Leon Turnbull Photography

On Halloween night my kids went out to gather their loot with a couple friends. My wife went out with them, while I stayed on the home front to hand out tricks or treats to anyone who happened to come by (and eat whatever was left over). I also watched what was probably the craziest hockey game I have ever seen in the 35 years I have been watching hockey. My team, the Vancouver Canucks, were playing the Anaheim Ducks. It was probably too crazy to explain on this blog, you just had to see it to believe it. Goals were being scored back and forth between the 2 teams and all over the place until they got to the exciting shootout at the end of the game, in which neither team could score. The Canucks ended up winning the game 7-6 in the wild and wooly affair. It was definitely appropriate I think that the game was played on Halloween night.

Anyway, this shot of Wahclella Falls in the Columbia River Gorge is a bit different. It is a panorama of the waterfall consisting of four horizontal images stitched together to make a big vertical image about 33 megapixels in resolution, which would provide incredible detail in a large print. Not too shabby, eh.

My daughter is so cute. This evening we were watching her favourite, Strawberry Shortcake. After the video was over, she says to me, “Dada. How about we go to the store, so I can get candy. And you can get chips! Okay?” How can I resist such cuteness? We walked down to the store, and she was chatting the entire time there and back about this and that. She is so funny. And to top it off, when my wife came home tonight, she told me that Nekoda managed to snaggle some candy from her earlier that day as well! What a little sneaker!
Anyway, I returned to this location along the South Fork American River a few days ago thinking there would be more colors on the hillside. There was. It was pretty much the same location I was at before, but I had more troubles getting a photo this time around. The sun was right in my face and it was reflecting off the river as well. A double whammy. I had to wait until the sun had gone down more but before the trees on the hillside were in shadow. I had just time for one photo. When I got home, my wife asked me how it went. I replied, “Good, but I only took one photo.” “What? You drove all the way up to Ice House and only took one photo?” Yep. Well, it wasn’t by design. I would have certainly liked to take more shots, but I just didn’t have enough time. At least gas is a bit cheaper these days. This is a 25 megapixel stitched image.

I found this spot along the Truckee River in a campground along Hwy 89. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be in there because this part of the campground was all closed off. I walked in there anyway, and I was surprised to see some official type looking guy parked down by the river, his vehicle engine still running. He was just standing down by the river staring at it. He did not see me. I walked on by him further downstream, but didn’t see anything that I wanted to photograph. As I was returning, I saw him driving back to wherever he came from. He still did not see me. I walked back to the spot where he had been standing by the river. Aha. It was a very pretty little spot, so I took a couple photos.

I also have some good news to share regarding my job situation. At least, I think it is good news. I mentioned awhile back that my company was outsourcing its entire I.T. division, and I would be losing my job. That process took quite awhile but is now finally happening. A lot of people in the company and on my team will be losing their jobs. It is a very difficult situation. But however, I am one of the few that was offered a job with the new outsourcing company, doing pretty much the same job that I have been doing (but for a different employer). The pay is also significantly more than what I had been receiving. But on the downside, I will be getting quite a lot less vacation days. I think I would much prefer to have the vacation days than the pay. I don’t think I will be able to take any extended waterfall trips at all next year. That’s a bummer, but at least I will be employed for the for-seeable future. God is good.

I had some time to spare after Donner Lake sunrise, so I toodled into the town of Truckee in search of more Fall color. I really had no idea where in Truckee would be a good spot to search for color. But I had in mind to find something along the Truckee River. So I went south from Truckee along Hwy 89 towards Tahoe. The highway follows the river along there, and I found a few decent locations. The Aspen colors were in peak force along here, with bright orange and yellow showing (no pink, sorry Rob). I found this nice little spot along the river, and shot a long exposure of the water with the Aspens in the background.

“Oh look, dear. Aspens. Let’s stop, shall we? ” Thus went the conversation I had with my camera as I drove back down the hill from my sunrise shoot of Donner Lake. I know, I am strange. But hey, what can I say. There was a lovely little grove of Aspens right beside the road, and they were showing off their bright Fall colors. I was actually hoping to find something like this in the area, but I wasn’t sure I would be able to find it. I wanted to get a shot of Aspens with Donner Lake in the background. And here it was. Perfect.

But it wasn’t a cake walk to get this shot even though the Aspens were right beside the road. That was part of the problem. I didn’t want to get any part of the “road” in my composition. There were two different roads that I found to be in the way. There was also a large construction vehicle. My only good choice was to take a vertical composition and zoom in to isolate out those unwanted elements. I think the shot works pretty well. The other problem was that I had to scramble from the road up through the brush and the Aspen trees in order to get above them, to shoot back down towards the lake. It wasn’t a cake walk. But I did it.