We took a long leisurely drive from Madras to Lakeview, Oregon. Stops along the way inlcuded Smith Rocks, with an amazing number of people taking a leisurely climb up the vertical faces of the Smith Rocks. We had visited the Rocks many years ago but I don’t remember them being as crowded as they were yesterday. But, it was a weekend and the weather was crisp and clear.
From there we drove over to Paulina Lakes and the Big Obsidian Flow. Most of the resorts and campgrounds are closed for the season, but it does not diminish from the splendor of the area. The Big Obsidian Flow is a mountain sized pile of obsidian rock. There are designated trails to climb to the top and ones does stay on the trail because another name for obsidian is glass. It is hard and the edges are sharp. The view from the top is very nice. Brooks tried to photograph the obsidian many years ago in the age of film. Film could not capture the rock surfaces to fulfill his artistic intent. But today, with digital cameras and editing the results were truly spectacular.
We passed by Fort Rock and took some obligatory photographs of the old volcano cone and passed by Silver Lake in the “golden hour” of the afternoon.
We did discover than the golden hour varies widely by location because of the hills and mountains between the sun and the photographic subject. We noted the time and figured out how to make that part of our schedule while we stay in Lakeview for a few days.We got into Lakeview around dinner time and were fortunate enough to get one of the last rooms at our hotel. Evidently there is some government project going on in the area and the hotels in this very small town are full all week. We are ensconced in a two room ADA suite with a refrigerator and kitchen sink. The only bad news is that wi-fi and internet are really poor. I guess you have to expect that in a small, remote town, so I am posting using my iPhone as a hot spot. I haven’t figured out yet how I am going to post the photos to the blog, but that should take a little time to figure out. We have time to do it, too. This morning the outside temperature is 23F. This boy from North Carolina is really cold. It might be a while before we get outdoors.
Techno Geek update on how the pictures were posted to the blog. To avoid the super slow internet speed at the local hotel, I changed the settings on my Lumix G85 to create a small jpg to accompany the RAW file when I make a capture. I then uploaded the file from the camera to the chromebook and edited the photos with native chromebook technology. I was amazed that the chromebook read the RAW files and then converted them to jpg after I made the changes.
Adapt. Improvise. Overcome.
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