Westmoreland Asays

Many of the cool web sites publish year-end top-whatever lists: best movies, best albums (do they still make those?), and so on. I want to play with the cool kids, too, so here is my contribution: my 10 favorite photos of the year. Not just any photos: ones that I have taken, because those are the ones that people like you care about the most. What are the rules of this top-10 list, you say? Good question: The photographer must have used one of my cameras The image must be from calendar year 2011 (sorry BucketHead ; you are still my favorite all-time) That's about it. Admit it: most of you are too chicken to leave comments here, but you know you want to participate in this awesome new tradition. Vote for your favorite. A fairy dies every time someone reads an entry and fails to comment, so please think of the fairies as you peruse the Internets this holiday season. 1. Dodgeball Zen Sellwood Middle School hosted a family dodgeball night in February to raise money for...

Barren fog  Traditions feel like a natural extension of my personality, as I'm someone who thrives in and enjoys the efficiency of the known. This doesn't hold for everything--Meg and I enjoy trying new restaurants and visiting new places for vacation, and rarely do we re-watch a movie (don't ask we have such a large library of DVDs and VHS tapes). I've been shooting race photographs of the Cable Bridge Run in Tri-Cities, Washington since 2008 , the only other race I've shot continuously except Hood-to-Coast. It's a quick, fun trip; the weather is always unpredictable; I get paid; and it acts like the gateway to Christmas. Brian arrived at my house around 6:45 p.m. Friday. He usually brings his father-in-law to help, but Brian opted to hire his brother-in-law, Brent, instead--also a '93 graduate of McNary, and someone I probably haven't seen since graduation--and we had to drive all the way to Boardman to pick him up. Before this, however, we had...

 Rarely do I think to myself, "I have all three boys and no wife around; let's go on a a day trip somewhere!" Riding our bikes to the park or around the neighborhood is one thing, but I hate herding the boys into the van, driving midst their constant back-and-forth insults and jabs against each other, and then trying to keep them in line so we don't get kicked out of whatever place we have chosen to visit. Whether it was inspiration, a softening of my heart for the season, or I inhaled too much moon dust morning , I decided to take the boys to the Alpenrose Dairy in nearby Southwest Portland to visit  Storybook Lane . Daft Punk inspires this kid's robot-enhanced voice We once looked at a house nearly across the street from the Alpenrose Dairy, so I knew how to get there pretty easily, but I had emailed the directions to myself just to be sure, and I gave Aaron my phone and told him to navigate us. In the process he quizzed me why we don't have a GPS de...

My buddy and me Being that this was the last full lunar eclipse before the world ends, I wanted to capture the moment for the invading aliens' sake. I left the house just before 6:00 a.m., when the totality of the eclipse began. My premeditated destination was the SE side of the waterfront near downtown, although I had read that the moon might only be visible from a lofty height, as it would be very low on the horizon. As I rode my bike into town, I thought I could see a large and ominous orange glow emanating from the Northwest, but that tease would be all that my eyes would taste of the lunar eclipse. When I reached my destination, I knew I wouldn't have the chance to photograph the moon (although I have had luck with it before ), so I enjoyed the quiet morning (though there were several photographers hanging around the riverfront) and practiced making long exposures with what little morning light had filtered through the fog. I suppose I could have ridden for Coun...

I've accidentally started a new tradition with my two oldest boys, which I call Dad's Inappropriate Movie Night . The requirements: Meg is gone, Ian is in bed, and the movie must bear some smidgen of scandal. The inaugural movie turned out to be Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure, which both boys loved. Installment two was Raiders of the Lost Ark, and two weeks ago it was Napoleon Dynamite, of which Aaron and Ed both agreed that this was their favorite scene (as indicated by Aaron's near asthma-inducing laughter). How does a movie qualify as inappropriate? It could be that the movie deals with subject matter beyond the boys' maturity, but it could also depict geeky stuff that I find funny and which they should not, because they're cooler than me. This past Saturday's viewing was Titan A.E. I remember seeing a preview of this film during The Phantom Menace and being overly excited, as many of my favorite cinematic ingredients appeared to be here: animat...

Aaron, Ian, and I took advantage of a rain-free Saturday to hike around Elk Rock Island , an ancient volcano that pokes its big head out of the Willamette River a few miles south of our home. Eddie was partying with his friends at nearby Pietro's Pizza (and Meg was away working at a dance team competition somewhere in rural Marion county), so we took the two hours during the party to enjoy the fresh air and discover a new place. Ian lasted nearly the entire hike on his own two feet, but he eventually pooped out on the last hill to the van. He didn't utter a whimper, and he didn't raise his arms in defeat, like he usually does. It was almost like the cold weather literally froze him in his tracks.