Look all around and see what all you shall see

I haven't counted them, but I know I took a couple dozen photos of tiny flowers all along the path to the Benson Bridge. This is the best one, hands down.



I'm not certain that this crop improves the image. Takes away too much shadow on the left which seems to make the photo appear deep. What's your opinion? I'm quite interested. Thanks!



That bright sunshine in the crook caught my eye, so I took this photo of a unique tree with several moss-covered trunks.



This one's pretty good, too. I cropped it so that you may be able to see that the flower behind is in focus, not the one in front. Pure luck, what with these old eyes of mine.



Got the shadows and the flowers, after five or six tries. Do you like this one?



This one may be even better. More in focus, that bud between the two flowers--they're all three in focus. I believe I like it better than the previous one. I can see bits of pink on the petals of the flower to the left of the bud. How about you?



Oh, I forgot that I took this one. I like it a whole lot, too!



I remember taking this one, straining on my toes in a nook in the path at the right end of the Benson Bridge, straining to hold my breath and keep the focus and not wobble to ruin it. I got what I wanted, the rust-colored-airplane-propeller-looking thing. I wonder what it is?



Oh, these ferns! Standing side-by-side like members of the drumline. So fine.



The ferns, from a bit of a different angle, still so interesting to me.



Another one that I forgot I took. Gosh, my brain was getting tired right about then. I soon turned and walked down the path to head for the bus. Little did I know how long it would take for a bus to arrive. I made it home, though, and will go again sometime this summer.

Seen at Overlook Park

Today I rode the 12 bus and the MAX Yellow Line train to a Kaiser Permanente seminar, Thrive with Cancer. I made certain to get there early, just in case there was a Steel Bridge lift at some point during my trip. With time to spare, I sat down at a landscaped area in front of one of the Kaiser buildings--azalea bushes, other shrubs and plants, plus benches and picnic tables make the site inviting. As I looked around, these limbs visible beneath the greenery on that tree across the street caught my eye. The railings, post and attached chains are part of the pedestrian barricades alongside tracks at the stop for the MAX Yellow Line.

Neighborhood walk reveals the disappearance of a large tree.

Now. About 40 minutes ago the sight of this tree stopped me in its tracks. No, it's not the angle at which it extends over the sidewalk. The absence of its nearest neighbor surprised me.



Then. You can see what I mean in this photo that I took on Feb. 27, 2011, while out on a walk. The loss of a tree in the city brings a sadness to my soul.

What I saw while on a NE Portland Kerns Neighborhood Walk with Lamont, Sunday, January 5, 2014, No. 2

These three photos show a span about two feet wide along the top edge of this thick, moss-covered limb which is well over my head as I stand on the sidewalk, entranced by the sunshine lighting up first one cluster of ferns, then another.
 

The second part I wanted you to see, this other cluster of ferns with one curved up into nearly a silhouette against the streaky sky. When I checked it on the camera, I saw what I had to take the next photo of there on the left edge of the image.
 

You can see why I got excited when I realized that I could take a decent photo of this lone soldier, this fern all on its own, glowing in the sunshine. Thank goodness for my zoom lens.
 

Have you been wondering about the background above the limb in the first three photos? I certainly did as I checked out each photo on the camera's screen. Once I realized what caused it, I decided to take this photo of the sky and the myriad branches on the tree which splendidly blurred the background when I focused on the various ferns. You can see the ghostlike blur of green in two spots along the top edge of the limb--ferns as ghosts. I love it!

Sentinel Tree, Sublimity, Oregon, No. 5

Click here for a trip to City Daily Photo, transporting you around the world every day.
 

Here's the altered image that inspired the comment from my Flickr friend which, in turn, inspired these five posts this week and my name for the tree. He commented, "Looks like it is the guard for these rolling fields."

Say good-bye to the Sentinel Tree, but if you missed any of the other alterations, please take a look at the posts from Monday through Thursday this week. Today's alteration, the Orton app from PicMonkey.

Sentinel Tree, Sublimity, Oregon, No. 4

Click here for a trip to City Daily Photo, transporting you around the world every day.
 

Today's treatment of this photo is called Underpainting. I found that alteration app at BeFunky. It certainly changed the look of the Sentinel Tree and the fields around it.

In case you haven't been here this week, here's the back story: A Flickr friend who lives in Portland commented on an altered version this photo that I will post later this week. I took the name for today's post from his comment, "Looks like it is the guard for these rolling fields."

Tomorrow I'll share the photo that inspired my friend's comment. Thanks, Terry!

Sentinel Tree, Sublimity, Oregon, No. 3

Click here for a trip to City Daily Photo, transporting you around the world every day.
 

In case you haven't been here this week, here's the back story: A Flickr friend who lives in Portland commented on an altered version this photo that I will post later this week. I took the name for today's post from his comment, "Looks like it is the guard for these rolling fields."

Today's photo of the Sentinel Tree was altered with HDR at PicMonkey.

Sentinel Tree, Sublimity, Oregon, No. 2

Click here for a trip to City Daily Photo, transporting you around the world every day.



The photo from yesterday, altered at PicMonkey with the Cinerama application. I knew that the app would cut some off the bottom and the top of the photo. I like that. I'm not sure why the color was changed when I used the app. But I do like the starkness brought about by that change.

Sentinel Tree, Sublimity, Oregon, No. 1

Click here for a trip to City Daily Photo, transporting you around the world every day.



A Flickr friend who lives in Portland commented on an altered version of this photo. Not this one. All I did here was resize it at PicMonkey. I took the name for today's post from his comment, "Looks like it is the guard for these rolling fields."

Come back this week to see four other treatments of this tree. I hope you enjoy seeing them. Thanks!

Seen in the neighborhood

Click here for a trip to City Daily Photo, transporting you around the world every day.



I hope you'll be able to make out the spiderweb to the left of the tree trunk. I didn't want to walk on someone's private property to get the photo, so I cropped and upped the contrast, trying to make them visible for you. I certainly enjoyed seeing them while I was out on a walk. By the way, the silver streaks were sunlit spiderwebs, too. So lovely, especially since I had no fear of becoming entwined in them from where I stood on the sidewalk.

The MAX Yellow Line that I missed because ...

... a woman in line in front of me at Will Call (where I went to pick up a prescription refill) had not called ahead and asked one question after another for I don't know how many minutes! Once I had my refill, I looked at the iPhone app PDXBus and saw that the next train was due in two minutes--yep, you can get arrivals for the bus, the Portland Streetcar, the MAX, and the WES Commuter Line which is way far away from where I ever go. I knew I'd never make it, never. So I just walked out towards the station with my camera ready. Thank goodness! Serendipity strikes again. Look at the red hand on the crosswalk, shining through the windows on the MAX car! I guess I owe that inefficient woman a high five. Recognize the tree in the background? Look at this link to learn more about it—the one that looks like a person holding his/her arms out. To help you find it, it's in between the red spot and the white spot on the grass, to the right of the train car.


Here's the first shot I took when I got to the crosswalk. The train I wanted is on the right. The other one is also a Yellow Line train, heading north. I needed to go south into downtown where I would transfer to a bus to head on home. So I walked up the sidewalk, crossed at the next crosswalk and sat down to wait. If you look at Tuesday's post, you'll see what I did while I waited for the train.

A gamblin' we go!

No worries. This is not our vehicle! It's been in this tree at least since July, 2006. That's the first time we drove over to Spirit Mountain to play the penny machines. I couldn't believe it! Finally I remembered to bring my zoom lens and got a decent photo. As far as we can tell, the tree and the vehicle are in the front yard, well the front acres, of a house. There's also a giant Yellow Submarine cut-out and a giant martini glass--seems like it lights up. The photo of those two will have to wait until a light traffic day. The only reason I could get the vehicle in the tree was that I could pull the car off at a closed truck weigh station. The tree hid the submarine, and the martini glass was just too far away.


Sunday, Feb. 21, we rented a car and headed for Spirit Mountain. (The Buick's OK, just old. I had a strong feeling that I ought not to take us out on the road in it, thus the rented car.) Here's Mama enjoying some coffee from Burger King.

Sounds simple, doesn't it. Here's the real story. Mama decided she'd save us time and go with me on the bus to the downtown Enterprise office. That worked pretty good. We got the car and drove towards Leland's so that we could get the handicap-hang-tag that we always leave in the Buick. I couldn't find it! I made a wrong turn somewhere, so I pulled into a parking lot and called him. He got me straight, we got the hang-tag, then stopped at McDonald's to get Mama some breakfast. Once we'd ordered, the guy tells us they're out of biscuits! So we got a refund and went back to the car, got her oxygen bottle into the floorboard, the seat belt locked onto her. I looked around and asked, "Where's your purse?" Mama looked shocked, then said sheepishly, "Back at the apartment." No problem. We laughed about our original plan to get on the road early, and headed back towards the apartment. On the way we stopped at a Burger King drive thru and got her what she wanted, including the coffee she's got in the photo above. I took it before I got back into the car with her purse.


On the way we stopped where we always do to buy some gasoline. Mama asked, "Why do you take pictures of everything? " My answer, "Why not?"


Look at that blue sky! What a joyous day to be outdoors, going somewhere to have a good time.

Yes, we knew we'd come back with less money than we took, but we also knew we'd be smart about the whole thing. We left in plenty of time to take a photo or two (ha, ha!) on the way home. Stay tuned.

Getting ready for Christmas in Portland's living room

As the MAX train I was on pulled to a stop on Nov. 15, I got this shot of Portland's Christmas Tree. Workers had it upright and ready for plumping and shaping. Trimmed branches encircled the tree's base. I wonder if the man in the bucket is trimming or attaching?

After the free "tour" of the Central Library's new eco-roof (more about that on another post), I walked back to Pioneer Square to take more photos of the process.


This fellow explained and demonstrated how to make the branch into an attachment.

You can tell from this direction just how much plumping and shaping will make a beautiful sight for everyone to enjoy once the light switch is thrown Friday night after Thanksgiving.

Here's a close-up of the trunk. I cannot remember for sure, but it seems to me that the trunk is surrounded by a base that doesn't allow the public to get to the branches. By "get to the branches," I mean touch them and/or mess with the lights. I'll have to look at last year's photos to know for sure.

This shot was taken from almost the same spot as the first one, but I was standing in the square instead of on the MAX.


I looked back to Nov. 24, 2007, and found out that my memory still works! You can see the base in this photo of the unlit tree.

And a bit of it at the bottom of this photo of the lit tree.


Good Lord willin' and the creek don't rise, I plan to attend the lighting again this year, for my third time which is all of my Thanksgivings in Portland.

Autumn Interlude--Sky, Sidewalk, and Vehicle

A tree across the street from Lincoln High School, Saturday afternoon

A tree on NW Flanders at NW 23rd Avenue, Saturday afternoon

The tree to the left of our building's front door, before sunrise.

Nearby sidewalk, #1

Nearby street level matching accessory, #1

Shrub on nearby sidewalk, #2

Nearby street level matching accessory, #2, on NW 23rd at Glisan

Nearby sidewalk, #3

Nearby street level matching accessory, #3, on NW Glisan near NW 23rd Avenue

Nearby sidewalk, #4

Nearby street level matching accessory, #4, the corner of NW Davis and NW 22nd

NW Davis, a view I enjoy every afternoon after I get off the bus, taken Oct. 29 before it started to rain which knocked lots and lots of leaves from the trees

NW Everett, a view I enjoy every morning when I walk to the bus stop--although I took this photo in the afternoon on Oct. 29--it's too dark now to get a good shot in the AM

Part of the price for our autumn beauty--cars blanketed with leaves

The same car, different view

One last view of the autumn bounty.

All of these shots are within a four-square-blocks space, except for the one by Lincoln High School. They provide emphatic evidence of the necessity for Northwest Portland Clean Sweep--for us, the next one is Dec. 5--nearby streets either the week before or the week after. I found this on Portland Online:

PDOT and Neighbors West-Northwest have successfully collaborated for the past 15 years to clean the streets in NW Portland. Residents and businesses are notified in advance to remove their vehicles from the scheduled sweep area by 7:30 a.m. because City sweepers cannot make their way down NW Portland's narrow streets with cars parked.

Can you imagine how many leaves we'd have here if they didn't clean off the streets three times a year?