http://ignoregon.com/rss/Albany Aggregated Blog Posts From Albany Mon, 6 Sep 2010 15:13:38 +0000 en http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RobRsArtBlog/~3/h9At92vrqgU/photographing-bicycle-races.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RobRsArtBlog/~3/h9At92vrqgU/photographing-bicycle-races.html Sun, 5 Sep 2010 01:42:00 +0000 A couple of weekends ago, I photographed bicycle races for the time. The races were local, in downtown Albany (Oregon), with the streets barricaded. Photographing in a new situation like this is certainly a learning experience.The races provided opportunities for a number of different types of shots. To me, low angle shots, rather than shooting from a standing position, make the action appear more dramatic (thanks for the tip, Dale!). Other things to consider were sun/light position, different angles, backgrounds, and matters of motion. Since the race course was set up as an irregular loop through town, there were plenty of different angles to try while having the riders well-lit. I found head-on shots to be some of my favorites.Getting in tight on the corners was good for close-ups. You can see the muscles flexing and the looks of determination on the faces of the riders.Capturing the look of the movement and speed is another challenge when shooting the races. Motion blur conveys that for me and panning can add an extra element.Photographing the races was a lot of fun and I look forward to doing it again next year. There are more photos of the race on my Flickr Photostream - http://www.flickr.com/photos/robrrobinson/. http://umbrellapaintingjournal.blogspot.com/2010/09/abtract-growth-in-high-relief-lines.html http://umbrellapaintingjournal.blogspot.com/2010/09/abtract-growth-in-high-relief-lines.html Sat, 4 Sep 2010 11:50:00 +0000 If you like these two, see similar ones by clicking below on labels. http://cardasphotography.typepad.com/blog/2010/09/tate-jolene-wedding-sweet-cheeks-winery-eugene-oregon.html http://cardasphotography.typepad.com/blog/2010/09/tate-jolene-wedding-sweet-cheeks-winery-eugene-oregon.html Fri, 3 Sep 2010 19:50:00 +0000 It was a perfectly beautiful afternoon for a wedding out in the vineyard! This was my first trip out to Sweet Cheeks Winery, but I know it will not be my last! The main building is perched a top a hill overlooking the entire valley - the sunset was stunning through the vines! http://jens_page.blogspot.com/2010/09/mother-of-all-relays-part-iii.html http://jens_page.blogspot.com/2010/09/mother-of-all-relays-part-iii.html Fri, 3 Sep 2010 09:49:00 +0000 I bet you thought you were done, didn't you? That yesterday's exhaustive post about my exhausting race would be the end of boring chatter about running, right? But sorry. I have one more post, not so much about Hood to Coast I guess, but about running in general. Then we'll let it go for awhile and move on to more interesting posts about poop and such.A friend of mine commented on one of the Hood to Coast pictures I posted on Facebook, saying that she just could not see the enjoyment in running. And I get that. I used to hate it myself. It's hard. It causes all kinds of aches and pains. You get all sweaty and gross. It takes time out of your day when you could be reading or hanging out with your family or even sleeping. (Sleep! Totally overrated, right?)So I thought about it for awhile, and decided that I like running for two reasons. Neither of them are very profound reasons about how running "centers me" or makes me a better person, or how I just feel so serene and one with nature out on a long run. No, these are honest, selfish reasons. Here you go.Reason 1: Vanity. It helps me not get fat. If I don't exercise a lot, I gain weight a lot. I love food--I'm not one of those people who gets tired of sweets after awhile. I could sit down and eat cookies all day long and be very, very happy. Running helps me keep that situation in check.Reason 2: Pride. When I get out of bed early, forsaking sleep, and go run a long, long ways, I feel proud of myself. When I sign up for a race and beat my own time, I'm proud of myself. That's the thing about running--it's competitive, but you're competing against yourself just as much as you are other people. You can always get better, always run farther and faster than you have before. There's always something new to conquer. And when I do manage to run farther or faster, I don't feel like a 30-year-old housewife. I feel like a strong, confident athlete. (Then I look at the photos of myself mid-race and am brought back to reality, but at least I enjoy my dream for awhile). Posting (aka bragging) about my accomplishments on Facebook and my blog and getting all those nice comments about how impressed people are certainly doesn't hurt either, but let's try to ignore the uncomfortably narcissistic nature of those things for now and move on, shall we?What it all comes down to is that running makes me feel good. When I set myself a goal that seems impossibly hard and then I actually meet that goal? It does wonders for my self-esteem.Which is why, for my 30th birthday, my present to myself was signing up for the Portland Marathon. Which is coming up really, really quickly, and I'm not quite sure I'm going to be ready, and I'm feeling a little scared. I guess we'll find out just how much this goal-accomplishment stuff actually means to me then.Twenty-six miles. In a little over a month. Can I do it? I guess I'll find out. http://jens_page.blogspot.com/2010/09/mother-of-all-relays-part-ii.html http://jens_page.blogspot.com/2010/09/mother-of-all-relays-part-ii.html Thu, 2 Sep 2010 14:22:00 +0000 Eric and I pre-run, on Mt. Hood. So here's the thing about Hood to Coast: even when you think you're done. You're not. It is the race that never ends.You're in a race with thousands of other people. You have teammates depending on you to make a good time, so that your overall team time isn't dragged down. You get out of the car, grab that baton from your teammate, and run your heart out for several miles.Then you collapse all sweaty at the hand-off point, and your teammates congratulate you and you feel great. But then that feeling fades, because reality hits you: I'm not done.Hood to Coast. It just keeps going on and on and on.My first leg was great. It really was. (It was Leg 8, just in case you're a fellow Hood to Coaster and know which one that is). It was just at sunset on Friday. It was about four and a half miles long, all through country roads, up and down rolling hills. The weather was perfect. The road was pretty. I passed more people than I got passed by--and apparently the adrenaline of the race was making me fast, because I exceeded my expected time and finished feeling triumphant. But I wasn't done.Instead of going home to relax and shower, like you normally do after a run, I sat all cramped in the back of our Mazda 5 (which does have six seats and therefore technically seats six people, but which I don't think was really designed for six full-size sweaty adults). My teammates finished their legs, one by one. Eventually everyone in our van had taken their turn, and we had a few hours before anyone in our van needed to run again, so we went to one of the designated sleeping areas. It was after midnight by now and absolutely frigid, so I put on every single piece of clothing that I had brought with me, including a hat and gloves, and Eric and I spread out our sleeping bags under the stars.After what seemed like only a few minutes, during which I had troubled dreams about the race (I knew it was my turn to run but I couldn't *find* the starting line!) our team captain was shining a flashlight down on us. "Eric and Jen! Time to get up!" he said.After an all-too-short wait while my teammate ran his leg, it was time for my second leg. This was the one I'd been dreading. Leg 20. 5.75 miles, almost all uphill (about 800 feet of elevation gain) and mostly on gravel roads. And I had to run it in the dark.As I started off, my thought was that I had to at least keep running until the van carrying my teammates passed by, so they wouldn't witness me totally wimping out. I accomplished that. I was at the point where I had given myself mental permission to walk for awhile if I wanted to. But...I wasn't completely dead. I kept running. As the hill got steeper, my legs felt tired. But I kept going.It was dark on the logging road. Just the sound of my feet crunching in the gravel, and the occasional footsteps of a fellow runner. The headlamp I was wearing illuminated just a few feet in front of me. On the horizon, when I could see it through the trees, there was just a smear of pink at the edge of the sky. Sometimes vans passed, and that was good for a moment, as their headlights illuminated the way ahead. Then they passed on by and I was left breathing in dust, my lamp shining into nothing but a cloudy gray haze.The hill kept going. But so did I. And that was really the high point of the entire race for me. When I realized that this run was insanely challenging--but that I had the strength to meet the challenge. I could do it. That hill was killer, but I could beat it. I knew I could. At the end of the leg I had enough energy to sprint to the hand-off point feeling like the champion of the world.But then...that's the thing about Hood to Coast. I wasn't done.The day went on. My teammates ran, we rode around in the van, we got to a stopping point, Eric and I laid down in the grass and rested for awhile. It was about 2 o'clock in the blazing heat when I took off again.I'd been feeling like my last leg, Leg 32, was going to be a piece of cake. It was my shortest one, just a little over four miles. It was supposed to be over "mostly flat" terrain. It was rated "moderate" but I couldn't see why. It sounded easy to me.Of course that's because I was a total fool. Four miles on fresh legs after a good night of sleep *would* be a piece of cake. But that was not my situation. I was achey and cramped and exhausted.The sun was hot. I was covered in sweat. My legs felt like they were barely moving at all. There were a lot more little hills than I thought there should have been for a "mostly flat" course. And when I was sure I was close to the hand-off point, a helpful bystander called out "You're exactly halfway there!"I wanted to strangle him.I felt like that leg would never end. Every bend in the road, every hill I came to, I would sure I would see the exhange point just around the next corner. But it never came.Except that of course, finally it did. I made my final hand-off, hopped in the van, and I was done.Except the thing about Hood to Coast, is that really I wasn't. The rest of my teammates had to run their final legs. Eventually, we all gathered on the beach as our last runner came across the sand, and we symbolically ran across the finish line together.Post-race. Happy because we think we're done. We still won't get to bed for another six hours, but we don't know that yet.But then we still weren't really done. We had to fill out paperwork and get an official team photo taken and congratulate each other. Then we were all starving after two days of living on energy bars and water, so we stopped at McDonald's on our way home. Food of champions!Then we had to drive one of our teammates back to Portland. It was after 9 p.m. when we finally hit the freeway. From there, it was just a straight shot down the freeway to our home.Except we still weren't really done. Just as I got on I-5, I suddenly heard a strange bumpity-bump sound. "Is that something on the road?" someone asked. "Is that your transmission?" Then Eric woke up out of a sound sleep and correctly diagnosed the sound. "We have a flat tire," he said.So, we pulled over at a gas station and all got out of the van and put the spare tire on the car. And then we had to drive the final 60 miles home going no faster than 50 so that the spare wouldn't explode. It was almost midnight when we got home. And thanked my parents profusely for staying so late with the kids. And took a much-needed hot shower.And then, then, it was finally done. http://jens_page.blogspot.com/2010/09/mother-of-all-relays-part-i.html http://jens_page.blogspot.com/2010/09/mother-of-all-relays-part-i.html Wed, 1 Sep 2010 08:51:00 +0000 You know how sometimes there's something that you're kind of alternately dreading and feeling excited about? Like part of you wants time to stop so that the event won't ever happen, and part of you wants time to speed up and so it will happen sooner? And both parts of you actually just want it to be over already so you can check it off your list and start bragging about how actually awesome it was?That's how I've been about Hood to Coast.Remember Hood to Coast? This big giant race my husband and I signed up for? The "Mother of all Relays," as it's known? And I haven't even mentioned it on the blog for months now? That's because I've had this fear/excitement combo going on for months now, so I mostly just ignored the fact that I was going to have to stay awake for 36 hours riding in a van with a bunch of dudes, and that I was going to have run over and over again, and that one of my legs was 5.75 miles long and nearly all uphill on gravel roads.I was excited. I really was. But there was a pretty big portion of dread mixed in with my excitement.Well you know what? It's over now. It was last weekend. And now I can check it off my list and start bragging about how awesome it was. Because it really was.In case you're not familiar with Hood to Coast, here's a little background: it's a relay race that starts at Timberline Lodge way up on Mt. Hood, which is east of Portland, all the way to Seaside on the Oregon Coast. It's 197 miles. That's a long way, people. You get together with a group of 11 other people to make a 12-person-team, and you split yourself up into two vans, and you take turns running; sitting all cramped and sweaty in the van; and trying to sleep in the van or out on the ground inbetween stops. They allow 1,000 teams to do this every year. One thousand! That's 12,000 people, plus the massive amount of volunteers required to pull this off. It's huge, crazy, chaotic and fun. If you want to get a feel for what it's like, go watch the trailer for a documentary on the race at www.hoodtocoastmovie.com. It's not exactly an independent documentary, considering that the founder of the race put up part of the money to fund the filming of it, and has admitted to making at least one editorial change to the finished product--but it still looks like a film that does a great job capturing the challenging, zany, fun-filled spirit of the race. I have been to races where people dressed up and got goofy before, but I was totally blown away by the level of craziness and creativity that a lot of teams put into their race-day attire. Our team was put together by Eric's former workplace, Garmin. They make GPS stuff. Our team name was the Garmin ForeRunners (Forerunner is the name of a product they make, a GPS run-tracker watch, so that was clever!). Our van decorations consisted of big stickers with the Garmin name and logo on them on the side of the van. We all just wore running clothes with shirts that said Garmin. We were probably the absolute most low-key (aka boring) van in the whole race.The whole team at the start.There was the superhero team, where everyone dressed up as a different superhero and actually ran while in their capes. There was the van dressed like a wedding party, with all the girls in plastic bridesmaid dresses and all the guys in tuxes. There was a team called "Six Dudes and Twelve Boobs." And "The Hot As Faults." And many, many other names that I can't mention on a family blog. All the costumes and crazy names and decorated vans gave the whole thing of feeling of a giant mobile party.Except for it was a party where you had to run and sweat and almost die.To be continued... http://umbrellapaintingjournal.blogspot.com/2010/08/abstracts-reacting-to-one-another.html http://umbrellapaintingjournal.blogspot.com/2010/08/abstracts-reacting-to-one-another.html Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:38:00 +0000 Oil paint often is immitated with acrylic so it is difficult to tell one from the other. I have thought that my acrylics looked like oil because I started painting with oil in the 60's. After years of acrylic painting, I see big diffeences in how I proceed in applying the paint. http://marketcook.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/now-im-hungry-for-eggs-and-potatoes/ http://marketcook.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/now-im-hungry-for-eggs-and-potatoes/ Mon, 30 Aug 2010 09:45:00 +0000 Over at The Mom Food Project, Serene posts about Spanish tortillas – not the flatbread sort, but the oven-baked omelette of egg, potato and onion. And me with no potatoes in the house. http://marketcook.wordpress.com/2010/08/28/harvest-dinner-fasolakia/ http://marketcook.wordpress.com/2010/08/28/harvest-dinner-fasolakia/ Sat, 28 Aug 2010 22:15:00 +0000 Harvest season is in full swing, and the only thing better than having my own garden right now is knowing other gardeners who planted things I didn’t get around to planting this year. Because it seems like all of us overestimated something, and food-swapping is happening all over the place. Last week I offloaded a [...] http://umbrellapaintingjournal.blogspot.com/2010/08/rock-and-reflection-abstract-diptych.html http://umbrellapaintingjournal.blogspot.com/2010/08/rock-and-reflection-abstract-diptych.html Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:40:00 +0000 Oil on masonite boxes. Please click on the image to see enlargement. http://cardasphotography.typepad.com/blog/2010/08/hawkins-simone-wedding-corvallis-oregon.html http://cardasphotography.typepad.com/blog/2010/08/hawkins-simone-wedding-corvallis-oregon.html Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:49:00 +0000 Simone and Hawkins were married on the hottest day of the year - but you would never be able to tell! The weather may have been warm (ok HOT!!) but their friends and family came together for what can only be described as a celebration! Everyone contributed! From the flowers, to the food and drinks to the entertainment - this was a truly talented group! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RobRsArtBlog/~3/CZjSVXGat2A/photos-from-monterey.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RobRsArtBlog/~3/CZjSVXGat2A/photos-from-monterey.html Tue, 24 Aug 2010 17:37:00 +0000 To go with the last post of the Leafy Sea Dragon watercolor, here are some photos from the Monterey Bay Aquarium with many more on my Flickr Photostream. http://jens_page.blogspot.com/2010/08/close-encounter.html http://jens_page.blogspot.com/2010/08/close-encounter.html Tue, 24 Aug 2010 17:15:00 +0000 I saw a skunk while I was running the other day. A skunk! I have never seen a skunk in real life before. Other than smashed and stinking up the roadside, that is. But this one was very much alive and strolling along on the other side of the road, probably 15 feet away from me. It was fairly early in the morning, up in North Albany on a road that does have plenty of houses but is still country-ish in feel. Definitely a place where wandering wildlife would not be out of place.I had been worried about cougars, actually. There's been so much talk about their increasing numbers lately. I've never given cougars a second thought when running, before. I usually run around the streets of Albany, where the most exciting things I've ever seen are raccoons, nutria, and dogs (and it's only the small, yippy dogs that have ever chased me.) But I had just had a conversation about cougars with my sister the day before, and read about their prevalence in the newspaper, and I'm going for longer runs now, making big loops out into the countryside. I didn't think about it at all when I headed out the door (probably because when I first start running I'm still half asleep and I have hardly any coherent thoughts at all). But then it suddenly occurred to me, after I was already miles from home, that I was out in a woodsy, hilly, rural area. And that to a cougar, I might look like a tasty breakfast.So there I was, running along in the dim morning light, gripping my little canister of Mace and my cell phone (so that at least the 911 dispatchers would have the pleasure of listening in while a cougar mauled me), when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I'm sure my head whipped around, and I know my pace speeded up. When I saw the little shape over by the opposite ditch, at first I thought it was a squirrel. It had a big bushy tail like a squirrel. But the more I looked, the more I realized it was too big for a squirrel. And not moving like a squirrel. And it was black.This is not the skunk that I saw. I did not have a camera with me and I probably wouldn't have stopped to take a photo anyway, because I was afraid of angering it. This is a photo of a skunk from Flickr, by nebarnix.Of course, I was glad that it was not a cougar. But skunk didn't make me feel a whole lot better. It was a very small skunk, but I'm sure it was still capable of defending itself. Have you ever smelled a skunk? What would I do if it decided I was a threat and it sprayed me? I was quite a ways from my house--it would take me forever to stagger home, all coughing and choking and stinking. And I wasn't sure any of the homeowners on this road would appreciate being woken up at dawn by a strange woman reeking of skunk smell pounding on their door and pleading for help. I didn't like the thought of spending the next few days bathing myself in tomato juice, either.I stayed over on my side of the road, and kept moving along at a steady pace, and tried my best to look non-threatening. I was ready to bolt if it made any sudden moves, though. Could I outrun a skunk? Do skunks run fast? I was ready to try.Suddenly the skunk raised its little head in my direction. I held my breath. And then I heard the skitter of gravel beneath its paws as it ran......directly away from me. It disappeared into the ditch and I never saw it again.Has anyone else ever run across a wild animal that made you nervous when you were out somewhere alone? And what did you do if you did? http://cardasphotography.typepad.com/blog/2010/08/lasann-jon-wedding-ogren-gardens-eugene-oregon.html http://cardasphotography.typepad.com/blog/2010/08/lasann-jon-wedding-ogren-gardens-eugene-oregon.html Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:15:00 +0000 Jon and Lasann were married at a new venue for me - Ogren Gardens in Northwest Eugene. Tucked away at the end of a residential road, this is truly a special place! Lasann got ready inside the barn - there...