Picture of the Day - Base of Narada Falls

I took this digital photo about three years ago in Mt. Ranier National Park. And before you ask, the rocks really are gold in appearance, enhanced by the fact that they are wet.

This picture illustrates the fact that you don't have to photograph a waterfall in its entirety to have an effective image. In fact, the base of the falls is the backdrop for the incredibly colored rocks and together they make a good picture. Throw in some greenery behind the falls, and you have a very fine color image.

Remember to always start with an overall image, like the entire waterfall, then drill down to find beauty in a very small portion of the overall picture. Think about this the next time you have a camera in your hands.

Picture of the Day - Zion: Red Rock and Clouds

As the title suggests, this photo was taken in Zion National Park last November...two days before Thanksgiving, if memory serves.

Frankly, I cannot remember the name of this mountain (or very large rock, if you prefer). I just remember the light, the red mountain, and the amazing cloud formation right above it. What more could you ask for a photo opportunity?

The National Parks of Utah and Northern Arizona are just amazing places. I hope to explore more of them in the very near future. You should try and get there sometime yourself...I promise you won't be disappointed.

Picture of the Day - Old Truck under an Apple Tree

This image is one of my paintings that I show at my art shows. It was completed last year and has become quite popular. At my recent show in Whitefish, Montana, I sold out of every print I had of it. It has also become a best-seller in my Leavenworth shows, along with another painting I have of an old Ford truck, which I will share with you soon.

I took the original photograph in 2006 just outside of the small town of Hunters in northeastern Washington, right on the east side of Lake Roosevelt, above the Grand Coulee Dam on the highway to Kettle Falls. I was driving along and spotted what I thought was an interesting barn on a side road. On the way to the barn, I discovered this old truck which was invisible from the highway. The truck turned out to be far more interesting than the barn.

It was painted by hand (with a Wacom tablet) using Corel's Painter software. You can't see it in this small of an image, but there are some interesting brush strokes that I applied which make the painting really stand out.

All the strange mix of colors on this old truck are reproduced almost exactly as I found them...no additional colors were added.

Interestingly, almost exactly one year after I took the original photograph, I was back in Hunters and went back to this truck. It was in much worse shape than when I took the photograph and the apple tree is gone. I guess I got lucky with my timing.

Picture of the Day - Lightship in Astoria

This photo is of a retired Coast Guard lightship that is permanently docked in Astoria harbor in Oregon. I loved the ropes and the anchor chain running into the bow along with the rich red hull of the ship and the deep blue sky. Throw in a few white clouds and you have a very colorful image.

I took this picture a few years ago right with my then almost-new Olympus digital SLR camera. I was driving down the Oregon Coast on my way to California to do a couple of art shows. Astoria, if you recall your history, was the last stop for Lewis and Clark on their historic journey across America. It is where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean.

Although I have never done it, I think this picture would look great is a very large size, say 24x30 on canvas. Maybe someday I will get around to it.

Picture of the Day - Avalanche Lake Part 2

As promised, here is another view of Avalanche Lake in Glacier National Park. Although this is not a great photograph because of the light, you can see 5 of the 7 waterfalls that drop down into the lake...and that is what I wanted you to see. It is quite a beautiful and unique place and if you ever get to Glacier you should make the hike to see this. Just go in the afternoon for the best light.

Will be back next week with more photographs and stories.

Picture of the Day - Avalanche Lake

On my last day in Montana, just a week ago now, I got up early and headed into Glacier National Park. My objective was to hike into Avalanche Lake, a five mile round trip hike, mostly uphill on the way in. Eighteen years ago, I had hiked to the Lake and remembered its incredible beauty. I wanted to try and capture it with my camera this time.

As I found out after getting there, I should have done this hike in the afternoon for the best light. The most amazing feature of this lake is that approximately seven waterfalls flow over the high cliffs that surround the lake. As there was still a lot of snow up in the high country, the waterfalls were absolutely full. Unfortunately, most of them were in shadows when I arrived. This angle had the best light of that morning and you can at least see two of the waterfalls.

Perhaps tomorrow I will show you a picture of the waterfalls, even though it is far from one of my best. If you want to be a good photographer, you must learn to use the available light to its best advantage. Good photography is, for the most part, learning to paint with light. Even the best Photoshop software cannot put in light that is not there. Study the works of great photographers and you will see what I mean.

Picture of the Week - Clouds over Glacier

This is another photo taken on my recent trip into Glacier National Park. This photo of a very unusual cloud formation was taken around sunset, on the "Going to the Sun" highway.

The highway, by the way, is celebrating its 75th anniversary. It runs along these very same mountains in the picture, although not visible in this image. I am so glad I got to visit the park on this trip as I had to skip it last year when I did an art show in Kalispell. Sadly, it may be a while before I get back there.

Picture of the Day - Goat's Head

Yesterday, I showed you an image of St. Mary's Lake at Sunrise, taken last Sunday morning in Glacier National Park. This image was taken shortly afterwards, on the way back to Whitefish.

Now, you may notice that this picture is slightly blurred. Well there is a good reason for this and here is how it came about (the story is much better than the picture).

First, you have to understand how the "Going to the Sun" highway is laid out. The highway is cut into the side of the mountain, an engineering marvel, to say the least. Sometimes, it is 100% vertical on both sides of the road...a little scary if you think about it while driving. It is so steep in places that even sure-footed animals like mountain goats cannot go up or down if they are on the road.

Now, over the course of my life I have only seen a few mountain goats in the wild, mostly at a great distance. As we were driving back to Whitefish, we came across two mountain goats on a portion of the highway where there was no place to go up or down. So they just ran along the left side of the road. One stopped while the other (this one) kept going. We tried not to scare him, but he just kept trotting along. We carefully pulled up even with him and Dave rolled down his window so I could take this shot. This goat was perhaps 6-7 feet from me when I took the picture. It is a little blurry because both the goat and the car were moving at the time.

What makes this story even better was that it wasn't the only such incident for us that day. On the way to St. Mary's lake, we came across an adult female deer running along the highway. We stayed behind her until she came to safe place in the road where she could get off. There, waiting for her, was her mate, a male deer with a full set of antlers. We drove on, not taking any pictures because both our cameras were in the back of the car.

Then, a few miles later, we came across two bighorn male sheep with a fully developed set of horns, also stuck on the highway. We stayed behind them until they found a safe place to head down the mountain. All I could think of was that their horns exactly matched the St. Louis Rams football helmets.

It was an amazing morning seeing all these animals so up close and personal...and all in one morning. I only wish the cameras were not in the back of the car for the first two encounters.

Picture of the Day - Sunrise on St. Mary's Lake

This photo was taken only three days ago at St. Mary's Lake in Glacier National Park. My friend, David Forester, a professional landscape photographer, and I were sharing a hotel room while doing the Whitefish Art Festival. We got up Sunday morning at 4:00 AM and drove 65 miles into the park. We went up the "Going to the Sun Highway" to Logan's Pass, then downhill, eventually winding up at St. Mary's Lake.

We got there just minutes before the sun, then had three minutes of great sunrise light before a storm cloud covered the sun. This was one of the photos I took in those three minutes.

We then piled back into Dave's car and headed back to Whitefish to do the last day of the show. It was quite a drive to do for only a few shots, but it was worth it. All-in-all, I made three trips into Glacier during my brief 5 day stay in Northwestern Montana. I will be sharing some of the photos with you over the next several days, including an amazing photo I took this very same day.

Glacier National Park is quite a place and could take many, many months to explore properly. I hope I can return soon.

Postcard from Sacramento - Remembering Tower Records

I am deviating a little from my normal "Postcard" blog here as I came across the wonderful blog by Steve Guttenberg on his Audiophiliac Blog that appears on CNet. Steve's blog is normally about the fun world of high-end audio. In this blog, he writes about his memories of the great institution that was Tower Records. As Tower was important to me for many, many years, it brought back several memories.

First I will present Steve's blog, followed by my response to the blog as it appears at the bottom of his blog on CNet under user's comments.

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REMEMBERING TOWER RECORDS: GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

By Steve Guttenberg

It's some kind of weird contradiction, but for some reason I really loved Tower Records. I say that because I have a long standing thing about indie record shops, and I never bought much at Virgin or HMV, but when Tower opened its two Manhattan stores I became an even bigger vinyl junkie. I lived just a few blocks away from the uptown one and would spend many nights there just looking at music and talking with music buyers. The social scene was part of the trip.

Tower's two gigantic shops were initially filled with groovy records, and later in the 1980s the CDs started to eat away, aisle by aisle, at the vinyl paradises. It must have taken three or four years before CDs occupied most of the bins. Granted, vinyl's decline was mostly market driven, but remember CDs typically sold for double the price of LPs, so Tower, like most stores figured that even if the vinyl title was still available they'd rather you bought the CD. If the LP wasn't there you'd have to pony up the extra dough for the CD. During that time I'd get my vinyl from indie shops.

One rainy spring day walking through Central Park I was listening to a classical radio station when they played Aaron Copland's "Concerto for Clarinet, Strings, Harp and Piano." It so perfectly framed the misty day and green grass I had to buy the music. I exited Central Park, walked a few blocks over to Broadway and bought the CD. That was twenty years ago and I still have the CD to trigger those memories.

I also have to put in a word about Tower's staff. The rock guys were never especially good, but the jazz and classical staffs were tops. They knew the music and we'd get into great conversations about whatever was happening at the time. Some guys were there for decades, and made sure not just the big sellers were in the bins, but the really obscure music as well.

The first Tower Records store was opened by Russ Solomon in 1960 on Watt Avenue in Sacramento, California. Tower was gone for good in late 2006 and now when I find one of their bright yellow plastic bags I take a little trip down memory lane.

Were you a Tower customer or employee? Share your stories here.

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Jim's Reply:

From 1960 to '63, I lived two blocks from the Watt Avenue store. It became a regular hangout for me, not only then, but until they closed...and in stores all over the US and the world. I had occasion to be in Sacramento a few months ago, and drove by the old location. The sign was still there, along with another sign, "Thanks for the Memories." No. Tower, thank you.

Most of my many hundreds of CD's and vinyl were purchased at Tower, not only in Sacramento, but in Seattle, San Francisco, New York, and even London...to name a few. When I moved to the Pacific Northwest in '92, I moved to a small town about three hours from Seattle. My trips to the Emerald City always included visits to Tower to purchase CD's to take back to our little town. Never, before or since, have I ever had such a close relationship with a retailer like Tower Records or Tower Books. I miss them a great deal...and you are right...I never met such experts in music than the folks that worked at Tower, especially in the Jazz and Classical sections. The Tower on Watt Ave. actually had a separate, walled off section for Classical Music so classical buyers would not have to listen to rock music blaring in the main area. That's classy.

By the way, I think (but am not 100% sure) that the first store was not on Watt Ave, but rather on the other side of town on Broadway, right next to the Tower Theater, where the company acquired its name. Thanks so much for writing about the greatness that was Tower.

Picture of the Day - Flags

I was saving this photo for my 4th of July blog, but since I will be in Whitefish, MT doing an art show (and probably without Internet access), I have to post it up today. I photographed this image several years ago on the 4th of July in my current hometown, Ephrata WA.

On every Federal patriotic holiday, like Memorial Day, Veteran's Day and the 4th of July, the city decorates the city cemetery with many flags to honor the veterans of this town, past and present. On this particular 4th of July, the wind was blowing and I sat in the cemetery shooting an entire roll of film hoping to get a great photo of all the flags unfurled in their glory.

This was the best of the 36 shots. I have always liked it very much and a large print of it hangs in our home. A couple of years ago, I happened to have an 18x24 print on canvas hanging on the back wall of my tent at Leavenworth's Art in the Park. A passing gentlemen happened to see if from a distance and came running over to my display. He grabbed it off the wall and purchased it on the spot.

Its funny how some images just grab us and won't let go. For some people, including me, this picture falls into that category.

I hope you have a happy and safe 4th of July.