Photography

Treasures of the Wild West: LAPC

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If you’d like to see an impressive collection of treasures of the Wild West, be sure to visit the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. This world-class attraction is in Cody, Wyoming, an hour’s drive east of Yellowstone National Park.

Treasures of the Wild West in five museums

The Center contains five museums, including the Buffalo Bill Museum. There’s something for everyone at this museum.

Buffalo Bill Museum

During his lifetime, William F. Cody worked as a ranch hand, bison hunter, fur trapper, wagon train driver, Army scout, prospector, and Pony Express rider.

Cody is perhaps most well-known as a showman. He helped create a traveling show called Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. He took on the persona of Buffalo Bill.

Buffalo Bill Cody

Source: National Portrait Gallery. Smithsonian Institution.

Cody and his crew of performers put on outdoor western shows, highlighting (and romanticizing) the legacy of the West. The show began in 1883 and continued for 30 years.

Buffalo Bill's wardrobe

treasures of the wild west

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Mythical creatures of MOR: FOWC

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While visiting the Museum of the Rockies (MOR) in Bozeman, Montana, I was amazed to see mythical creatures filling one of their halls. Kudos to whomever had the great idea to create and display life-sized representations of creatures that have existed in our imaginations for years.

Large-scale mythical creatures

A colorful 17-foot long dragon guards one of the entrances. These are mythical creatures, but they resemble lizards, snakes, and dinosaurs.

mythical creatures

Near the other entrance, a unicorn points the way ahead. Modern tales of this creature depict it as white with a single long horn. However, older stories describe them with the body of a goat and a short, colored horn.

Unicorn sculpture

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Lamar Valley sky: Weekend Sky

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Bison grazing under the beautiful Lamar Valley sky in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

Lamar Valley sky

Weekend Sky

Born Again Babaylan: Monday Mural

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The Born Again Babaylan mural is one of many murals located in downtown Bend, Oregon. This mural was painted by Bekah Badilla in 2021. I previously featured one of her other works, Myth of Progress, also located in Bend. The Born Again Babaylan mural was created in collaboration with the High Desert Equality and Justice Mural Festival.

born again babaylan

Bekah describes this work in the following partial description. See her website for the full description.

Melting out of the glacial ice is the spirit of a Babaylan and her descendants. Babaylan refers to the naming for a matriarchal leader, spirit guide and warrior prevalent in pre-colonial Philippines. The Babaylan is embodied in the ice, changing, shifting and eternally offering knowledge and guidance not through elitism and brute force but through spirituality, mysticism and ancestral strength.

Bekah Badilla

Monday Mural

Clouds collect overhead : LAPC

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Clouds collect overhead, darkening and protecting the landscape

Prineville Reservoir

Cumulus curtains part and the earth awakens

Prineville geology

Colorful voices shout from sloping shorelines

clouds collect overhead

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Tasty treat at East Lake: Friday Foodies

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If you’re looking for a special dessert in Central Oregon, try this tasty treat at East Lake Resort. While staying at the nearby campground, I had a craving for something sweet.

After a little kayaking on the lake, we visited the Blue Duck Grill at the resort. For dessert, we ordered this Mixed Berry Cobbler. It was a generous-sized portion, with plenty to share!

tasty treat at East Lake

The crumbly cobbler was topped with a couple dabs of whip cream and plump, delicious berries in a sweet sauce. The scoop of ice cream costs $1 more, but it was worth it. If you’re looking for a tasty treat at East Lake, consider ordering this cobbler.

The menu also includes something called Terrible Pie that’s described as “so good it’s terrible.” I’ll have to try that on a future visit.

For dinner, I had the Habanero Bacon Jam Burger and it was very good. It somehow mysteriously vanished before I could take its picture. 😉

Foodie Friday

Pronghorn prancing: Wordless Wednesday

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pronghorn prancing

Pronghorn prancing in the Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Wordless Wednesday

West Thumb geysers: LAPC

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At West Thumb, magma boils below

West Thumb Geyser

Cooled by lake water’s ebb and flow

Fishing Cone

Alkaline frosting marks the shore

West Thumb Black Pool

Thermophiles collect, framing more

West Thumb Geyser Basin
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Rudbeckia up close: Macro Monday & FOTD

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I saw these Rudbeckia up close while walking along the Deschutes River trail in Bend, Oregon.

Rudbeckia up close

Macro Monday

Flower of the Day (FOTD)

Small and large scale: LAPC

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In photography, the way you show objects in small and large scale can have a big impact.

When I’ve seen grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park, most of the time they are hundreds of yards away. I took this small scale picture through my spotting scope of a sow with two cubs in the Lamar Valley.

small and large scale

To see a closer view of a grizzly bear, I visited the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, Montana. They are massive creatures.

Grizzly bear

Sometimes, bonsai masters sculpt smaller versions of objects of nature. This is a juniper tree bonsai, recently purchased at the Bend Summer Festival. It measures 4 inches in height.

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Yoli Korean restaurant 5-course meal: FF

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We’ve visited Yoli Korean restaurant in downtown Bend, Oregon before, but had never ordered the 5-course meal. We recently tried it and were not disappointed.

Yoli, the Korean word for cuisine, was created by Chef Joe Kim and his wife Laura and opened in 2022. I included a copy of the 5-course menu at the end of this post. You can see the lunch and dinner menus on their website. If you’re feeling adventuresome, give them 24 hours notice and order a Tasting Menu.

Raw Starter course

For the Raw Starter course, I had the Spicy King Salmon Hwe and my companion had the Yukhoe. The presentation is artful and the food delicious.

raw salmon starter

Yukhoe

The picture below shows the interior of the restaurant’s simple yet elegant design.

Yoli Korean restaurant

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Fruit and flowers: LAPC & MM

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I decided to take pictures of some of the fruit and flowers in our garden today before they fade away.

Delicate petals of nodding hollyhocks filtered the sun’s light

Hollyhocks

Snapdragons filled the landscape, exploding in shades of pink

fruit and flowers

Iceplants with purple punctuations slid towards the pond’s edge

iceplant

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Lan Su Chinese Garden: One Word Sunday

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Near the shores of the Willamette River in downtown Portland, you’ll find a small gem of a garden. Lan Su Chinese Garden is the result of a collaboration between Portland, Oregon, and Suzhou, in the Jiangsu province of China.

The Lan Su Chinese Garden mission is to “cultivate an oasis of tranquil beauty and harmony to inspire, and educate our global community in the appreciation of a richly authentic Chinese culture.”

Lan Su Chinese Garden

Kuang Zhen designed the 1.03-acre garden with the help of 65 artisans. The garden opened to the public in September 2000.

Over 400 species of plants can be found here. More than 100 plants grow near Lake Zither, a feature created for the garden.

garden in the rain

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Abstracts adrift at an aquarium: Sunday Stills

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When I looked at the pictures I’d taken at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, I thought several images were like abstracts adrift.

The northern sea otters rolled themselves up into buoyant balls.

abstracts adrift at aquarium

Moon jellies fell like brilliant blue windblown blossoms.

jellyfish

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Seeing pairs in art and nature: LAPC

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Seeing pairs of bronze bulls bash together in winter blizzards

seeing pairs
The Battle by Rip Caswell, High Desert Museum, Oregon

and a couple of cascades crashing down craggy cliffs

Shoshone Falls
Shoshone Falls, Idaho

Seeing two octopi slip and slide over seaside skyscrapers

Octopus mural
Octopus mural by Goonie Wolfe, Anthony Ortega, & TME Crew in Lincoln City, Oregon

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Gulf Shrimp Po Boy: Foodie Friday

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Last weekend, while attending the Bend Summer Festival, I had this Gulf shrimp po boy sandwich. This is a great event with booths featuring artists, musicians, businesses, and food.

Gulf shrimp po boy

My delicious sandwich was from the Southern Accents food cart, shown below. The cart was at the recent festival, but it’s usually at Silver Moon in downtown Bend.

Southern Accent food truck

This food cart features great options with a southern twist. Besides the Gulf shrimp po boy, you can also get things like fried chicken po boys, rice bowls, and fried pickles. Here’s their menu at Silver Moon.

Foodie Friday

Antlers & horns & skulls: Monochrome Monday

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This antlers & horns & skulls chandelier is at the Fishing Bridge Visitor Center and Trailside Museum in Yellowstone National Park. A metal circle is adorned with bighorn sheep and Rocky Mountain elk antlers & horns & skulls. It’s suspended by heavy metal chains.

antlers, horns & skulls

This museum is small and probably overlooked by many visitors to the park. I recommend stopping by to see its collection of historic bird specimens. If you want to see mounts of many of the park’s birds to help identify them in the field, this is a great resource.

Monochrome Monday

Lava Hot Springs: LAPC & FOWC

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The hot pools of the Lava Hot Spring tourist attraction are in the city of Lava Hot Springs in southeastern Idaho. Four blocks from the hot pools, you’ll find a water park and indoor and outdoor swimming pools, also heated by hot spring waters.

Swooping red sunshades over the hot pools offer visitors shelter from the sun.

Lava Hot Springs

The five outdoor pools in the Hot Pool site have water temperatures ranging from 102 to 112 degrees Fahrenheit. Lava Hot Springs uses over 2.5 million gallons of hot spring water per day to heat their pools.

pools

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A flying lens: Three Things Challenge

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I enjoy using cameras small enough to fit in a pocket. I recently got a new flying lens as a gift.

A pocket-sized flying lens

Here it is. What, can’t you see that it’s a camera?

drone

How about if I unfold it? Yeah, it’s a drone. I still have the lens protector on the front in this photo.

Here’s the controller. I like my new flying lens because it stops itself from crashing into things in 360 degrees of direction. It will also land from where it took off with the touch of a button.

drone controller

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Pair of puffins: Birds of the Week

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Here’s a picture I took of a pair of puffins at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. This photo shows them in breeding and nonbreeding plumage.

pair of puffins

This bird lives most of its life at sea, but they nest in burrows that can be more than 5 feet deep. A pair of puffins will feed their young tiny fish, which they line up crosswise in their bills. Sometimes they will carry as many as 20 fish at a time to their nests.

seabird

Birds of the Week

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A High Desert playa: LAPC & SSPC

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I awaken on the shores of a High Desert playa

Dust devils on the distant shoreline dance across the flats

a high desert playa

Dry soil at my feet cracks and crumbles

The funnel of a dust devil hovers over me and carries me a few miles away

a high desert playa

I drift over a lake of summer and a ridge of winter

Water meanders its way through marshlands of green

Summer Lake

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Bozeman wall art: 1-to-3 Photo Challenge

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I really liked this Bozeman wall art at the recently remodeled Bozeman Hot Springs. The facility was remodeled with a more modern style. I mention this site briefly in a recent post and will feature it in a more detailed post in the future.

I used Corel PaintShopPro 2021 for different photo processing effects. In the original image I slightly increased the contrast and fill light and cropped the edges. Use the slider to view each effect compared to the original.

This one shows the original photograph and the same picture with a Retro effect. For this image I went to Effects>Photo Effects>Retro Lab>Light cold. I liked how this effect makes the green color stand out. The blurring around the edges focuses your attention on the artwork.

Bozeman Wall ArtCold filter

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Hot springs of the West: LAPC & WPWC

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On our recent trip we stopped at several hot springs of the West. Each site was special in its own way.

Hot springs occur when geothermally heated groundwater emerges onto the earth’s surface. In areas like Yellowstone National Park, magma is present at shallow depths below the surface. Temperatures in Yellowstone’s hot springs may reach 198 degrees Fahrenheit. At the developed hot springs of the West we visited on this trip, pool temperatures are constantly monitored and modified with colder water.

Lava Hot Springs is located in the town of Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. In this picture, the scenic Portneuf Range mountains tower in the background. This post gives more details about the site.

hot springs of the west

Bozeman Hot Springs is in Bozeman, Montana. Remodeled in May 2024, this facility includes 12 indoor and outdoor pools. It’s gorgeous! The stage behind the outdoor pools will host future entertainers. Pieces of columnar basalt serve as seating and landscaping. Here is my description of this facility.

Bozeman springs

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High Desert Voices June 2024 newsletter

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Here’s the High Desert Voices June 2024 newsletter for your reading pleasure. Lots of nice photos as well! This newsletter is published by and for volunteers at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon, where I volunteer.

High Desert voices June 2024

Articles this month include one on accommodating visitors with disabilities, one on facts about local wildlife mothers, one on the High Desert Ranger Station, and one on a birding event at the Museum.

Please enjoy this month’s issue!

06-HDV-June-2024-1Download

Magical moment with wildlife: LAPC

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I had a major magical moment with wildlife while visiting Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden in Portland a few weeks ago. I took a little used side trail and paused briefly in the pouring down rain.

This Great Blue Heron walked right up to me before turning to stand near a pond. I could have reached out and touched the bird. WOW! I stopped snapping pictures when it was really close to me because I didn’t want to scare it.

Magical moment with wildlife

I’m working on a book where the main character is a girl born with the powers of several animals. One animal is a Great Blue Heron. Was this heron showing its appreciation of my efforts so far on that book?

Great Blue Heron

I had another magical moment with wildlife at Yellowstone National Park this week. We were at the end of the road at Slough Creek and saw a small critter weaving its way through the sagebrush. A badger!

Magical moment with wildlife

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Jenday conure up close: Macro Monday

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A Jenday conure up close at my house. I sometimes take care of my son’s conure when he goes on vacation. It has beautifully colored feathers and a very LOUD voice.

Jenday conure

Macro Monday

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Brown Pelicans drawing & photo: First Friday Art

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Here’s a pen and ink drawing I did of a Brown Pelican. Brown Pelicans are big seabirds with a unique appearance.

They capture fish by diving into the water and scooping them up in their stretchy throat pouches.

Brown pelican drawing

I saw several Brown Pelicans perched on posts at Seafarer’s Park in Warrenton, Oregon last summer.

brown pelicans

Seagulls and cormorants perched and flew nearby. This park is at the mouth of the Columbia River. It’s not far from Fort Stevens State Park, a popular destination for campers.

Do you have artwork you would like to share? Be sure to include the First Friday Art tag.

First Friday Art 

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Montpelier ranch under cloud-filled sky: Wordless Wednesday

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Montpelier ranch

Montpelier ranch under a cloud-filled sky in Idaho

Wordless Wednesday

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Brasada Ranch view: Pull Up a Seat

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Last weekend, we drove to Brasada Ranch resort in Powell Butte, Oregon for a BBQ and art show event. They have spectacular views of the Cascade volcanoes from their restaurant. These red chairs around a firepit were a nice accent in this scene.

Brasada Ranch

Here’s a closer view of some of the marvellous mountains.

This beautiful resort has received recognition from Condé  Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, Golfweek, USA Today, and other sources. Since we live close by, we did a staycation in one of their cabins a couple of years ago and it was great!

Pull Up a Seat

Seastacks before the storm: WWE

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Seastacks before the storm in Tillamook Bay, Oregon.

seastacks

This landmark is known locally as The Three Graces.

Water Water Everywhere (WWE)

Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden: LAPC & FOTD

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In early May, I visited the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden in Portland, Oregon.

Rhododendron

The 9.5-acre garden contains more that 2,500 types of rhododendrons, azaleas, and companion plants. This site was donated by the Jackson family in 1950.

Close up rhododendron

After paying admission, you’ll enter the garden over this beautiful bridge.

Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden

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Black-necked stilts parade tanka: LAPC & BOTW

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black-necked stilts parade

black-necked stilts parade
on pink legs, slender yet strong,
in search of magic
hidden beneath the marshlands
in iridescent ripples

stilts

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge (LAPC) – Delicate

Bird of the Week (BOTW) LXV

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Buena Vista ponds: WWE

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The Buena Vista ponds are a great place to spot birds at Malheur NWR in Oregon. In the middle of this picture, you can glimpse three Trumpeter Swans foraging for food.

Buena Vista ponds

In the distance, you can see Steens Mountain. This 50-mile long mountain rises majestically over the Sagebrush Sea in southeastern Oregon.

Water Water Everywhere (WWE)

Hope may be… : LAPC & WPWC

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Hope may be bright spots in the darkness

curving tunnel

Or at the end of a twisted and turning path

hope may be trail

Hope may be something we wish and pray for

otter praying

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Lan Su Chinese Garden seating: Pull up a Seat

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Lan Su Chinese Garden seating in Portland, Oregon on a rainy spring day.

Lan Su

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Pull Up a Seat