Boyd & Kathy Turner Photography

Journal

Stories and pictures about our travels, our photography and the outdoors.

 

The Land Between the Rivers

North Central Oregon is one of those long place names that makes sense as a string of words but may not be so easy to find on a map. Or maybe too easy to find on several maps. The problem being, that depending on the map, the boundaries may be wildly different. Does North Central Oregon extend as far north as the Columbia River? As far east as Heppner and Boardman? South to Bend or should we draw a line at Madras? Maybe at the Crooked River?

We aren’t geographers; although we love well drawn maps. And Boyd can be down right fussy about them. (“Where is the date, datum, and scale?” he has been heard to complain.) But this isn’t a blog about maps. It is about photography. In this entry it is about the land between three defining rivers: the Columbia, the Deschutes and the John Day. Because we are not geographers we can choose our own boundaries for North Central Oregon. And we can choose to call it a more descriptive name. The Land Between the Rivers.

Hope you enjoy a look at some of the landscapes in this often ignored part of the Great State of Oregon.

You can click on each image to open in a new window.

Boyd TurnerComment
McKenzie Spring

We hoped to have a bunch of new stories by now. But then came Covid-19 lockdown. But with things easing up and spring in full swing, we managed to get out on the McKenzie River on the Willamette National Forest of Oregon. With it being spring, on the west side of the Cascades, it was a little “damp.” But a little “Oregon sunshine” can make for some good days in the forest. We found beautiful flowers, interesting plants, and lots of image opportunities. Hope you enjoy our little taste of McKenzie Spring.

Boyd TurnerComment
Santiam snowshoe

It was a mild day. February isn’t supposed to be “mild”. It’s supposed to be cold, stormy. The time of the year when the indoor chores get done. Not this year in Central Oregon. We have had a lot of sunny days with relatively mild daytime temperatures. On one of these days, we took a snowshoe hike in the area of the Santiam Pass on the Willamette National Forest. We found a land of textures, glare and shadows between Mt. Washington and Three Fingered Jack. Here’s a visual summary of our Santiam snowshoe.

Boyd TurnerComment
Kathy's Favorites from 2019

Hi. It’s Kathy. I don’t write here that often but since Boyd posted his top 15 I thought I should put my Top 15 up also. And yes, it was a big flower year!

As Boyd said in his post, we are trying something new. These are just a portion of each image. Click on the thumbnail to see the whole image.

Boyd TurnerComment
That went quick.
That went quick.

Seriously we try to post at least once a month. This has not been achieved as we only posted 9 times in 2019. We will try again in 2020. But we are already a month behind. Wow. Where does the time go?

For now here are Boyd’s 15 favorite images from 2019. This is kind of an eclectic mess. But we have plans for some interesting places in 2020, so hopefully more interesting stories and images will follow more frequently.

I’m trying something new. These are just a portion of each image. Click on the thumbnail to see the whole image.

Boyd TurnerComment
Tarde en El Morro

We recently found ourselves in the Caribbean with some time to explore old San Juan, Puerto Rico. And old means really old. Back to the days of shortly after Columbus old. We took time on a very warm day to walk the Morro and the Cristobal forts. Built in the days of Dutch raiders and English privateers the Moro protects the entrance to the strategic port of San Juan. After 400 years of invaders and hurricanes, that the structures still stand is a testament to the effort that went into their construction. We were so impressed with the structures (and the 87F heat and 87% humidity) we thought we should share our afternoon at El Morro.

Tarde en El Morro

Esperando la Flota

Puerta a la Luz

Borde del Nuevo Mundo

Boyd TurnerComment
Frame rate or what the tree saw
Frame rate or what the tree saw

Let’s start with the second part of the title first. Trees can live much longer than humans. The average pine tree in the western US might have a lifespan of 300 plus years. An oak tree might also be good for a couple of hundred years or more. Bristlecone pine can be 2,000 years old, or more. What if trees have a perception of time? Would they perceive a day or an hour or a minute in the same way as a human? Us humans perceive motion with a certain frame rate. If you go to the cinema the film in the old days showed at approximately 24 frames per second. Video generates around 30 frames per second. Trees potentially live 30 times the lifespan of a human. What if their frame rate is a thirtieth that of a human? What would that look like? What would a tree see if it was growing alongside a river? What if I slow my camera down so that I’m taking one frame every 4-6 seconds. Would it be what the tree saw? Look at the images below and see if you can see like a tree.

Beard of the Wizard

Carnal Curves

Drop to Enlightenment

Laminar Darkness

Release to Turbulence

Strands of Silver

Tresses of Namakaokahai

Ok the titles might be a little fruity or nutty. But I think trees may be serious thinkers and would give serious titles. After all they have deep roots. And time.

Boyd TurnerComment
Unconstrained

Maybe you have noticed that Instagram and Facebook have hard parameters for aspect ratios for photos. In case you didn’t know, aspect ratio is the length of one side of an image to the other side. These big media sharing sites really like the aspect ratio of a cell phone screen, especially a cell phone held upright in the portrait mode, not the landscape mode.

Maybe you don’t care. We think you will care after you see the full version of these panoramas. You can click on these and they should expand to a larger size. Hopefully you will see these on a big screen (27” high res monitors work well) but even a pad will do, just don’t expect much out of that phone.

Maybe you still won’t care about panos after you look at the larger version of these panoramas. That’s ok, you don’t have to like what we like. But sometimes a good visual story just demands a good pano.

Sometimes it’s about a great sky…

Or putting something in a size context…

Or showing off the grand sweep of the landscape…

Or maybe showing off the grand detail at our feet…

Or showing the grand detail of a famous location…

Whether it’s a monochrome panorama…

Or a colorful panorama…

Sometimes you just need a panorama - uncropped, unadultared, unconstrained because that is the story. A story you can’t get on Instagram/Facebook.

Boyd TurnerComment
The Commonest Weeds

O the gleesome saunter over fields and hillsides!
The leaves and flowers of the commonest weeds, the moist fresh stillness of the woods,
The exquisite smell of the earth at daybreak, and all through the forenoon.

  • Walt Whitman

Boyd TurnerComment
Paroxysm of Color

Paroxysm is defined as “a sudden attack or violent expression of a particular emotion or activity.” The onset of desert blooms is certainly sudden. The “Super Bloom” of 2019 certainly is a violent attack on the sensibility of some that the desert is a bare and boring place. The foot soldiers of this attack were the multitudes of flowers in many shades of yellow, gold, blue, violet and other colors. Millions of bright spots, each competing for attention, to show that the desert is not bland, monotone, boring or bare. In these images we used intentional movements of the camera to blur, yet focus on the colors of the bloom. We hope this paroxysm of color imparts a sudden attack of a pleasant emotion in your day. It certainly captured us.

Boyd TurnerComment