A new flower petal collage

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This collage was made on watercolor paper using a number of different types of dried and pressed flower petals - roses, orchids, gloxinia, vinca (periwinkle), columbine and others.

Happy Birthday Blossom!

Willamette Valley Rainbow

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The weather was shaping up for a good possibility of rainbows yesterday, so we went out and found this nice one. It was a faint double rainbow at one end. I had to take two photos, even with a wide-angle lens, and make a panorama in Photoshop to get the whole thing into one image.

Shapes in the clouds

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A clear winter day

There was sunshine today so we were off to the river to take some photos and spend some badly needed time outdoors. Here are some shallows along the South Santiam River at Waterloo Park.

Learning a new DSLR

Having recently bought a new Canon DSLR, I want to learn thoroughly how to use it to the point of making it an extension of my hand and eye. I want to go beyond being able to take competent images and be able to be creative and know how to get what I want from the images. This will certainly take time and a lot of practice, but I'm sure there are numerous sources of good information available. Two of the first to come to mind are the user's manual and Canon's Learning Center .

If you have any favorite ways to learn the fine points about a DSLR, I would love to see them. Thanks!

A good morning in the Willamette Valley

Some magical moments so easily missed by not getting up early enough or just not looking outside at the right time... These photos all came from the same sunrise.

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New year, new things going on

There seem to be lots of ideas and creativity in the air right now. It must have something to do with the beginning of the new year. People I talk with have new things going on; they are finding new ways of doing things, building new websites and social features, ..lots of energy. I have a few of my own in the works inlcuding building a new blog and website.
What new things do you have going on with the start of the new year?