BACK from friendly Eugene

Mt Shasta seen enroute SF...
aren't the clouds jes GorGeous?

Wednesday ~ 11:58pm: Returned from Eugene and as always: a stop-N-go nine hours on the road again. Don't ever get that "fat-free" French-Vanilla.... yeeeck. Never put the camera in the front seat and turned ON.

Not if you want to finally reach your destination within the coming year!

I was lucky enough in being able to stay VERY busy this trip.... usually I am so bored out of my mind and shoot just flowers, sunsets, etc. It was good to be able to shoot some other people too... I love staying busy and up late working on fotos while watching the Olympics. Of course I was driving all over Eugene and getting lost.... Aside from the 9-hour drive between Eugene and SF, I think I spent too much time on the road and in cars!!! I finally departed at about 5am Wednesday to beat the rush hour traffic in the Bay Area when I finally arrive.

It was a very good trip for me, resulting in a shoot with a Medford, Oregon model. Cannot forget my friend's skate rink wedding and the great handmade wedding cake!!! Then had a session with a very photogenic couple on Sunday who are expecting a little one in a few months, then finally finished with a very pretty teen and her brother on Tuesday, then later photographed her parents later that same afternoon.

I'll never forget Eugene's sunsets and even Mount Shasta was lovely and dressed in clouds; aside from snapping some pixs while driving 65mph down the interstate, I also stopped and got some better pixs of that beautiful mountain!

Saturday ~ 9:50pm: What a day!! Though I had my alarm set for 8:15am, I actually awoke several times starting at 6am.... I was busy busy as a bee readying to go to deliver a box of goodies of art materials for an internet friend, then head over to the bride's home preparing for her wedding. Then as I was already starting to shut down my laptop to depart, an email arrives with the simple subject line I've been waiting for: driver's license

A kind family discovered my "belt pouch" with my IDs and credit cards near the street at 29th and Willamette, and contacted me. I've known Eugene people to be kind, honest and thoughtful, and this is such proof of that thought; while I worked at the main library here, people turned in money, laptops, credit cards, among other things!

My sincere thanks to this family and well-wishes for them in this new world of thoughfulness to your neighbor and fellow man.

The WEDDING: I arrived early ~ better early than late always ~ be fore noon and soon began recording their spercial day... I am always honored to be a part of such happy and important personal events... it's not easy to be the one entrusted with such responsibilty, but I love to document these moments of happiness, and feel it's something I do quite well. That she would think of me in her important moment is such an honor, specially when one considers that I don't reside in Eugene any longer.

I finally got home at about the same time the sun began to set - again - and stopped several times to record that also. The sun sets in Eugene at about 8:20 and the sunbeams were fantastic. I plan to use one of the sunbeam images as a background for one of their pictures.

Tomorrow I will shoot a pregnant mother-to-be and that will start about 2pm and continue till sunset. I'm so happy I am staying busy and taking fotos ~ it's my life!!!!

Friday ~ 10pm: I spent a disgusting busy day outside in the Northwestern heat of 90f+ and humidity. While I was able to get to all of my scheduled appointments, I did a stupid thing today that is typical of my crazy lifestyle... all of my life I have misplaced and/or lost items. Today, I not only lost the house-key to where I am staying with a friend, but I also lost a belt "pocket", complete with my military ID and CA driver's license, plus a slew of credit cards. Yeaaaa, I've checked the car inside and out so many times and drove back to the places where I thought it might have detached itself from my belt. No luck... plus I had my newest version of my business cards in there too, so if anyone honest did find it, they would have called me.

I am soooo disappointed.

Tomorrow is the wedding, then Sunday I have a shoot that will take up most of the afternoon. Monday or Tuesday I will take a little drive to the Oregon coast which I really like but now may not do it, due to the loss of those important documentation. It seems all of my days are filled up and then I'll depart a day earlier.

While returning from my last search of where the lost items might be, I saw the clouds over the Eugene foothills, and again, I went to get my camera and snapped away. It was so incredible and if not for two individuals who were there with me talking about the sun and about photography in general, I would have cried at my idiotic day and its strange turn of events.

It seems again that Eugene's sunset brightened my day and left me with an awe that I could only have here.... and in Spain.

Thursday 14 August: Early morning departure at 4:45AM. The Harrison Street entrance to the Bay Bridge was closed... a motorcycle cop was there but he didn't help any of us stopped across the street, wondering where to go to get on the bridge. I followed the four cars in front of me and within three minutes and three traffic liggts, I was on the bridge... finally. It seems so strange to be driving through this city that I call my hometown... to see it filthy, dirty, empty of cars and tourists, the shops and restaurants closed and dark... then compare that with the daytime-version: full of cars, traffic and tourists, no room on the sidewalk to walk even... the dirty street hidden by parked cars.

I was to be in Medford, Oregon by noon to shoot with a model... my GPS predicted my arrival before 11:30. With several stops for gas and rest - stretch those old legs - I thought I should arrive about that time. An hour later at a gas stop outside Fairfield did I realize I left the house with only a dollar and some change in my pockets... luckily just enough to buy a french-vanilla coffee... I had to count out 40 cents worth of pennies but the girl behind the counter just smiled and accepted the change.

I watched a golden bright red sun rise... and though I kept watching it, I didn't stop to snap a picture. Perhaps the next time.....

The car was doing quite good... I've been keeping tabs on gas mileage for many months and this trip actually gave me almost 30 miles to the gallon for the first portion of the tank. This is a first for this car since moving from the relatively flats of Eugene to the hills and traffic of SF!! For the remainder I used the a/c as it was sooo hot - how nice to finally have a car equipped with that cooling miracle after 30 years driving without a/c in hotter-than-heck climates! For the rest of the trip it dropped a bit and when I finally filled up again just before Roseburg, the mileage was about 22+ miles per gallon for the rest of the tank... that's not bad when compared to the 12 miles I got for the gallon when I first moved to the City, and buying gas exactly once a week! Those hills and the stop-N-go traffic will do it to the car's performance!!!

In Medford I spent an interesting three hours shooting with a gorgeous model, then when it came time to download the fotos to her laptop, I realized that along with forgetting my cell phone charger, I also forgot the correct cable for the camera. Now instead of DLing 500+ pictures in less than 10 minutes, it would take three times longer!!!

This trip wasn't starting off well! In addition, I actually had to stop the car once I passed Fairfield to find my allergy pills... I smelled something that reminded me of hay burning and my sinuses were really bad this morning...... wow!! By time I arrived in Medford, my sinuses were again so bad even the model offered me some pills which I accepted and 20mins later, I could actually breathe again!!!

Finally done copying the pictures to her laptop, I started the final portion of my trip to Eugene, and traffic was bad. To make up for the traffic, I stopped at a rest area where olive trees were growing; these were old trees with the most beautiful roots!! Unfortunately, the restrooms were terrible! The sinks were filthy and though there were people cleaning, the sinks were so dirty I didn't touch them. It reminded me of seeing the restrooms at the rest areas off the german autobahn, and they were even more filthy than these!



Traffic into Eugene was bad starting about 30miles south, but as I arrived just after 8, I drove over to my "old spot" at Amazon Park and photographed the sunset.

I always feel so honored and special when I am "welcomed" to any location and the sunsets are so incredibly beautiful and colorful! Tonight was no different....



I like Eugene!!!