The Bacher Family's photostream  

This Christmas, we attended a party at the home of a friend. I took this picture of her father as he watched the festivities. I've always been fascinated by the faces of those old enough to have their lives written on their skin -- not just in the deepening lines, but in the carriage of their brow, the balance of their body, the light behind their eyes. I chose to emphasize those things in this portrait by boosting the contrast in the conversion to black and white, which added drama to what otherwise was fairly uninteresting lighting in the color version. There's a darkness to the image, now, that surrounds the seamed face and unruly hair, and the direct gaze into the lens of the camera adds to the sense of glimpsing something intensely personal in an unguarded moment. What that something might be is up to the viewer to interpret.

This image is featured on my photo blog, thelightisall.blogspot.com, on January 30, 3012. (IMG_7503_bw)

This is one of my favorite photos of all time. I took this picture in Oceanside, Oregon during a vacation over Spring Break, as David and Daniel waded in the water at sunset.

This picture was accepted into the Washington State Photographers Exhibition at the Western Washington State Fair in September 2007, in the "children' category. It was submitted to Popular Photography's September 2010 photo contest, in the theme of "landscapes captured by compact cameras." Gr8! Photo Contest 2011 #5: Sunrise/Sunset. Featured on my photo blog, thelightisall.blogspot.com, on January 28, 2012. (IMG_2008)

Sometimes a photo is all about texture and geometry. I took this picture at Fort Stevens State Park, and was attracted by the interesting patterns of rust and paint. The fun part was composing the picture in a way that the balance and composition was interesting; in the end, I chose to include just a hint of the chain in the lower right corner to balance the dominant geometry in the upper left.

You'll notice that I haven't said what it's a picture of. Is that important, or is i just as good -- or better -- as a piece of abstract art? Hopefully it is that, first.

But if you really want to know, it's one of the large iron doors to one of the bunkers next to the big batteries that defended the Columbia River. I'm not sure what mechanism is hidden inside the iron cross. But that's not important, is it?

This image is featured on my photo blog, thelightisall.blogspot.com, on January 27, 2012. (IMG_7195_edited_1)
The bunker door at one of the batteries in Fort Stevens State Park

I just downloaded the photos from my cell phone, taken over the last few months, and I'm seriously impressed by the quality of a few of the images captured by my iPhone 4s. If the lighting is poor, the quality's not so good, but in decent light the images aren't half bad, given that you're working with a quarter-inch lense on a camera body only about 3/8 of an inch thick. The color reproduction is good, and the detail is decent if you don't zoom in too close.

Of course, the most important thing in any picture is composition, not camera quality; and it's nice to have the option of snapping an artistic image even when you don't happen to have the heavier camera on your shoulder. I spotted this view looking back at the trail in the Ashford County Park last November as I was checking on one of my geocaches. I loved the random pattern and colors of the autumn leaves turning brown on the pavement, and the way the lines of the trail and fence curved away gently into the distance, contrasting with the strong verticals of the trees.

Here's a link to some of my other favorites from last year's set of cell phone pictures.

This image is featured on my photo blog, thelightisall.blogspot.com, on January 24, 2012. (iPhone_1146_1)

On January 19, after several days of storms, our snow changed to freezing rain, encasing every branch, bud, and blade of grass in a thick layer of ice. It was a dangerous cocktail, leading to broken limbs, trunks, and power lines across the region and plunging hundreds of thousands into darkness for days at a time. But it was also beautiful in a surreal way. I went out in the evening, just as the sun was setting behind the clouds, to capture some of the delicate ice sculptures on fingers of vine maple and rhododendron. This is one of my favorite images, with the frail branch reaching skyward, glistening in its crystal sheath.

This image is featured on my photo blog, thelightisall.blogspot.com, on January 23, 2011. (IMG_9210_1)