Oregon Hikers

With the "iffy" weather forecast today, I decided to stay in town to run errands. But I did manage to get out to Sauvie Island for a walk along the Oak Island Nature Trail now that it is open for the season. After the initial shock of having to pay $22 for my parking permit this year, I realized that it was probably funding the new bridge that was completed last year.



As usual, no maps. But I really do love this unexpected sign.


My favorite oak tree on Oak Island that I've photographed every visit. So I decided to experiment with one of the photo editing features in Picasa called "focal B&W". It reminds me of hand-tinted photos.


The camas lily are blooming


Here is where one could see Mt. Hood on a clear day


Awesome swirly cloud


Even with the gale-force winds, I managed to get one flower picture


Decided to go back via St. Johns for some variety of scenery

The oak tree experiment worked, a perfect subject for that BW and tinting. Guess old Max had to stay home.

Skip

Good stuff Kam, that's a fun little trail,

Adam

BaileyBoy wrote:The oak tree experiment worked, a perfect subject for that BW and tinting. Guess old Max had to stay home.

Thanks, Skip! The tinting is kinda fun. I'm going to try it with some of my wildflower pictures. And Max did get to go with me. He even went for a quick swim. Otherwise, he was on-leash the entire time because of all the birds. I forgot to mention that I saw TWO bald eagles!

AlexanderSupertramp wrote:Good stuff Kam, that's a fun little trail,

Yes! It's my go-to trail for when I need a wide open space to roam around and soak up the sun. Sometimes I walk the loop twice because once is just not enough. And I love that it's a short 20-minute drive!

Beautiful pics , but um, Kam, I hope you weren't operaing a moving motor vehicle AND a camera at the same time on those bridges?!

I was driving when those pictures were taken. The Sauvie Island bridge had no traffic, so I was able to stop. And the crack in my windshield kinda looks like a crow But there were cars behind me on the St. Johns bridge, so I snapped it quickly when driving. It was one of those "hold-out-the-camera-and-press-the-shutter-release-button-without-looking" pictures. There was some straightening involved in the photo editing process, but the composition was surprisingly good and didn't require any cropping. As I'm usually the only one in the car w/opposable thumbs, this type of picture-taking occurs frequently and has yielded some really interesting results!