Volunteers serve up Christmas spirit

************ Lori Ball-Kiser receives a hug from Fire Chief Pat Hart at the Community Fellowship Dinner.

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Hundreds of volunteers and diners enjoyed a free meal and fellowship.

Dog days of winter

Initially Lucifer seemed unsure about the snow, however, in short time Jeter showed him how much fun it could be.

Hey, I'm gonna be as big as you someday.

Well, until then, I'm in charge.

That Old-fashioned Christmas feeling

After I entered several photos for a story about the Christmas Carriage Parade (East Oregonian Dec. 6, 2009 "Carriage festival creates old-fashioned fun) - I knew only a couple would run, so I decided to post a number of them on my blog. The first few are people's attempts to stay warm as well as the Pendleton Chamber Ambassadors, who serenaded people along the parade route — getting them into the holiday spirit.

The first year I covered it there was a beautiful dusting of snow and it was bone-chilling cold. Although there wasn't any snow this year, it was still cold. But somehow, the warmth of the season makes up for the dipping mercury.

I ain't afraid of no ghosts

I had a good time covering the story of some ghost hunters at the Pendleton Center for the Arts (Who ya gonna call - East Oregonian, Oct. 25, 2009 ). I don't really believe in the whole ghost thing, but I like the adrenaline rush of being scared -- and face it, any old creaky building is at least a little bit scary.

Doug Sanders, director of the team from the International Paranormal Reporting Group, gives direction to a couple of his team members before beginning the investigation.



I wish this photo had more dramatic spider webs on the wrought iron gate - that would have lent itself to being more eerie.

James Haight can be seen through hallway windows as he writes down data in the ceramic room during the investigation. I thought I was being pretty "outside the box artsy" with this photo, but the copy desk didn't choose it to go along with the story.

When Tasha Haight was taking photos of the outside windows she paused while looking at the LED screen -- focusing on the upper left pane of the photo.

Later Doug made the comment that the way the window was, someone would have to be at least 15 feet tall to look out the window. I didn't say anything (because as a journalist I feel like I observe and record events, but am not a part of them, per se - although if someone offers to let me eat at an event that has food, well, yes then I'll take part in that : )

Anyway, my thought was looking down at the basement window from the sidewalk you can see into the room and a person standing 10 or so feet away from the window (inside) you'd be able to see them through the pane. (I know this because of the pictures I took, I could see things on the shelf across the room). I'm not even a detective or ghost buster and I could figure that one out.

The kidz are alright

The canine kidz are getting along much more marvelously than when we first got Lucifer. Seeing Jeter bearing his teeth at the little guy when we first brought him home, I thought we were gonna have issues. (well, we do have issues, just not snarling and gnashing of teeth).

Lucifer taunts Jeter and then retreats under the safety of the chair -- he's no dummy.

Hey is the wind blowing in here? We have no shame and find it quite amusing that Lucifer's ears don't stand up straight yet.

He has speak down pretty well.

After having his teeth brushed, Lucifer is convinced without puppy breath daddy will want to kiss him.

Lights, camera ...

I borrowed a detachable flash and shot the Umatilla - Grant Union game. I entered the first two and the copy desk chose the one on the left to run. It was representative of the game. Grant Union, unfortunately was all over the Vikings.


 

  I'd like to shoot more sports so I can get better at it. I really like being in the middle of the action.

Adoption day

Becky at Geyer German Shepherds and the "U Litter."

Nannette and Fabian (Lucifer's canine parents)

To see the blogspot for my signature column, inside my shoes, click here: http://insidemyshoes-tm.blogspot.com/

It's a boy !!!

We got a photo of the soon-to-be newest member of our family

Shooting by moonlight

Although I'm not a sports reporter, last year I had a good time covering a football game.  Umatilla was in a playoff game in Coos Bay against Gold Beach and I offered to cover it. (It was a good excuse to surprise my mom for her birthday).

It was a fun experience, so I offered to take some photos of the Vikings season opener Friday night in Umatilla. Well, I found out rather quickly it was MUCH easier to take photos in the bright sun (the game I covered last year was in the afternoon) than moonlight.

Anyway, I got a few decent shots, (one ran in the East Oregonian on Sept. 5 and another is supposed to run in The Hermiston Herald on Sept. 9), but 

these two I just took for the heck of it because I thought they would be pretty cool.

Aracnophobia alert

Spiders are said to be small, inconspicuous and harmless to humans — like I wrote in a recent column, (East Oregonian , Sept. 3, 2009 Spiders: friend or foe?) whatever.

The webs formed a canopy — they were EVERYWHERE!!!

Up, down, all around.

Just looking at the photos makes me tense up.