July 31 is a special day for me.  One year ago, I filed my ‘dba’ (doing business as) with Douglas County.  Douglas County does not require business licenses, so the ‘dba’ process is used to protect business names and provide a vehicle for taxing a business (just filed my first ‘personal property’ report – waiting for the tax bill now).  If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, I hope you can see my personal growth as a photographer.  The journey is lots of fun and I am still enjoying the learning process.  Retirement is a wonderful thing!

A part of being a business owner is learning how to market your business.  I don’t know which is more challenging – learning how take a picture or learning how to market the business.  Both are important, as business owners well know.  That said, please forgive the following shameless plug for the business.  BUY MY PICTURES!  They are available in prints or on canvas, and as note cards.  Watch for a new page in this blog that will highlight new note cards – and don’t forget that the holidays are coming and my picture note cards are the perfect gift for that person who has everything.

I’m also learning how to blog more effectively, and have learned that I should use fewer pictures in my posts.  In this and future posts, look for references to specific pages for additional pictures.  Okay – let’s get into this week’s featured images!

The engineer in me can’t pass a bridge without giving a little interest.  Often, I have to pass it by because there is no easy way to stop and make an image.  On this trip, however, I found three bridges that sat still long enough for me to get some good pictures.  Please note that the weather did not cooperate with me during much of the trip.  The skies were overcast and, given the time of day I was trying to shoot, quite often appear washed out.  In future visits, I hope to have more cooperative skies.  For more information on each bridge, just google the name of the bridge.

Coming into Florence OR on U.S. Highway 101 from the south, one crosses the Siuslaw River on this bridge.  These images were made from the east bank (the town side).

The view looking south. The steel portion of the bridge raises to allow ships to pass under the bridge.

A detail of the bridge along the southern exposure.

The southern exposure.

North of Florence on U. S. Highway 101, we find the Heceta Head Lighthouse (see part 1 for pictures of the Heceta Head Lighthouse).  South of the Lighthouse, we see the Cape Creek Bridge.  We drove under the bridge to access the parking lot for the Lighthouse.

This is the most common view of the bridge, taken from the pedestrian trail to the Lighthouse. Some time, I’d like to hike upstream (we’re on the downstream side) to see what that view looks like.

In Newport OR, next to the Rogue Brewing Company Headquarters (great lunch and my sons tell me great beer!!) stands the Yaquina Bay Bridge.  My lovely bride ‘googled’ this bridge and found that it is one of the most photographed bridges in the world.  After seeing it in person, I’m not surprised.  I chose the absolute worst conditions  to shoot the bridge, and it shows.  In the famous words of Douglas MacArthur, ‘I shall return.’  Until then, this is the best I can offer.

Yaquina Bay Bridge, notes for next time: don’t shoot in the middle of the day; don’t shoot in overcast conditions; move either upstream or downstream for a better view.

On the way home, we drove through central OR.  After fueling the car and ourselves in the quaint little town of Mitchell (one gas pump in a dirt lot – analog gauges in 10 cent increments; one great little café), we drove a few miles to the Painted Hills.  Here, the skies were awesome and the scenery gorgeous.  I loved how these came out.  (Susan took a picture of me taking a picture of the hills – it’s now my cover page on Facebook – check it out!)

I thanked the photo gods for the great sky – and the cool temperatures from the rain. Go see this beautiful place!

We will definitely go back to see this place again – hopefully in the evening ‘Golden Hour’ to catch some awesome light!

I hope you enjoyed this brief look into our vacation.  Please take a look at the ‘Vacation – July 2015’ folder for more pictures.

Enjoy – PHOTOROGR