Stayton (Oregon) Daily Photo

Stayton High School

2008-07-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

This is the main entrance to the public high school on Locust St. I've never taken a picture of the front entrance that I can remember. It kinda figures it didn't occur to me to do it until now -- when school's out for the summer.

Fireworks On The 4th Of July

2008-07-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

(See more fireworks photos!)

As promised yesterday, today I'm posting the fireworks photos I took of the town fireworks display on the 4th of July. The display moved locations this year, from the high school to the middle school, which turned out to be a great place to view the fireworks. I was feet from where the fireworks were launched, and I'm pretty happy with how they came out.

The bumps at the bottom of the photo above are people's heads. There were a lot of said heads at the show, along with the rest of their bodies.

I also created a collage (click on the thumbnail at left to see it large) of several of the fireworks. It's part of the Flickr photoset I've created for the event.

Hugo over at My Left Nut has posted a great video of the fireworks, plus a video slideshow. He also posted a video slideshow of the town parade. Very cool stuff.

2008 4th Of July Parade

2008-07-05T00:40:00.000-07:00

(See more photos!)

I hope those in the United States had a great holiday yesterday. I celebrated by attending the town parade in the afternoon (see above) and fireworks show in the evening. I'll have photos of the fireworks tomorrow.

The theme for the parade was "Freedom Is Not Free." There were a lot of service members and veterans, plus a wide assortment of floats, animals, etc. I've created a Flickr photoset of the event, and I hope you'll stroll through to see some of the sights.

Happy Independence Day!

2008-07-04T00:00:00.001-07:00

For those of you in the United States, I hope you have a very happy and safe day, celebrating our country's birthday. To those of you in other parts of the world, I hope you also have a happy and safe day, doing whatever it is you're doing today. :)

I plan on attending the town parade today, and possibly the fireworks display tonight. The display will be held in a new location this year, so I'm not entirely sure where the best place to view it from will be. I may just watch the Portland fireworks stuff on TV and call it a night. :)

The Highest Point In Town

2008-07-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

This is Stayton's water tower. I've posted a couple of photos of it before. And now I'm doing it again. Gosh, friends, this is such exciting stuff. Or not.

Have I mentioned recently how very much I appreciate user submissions (see the guest photographers section for previous submissions), and would love it if you have a Stayton area photo you'd like to share? And that you can find the submission info under the heading 'To Contribute'? And that I would be forever thankful if you did submit something and you'd get full credit and retain your copyright of the image?

Scatterbrained

2008-07-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, friends, it is time once again for a flower macro. The above is a St. John's Wort flower. Or a Hypericum Calycinum, if you want to be technical. It has a variety of names, actually, but I won't bore you with all of them.

You should be impressed I know this, because I usually don't. I didn't even have to go searching for the name. Nope. Not this year, at least. I did look it up last year when I first found them, but that was so 2007.

DP Theme Day: "No . . ." Signs

2008-07-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

Sunrise

2008-06-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

Early yesterday morning, I did this thing which I really try to avoid -- I got up and left the house before sunrise. It was... interesting. In Stayton, there is almost no traffic at that time of day, so it was definitely peaceful. But, still... way too early.

But I did get to see the sunrise, which was nice. For those wondering, the photos above and at right are intentionally under-exposed to bring out the orange colors only partially visible when viewed in person.

Wild Life

2008-06-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

So, there was a field. And it had dandelions in it. So I took a picture. And now I'm posting it here. Yay.

Pump Station

2008-06-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

This is the Public Works reservoir and pump building. It, I assume, has something to do with water.

That's what my readers (hi, Mom!) have come to expect from this blog -- in depth, detailed information.

It was a fairly boring photo of pretty routine buildings, so I processed it to make it more interesting. The picture at right is another view of the building from across a field. I didn't do the processing this with this photo -- I figured the sky and field made up for it.

The Back Forty

2008-06-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

This is the edge of a grassy field at the end of E. Pine St. It's right next to the town's reservoir and pump station, a large round building I may post a picture of tomorrow. That would depend on whether the pictures I took of it are of the non-sucky variety. I'm still undecided.

Santiam

2008-06-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

I adore this neon sign on the Santiam Depot / Rumours Lounge Restaurant on 3rd Ave. It has that cool retro feel.

Norpac Cannery

2008-06-25T04:23:00.000-07:00

I was out the other night with the ol' tripod, and decided to take a picture of the cannery from the far side of the parking lot across the street from the fairly large (or long, at least) buildings which make up the cannery.

If I'd been using my brain, I would have done a long exposure to capture more of the smoke coming out of the building. But, see, I try to avoid using my brain... don't want it to wear out before I'm through with it, you know. ;)

The Bird & Hat Inn

2008-06-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

As promised yesterday, today I'm posting some photos I took at the Bird & Hat Inn, a beautiful bed & breakfast on 3rd Ave.

The Inn was part of the garden tour I attended on Sunday, so I took the opportunity to take some photos of both the inside and the outside of the house. The photos on the left in the mosaic above were taken inside. Since the house was built in 1907 and still retains the historic feel of that era, I thought digitally aging the photos to be appropriate. And I just felt like it. ;)

The photo on the right, of course, is the Bird & Hat Inn itself. I also posted a photo of the place last year.

You can see bigger versions of the photos above and a lot of flowers and various other things on my Flickr photoset of the garden tour, plus I've keyworded some of the photos I know were taken at the Inn. Several more were, but I'm having trouble remembering which flowers were taken where.

I didn't get to all the homes on the tour this year, unfortunately... maybe next year.

Thanks to all the folks who put on the tour who provided information and were so nice in general. If you're in the Stayton area, or just feel like supporting a good cause, check out the site for the Brown House, the restoration for which the tour was raising funds.

Scenes From A Garden Tour

2008-06-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I attended part of the 8th annual garden tour held by the Santiam Heritage Foundation as a fund raising event for the Charles And Martha Brown House (see my post about the Brown House open house held last month).

As usual, I ended up focusing on the small things instead of the overall views of each garden I visited. It's not my fault there were so many pretty flowers. My macro lens wouldn't let me do anything else.

I've created a Flickr photoset with part of the photos I took. I'll be adding more later today.

Tomorrow's post will focus on some of the sights at one of the gardens at the Bird & Hat Inn on 3rd Ave... more flowers, photos from inside the historic house, and more.

After The Sun Goes Down

2008-06-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

I took the above just after I took yesterday's photo, about an hour after sunset. Both photos used 30 second exposures to get the various colors still visible in the sky, since full dark hadn't yet set in.

How The Other Half Live

2008-06-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

There's a new neighborhood just off of 10th Ave. which has some gorgeous homes. I'd hadn't been through it before a couple of nights ago, so I decided to skulk about a bit with my camera and tripod.

Of the homes I saw, the one above completely captured my attention. I liked the Stayton water tower on the right in the background, too.

More From The Cruise-In

2008-06-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I posted a couple of photos from the Stro's Wednesday Nite Cruise-In which took place a couple of nights ago at the local A&W restaurant. Since there were so many pretty cars, I thought I'd post another photo or two for today's post.

I've also uploaded several more photos to my Flickr photoset of the event, so please give that a glance if you're interested in pretty cars, or parts of pretty cars.

Another Wednesday Night At The Cruise-In

2008-06-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

I attended the Stro's Wednesday Nite Cruise-In again last night at the A&W restaurant on Washington St. The cruise-ins are held twice a month during the summer to raise money for the Brent Strohmeyer Memorial Foundation, which gives money for college scholarships.

I've posted part of the photos I took of the cars to a Flickr photoset, and will post more today or tomorrow.

Branching Out

2008-06-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

These lovely little flowers were on a bush I passed by a couple of days ago. They may or may not be some sort of small roses. I really couldn't tell you (as usual). I just think they're pretty.

Santiam Park

2008-06-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

Santiam Park is a public park on the north end of 3rd Ave. It was built a couple of years ago as part of a new housing development area.

It's a nice park, in an open area surrounded by houses and a retirement center.

Come Undone

2008-06-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

I took a stroll along the edge of the Community Center parking lot the other day in order to photograph the beautiful roses planted there. It's a strip of rose heaven.

To see more of the roses, please click on the thumbnails below. At least, I think the white one is a rose, but I could be wrong. It happens. A lot. There were yellow roses there, too, but somehow I failed to get any shots of them. I'm not sure why.

The Castle

2008-06-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

This home on East Water St. has always reminded me of a castle. The architecture is unlike anything else you'll find in Stayton, and it has an exotic feeling to me.

I've photographed the bridge leading up to the home in the past (a water canal runs right in front of the home)... Bridge Reflection, and a reshoot of that: It's All Water Under The Bridge.

I know nothing of the history of the home, so if anyone out there can provide some details, it would be greatly appreciated.

Reflecting On Nature

2008-06-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite little bridge on 4th Ave., which spans a small canal. For whatever reason, I thought of painter Bob Ross when I saw the tree and the reflection, and wondered if he would have thought it was a happy tree.

Bee Good

2008-06-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

This little fella was hanging out on my purse yesterday. He didn't seem to mind me sticking my camera and macro lens right up next to his body, either. When I was through taking photos, he flew away. He didn't even demand a model fee.

I'm assuming this is a bee and not a hoverfly. I wouldn't know what type of bee it is, either. As usual, I'm a veritable font of non-information.