>One More from Skinner Butte

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>Eugene, Baby...Lensbaby, That Is!

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So, I bought a Lensbaby Original used off of Sportsshooter. On occassion, when I remember I actually own one, I whip it out and to see what stuff looks like photographed with one. Why not? Some photographers say it's gimmicky or cliche'. Of course it is! But, what the hell. I have one and I'm going to use it.

By the way, this is downtown Eugene, Oregon, as seen from Skinner Butte. The Butte in the photo is Spencer Butte.

>Downtown Stroll

>I shot this looking through two panes of glass that are perpendicular to each other at a corner building at Broadway and Olive downtown Eugene.

>Another Bride for a Day

>Here's another snap from the wedding fashion show.

>Cole and Greta Take a Hike

>The kids and I hiked from the top of Skinner Butte Park down to River Play Park and back up to the top through the woods. That's where I shot this.

>Terwilliger Hot (cold) Springs

>I went to Terwilliger Hot Springs this morning. I was thinking there would be a lot more steam given the ambient temperature. But, at least there was a goodly amount of snow still on the ground and a few brave souls willing to expose themselves to the elements.

>Brides for a Day

>I shot this wedding fashion show yesterday at the Lane County Fairgrounds. It was a pretty situation for making some nice images.

>Art School Tour

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I was strolling around the UO art school and took a few snaps.

>Eddie Adams Workshop Poster

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Photographer Howard Schatz made this poster of some the faculty and students at the Eddie Adams Workshop. I'm in there somewhere. I heard he's a famous photographer.

>Dude Walking a Dog

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That's all it is.

>Real Snow

>We had up to four inches of snow yesterday.

>Sportfolio Edit

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This is my final edit for my sports portfolio entry in POYi. While it has little or no chance of actually winning anything, it's the only mulitple photo category I will enter this year and therefore required a more thoughtful approach than the single photo categories. Pay special attention the relationships between photos and how they flow from one to the next. This edit came from several conversations with Bruce Ely and Sol Neelman who've done quite well in the Sports Portfolio category lately. In fact, I predict one or both of them will win again this year. Good luck fellas!

>3,000 U.S. Soldiers Dead of Which 77 are Oregonians

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This was my first asssignmen of 2007.

As of Jan. 1, 2007, 3,000 U.S. soldiers have died in combat.

77 Oregon Fatalities*

15 from the Oregon National Guard
1 from the Washington National Guard
1 from the Idaho Air National Guard
1 from the California National Guard
36 from the United States Army
3from the United States Army Reserve
15 from the United States Marine Corps
5 from the United States Navy

*The majority of these soldiers are from Oregon, based on their "Home of Record." The remaining soldiers have strong ties to Oregon. They may have gone to College or High School in Oregon, born in Oregon, or laid to rest in Oregon. Another soldier (Ogburn) is listed because he was a State of Oregon employee, his home of record is Idaho.

>Finch's House

>On Saturday I went to Rob Finch's party at his house in Portland, Ore. A couple dozen photographers showed their work from 2006. It's great opportunity to think about the upcoming contest season and get inspired for the coming year. The level of work at this gathering was through the roof.

>Cole on Spencer Butte

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This morning Cole and hiked to the top of Spencer Butte.

>My Mother's Christmas Present

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My mom mentioned that she saw a print she liked at a furniture store that was a photo of a saddle in a barn. It was framed and sold for $179. I wasn't sure I could find anything like that to shoot, but I swung into the Oregon Horse Center parking lot and saw a teenage girl grooming her horse. I told her what I wanted to do and she sprung into action and set out her saddle for me. I then had her go down to the end of the barn with her horse and open the door. I shot a dozen frames in RAW. I then put them in Aperture, tweaked them into a color monochrome. I opened the .psd in CS2 and incrementally increased the image size to 16x20 and put it on a 20x30 canvas size to get the white border. I saved it back into Aperture and uploaded the image to Apple's print service. I had the print in a less than a week.

My mom was very pleased with the results and will hang it on the wall in her new house that should be finished in few weeks.

>Santa Pub Crawl Audio Slideshow

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Here's my latest attempt at combining audio with still photos. I think it's my best effort so far. But, it's still just practice. I'm still learning how to do it efficiently and make it interesting. It's extremely challenging to capture good audio and shoot photos. I have a lot to learn. Click on the link above to see it on the registerguard.com website.

>Chess Club

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I shot these of Cole at a chess tournament that takes place at the Vet's Club in Eugene. It's a really cool space with nice light.
When I was shooting this it really struck me that my kids are smarter, faster, better looking, more social, and overall a much better version of a human than I ever was at the age. They are excelling at everything they do, despite their parents.

>New Audio

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I've been experimenting a bit more with audio. After my first few projects, I was profoundly aggravated with the process. I struggled with the software and the audio I captured was a mess. I guess I just had a major breakthrough with the technology. I bought a Shure SM-58 microphone that seriously cleaned up my audio. The stereo omni mic that came with Microtracker just picks up too much stuff. I'm now using Soundtrack Pro to edit and I feel much more comfortable with it.

These stories are very low-key daily kind of stuff. I mostly wanted to see how fast I could put one together. I shot until 5:30 p.m. on "Graves aglow" story. I had the pictures tweaked, captioned, and the audio edited by 7:30 p.m. These stories were more an exercise in workflow than serious story-telling. Even so, I'm fairly pleased with them and look forward to doing some more in-depth serious stories.

>Merry Christmas Card

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This is this year's family Christmas card photo. Since we only had one hat I did a little photoshop composite consisting of five layers. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Boyd family!