March, 2007

My Grandfather Bell passed away last weekend, so this weekend my parents, my uncle Morris, my sister Carrie and I drove up to the funeral in my sister’s minivan. We had a good time.

The first day (Wednesday) we drove the long drive from Pocatello (where Susan dropped me off to meet my parents) to Quincy, Washington (where my grandparents lived). It was fairly uneventful, and actually pretty nice without noisy children. One highlight was our stop at Country Mercantile, a pretty cool store outside of Pasco, where we sampled pickled asparagus, sweet onion mustard, pickled garlic, and various jellies. Carrie and I bought several chocolate covered nuts, chocolate covered dried fruit, and chocolate truffles. It was so good that we stopped again on the way home. We stayed at a nice Best Western in Ephrata (15 miles from Quincy). Carrie and I shared a room and after we checked in and unpacked I had to laugh at the difference between Carrie’s toiletries and mine.

Carrie’s Toiletries

My Toiletries (I did buy deodorant after we arrived)

On Thursday Mom had to prepare for her funeral talk and meet with the other members of the family. So Carrie and my Dad took a trip to Grand Coulee Dam to photograph and sight see. The drive is really beautiful. I had no idea how unusual and lovely the landscape just outside of Quincy was. I didn’t find much of interest to photograph at Grand Coulee Dam (it was impressive though). We did find a couple of cool waterfalls, some caves, and a nice overlook of Dry Falls State Park along the way though. That evening we had dinner at a little pizza place in Ephrata. I had one of the best Calzones ever (Pesto Chicken). We liked it so much we went back the next night.

Lenore Caves, near Soap Lake, WA 2007

Dry Falls Overlook, near Electric City, WA 2007

Waterfall #1, near Grand Coulee, WA 2007

Waterfall #2, near Grand Coulee, WA 2007

Motel, near Grand Coulee, WA 2007

Friday was when the funeral was held. It was a nice ceremony. It was more of a celebration than anything. Everybody gave great talks, and Uncle Paul told a couple of memorable experiences that had us all laughing (I don’t know if I’ve ever heard hell used in that context from the pulpit before). After the funeral we went back to Grandpa’s house. The siblings had to sort a few things out, so the rest of us had a good time driving the old tractor, taking rides in Paul’s plane, and visiting.

Pallbearers Carrying the Casket

Grandpa’s Brand on his Casket

Grandpa and Grandma’s Tombstone

Burning Trash from Grandpa’s House after the Funeral

The small home where Grandma and Grandpa raised their 8 children.

Irrigation Ditch on Grandpa’s Farm

Saturday morning we came back and had another rather uneventful drive. For a better written description of the trip see my sister’s blog.

In my photo II class I give the students an assignment to make photographs at night. I usually try to coincide the assignment with the full moon, (the full moon was March 3 I believe). We held an optional field trip Friday night to photograph under the light of the moon. We met at the photography lab and drove to St. Anthony to photograph in the nice little park in town that sits along the shores of the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River. Three students and I braved the cold (and it was surprisingly cold) and had a good time. The students succumbed to the cold after an hour or so, I photographed a bit longer. At one point I was composing in the viewfinder and my lips touched the metal of the tripod and actually stuck. The fire department wasn’t called, I just lost a thin layer of lip skin, and persevered. I was pretty happy with a few images.

One thing that was interesting to watch, was how the light of the full moon gradually became more intense than the light from the twilight sky. When we arrived the sun had set and the moon had risen, but there was plenty of ambient light and the light from the full moon was not evident. By the time we left, there was no ambient light and the light of the moon was very evident. The following three photographs, taken from similar vantage points show the differences in intensity of the moon light. Notice the lack of shadows in the first photograph, the subtle shadows (created by moonlight) in the second photograph, and the fully formed shadows from the moon in the last image.

6:15 pm

6:52 pm

7:09 pm

Here are a couple other images from the evening.

Diversion Dam, Clyde Keefer Memorial Park, St. Anthony, ID 2007

Moonlight Reflecting on Water, Clyde Keefer Memorial Park, St. Anthony, ID 2007