Slowly getting back into the swing of things following my mother's passing in May.

I again spent two weeks in the Grays Harbor area for the spring shorebird migration. My shooting opportunities, besides the usual, included red knots, red breasted mergansers, common loons, brown pelicans and wandering tattlers.

In the midst of my two week stay, was the Grays Harbor Shorebird Festival. The bird festivals are a lot of fun because I meet people who are WAY more knowledgeable about the birds than I am. And the festival organizers are some of the nicest people you would ever want to meet. These are by-and-large volunteer efforts and well organized. I highly recommend attending.

The two festivals in April and May were our first venture out with the new Flourish canopy system purchased this year. We had many positive comments. It makes for a much more professional presentation. Since we're planning on doing this long term, it made sense to make the investment. There are quite a few pieces to the system and we are still on the learning curve to setting this thing up efficiently. I learned last week that we were not properly extending the legs and so the canopy was shorter that it should have been. I thought I needed to purchase leg extenders, but not so, at least not yet.

Along the line of festivals, I have applied for and been accepted to several upcoming festivals:

These festivals are not specific to birds and will be much more general in terms of our audience. Therefore, we are in the process of gearing up our inventory to be less heavily weighted towards birds. This means more time at the computer processing a lot of images that have been sitting idle. Kind of fun to go back and see what strikes me as worthy of printing. And, I hope the festival goers will find something appealing as well.

Thanks for stopping by and maybe we'll see you somewhere along the way.

April is shaping up to be a busy month for me. I will have a booth at two festivals in the latter half of the month:

Visit the festival web sites for more information on activities, times and directions. Both of these festivals are in very scenic locations and worth checking out. With the mild spring weather we are having, this is a great year to get out and see the birds!

This year I will have prints available in standard sizes - 6" x 9", 8" x 12", 12" x 18" as well as panoramics in 18" & 24" widths (and varying heights). I am also introducing some prints done in the triptych style, grouping three similar subjects together in one print. There are a number of new images dating back to last year's shorebird migration and more recent shoots from this winter. Many of these are still not up in the GALLERY, yet, as I have only just processed them for printing. Watch the NEW section for upcoming additions.

I hope to see you there!

2009 was a year of change for us. After 24 years of living in the city of Newcastle in our "fixer upper" house, we took the plunge in a very depressed real estate market and sold it to move to a larger new house a few miles north in the city of Redmond. Besides having more space for the business, we are adjacent to a storm water retention pond which is a major attraction for water fowl. So far, we have seen mallards, buffleheads, hooded and common mergansers, gadwalls, ring-necked ducks and the occasional flock of Canada geese. I expect to see more as the winter turns to spring. I'm hoping to have a busy winter.

With all of the activity surrounding the selling and buying of houses, 2009 was a much diminished year for photography activity. I did have the opportunity to do some exploratory trips to areas I have not visited before. First, I went on an extended weekend trip with a friend to the eastern Washington region of the Palouse. The old barns and rolling hills of various grain crops in this rich farming region would be enough of a reason by itself to make the trip. But there is another attraction that is pretty amazing - Palouse Falls and the canyon that has been carved out by the Palouse River. Who knew Washington had such a photogenic canyon?

I also had the opportunity to visit a couple of great locations in eastern Oregon as well. The Painted Hills of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument; they are so otherworldy with the exposed layers of soil. And I had a productive day in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge with some yellow-headed blackbirds. This is a place I definitely want to go back to. However, the mosquitoes were something else.

Speaking of mosquitoes, I had the opportunity to return to Bruneau Dunes State Park in Idaho for a morning shoot. The mosquitoes were so thick, I am certain they managed to get through all my layers of clothing. Thankfully, I did have a head net to keep them at bay while shooting the wonderful sunrise light on the dunes.

I want to wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year. And, I would like to take this opportunity to let you know that I have not one but two 2010 calendars for sale here. These one-page calendars are great for refrigerators and cubicle walls.