Ellensburg Flood slideshow

Ive got some extra time today, no class and a day off, a rare combination. heres a slideshow of the flooding we had a couple weeks ago in Ellensburg.

A bit of a delay

So yeah Sorry I haven't posted in a couple days, I was going to put one up on Thursday, but I had to restore the computer, mine apparently didn't like service pack 3. I'm not totally sure that was it But I suspect it was. So lets see here, Thursday I had class and then shot CWU's budget meeting, here is what we ran online. I will post a pdf of the front page when I get it, It looked better in the paper. The meeting went over the budget cuts that have been asked by the gov. Gregoire and the possibility of more to come by the legislator. The state is in the hole money wise so sate ran universities are directly affected. Following the meeting I grabbed some lunch and then headed to take a photo of a local doctor who is attending Obama's inauguration in D.C. on Tuesday. I had to wait about an hour for him from or scheduled time to meet. But he was nice and I was in no hurry since I still had CWU mens basketball to shoot later that night.

After the dr. photo I headed to the basketball game and got some fairly good shots, again don't have them here sorry. On a positive note CWU beat SPU which was cool. The men's team is pretty good this year, they are predicted to win the GNAC, which I hope they do. I then went and dropped in the photos, it made for a long day.

Friday went pretty quick, I took a photo of a high school kid who is also going to the inauguration, he got invited because he was involved in a previous conference in D.C. before. Pretty cool thing for him to do especially only being 17 and getting to witness the event. After that it was off to class, where we watched hero, It was an interesting movie, kinda slow for my taste. Its amazing how in films like it gravity does not exist. We were watching the movie to see how it dealt with and used color. Which it does well. Ive got a paper to write on it so I'm not gonna go any further about the movie.

Following class It was off the Cle Elum to shoot high school basketball, The girls photo I used is here. Both the boys and girls teams lost to Granger. After that it was back to the office to drop in the photos. Following work I went out with some friends the rest of the night.

Saturday came and it was wrestling which was to be shot for the day, Ellensburg had its annual Westberg invitational which has 6 mats going constantly for the first couple round then two four and two mats until the finals when its down to one mat. Its kind of like a mini state tourney, that's what it reminds me of. Then it was off to another CWU mens basketball game, They won again over Northwest Nazarene. This time they were behind and came back which was good to watch.
I had a couple drinks with some Friends that evening and got some news which I knew was coming, what can you do though.

Sunday which ended about a half hour ago, I watched some football and looked for jobs online and helped a coworker edit some video. Nothing to exciting. That's about it from here.

Feeding Elk with beautiful light

The title of this blog is pretty self explanatory. Early this morning I got the pleasure of going out to Joe Watt Canyon to take some images of wildlife personal feeding a herd of Elk, It was small since the snow is melting, so only 400 or so elk were there. I'm not a morning person, I value sleep alot, but these photos made getting up early worth while.




The natural light was beautiful, Its normally not recommended to shoot into the sun, but it worked out OK here, I think. The drop hey off the back of a truck and the elk follow behind eating. And yeas I know the lens was dirty, did get a chance to clean it prior to using it this morning. Here is another shot from this morning.

These two bull almost challenged each other, but no such luck, That would have made a good image. This images shows one running from another after they stood an looked at each other for a while. Not that they have bad odds I think I maybe saw a total of ten Bulls to the rest being female. 40-1 odds, not too shabby. Alright that wasn't so funny, but I tried.

After they were done feeding I headed back to the office and took a couple photos of a man golfing, It struck me as odd since it was in the mid thirties this morning and he was golfing nevertheless. I guess if you want to play you take every opportunity you get. The rest of the day consisted of making the Internet work at work and getting my entries finalized for our company photo contest. Pioneer newspapers which owns the Daily Record owns 12 papers total. The contest is our annual one, and it was cut to four categories this year down from 10 last year. So the competition is gonna be tight. So I'm hoping for the best, since there are some great photographers at the other papers. So time will tell on How I do. After dropping the contest entries and the elk photos I headed home. Tonight is the only night this week without a night assignment so that was/is nice. Well That's about it. Here is a map to Joe Watt Canyon.

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A relaxing weekend and Roslyn City Council

So this weekend was pretty relaxing Which was much needed, I did basically nothing on Sunday and it was wonderful other then watch some playoff games. Which I might Add the Eagles won theirs. Th giants offense looked awful against the birds. Even after the Superbowl last year I'm sure some giants fans will call for Eli's head because of his performance in the game. Especially since they had the bye being the number one seed in the NFC and all. Ok I take back the doing absolutely nothing on Sunday I also went into work for a bit to drop some photos in and then went grocery shopping. Oh and I also worked on Old man mikes myspace profile. Its pretty hilarious, hopefully he finds it as funny as me and Casey do. Well that about sums up Sunday.

Monday I went to Jerrolls and bought an advertising text book for my advertising class, its called "Hey Wipple: Squeeze this" its about making ads from concepts and whatnot. The first couple chapters have been pretty good. I might post some ads that I make for the class. So I headed to Starbucks on Monday after buying the book, and Sammy happens to be there so we start talking and Tyler showed up, he doesn't live in the burg anymore but was here to console a friend. I lost a bet with Sammy over where Tyler stayed, so I owe him coffee. After talking for a bit Sammy and I headed off to our class for the day. We ended up playing madden at his house for a while after class, it was good to hang out with them. Then it was off to the roadhouse for Dusty's bday dinner which fer invited me to. Beer and a burger later and my Sunday, really Monday was complete. Not a bad weekend.

Today was kinda busy as I went into work then had class for 3 hours then back to work to get some flooding damage art and then it was off to Roslyn for the city council meeting up there. It makes Ellensburg's meetings look good. The room is small and there are not many angles to get in it for photos, plus it has a old stove on one side which sticks out several feet, its cool looking but its positioning doest help the photo cause. One the good side of things though it was over in under 30 minutes. Super exciting night life I lead.

This coming weekend will be somewhat busy, With brewfest and the Westberg invite at Ellensburg High School, They are both on Saturday One starts earlier so that's nice. Then CWU bball Saturday night. I think Tomorrow night is the only night this week I don't have a night assignment. Tomorrow I have to bee at Joe Watt Canyon at 8:30 so in like 8.5 hours from now to get photos of the Elk being fed. Should be interesting, Ill post some of the photos from it tomorrow evening. So yeah that's pretty much it for now. Oh and now some shameless self promotion, I need some more readers people, let people know about this blog. Thanks

A super exciting Saturday evening

That's how lively I am tonight, its a Saturday evening and what am I doing, writing this. Fun times, its cool though Sometimes its nice to have me time, I hear women say that all the time and its sounds funny, but I understand where they are coming from when they say that, its nice to have. Today was fairly low key, I slept in for once in a long while, which was awesome, I needed it. I shot some CWU women's hoops earlier tonight which was good, I was having an "on" day shooting which is good. I found this out a while ago by shooting photos everyday, photography is like anything else , you have your on and off days, today was an on day, which was good.

Here's one or two to look at. Ive started adding water marks to them sorry if they are distracting

CWU lost to Northwest Nazarene by 15 or so points. But they had a good effort.

On a personal not I applied for graduation Friday which I'm uber excited about. I'm really glad I went back, Ill give that person credit for pushing me into it. Probably why they were brought into my life, to get me back in school. Its kind of funny The charge you a fee to apply to graduate, to look at the same report you can run online for free. I guess the school needs as much money as they can get with the budget cuts being imposed. At least they are not dropping football like Western Washington University, that was a shocker. So not really sure what life will bring past June, as my lease is up then, I might sign another one or who knows. I just need to have an source of income, and if its not here then somewhere. Anyone got any ideas?

So what else, Oh I heard a great quote in a movie on TV today, it was from "Mooseport" It went something along the lines of this as gene Hackman and Ray Romano were talking, Hackman to Romano: "do you thing I got to be president by laying up." If refered to taking risks in a golf game earlier in the movie, but it stuck with me some 10 hours later. Its something I don't do often due to the fear of failure, which I don't like. But I think its one of those things that I will have to do, start taking some risks, within reason obviously, but what will change if I don't take them. I don't want to look back at my life in so many years and wonder what if I did this or that. I'm comfortable where I am now, and I'm not so sure that is a good thing. Its good in the sense that I'm comfortable with who I am, just not with what I have done, I guess. I'm capable of so much more. I guess when it comes down to it I think I would have accomplished more then I have at this age. Yes I have a job doing what I love, and I'm almost done with school. But honestly what do I have to show for it. Sorry for the rant, The quote stuck with me.

Seattle PI

This was announced today, not good for those of us looking for a job in the near future in journalism



I'm off to shoot some Ellensburg High School basketball, girls first then boys, Ill post some tommorow. Oh and check this out, a flooding photo I shot also made the Satesman journal in Oregon.

Falling down a hill and missing class

That's right today I fell partially down a hill, a muddy one at that with two cameras around my shoulder. For the hoards of people reading this everyday, they know its been wet around here, if you haven't been reading then see the previous blog on flooding. That being said I as headed down the hill on my feet to take some photos for a story on Central Washington University grad students working with local kids to teach them about water shed stuff.



Part way down the hill, my speed increased, not on purpose and the slip ans sliding began. after falling on my rear in mud, I got up and somehow managed to keep the cameras from the mud. They are the important things, I can be fixed, that's what Ive always been told. After getting my photos I tried to get back up the hill, and found out something I should have known. This is a very tough math equation so stay with me here people.



Mud+ steep Hill slope + sketchers brown shoes =

mud on clothes and entertainment for those watching you



I eventually got up the hill with the aid of a stick for balance, my shoes were waited down with mud by the time I got to the top. I pretty sure I was being laughed at by middle schoolers, brings me back to middle school. So being muddy and going to class wasn't going to happen for the sake of others in the class so I went home and changed then headed to the other class.



Following class I went back to work and worked on website stuff, here and here and here for the rest of the day. Were still dealing with road closures and flood stuff so the updating was pretty frequent. Then its was off to see the national championship and keeping with my tradition I rooted for Oklahoma and they lost. Every team Ive hoped would win in games that I have watched this post season has lost.



Penn State Lost

Atlanta Falcons Lost

Indianapolis Colts Lost

Oklahoma Lost



I'm 0-fer people, well at least I didn't have any money on them. That's alright the Thunder are loosing (they are 5 and 31 as of today) and that makes it all better, take that Clay. (for those of you who don't know the thunder used to be the Seattle SuperSonics, until Bennett bought them and moved them to Oklahoma City.) Anyways now that I'm off that tangent thanks for bearing with me on it, Ive got an email to write for reasons I'm not going to discuss here, other then to say I should have won an Oscar for my performance related to the incident that the email is about. Oh One other thing Some of the flood photos got picked up by a paper in bremerton, I haven't seen them but was told about them from tow friends, so that's cool.