Feature Birdman

Ran across Mr. Doss while meeting up with the fam the other night for a walk at the beach.

-DKM

Finding when you look

I find myself driving around sometimes looking for random feature pix, and more often than not I never find anything (two things: one, people around here just don't spend a lot of time doing stuff in their yards like we did when I was a kid; and two, when you're not looking for a feature you'll find like five...). Tonight I drove around aimlessly for a while after dinner and then came across this little league game and found this youngster in the dugout.

As much as I've been ending up at little league stuff the last few weeks I could see myself collecting pix for an essay from the season perhaps... ?

-DKM

Wedding on the jetty

On Sunday afternoon i did something that I hadn't before — shooting wedding pictures at the end of the jetty in Ilwaco.

They had contacted me a month or so ago saying that they'd be coming this way as part of their honeymoon. The couple are from Kansas and were married at a courthouse (which I you know I love), but wanted to have their wedding pictures taken at the ocean — and in this case essentially past the end of the land. I was pleasantly surprised when I pulled up and found them in full white wedding attire. I was even more excited when they said they wanted to do the pix out near the end of the jetty at Benson Beach.

So we walked past fishermen and other folks out for a stroll, everyone was of course quite interested. Rocks, boulders, etc all had to be navigated along the way.


Of course we had to hit the actual beach too to get a mandatory walking in the wet sand pic.
By the time we were done the bride was shaking sand from her dress.

This was a lot of fun, congrats again to the couple!

-DKM

4-in-1

Today was one of those days that sometimes you love and sometimes you don't, and sometimes it just depends on what you get.
Well Saturday I found myself squeezing in four assignments that varied from fire to little league to gardening to a beauty pageant. Yeah, crazy.
My day began with a drill by the Long Beach volunteer fire department, where they burned down this old house as a training exercise. I was surprised by how many people came out to watch.
Since it wasn't a "real fire" I tried to stay away from pix that would give a feel of something real, and went for more color.

Next up was the little league opening day. I decided to shoot this as a wild art possibility since I was going to be there anyways to see Kenz introduced with her team. I found this scene after the ceremony was over. I'm wishing now I would have gotten closer. I started shooting recently with a wider lens again and I have to get used to getting closer to people again (which was part of the reason I switched). I've been used to standing a certain distance away a lot, and it just wasn't quite close enough on this one.

Of course I also got some pix of Kenz.


Following a quick lunch and a run to the office to download pix, I went over to Green Angel Gardens, where Larkin was teaching a class on organic gardening. It just so happened that today was Earth Day.


After a 3 hour break — which sure didn't feel that long — the culminating event of my day was shooting the Miss Loyalty Day Pageant. This is part of the areas Loyalty Days stuff. However, one major difference this year is that they decided not to crown anyone the winner... The pageant has seen declining numbers in terms of participants over the last few years and this year's court was made up of only four girls — the Junior Miss court, which was also part of the ceremony tonight, was also made up of four girls.




13.5 hours later I'm going home for good...

-DKM

Falling apart

Time has not been kind to the North Head Lighthouse.
Today I was tasked with getting some photos to go with a story we're doing this week about the worsening physical condition of one of our areas true iconic structures. I guess I haven't been up there in a year or more, but it came as a surprise to me that the structure itself is in such disrepair. In fact it is pretty much crumbling out from under itself. Here is the north side of the lighthouse.

Anyone who has read this blog knows how I'm not a fan of photographing inanimate objects, but I kinda had fun with this, working the angles, looking for interesting color and textures.

This window was blown out during the big storm of December '07 and was never replaced.
Cracks like these run all over the structure, especially on the bottom of the south side.
And the damage isn't just to the base of the structure either.
It's pretty sad all the way around to see a structure that is so important our community — it's even the logo for the Chinook Observer — be in such a state. Definitely read the article about what is possibly being done with it in the paper this week.


-DKM

da Bulls

On Tuesday night I took Mac to her first t-ball practice. We've been playing catch and hitting the ball around the backyard since we moved into the house two years ago, but this is her first time playing on a team. her team is the Bulls, with the logo based on the Durham Bulls, the AAA affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. I found myself taking pix of her and her teammates as they shagged pop-ups, took their first swings and were given their uniforms. I think kids look funny in oversized ball caps and helmets, so I found that I ended up focusing a lot on that.




And I'm sure I'm a little biased, but I think Kenz looks pretty sharp in her new hat — and she looked really good hitting line drive after line drive off the tee!


-DKM

My girl, at 8

Here is McKenzie in the backyard of my folks house on the night of her 8th birthday. Eight years. I look at Wyse at almost 2 and have a hard time believing sometimes that she isn't that little anymore. But then I hang out with her and find her more grown up then her age gives her credit for. Sometimes that gets her in trouble, but more times it makes us proud.

-DKM

Derby Dolls

Last week I was gone for a bit of vacation and visiting family. The trip came to a fun conclusion when we attended a roller derby match in Centralia Saturday night. My sister-in-law Victoria skates on the team and this was her first bout. A good family friend Melisa is also on the team — they call themselves the Rainy City Roller Dolls. Unfortunately I didn't really get very many good pix of Victoria (that's her at the end icing her knee), or of the action for that matter, as the rink was pretty dark, making it hard to get stuff that wasn't out of focus or blurry. I did get a few feature shots though from the night which I liked. The first one in the gallery is probably my favorite, as here you have these badass chicks getting ready to bust heads in the Happy Birthday party room at the rink.



In 2007 we did a feature when Melisa was getting the team going. I put together a audio slideshow from the story which you can check out HERE if you like.
-DKM

Finally ... something decent on the diamond

I've been pretty self-critical of late of the work I've been producing. And for good reason too — I'd say about 95% of the stuff I've shot over the last few weeks has been total crap (hence the reason why there have been so few updates lately...)
It's discouraging and frustrating when you strive to do your best every time out and for whatever reason you can't summon the imagination or timing or dare I say magic? Self-doubt can be a real killer.

SO you can imagine the relief, and near utter joy, when I at an Ilwaco-Naselle softball game I got the picture above, easily the best softball or baseball picture I've had in years. Granted its far from perfect, but I liked it. I also liked the one below of a girl in the dugout. This was the third sporting event I went to this week, and the first two were real duds for me, which was the driving reason for me going today. I'm glad I did.


I shot another picture I liked today, but I think I'll save it for a day or two, who knows it maybe the last one I have for awhile — especially since I'll be on vacation all next week.

-DKM