Enterprise Road Trip

Last week I headed out to the Wallowa Mountains in northeastern Oregon for a four-day backpacking trip with my good friend Chuck. Photo-wise, I wasn't really feeling the mountain landscape "luv", but instead felt ready for an off-beat inspiration to guide me toward another new approach to image making. Looking back over the past summer I see that I'm often taken by an unusual viewpoint that I'm unable to anticipate. Hmmmm...  it looks like I'm drawn to new ways of seeing don't much care for perfecting a particular "vision". In other words, I'm easily bored.

That said, on the way to the trail head in the Thursday morning rain I got a little "trigger" happy (bored) watching the Grand Ronde Valley farmland float by. I started seeing nice compositions so I fired off few photos through the car window.  None the wiser to what might manifest from click-happy window snapping we continued on to the car park on the West Fork of the Wallowa River.

The backpacking trip was great fun, but photographically uneventful. I felt a little let-down that no new photo-insights had grabbed me on trip. I did shoot some star-light Milky Way photos, and some cool morning shadows, but nothing that really rocked me. Incidentally, I will show the back packing photos in my next post. You stone grippers can look forward to some high mountain lake side bouldering pics.

On our way home we stopped to gas up in the cool cowboy town of Enterprise and I snapped a hardware shop storefront. I wasn't quite satisfied with the 2-D portraity result so I fired off another frame as we pulled into the main road (both photos below).  Yee Haw!! The "from the window" viewpoint fired me up and I started I clicking away at whatever grabbed my attention resulting in an incredibly rewarding session.  From all the snaps I picked a set of images that tell the story of our drive through some unique parts of Oregon. I was particularly taken by the honest towns and their self-made commerce.

Here's the first "bored" photo I took from the passenger seat. I like the way all the objects in the frame create perspective by converging on the road.

This scene captures some distant farmland through the car window.

The Enterprise hardware store as seen from the gas station across the street. The gas station guy told us (me) to hurry up and leave so more people could buy gas.

Out the window at the same store. I love the immediacy of this image.

The lumber store as seen out the passenger window.

A machine shop. I think I could work here....

We rolled on into another town. I saw this ramshackle shop just as we slowed down on the way into the burg.

Fired this one off out the driver's side. I'm digging the 'camo' ATV thingy's on the left.

Wutta ya know?  We passed the Cycle Oregon herd. 2000 bicyclists is quite a sight.

Another bitchin' second hand store. Snowboard's or apple presses anyone?

The best 'old west' pawn shop ever.

This Cycle Oregon dude was perusing the used books in front of the Wallowa Public Library.  I'm sure this little library lady didn't know what to think about the brightly colored spandexy man. When I took this photo hundreds of cyclists were passing by on the other side of the road.

I like how the big trees frame the school house in the distance.

The liquor store in Elgin. Turns out my wife Holly's grandparents are from Elgin. On our way to the trail head four days back we saw a big FED EX truck delivering the goods here.  Gotta love the bars on the windows. I wonder what past incident(s) led to those?

Shiny Chevron in Elgin. Go TANGO! The building on the left is the City Hall/Playhouse.  "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" is playing.

Heading home on I-84 West.  Again- mister perspective.  It's been a couple of years since I've been up here and I was astounded by the number wind generators that have popped up.  That's the giant Columbia River on the right.