The St Johns Bridge connects the St Johns neighborhood and the NW industrial area. It spans the Willamette River and has a bit of a gothic look with the cathedral towers. I always thought this bridge was creepy and picture it with fog flowing under the span and a full fall moon in the background. Most photos of this bridge are very similar to my 3/4 angle, but I found an interesting view. There’s a single willow tree centered between two of the concrete supports directly under the bridge that offers an interesting perspective of the structure.

I flew into Kansas City last Wednesday and hung out with my Dad for a couple of days. We spent some time flying in his Cesena and hanging out at his hanger. It was fun, I talked with some nice people and managed to drive around the airport in a golf cart and take photos of just about anything. I would have loved to come back when the sun was setting, but I just didn’t have time. On Friday he flew me to Hutchinson. I took the controls a couple of times as he was checking our flight path. I resisted quoting some of my favorite Airplane quotes (”what’s our vector Victor?”) and managed to keeps us flying straight…. for 30 seconds.

This photo was just a fluke; these were the bottles of wine that I brought back for my Dad from Oregon. Anyway, they were sitting in his kitchen and I was just messing around. I actually like what turned out. Some day I will start lying and tell everyone I carefully compose these shots.

A majority of the rest of my trip was at the Kansas State Fair. I always loved the fair coming into town when I was little. I remember watching all of the rides arrive by truck during recess. My niece Olivia made the trip from Fort Collins, Colorado, so was fun to see her get excited. It was 64 degrees on Saturday and 100 degrees on Sunday, glad I packed my jacket.

This is one of my favorite pictures. She seems to be wondering what Dumbo has in store for her and Dumbo is wondering if he is going to get puked in again.

One of the attractions at the fair this year was an acrobatic dog show. How fun was this to shoot? These dogs were amazing, and the best part was all of them were adopted from the Humane Society. He was throwing the Frisbee right at me and the dogs were launching themselves right at me. I was having a hard time focusing on the dogs in the foreground and not the spectators in the background.
  

And finally… What is a trip back to Kansas without a photo of the sun setting? This is one of the best parts of Kansas. You get some amazing colors as the sunsets. Here in Oregon, the Cascade Mountain Range blocks most of the good colors during sunsets. Don’t get me wrong, most residents in Kansas would love to see a mountain range every day, so I’m not complaining. This was taken in Ellinwood, Ks after my Niece’s birthday party at Grandpa’s house. I have some dust on my image sensor. You can see it on the left side of the photo on the horizon line. Who would have thought, changing lenses every 10 min at the Kansas State Fair with 30 mph winds blowing dust. I guess it was inevitable.

We got our new puppy this weekend! Ash and I have wanted to be dog owners for years now. Year after year Portland has been selected as the most dog friendly town in the US and we haven’t taken advantage of it…. until now. She is a 12 week old Boston Terrier named after a character on one of our favorite shows. Scrubs. She sleeps a lot and plays hard.