Daily Archives: September 16, 2024

Portrait Of The Artist

Photograph taken on Monday, September 16, 2024 by Henry
Henry Hartley (September, 2024)

Henry Hartley (September, 2024)

As mentioned in the previous post, we went to Tumalo State Park this evening and enjoyed the sunset as well as the large ponderosa pines. Brian took a few pictures with his phone and was messing around with its ‘portrait mode’. He took this portrait of me and I like it quite a bit. In addition to posting it here, I’ve also added it to my “Who Am I” page. I don’t generally like photos of myself but this one is good. As you can see, I’m standing in front of one of the larger ponderosa pines and leaning lightly on my camera with the long, telephoto lens, mounted on a monopod. Up until now, the photo on my Who Am I page has been from 2003, when my beard was still dark. It’s been quite a while since that was true, so I thought it would be a good idea to update the page with something more recent. My forehead has definitely gotten a bit higher but I still have hair on top of my head. In the last two years I’ve let it grow long for the first time since college and it’s not longer than I’ve ever worn it. I’m not sure how long I’ll let that go, but for now, it’s long and curly.

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Tumalo State Park Sunset

Photograph taken on Monday, September 16, 2024 by Henry
Tumalo State Park Sunset

Tumalo State Park Sunset

We had a fairly quiet and restful day today. Lisa’s car is still in the shop, although we’re expecting that it will be ready to be picked up either tomorrow evening or the following morning. After dinner we drove to Tumalo State Park on the Deschutes River north (downstream) from downtown Bend. There were some substantial ponderosa pines and I showed Brian, Lisa, and Cathy that if you smell in the large crevices in the bark it smells like vanilla. Shortly after that we saw a sign that told about the pines and it mentioned the vanilla smell. In addition to the sunset photos, I took some HDR sets of the river which turned out pretty well, although if I had done it sooner they would have had more sunset colors in the sky, which would have improved them.

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California Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma californica)

Photograph taken on Monday, September 16, 2024 by Henry
California Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma californica)

California Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma californica)

Because we didn’t have a vehicle most of the day (Lisa’s is in the shop and Brian had to go in the truck to Sisters for work), Cathy and I walked to a small park in the neighborhood. The most prominent plants in areas that are left to themselves seem to be gray rabbitbrush (Ericameria nauseosa) and sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) along with a few different grasses and some other smaller plants. As for trees, when you get into the hills you find ponderosa pines (Pinus ponderosa), lodgepole pines (Pinus contorta), grand fir (Abies grandis), western larch (Larix occidentalis), and mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) and western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla). In the flat lands east of the mountains, though, the only tree you see most often is the western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis). In the park, moving around in the junipers, were quite a few California scrub jays (Aphelocoma californica). These are a little smaller than the blue jays we have at home (Cyanocitta cristata). Although it’s not as obvious in this photo, they have quite a bit of a very lovely, pale blue on their head, back, and tail.

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