I have always wanted to see the Aurora Borealis, but I never could afford to go north where they happen frequently. In May of 2024 they came down far enough and strong enough for me to see them here in Oregon. I had the perfect place to go see them and it was just minutes from my house. It was incredible.
The auroras went strong for about 30 minutes. Best seen through the lens of my camera. And then it was time to go back to the car
My only issue was that my newer tripod lost one leg and I had to hand hold all the shots. I had planned on posting my photos from the next Aurora show in October of 2024 but realized that it was so huge a file it would need a post of it’s own.
Winter has finally decided to arrive. We have awakened to fresh snow on the ground, several mornings, the most we have seen all season. Cloudy breezy days, clear crisp warm afternoons, then the snow is gone by evening only to return the next morning. it feels like late winter and early spring here.
I think I have mentioned that my favorite laptop is dying. In anticipation of this a year ago, I bought a computer tower to replace the laptop. I hated the new windows 11 program and had it removed. So, the tower sat for a year+ unused. Now, things have gotten so bad with the laptop that I finally decided it was time to switch my photos and processing programs to the new tower. It has not been easy. The tower refused to recognize my external hard drive and everything I use. The final straw was that my favorite photo processing program that I used daily would not transfer over. I then found myself downloading my photos onto the laptop and processing them then transferring them to a flash drive and uploading them to the computer tower. The laptop crashed several times during this process; I then decided to download the photos onto the tower and then pick the ones I wanted to process and transfer them to the flash drive and ultimately to the laptop process them and then transfer them back to the tower. That worked ok but if I had another idea and went out to photograph it the whole process had to be started over again. Photos were getting lost or left behind. The computer tower program was different, photos were getting lost, files were getting lost. The computer has a different idea of how I should organize my photos, and I couldn’t find them by their date. In order to get the photo processing program, I had been using onto the computer tower I would have to buy the program again. The thing is, the program I was using was limited, it did what I wanted with the photos I had, I knew that there was more that could be done with my photos. I had been photographing with the basic JPG photo program and with the RAW digital neutral program. That means I could go deeper with my photographs but only if I had a program that could work in the RAW and then convert the photo to the JPG program for showing. I decided that if I was going to have to use the new computer for my photo processing it was time to upgrade my processing program. I had an idea of what program I wanted to purchase but I could not remember the name, So I asked my friend Neil Schmottlach, a fellow photo enthusiast what program he was using. He said he was using Luminar Neo. I checked it out found that it was indeed the program I wanted and purchased it. I Love IT !!!! So much easier and faster than my old program. Now to start practicing using it. What to start with ?…. I am so ready for spring, I decided to go back to last year’s April photographs. There were spring flowers on the west side of the mountains and I had photographed them. The waterfalls were flowing at full force and I had photographed them…. On this gray day where the skies are threatening snow but not actually delivering, I will enjoy last year’s spring flowers.
I will admit these photos are from two different weeks last April, but I just wanted to enjoy them and am putting them in one post.
Sahalie Falls on the McKenzie falls is one of my favorite falls and in the morning, you can photograph a rainbow. This was early in April. I headed down towards the valley and stopped off at my favorite resting spot where I can get out stretch my legs walk down to the river.
because it was early in the spring there were few leaves on the maple trees. I took this shot with the plan to process it from the RAW file. Otherwise the shot is impossible to get a good photo, too much light too much shadow….
This shot was the same idea the only thing lit up were these leaves against the dark Douglas fir tree.
On my return trip home a few hours later I stopped off at Sahalie falls again. The sun had moved further west, and this area is in shadow. It would have been harder to see in those shadows with the regular program, and I am always trying to capture the turquoise color that seems to move through the water as it falls down to the base. Success. after this shot I backtracked about a mile or so and stopped at Koosah Falls which is below Sahalie.
Again the late afternoon light was not the best but did enrich the turquoise of the water. I have shot this in the mornings as well and sometimes the sun blows out the details of the falling water. I ended that day’s photo shoot with a shot of this little sword fern in growing in the moss.
It was kind of dark for photos but I always try to get the shot…. with the new program another success. The next group of photos were taken about two weeks later when I knew there would be my favorite calypso orchids.
This trillium was just past its prime, when the white petals change to magenta. The trail down to the river was very shady, perfect for trilliums orchids and wood violets
Because it was April and we were in the shade of the Maple and Douglas fir trees, a warm spot in the sunlight was a good reason to stop and enjoy. Which my housemate did.
It wasn’t long before she had her sweatshirt on though. I admit I am having a lot of fun with this new processing program and well I did go back into my files two years ago to 2024 and the Aurora Borealis shots I took in the spring and fall. Tomorrows post.
For the last post I shot this photo with some of my glass bottles, to go with the new ones I had purchased, the day before. I was looking for different but similar shapes. That is when I realized that I have a lot of glass bottles, and a lot of other things, too. These things were purchased because I liked them and I wanted to use them as photo subjects. I don’t collect anything. I don’t say “Ohhh…, That is a glass bottle I have to add that to my collection.” I say ” Ohh! How would that look to photograph with a sunflower in it? or that is an interesting shape vase, it would look so Cool with….” or “That is the most funky buffalo planter and he needs to be photographed with the trolls surrounded by daisies…” It is not until I start putting things together that I realize that I have a collection, or two, or ten, or??? During this photo shoot an idea for a new blog post was inspired, I cleared off my photo table and started grabbing glass bottles, not the jars just bottles…
This is a pretty good representation of my bottle collection that is usually spread all over my house and photo area. It is not the whole collection, and I admit some of them I have had more than 20 years others just a few days. While it was fun to find these bottles, it quickly became boring to photograph them by themselves. I had so many ideas for things that I had collected and if I tried to photograph each group of things individually, I could be photographing for days…. I decided to add multiple collections in one photo. A lot more fun to make it interesting.
My first idea was using the fake flowers, and then adding some of my vases, not just the ceramic vases but some of the pottery vases as well. 3 collections in one shoot.
I remembered the shot of the feathers and natural forest and decided to recreate that again. Every time I photograph them it is different. I looked at the small rocks and crystals and thought…. I have many collections of big rocks in my yard. All of which have been used in various photo ideas including my coffee cup and thermos collections
Again, a small sampling of all 3 different items, but the boulders are hard to move so you have to work with them where they are…. all over the place…. These rocks have been good backdrops for the troll family and their pet lizards and sometimes if I am lucky, I can catch a real lizard.
I admit the troll family and their pet lizards have been of my most favorite subjects to photograph. They inspire my sense of whimsy and they are quite portable…. I can take them most places, simply tucking them into a backpack, tote, or basket and placing them wherever I think I can get a fun photo… Each photo idea that was photographed inspired another idea and all were taken within a 3- or 4-day period of time. Truth is I would come up with a new idea and go out and shoot it then come back in and deal with the photos. The next day I would start the process over again. Adjusting this, tweaking that.
Thinking I have more backgrounds and cloths that could be used but I have never used them, wanting to do something with my collection of string, adding a paperweight and a brown glass globe, a couple strings of faux pearls some shiny beads, marbles, small Christmas ornaments and glass stones. I played with the idea of circles…. The balls of string were made by me as a rehabilitation exercise for my left wrist, that I had broken one summer.
I have taken a stash of 2x4s and 2×6 scraps and painted them some of my favorite colors or just white simply to use as photo props. Those were inspired by some wooden cubes that I picked up at a business closing sale. Most of the time they are under a cloth giving me elevation in my photos but what better way to use that collection of props than to show off my collection of broken of old cameras and lenses. All of these cameras except for the two Polaroid cameras, I have used in my photography journey and with the exception of a couple of them most of them are just worn out from use. Lots of use. I have a pretty good collection of photographs, Too….
I find my best photography props at the local thrift stores. I rarely buy new unless what I want cannot be found in the thrift stores. I am always open to a trip to the thrift store for whatever catches my eye. A couple weeks ago one of the pool pals said I want to go thrifting with you, I need some things for an art project I will be working on. So we set a date of Thursday, next week. My housemate Susan, Robin, and I descended onto the first of two shops. Each with a mission. My plan is to find things to photograph. Glass bottles always catch my eye, especially this shape. I am always looking for good vases with a strong shape and colors, that don’t compete with my flowers. I saw this brown and gold vase filled with Black Eyed Susan flowers, or Sunflowers, maybe some dahlias in orange colors. in my basket it went no hesitations. I tooled through another isle and found some photo gear. A couple lighting tripods, one with the umbrella and lighting assembly. both of those went into the basket, with some back and forth thought. The whole assembly was a bit more than I wanted to pay, but ultimately much cheaper than if I ordered it online. I only needed the umbrella to replace one I bent… but….. I always can use more lighting options. Next I found this galvanized metal lantern. I visualized it with one of my cream colored pillar candles in it. Surrounded with flowers and maybe some greenery.
Into the basket it went. Time for checkout and time to go home. Only I missed my turnoff at the new interchange system and ended up going to Redmond. Susan and I checked a couple of thrift stores there, but there was nothing that caught my eye… sometimes it happens. by the time we got home the fog had rolled in and I was not inspired to go play with my new items. The next day dawned chilly and foggy but I was inspired to go play with my new items. I grabbed up the battery powered pillar candles and some of my fake silk flowers and started. First challenge was that my candles did not fit inside the lantern. Well that is a bummer. Will probably need to go find some shorter ones. Later.
digging into the fake flower bins and checking out the cabinet with my vases and jars, gave me more options to play with. each click of the camera or movement of something sparked another idea and back into my stash of props. a couple trips into the house brought out more items
By the end of the day, I was happy with what I had , but?? I noticed a big open area on the right side of the shot and thought I needed to add something in that spot. So I went out and shot it again with some of my other vases. But still….. Not right. I pulled the original vase and started re arranging things…..
finally, I got the arrangement better. But??? What if ?
The next day I pulled the glass bottles and added the fairy lights I changed the angle of the studio lights and turned some off
Then I dug into my bin of silk flowers and pulled out some lilacs. Much better. Not perfect but…. Well maybe I go out and shoot it again tomorrow.
Looking back at my work this last few days and realizing how much the 52 week challenge allowed me to grow…. Actually forced me to grow. I learned how to process the photos and actually use my processing program to make them shine. I learned how to run with an idea that maybe one of the other photographers suggested. I learned how to be a bit more patient I admit this subject originally didn’t inspire me in 2022, and I had a hard time getting into framing.
So I went for the easy classic find a subject and frame it with some trees. I took the photos and moved on to something else. I didn’t do anything special with them I just posted them. I didn’t organize them in files other than the date I photographed them on. I hadn’t made friends in the group yet and at this point there were about 20 active photographers out of 100 who signed up. So the little sideline comments that spark creativity were not happening…. “There was Great Photo… Do you live near there?” It took a while for things to click with everybody. Trying to go back to that years challenge is hard I actually had to figure approximately what date /week the framing challenge was on and pick a couple photos that I thought I might have posted. They were terrible. I wasn’t using my processing program to clean them up with a nice sharper image. I didn’t remove or crop anything. for this post I did run them through the processing program. but first I had to copy them from the External Hard drive to the laptop, then into the processing program, then file them, download them onto a thumb drive and then put them into the file I have on the new computer. Remember that patience I mentioned? I used quite a bit of it this morning trying to find these photos. And so we move on to the second year of the challenge 2023
By 2023 several of the photographers had clicked and we were inspiring each other. by this time I had set up a small table studio on my back deck and would go out into the cold set something up then pop back into the warm house to see what I had, and posted what I liked the best. The next day I came up with another idea and spent the morning photographing it, and posting my favorite from that shoot.
by day 3 of the week I was thinking of all the different ways I could photograph framing
and because I was now friends with the 15 or 20 photographers left in the challenge I could interject my sense of humor, wanting to know who put a rubber ducky in my cup of coffee… there were lots of side challenges going on and we crashed the site a few time. The challenge was revived again for 2024 and the same photographers joined again.
This time because I had already done the challenge for two years. I was able to anticipate the challenge, I had been out thrift shopping and looking for things I could photograph for this challenge. the frame and the fake flowers were additions to my photo prop selection.
These swans were also a thrift store purchase that I thought I could use in symmetry challenge but liked so much I used them for framing. By day three of that week I noticed the mountains framed by the clouds and fog and submitted that as well to the challenge.
Moving on to 2025, I was challenging myself to find a way to make a creative statement by using the processing and editing programs, include my sense of humor and some of the past ideas thrown out by the 5 or so members of the group that had a similar sense of humor.
At one point we had a frog theme going on during one of the challenge years, I had picked up this frog and this frame in my thrifting and wanted to make something with them.
The trolls were now being featured in my challenge shots as well as the dinosaurs.
although this shot didn’t make it into the final collage. The question in my mind was how to make these three shots work in one shot that featured framing?
A simple shot of the frame on a white fleece background. resize the photos of the frogs trolls and dino’s and paste then into the frame shot.
Then post those three shots onto the white fleece background
And crop. So what started out as a challenge that I wasn’t interested in, in 2022 became one of my most favorite challenges.
In 2020 I bought a used reconditioned laptop. It had 1Terabyte of storage on it… Knowing that I take a lot of photos I knew I would need that storage… I had already bought, and used an external hard drive a couple years prior because my laptop before this one died. It was to protect my work should this reconditioned laptop die… Now in 2026 the laptop is in need of major repairs. I have managed to limp along with it for quite a while even though I had bought a new computer tower the summer before last. I was not happy with the windows 11 program and had it changed back to windows 10 then never activated it till now. I am finding all sorts of issues. My newer Computer tower will not communicate with the laptop, nor will my external hard drive, or my printers. Each thing is taking a lot of work to either make work or needs to be replaced just to get the drivers I need. In 2022 I had joined a 52 week challenge, never imagining just how much it would inspire me and how many photographs I would go through in one year. I quickly filled up the laptop with photographs and had to download them onto the external hard drive. The first year I was not organized by the second year I knew all 52 challenges and was able to put each week into a file, by the third year and every year after I have preset up the challenge files. I admit last year the challenge did not hold my attention and I drifted away. So I now have about 3 Terabytes of photos just from this challenge over the years Most of them are on the external hard drive and I have not delt with them. Yet. What I have been doing is going through the photos that are still on the laptop and downloading them( again) onto Jump drives. 3 of them that hold 32 gigs each. Then taking each drive and uploading them onto the computer tower, and filling them up again. It is taking a long time to download them I am on my second round of filling up the 2 jump drives. So while I am working on getting photos transferred from the laptop I am looking at 2025’s photo work and the file for 2024 challenge work, thinking I need to do posts of some of my favorite challenges.
So this post is simply some of my favorite collages I made for the various challenges, that were still on my laptop, and easily available for this blog series idea.
I was looking at my woodpile and thinking I needed to move more wood up to my deck, when I realized I was hearing tiny voices. Voices that sounded familiar, and then I heard “Yep, this is the place… I wonder where the Troll Family is?”
Then, “Boy is this garden going to need some work, Will probably have hire Hector the Garden Gnome. Big, Big Job…. All of a sudden I heard a clattering on the back deck steps.
And here comes the Trolls
Hooping and a Hollering that their Gnome Cousins have arrived safely. Photos needed to be taken to record the grand occasion.
Soon there was a tour of the garden area
I heard ” Tsk, Tsk, Tsk, Much work to be done….”
And then ” Yes, We will be happy here….”
Apparently, the Gnomes are moving in and taking over the gardening. And I have no idea who Hector is… I guess I will see when he arrives…..
I have mentioned in a couple of my posts the sea glass inspiration stones I bought several years ago. I knew there were more sayings and I wanted to have them for my photography. The original 5 stones are repeated with the new 12 that I purchased, and I realized that the new stones had bigger bolder print. After this shot, I brought out my feather collection and set the smaller print stones aside.
I really love how the blues the green and the white are repeated in the stones.
I love what each word says, and tried to photograph each stone on the feathers, by themselves and as a group. I got most of them but missed a couple. Easy enough to go out and photograph them. Which I just did. Plus, a few more shots.
After all, with Serenity you can have Wisdom and the Strength to do your project over.
This morning a friend and I both shared a post on Facebook about mother earth being a church. I have always thought of the forest as a church and a place to rejuvenate. A place to talk to the trees work through issues and in general calm my restless soul. Plus, the trees never tell your secrets. When I came to Central Oregon, I lived near a place I could hike in the pines. And those pines heard a lot. A few years later I moved a few miles east and my hiking place was in the Junipers. Honestly it took me a few years to find the right place that calmed my soul.
This area is big an open it has canyons and buttes I can climb up or go down. I hike the area so much I am not likely to get lost because I have many visual landmarks that guide me. I call this area Sage Ranch rd. butte and canyon, I also refer to it as my church of the Junipers and sagebrush.
This area has ancient history, it holds secrets since the beginning of time in Central Oregon.
Today’s hike was not to calm my soul or to vanquish things that anger me. It was simply a good winters day to get out and enjoy the old beings that have lived here for 500 -1000 years or more. My original plan was to hike down into the canyon climb up the canyon wall close to where the Sage Ranch canyon, Deep canyon, and Fryrear canyon seem to meet. Those plans changed when I noticed someone parked in the parking area for the main trail. I drove a few yards further and parked across from the butte, deciding to climb it instead. It doesn’t matter to me which direction I go in this area it is so big we can all enjoy it. I can let my German Shepherds run without bothering anybody.
You will notice in most of these photos large piles of cut juniper. For many years we have let this land go natural except that we put out all the fires. So natural wasn’t natural and the area is overgrown with dead sagebrush, tall bitterbrush, and young flammable juniper trees. At one time I had found a plan for this area that BLM had been working on. It involved making a new trail head closer to Fryrear road and adding more horse trails. It wasn’t specific enough for me to determine but I had hoped that it included this area. Because lets face it My Church of the Junipers really needed a make over. A rejuvenation. This year is the year for that to start, and I hope next year these piles are burned.
in the mean time I am enjoying all of the views opening up that I couldn’t enjoy because there was a tree in the way…
After an hour up on the butte it was time to work my way down into the lower area and the main trail.
Time to go back to my car feeling refreshed by a good hike in the Junipers
Deanne Dements Photography 