Scenes From A Radio Station

Yesterday I featured some photos from Cartwright's Music. Ken Carwright, owner of the music shop, also runs a new community-based radio station, KENC (AM 1620) in a room next to the shop. He let me poke around in there and take some pictures.

It's a nice setup, complete with a large window facing 3rd Ave. so passersby can look in and see what's going on.

If you want to see the photos individually (they've been cropped to a square format for the mosaic), please click on the links below:

1. Mic Check, 2. Compressor Delay, 3. One Track Mind, 4. Cover Your Ears And Listen, 5. Nerve Center, 6. There Is Truth In The Sound, 7. Master, 8. Right On Cue, 9. Stupid Hurts

Scenes From A Music Shop

As mentioned yesterday, I spent part of Tuesday taking photos at Cartwright's Music on 3rd Ave. Since I couldn't decide on just one photo to post, here's a mosaic of some detail shots of some of the goodies at the shop.

Tomorrow I'll post some shots I took of Stayton's new community radio station Ken Cartwright has started.

If you want to see each full photo individually (the photos in the mosaic are cropped), here are the links:

1. Little Toy Drums, 2. Purple Fingers, 3. The One In The Blue Hat, 4. Stay In Tune, 5. Play Me, 6. Lay Your Hands On Me, 7. Little Tin Horn, 8. Suspension Bridge, 9. Cymbalic

Amanda-Lynn

Meet Amanda-Lynn (read: "a mandolin"), an adorable and very friendly little French bull dog puppy. She hangs out at Cartwright's Music on 3rd Ave. with her owner, Ken Cartwright.

I took a bunch of photos at Carwright's yesterday, so I'll be featuring one or two of them over the next couple of days. Thanks, as always, to Ken for letting me take pictures at his shop.

Firm In My Be-Leaf

*sigh*

Well, here we are with more autumn leaves. My camera, completely on its own, immediately gravitates to any and all autumn leaves in its vicinity. See, it's not even my fault, they're just too picture-worthy.

The lame pun in the title is my fault, though.

Enlightened

My brain still hasn't wrapped around it being the holiday season. When I saw a house all decorated with Christmas lights the other day, it took me a minute to figure out what was going on. I'm not overly bright.

Anyway, since it is the season of lightened decoration thingies, I figured I might as well get with the program. The polar bears are a gift for my mother, as she loves all things polar bear. I would have put them out in the yard already (I took these photos while the bears were gracing my dining room table), but it's been darned cold lately. Maybe later today.

J O Y

I was at Postal Connections on Shaff Rd. the other day, and they had adorable little stuffed toys on display, so I took a few pictures. It's what I do.

Here are a couple of other shots of cuteness from the store:

   

Opulent Orange

Yes. Another photo of autumn leaves. But it's been... um... oh, 10 days since I last posted one! I think that shows remarkable restraint on my part. Besides, soon they'll all be gone, so I have to get in while I can.

This tree lives near the top of the hill on 10th Ave., otherwise known as Hospital Hill, since the hospital sits at the top. But that's kind of irrelevant, except that the tree is about half a block from the hospital.

More From Clear Lake

Today is the second photo of Clear Lake on the McKenzie Pass from guest photographer Ronda Faught (don't miss yesterday's image).

Be sure to visit Ronda's new web site for more of her awesome photography. You'll be glad you did.

Thanks again to Ronda for sharing her photos!

Photo is copyright © Ronda Faught. All rights reserved. Do not copy or reproduce in any way without permission of photographer.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! Gobble, gobble, and all that good stuff. Mainly, though, it's a time to be thankful for the good things in our lives. One of the things I'm thankful for is the guest photographers who've kindly let me post their photos.

Ronda Faught, guest photographer extraordinaire from nearby Sublimity, has once again provided two lovely images for today and tomorrow's posts. She provides wonderful glimpses at areas outside of Stayton, because as she says, "Oregon has a lot of beautiful places most within a couple hours or less from home."

Today and tomorrow's photos were taken at Clear Lake on the McKenzie Pass (Highway 126) (here are some facts about Clear Lake, if you're interested). It looks like a beautiful place to visit.

Ronda's also started a web site to showcase her photography. Give it a look:

Ronda Faught's Digital Landscape Photography

Thanks, Ronda! I hope everyone has a very happy holiday (or, if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, have a very happy non-holiday).

Photo is copyright © Ronda Faught. All rights reserved. Do not copy or reproduce in any way without permission of photographer.

Getting Ready

I guess the holiday season is truly here. I happened by some workers who were putting up the city Christmas tree on 3rd Ave. yesterday... it took me completely by surprise. Yes, I know Thanksgiving is tomorrow, but I still have Halloween decorations to put away.

I managed to go out and take some new photos yesterday, which was nice. My camera isn't happy when it doesn't get to scooter around town taking pictures of random things.

Cold Dead Hands

It was a cold and dreary day when I took this photo last week. The whole sky just said, and I quote, "Ick." But the mostly barren tree branches made it prettier, so it was okay.

The title comes from the fact the tree branches look like hands. Cold dead hands.

It's been raining since the day after I bought my new scooter, so I haven't been able to go out and take new photos. I think today will be better, though, so hopefully I'll have some new stuff to post tomorrow.

Where You Lead

This is the stairway entrance to the St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery on 3rd Ave. It leads to a pathway which leads to the main part of the cemetery. That big silver thing on the right is the town's water tower.

Just past this stairway is where a lot of us in town sit to watch the Independence Day fireworks each year. It provides a great vantage point without having to fight the traffic in the main part of town. That part of the cemetery is largely just a field with few burials, so nothing gets disturbed.

Garage

This is the top part of an old garage on 2nd Ave. According to the Stayton-Sublimity Chamber Of Commerce web site, it was built in 1885. That's a few years back. Check out their downtown walking tour page (it's #10 on the list) for more info.

I posted a photo of the whole building last year, if y'all want to take a gander at that.

Past Is Present

This nifty classic truck, a green International, just happened to be passing by when I was taking photos downtown not long ago. Since that area of town has a lot of decades old buildings, it feels like the photo was taken a long time ago. Well, except for the modern vehicles on the right of the photo. Just ignore those. :)

Welcome

This welcome sign hangs in the window of a business on 3rd Ave. I can't remember which business, of course. I'm lucky I remembered which street it's on.

Anyway, consider this a welcome to all who visit here -- first timers and repeat offenders alike.

A Blue Hue

This be a hill. A blue hued hill. I took it from some street off of Santiam St. It's a new road, and Google Maps shows it on the satellite image but doesn't on the map.

That's all terribly exciting (or not), but the most interesting thing about today's photo is I took it yesterday. "So what?" you ask (you did, I could hear you). Because it means I once again have wheels (squeeee!). Yes, friends, yesterday I bought a new scooter I couldn't afford, so I can once again go out and taken action packed shots like the one above.

Maybe. It's going to be raining for the next few days (or more), and I don't have a windshield yet. And my camera's not water resistant. Neither am I, for that matter. But I'll get out when I can.

A Shock To The Heart

For today's photo I went to the exotic location of my backyard, since I'm still minus transportation. The lovely red color is provided by the last few leaves left on a Japanese maple. Such a pretty tree.

Deidrich Block 1912

This nifty bit of history is on a the corner of the 1912 Deidrich Building on 3rd Ave, in the "historic" section of downtown. I posted a picture of the front windows and door in September. I love the color of the building... a very pretty blue.

Biker Chick

This is one of the photos I took as a possible shot for "the color blue" November 1st theme day photo. The shadow is of me sitting on my now dearly departed scooter. The backdrop is a blue dumpster. I'm now tempted to throw my scooter in that dumpster, but I won't. It's not a total loss, just too expensive for me to repair.



On a different note, Ham at London Daily Photo is raising money for Breast Cancer Care. For more information on supporting this worthy cause, please visit the link at above.

Please And Thank You

This whole not being about to go out and take pictures thing is getting to me. Take today, for example. I'm posting a sign from a grocery cart return area in a parking lot, for goodness sake. I need wheels so I can go shoot again!

Whole Lotta Yellow

I still am lacking transportation, so here's another "filler" photo of autumn leaves. I apologize for yet another photo of this sort of thing. I'm still waiting to find out if my scooter can be fixed (since I kinda crashed it last weekend), or if I'm going to have to buy a new one.

Feed

This sign hangs over the storage building at Wilco, an farm supply cooperative, on 1st Ave. It's very blue, and yet it's also somewhat purple. This is exciting stuff. Aren't you glad you stopped by today?

Feelin' Knotty

Since I featured autumn leaves yesterday, I thought a change of pace was in order for today. So instead of leaves, I'm posting a picture of the trunk of a tree which produces autumn leaves. Totally different.

I have no idea what kind of tree it is, as usual. I like the pattern in the wood inside the hole (for a larger view of the photo, click on the picture above and then choose 'all sizes').

This was taken in the parking lot of the hospital on 10th Ave.

Somebody Get A Rake

Since I'm presently without transportation, y'all are gonna have to put up with some more autumn leaves photos until I can get around again.

The above is pretty representative of Stayton at the moment, since trees all over town are depositing leaves on sidewalks, streets, and yards. It always makes me sad to see someone cleaning up the leaves, because gosh darn it, I could take photos of them! I mean, Isn't that what's really important, after all? ;)

In Reverse

Today's photo is of the Jones Hotel apartment building being reflected in the front windows of the post office, both of which are on 2nd Ave.

By the way, apparently I'm in the mood to break things. After crashing my scooter two nights ago (which the insurance is probably going to consider totaled), I went ahead and broke my 20" flat panel monitor tonight. It seemed fitting. And did I mention my Palm PDA is broken, too? If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all.

For those wondering, yes, the monitor was an accident. Something fell against it and broke the screen. Dell's replacing it, fortunately. I'm glad I bought the accidental coverage. As you can tell, I'm prone to needing such things.

The Blue Door

This photo is one I was consider for the Nov. 1st theme day, which was "the color blue." It's a side door on a store on 1st Ave. which sells video games. I think. I've never been inside. But I love the bright colors on the building.... very blue and very yellow.

By the way, we may be stuck with more autumn leaf shots over the next handful of days. I crashed my scooter last night (I'm okay, other than a hurt shoulder and arm), so my picture taking will be severely limited until the scooter's been fixed. I don't know how long that will be as of yet.

Down By The River

This is a little creek which runs next to the public library, also known as Salem Ditch. I think I called it Stayton Ditch in a post the other day, but that would be wrong. I believe it's called Salem Ditch because Stayton supplies water to Salem via that ditch. But I could be wrong about that, too. Heck if I know.

Anyway, it's rather pretty, and doesn't look anything like a ditch to me.

Red Leaf

Today's photo is of a lovely red leaf off of some tree or another. I did a color "cutout" to make the red of the leaf stand out.

For those curious as to how I did it (because folks have asked before): I used Paint Shop Pro X2, but any image editor which allows you to custom select areas of an image will work. In PSP X2, I used the Magic Wand tool on the area outside the leaf and its stem and branch. You can also select the area you want to remain in color, then invert the selection.

If you have a steady hand, you can also use a 'lasso' type tool to draw the selection with your mouse, but I personally suck at doing that.

I then converted the selected area to black and white. Not really complicated, but it can be a little tedious to do.

Autumn Rain

Stayton has had some rather nice weather recently. That lovely weather has provided some great opportunities to take pictures of autumn leaves, which is why I've posted so many recently.

But since it's been literally days since I last posted such a photo, it's perfectly fine to post another. Yep. I'm not obsessed, just, uh... greatly interested.

Right?

DP Theme Day: The Color Blue

This month's city daily photo theme day is the color blue. I waffled on what to post, and finally decided on the above. My other two options will be posted over the next week, so stay tuned for that exciting event.

The water above runs under the little bridge on 2nd Ave., near the post office. It's what we affectionately call the Stayton Ditch, because that's what it's called. :)

Click below for well over 100 other city daily photo blogs participating in today's theme day.

P.S. A big hello to the person last night who asked if I was the "mastermind" of this here blog. Howdy! :)

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