Old Fence Line

I have recently taken up walking on a regular basis as a way to lose weight. As I was walking down a dusty old road southwest of Elko I found this scene.
Actually the plan was to photograph horses but there did not seem to be any around yesterday. Not wanting to waste a good walk I turned away from the horse pasture and found this.

The moral of this story is; "If at first you don't succeed, turn around and shoot something else..."

Old Money

There are no electronic transactions, no scanners and no beeps here. Just the good old ka-chunk, ka-chunk sound when a button is pushed and the sweet sound of a bell when the cash drawer flies open to get me my change.

Good old money, when that tattered and torn, green and black note was backed up by gold. When that coin was actually made of gold, silver or nickel and it really meant something. It had a measurable value.

Nowadays it is all ones and zeroes zooming through the air, back and forth between computers at banks that tally the value of that particular string of ones or zeroes.

The string of ones and zeroes has no intrinsic value. It is valuable because we all agree it has value, certainly not because it has gold backing it up.

I just can't imagine how it all got so complicated and out of hand... can you?

Give me a good old chunk of gold any day.


Speaking of Gold!!!
CNN Money had this to say about Elko, Nevada
side note; if you read the CNN article, take a look at the third photo. In the bottom left corner of that photo you can see an old cash register.
Hmm! Now where have I seen that before...?

Before the Fun

The smell of popcorn and hot dogs in the air, the sound of the fun house and carousel in your ears, the dancing colors all around, the only thing missing is the fun.

The fun comes later... when the young and old flock to this spot. Where the children laugh and the grown ups scream. Where the lights twinkle and shine, like in a dream.
The anticipation rises with the sinking of the sun. We are all just waiting, waiting for the fun.

Stumped

Duck Soup, Lemon Heads and Neon Apples

Over Easy

Spinning

Evening at the Carnival

Beached

The Farm House on the Hill

Too Much Time on Dry Land

Recently took a drive up to Washington State to shoot and hike around Mt. St. Helens.

The weather had other plans that day. The mountain was completely obscured by clouds. I was able to shoot a few shots of misty trees and things (I may post in the future) but no volcano vistas.

With Plan "A" down for the count, I moved on to Plan "B" which was to include a trip to a nearby Wolf Sanctuary.

This is where I would post a really nice shot of a wolf and tell you all how wonderful this place is. Then I would recommend it highly and give you the name, address and phone number so you could go visit it yourself. Of course I would also suggest giving generously to help care for the wolves.

Well I would do all that, if I had planned better.

The reason there are no photos is because I was not allowed to shoot any. I brought a 400mm lens and was all ready to shoot some wolves and praise the place for its work and pay for a tour and donate some extra cash to help out a bit. But the management had other plans.

I could have called ahead to arrange a photo pass or something of that nature, but since I only found out about the place the evening before in the hotel lobby, after a 13 hour drive from Elko, I skipped a call ahead. Lesson learned.

Plan "B" gone to the dogs I gave up shooting for the day and went to the beach for a picnic. After that I drove off to see David Gray at the Mountain Music Festival in Redmond. Two words, "Great show!" I can hardly contain my excitement for the November 2nd show in Salt Lake.

Day 2 (Plan "C")

Drove west on highway 4 down the Columbia River to see if I could salvage the photo trip. It did not take long before I came upon a small picturesque town called Skamokawa. It had everything I love to shoot. There were boats (old and new), bridges, water, old churches, rusty farm machinery, green meadows, wildlife and a run down boat house that just stole the show for me.

The above photo was taken at the old boat house.

Well I quicky ran out of time and had to start driving back.

I am going back for the upcoming three day weekend to do some camping and shoot more of that town. I will also go out to the end of the road and see Long Beach and Astoria. Stay tuned for the photos.

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For the wolves I will say that if you have a chance to go to Wolf Haven in Tenino, Washington, you should go. Here is a link to the information that would have been useful for me had I had more time to plan it. Maybe on that three day weekend... who knows.

Wolf Haven Media Kit

Misty Mountain Drive

Quixote's Bane

Horse and Meadow

Colt Education

Covered Wagon

If you look closely at this photo, just below the window, you may see the rope and handle from posts earlier this week.

School's Out

An abandoned school bus I found on the way out to a gold mine south of Elko.

Handled

Samantha

Over the weekend I dabbled in model photography at a workshop in Salt Lake.
The model is Samantha.

Salt Lake City Photography Workshops & Learning Group can be found on Meet Up, a web based community designed to help people find others who share their interest or cause, and form lasting, influential, local community groups that regularly meet face-to-face.

Fit to be Tied

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