prestigious Gothia Cup in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The Oregon Spring weather was perfect for soccer; the action was top notch and the beautiful Nike Campus provided an excellent setting with world-class facilities. The campus was the training facility of choice for the Manchester United English Premier League squad during their past U.S.A. summer tours.

The Washington Crossfire 90 club from Redmond, WA are now busy booking tickets to Hong Kong as they took first place honors for the boys. The Slammers FC of Newport Beach, CA will travel east across the Atlantic as their first place victory sends them off to Gothenburg.

See the photo gallery of game shots here: Manchester United Premier Cup.

Quarter Midget Racing: Region 9 States Race

I have fond memories of when I was a kid watching the quarter midget races at Alpenrose Dairy in Portland with my family. As I remember, we would stop by Alpenrose on a Sunday after church to watch the races...or the little britches rodeo...or the bicycle races on the velodrome...or any of the many other events the dairy sponsors. Alpenrose is an amazing place...a true testament to a family owned business understanding the value of being involved with the community and supporting family oriented activities.

I was taking softball pictures on Memorial Day Weekend for a friend on the main Little League field, which happened to be the first day of the Quarter Midget Region 9 States Race. It was just qualifying and time trials, but I took the opportunity to shoot for about an hour and get a taste of shooting a racing event...quarter midget style. I enjoyed it and will definitely plan to drop by Alpenrose more often this summer and shoot another race. If you want to learn more about quarter midget racing, check out the Quarter Midgets of America website.

Oregon Girls High School Lacrosse Championship

After shooting a recent softball game at Southridge High School I took the opportunity to drift over to the football stadium to shoot the Oregon Girls High School Lacrosse Championship match between Lincoln High of Portland and Lake Oswego High. The match started out during the "golden hour," when the sun is just above the horizon, which provided a very nice warm-toned light. As the match drew into the evening, I went from shooting with great light at ISO 200 to struggling to get a decent shutter speed at IS0 1600 due to the weak stadium lights.

It was a great end-to-end match. The lead changed hands several times throughout the match, but in the end, Lake Oswego scored a "golden goal" in the second overtime to claim the state title. It was a very emotional win for the LO ladies and a crushing blow to Lincoln.

Half-fast Coed Soccer

How someone came about the idea of coed soccer is beyond me. I know of no other mixture of the sexes in any other physically demanding contact sport. Sorry...coed softball just doesn't compare. Even though on paper one wouldn't think two teams of five men and five women would result in a harmonious outcome, but somehow it all works...given all don't take it too seriously.

I have been an avid soccer player my entire life. Coed games are a lot of fun. The coed team I play on is a diverse mix of talent and characters...to say the least. We have twenty-somethings and sixty-somethings...serious talent and alternative talent. No matter how you measure it, it's a great group of folks and not too bad of a team. The team name is Half-fast and we have managed to start of the season with a 4 and 1 record. The most recent game was in Damascus, Oregon in the foothills of the Cascade Range. The backdrop to the field was a gorgeous view of Mt. Hood. In between substitutions, I took a handful of photos of the game. We won 4-1, I got some good shots of my teammates and the post-game beer was mighty tasty.

See the photo gallery of game shots here: Half-fast vs Accuprint Printers Coed Soccer.

America's Past Time

It's simple...Little League is fun to shot. Easy access, a small field providing lots of shot opportunities and never a loss for great expressions from the kids. I shot a recent game for a couple of friends that have kids on an 11 year old team. Like I said...it was a lot of fun.

For the first 4 innings a pitching machine was used and the kids were pretty aggressive at swinging at the ball. After that, the kids pitched the last couple of innings...that's where things slow down quite a bit. Pitching is a bit of a stretch for them at their age. They heave the old cowhide with all their might, and even make it across the plate a few times.

The big play of the day was a popup over the plate...the catcher zeroed in on it, but as the ball approached the ground he was positioned a little behind it. He made a spectacular diving catch for the out. A couple frames of the sequence are displayed below.

All-in-all it was a good day for baseball and a good day for shooting. See the photo gallery of game shots here: Mariners vs Stingers Baseball.