This lighted centerpiece stands at the east entrance to The Dalles downtown area. Mark B. Gibson photo

This photograph was taken at night with the camera mounted on a tripod. The building in the background is an old flour mill once powered by an Edison electric motor with electricity generated at White River Falls near the Deschutes River. The Old Mill Winery is now located at the ground floor level of the mill.

To get the lights to show realistic, saturated color against a near black background, exposure was reduced from that recommended by the meter. Lens was stopped down for increased depth of field. The shutter was released using a self timer, to reduce the potential for vibration during the resulting long exposure.

This same setup works well for Christmas lights as well. IF you don’t have a tripod, you can set the camera on a stable surface and trigger it with the self timer. I generally bracket around the reduced exposure, to make sure I capture the lights as I intend.

Thick rime hangs from a pair of oak acorns in the foothills west of The Dalles, Oregon. Mark B. Gibson photo

Rime, n. White frost; hoarfrost, congealed dew or vapor. Webster’s Dictionary, 1950

For over a week now, broad reaches of the eastern side of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon and Washington have been wrapped in fog, with temperatures well below freezing. The effect is caused by an inversion of the normal air temperatures: Cold air is trapped at the surface by warmer air above. Below the cap, icy cold air sits almost unmoving.

In the Cascade foothills above The Dalles, Oregon, fog has moved in most nights for the past week. It’s cold, dense and etherial. It freezes on whatever it touches, forming long crystal streamers of ice, jutting out at odd angles that reflect the almost imperceptible air currents. Horse hair, caught in a fence, looks first like thread, then string, as the crystals grow night by night on every strand. Along open fields and on hillsides, trees exposed to the fog become whiter every day, accentuating their individual shapes.

Unfortunately for photographers and poets (but not so unfortunately for those with cold toes), the cold air inversion is forecast to end today as a new weather system moves through the region. Softened by snow or melted by rain, the hoarfrost will be gone.

Thick rime hangs from an oak leaf and branches in the foothills west of The Dalles, Oregon. Mark B. Gibson photo

Two hundred years ago, in 1811, explorer/cartographer David Thompson led a company mapping expedition down the Columbia River. This audio slideshow features the David Thompson Brigade, which passed through The Dalles, Oregon in the summer of 2011.

In describing weather conditions I’ve used some images that were taken in the following week: Wind and river remained virtually unchanged for some time. The moving images are actually still frames captured at about 6 frames per second. Photographs illustrating native culture were taken in the mid Columbia region.

I interviewed two men of the brigade at Maryhill State Park in Washington. They lead re-enactments, and had recently completed a canoe journey along the water trade route to Hudson Bay. I arrived just before dinner.

I was unable to get any “footage” of the canoes on the water… I should have gotten more precise information and had a look at the charts, but the salmon was coming off the grill and I could see that they were hungry. The Columbia between their camp and The Dalles is a region of islands and cliffs, and the next day I saw them only once, far away hugging the Washington shore. I crossed and waited, but they pulled out at a launch I had forgotten.

This audio slideshow introduces a spider that I found in an outside crevice of my window. I believe it is a bola spider, a species of spider featured in the David Attenborough/BBC video “Life in the Undergrowth.”

These spiders position themselves on the underside of a leaf (or window frame), dangling a string of silk with a sticky ball on the end. They then attract moths with pheromones or chemical scents that attract the moth. When a moth comes close enough, the spider swings the ball in hopes of attaching the moth to the sticky ball.

In summer, our windows attract a lot of moths, perfect habitat for a bola spider.

Members of the Confederate Tribes of Warm Springs, Oregon, from the southern edge of Wasco County, perform the Butterfly Dance at the Wasco County Fair in Tygh Valley. Produced, photographed and edited by Mark B. Gibson.

An osprey fishes along the shoreline of the Columbia River at The Dalles Dam. Copyright Mark B. Gibson/FlyingCrowPress

The Columbia has been running heavy all spring: The reservoirs are filled to capacity, and just a bit more: Channels that have been dry for years are flooded. The river for a time has less resembled a series of lakes, taking instead the character of a mighty and powerful… even scary… river.

Most of these clips were photographed with a “Flip” video camera. I use only the “wide” lens setting, to avoid digitally cropping the image. Sound was recorded using a “zoom” brand recorder.

The segments that appear “jerky” in their flow are an experiment: The first day I ran to get the video camera and it was not in my bag. I decided to see how the six-frames-per-second motor drive on my still camera would translate into video. I imported them into the video at 4 frames of video for each frame of still. The result reminds me of early film footage. I haven’t decided if I like it, but in an emergency it worked very well.

Fitting audiovisual or multimedia work into a newspaper workflow and mindset is no easy task. An event becomes “old news” in the print media within hours or at most a day or two. By working my still photography into a quick audiovisual presentation, I can add an additional component to my work that can be turned out quickly.

The best shot is in the middle, but alas… it didn’t run in the paper because its the wrong team. The slideshow features both sides, and is simply chronological.

I would like to add audio: Game sounds, radio game coverage etc. This will likely double the editing time, but may add even more to the final presentation.

This past weekend, a Spring Fair brought crowds eager to purchase plants and learn about gardening, compost and other topics to City Park downtown The Dalles, Oregon. This audio slideshow focuses on a project sponsored by Master Gardeners, who work with detainees at the local juvenile facility to operate a greenhouse each spring, raising plants for the Spring Fair sale. Created by Mark B. Gibson/The Dalles Chronicle.

This Great Horned Owl has a low nest not far from my rental. The chicks are big and puffy with down. I visit most days, and this adult has become used to my presence enough not to fly at my approach. Copyright Mark B. Gibson

Four years ago a pair of great horned owls began nesting in what had been the nest site of a Coopers hawk, high in a tree under which I park my car. Living under the nest I was amazed at the variety of calls made by the breeding pair. Often, they made a sort of low clucking that built up into a traditional “hoot.” It was like the hoot was forced out of them.

A great horned owl chick in pines, Wasco County. Photo copyright Mark B. Gibson

They left that nest and I didn’t think they were around, but one day while investigating the ruckus of a family of Stellars jays I spotted their new nest. It was much lower, and therefore more accessible to me and my photography. These owls begin nesting in mid winter. The chicks, there are two this year, appear almost as large as the adults but are comically puffy with down, like a stuffed owl dipped in glue and rolled in feathers.