(Sometime in mid-August, 2002, right after putting up this page for the first time)

I am wondering if it is worth it to start a "Get Elana A Real Camera!" fund. I need a good, professional film camera (not digital, simply because of preference). I also want to go to school and to learn what I am doing. Unfortunately I am bedeviled by just the need to survive, moneywise, so a good camera is just a fantasy for now.

Is it worth it to ask for help? I don't know. Then again, one never knows unless they try...

I am willing to sell any of the above shots as 8x12 enlargements. Larger than that, they get rather grainy. I'd even sign them for you with beautiful gold pen if you wish.

So if you want any of these photos as mini-posters, email me and let me know. We may be able to work something out. At least please email me to let me know what you like about my pictures! Any encouragement helps.

Thank you for visiting my web page, dear visitor... because just by being willing to come by, you have supported my new dream. :-)

Thank you for that...

-Elana

August 29, 2002

I'd been having my film developed at a one-hour photo place in a local drugstore. When one roll came out badly shifted towards magenta two weeks ago, I had it re-done at a professional camera shop. Also dropped off a new roll at the pro shop.

Turns out the professional place gives you a truly lovely contact sheet with each roll they develop. Cool! Goodbye silly drugstore photo developing! From now on, I will post a scan of the contact sheet from every new roll on my website, complete with date, and add the best of each roll underneath that scan. THIS should work. Also let people disagree with me of what's a good picture or what.

I can see the emails: Your picture titled "(random title)" from that last roll is good, but why did you not choose pic #22 from that last roll? It looks just as good or better!" Should be interesting.

This past weekend as I was sorting through my personal stuff, I found an old, plastic camera I forgot I had which takees pics on 35mm film. I vaguely remember being disatisfied with this camera, but cannot remember why. Decided that I might as well try it out again, if it works, I can forget the disposable cameras. Still leery of the thing until it proves itself.

Went to Silver Falls State Park again yesterday. Having regular Wednesdays off from my job is a lovely thing. On the Trail of Ten Falls, I have only seen South Falls, Winter Falls, North Falls (got pics of that one previously) and Middle North Falls. Time to visit Upper North Falls and take both disposable camera and "new" old plastic camera with me.

Arrived, parked my 6-wheeled portable apartment and headed up the trail. Blue-sky, hot day. Shot some practice shots on the trail with the old plastic thing... trying for just practice shots with the old camera, and shots I actually care about with the disposable. Finally arrived at the falls. Lovely, lacy thing dancing on the rocks down the cliffside into a big round pool. Beautiful fir trees growing above me on the top of the cliff. Sunlight not exactly hitting the falls themselves. Arrrgh. Photography challenge. Shot from several angles, shot with cold water on feet again (that happens to me a lot) shot refections of trees on water, got glimmering water and rocks and refections, then left in disgust when too many tourists showed up.

On the trail back, I was stopped cold by the sight of a what-was-left-of-a-large-tree which was sculpted into a surreal vertical shape by a past fire. Behind me was a small cliff, which meant I could not back up far enough to get decent shot of the thing. Ended up in contortions on that trail, getting dirt and dust and gravel all over me, trying to aim upwards to get the spirit of that truly wierd natural wood sculpture on film. THEN I looked for the poison oak on the ground where I was. Duh. Lucked out this time, but it woulda figured.

Back to the motorhome. Rolled my way to South Falls. Parked. Heading through the camping area, I got a few various shots of trees and branches and blue sky. Kept walking, looked for "Stumpface". I'll be darned - it's still there. Thought they woulda removed it because it was in a construction zone last time I was there. Shot several shots of Stumpface. Hopefully one will be good and in focus this time, so I can replace the current version on the website.

Checked out South Falls. Oh my, what a weak, drippy deal compared with the 747-level roar of this past spring's flow! Not going to waste film on that one.

Had intended to go on a long hike to see the falls which live beyond the South, but I was already out of energy, so I wandered to a bench on the trail close to where the creek drops off the cliff. Observed the new rail fence they had installed since some poor single-digit aged kid had decided to play in the swollen creek last May too close to the edge and ended up with a fatal flight lesson. They had put a sort of a chain-link gate close to the edge of the drop off. Ugly, narrow thing. Had to wonder how that will be going to hold in the next good Oregon winter storm. How are they going to open and close it when branches and tree-trunks flow and land against it? The two sides of the gate was fastened with chains in the MIDDLE. What were they going to do... have some poor state park employee go in the creek with hip boots to open the gate and become another flight risk? Sheesh, government design... ya gotta wonder. No, I did not take a picture of it. I generally don't shoot ugly things - well, then again, maybe I should... though not with a camera. ;)

Anyway...

Sat around on the bench idly wondering where my next decent art-shot was going to be. Didn't feel like looking for it. After 15 minutes I looked up... and my mouth dropped. The sun was playing beautiful special effects games with the branches above me! Grab the cameras. Snap off several shots. Hope like heck the camera saw what I saw. Damn, some of these surprise photography moments can be SNEAKY!

It was about 3pm by then. Wanted to go to fabled Opal Creek which was the subject of a huge local political tempest some years ago. A fight between the environmental preservationists and the lumber companies, and the environmentalists had won the right to keep the last bit of original, pristine old-growth intact. Supposed to be an awsome place of beauty.

Long story short... I drove for an hour on the right road towards the right direction to the place... then got to find out the last part of the trip is a rutted road guaranteed to beat up my poor old motorhome's near-nonexistent suspension. Gave up, turned around, headed back.

Back on I-5 home... turns out to have been a 98-degree day... oh man, don't TELL me that! No wonder I felt like a roasted chicken driving in my 'home!

September 7, 2002:
OK, this is nuts. I am getting FAN letters from people loving my shots. Already received one complaint that my page is getting too big. Time to split that one big page into a framed version with multiple pages.

Went to Portland Community College this past Wednesday and signed up for my first photography class. The week before, my best f(r)iend Zim had pointed it out for me in the PCC catalog. The class involves learning the utter basics about lenses, shutter speeds, what the @#$! an f-stop is (I'll probably have my own interpretation of that "F" behind the stop on my not-my-better-days). Best of all, it teaches how to judge and buy a good first camera. Six week class, starting in October. Should be interesting...

Had 5 glossy 8x12's made from some of my best shots. Found some truly lovely wrapping paper that makes me think of the Oregon Coast, bought a thank-you card, wrapped the whole thing as a gift and shipped it to Los Angeles today. While all the fuss about elanic photography has been happening here in Portland, meanwhile I've been leaving my friend who inspired it all with no clue of any of these happenings. I have been patiently waiting for the perfectly right method and the perfectly right moment... ah, yes... live photos gift-wrapped and a happy thank-you card saying "look what you started!" Just wish I could instantly teleport myself down there to see his reaction...

The disposable camera film from the recent Silver Falls trip developed half-OK, as evidenced by the "Roll 1" link on this web page. I have been very annoyed that no disposable camera can seem to handle anything but direct-sunlight shots very well. My attempts at shooting Upper North falls just looked like mud and not worth posting. Ah well, at least some of the other shots worked...

This past week I just got done developing the roll from my cheap, plastic camera that I had duplicated almost shot-for-shot with the disposable on the Silver Falls trip. WHOA! Better light! Not as good as I still want it, but THIS is an improvement! Shots taken in very sunny places seem to blow out with the 800 speed film I was using, but now I will just have disposable cameras for bright light and the plastic thing for subdued light. This should work. Unfortunately, I don't have time to put up those shots today. Next week I will post shots from that roll.

And now for a SCANNER rant! Folks, I have a absolutely LOVELY shot which is NOT on this page yet called "BranchLight". It's intense. It's abstract. It's georgous. Slap it on my friend's scanner, it changes from "Cooooooool!" to "Yeah, whatever". That is annoying, especially when Photoshop couldn't even rescue it. I will have to have it enlarged to twice the size and try again. Better work this time.

Scanners lie... "Pipe Dream 1" is boring in real life and lovely on screen. Ah well... I understand some movie and TV stars are like that as well. Such is life.

Two more rolls await scanning and posting on this site, but I have run out of time for web-creation for now... so time to upload this new framed version of my page and call it a day.

What an odd, surprising new adventure this is becoming...

September 14, 2002
Sent a care package to my L.A. friend who inspired it all... figured the best way to inform him would be to send a bunch of photos in 8x12 format with thank you card (which all looked incredible) as a way of saying "see what you started???!!" .

Got his warm reply yesterday in email. He's impressed. :)

As much as I incredibly look up to that guy, I can *definitely* deal with that. ;)

Meanwhile... now I have two friends named Chris in LA! One of my Portland friends moved to West LA, and now wants me to visit him. I am seriously thinking about it. If it happens, it will happen later in October.

Question is... now that I am turning into a photographer, what in Southern California is good for nature shots, and I am NOT talking about certain forms of LA wildlife!! I'll have to find out...

If I visit formerly-Portland Chris, then I'll have to try and visit creative-inspiration Chris too... to make the trip doubly worth it... unfortunately THAT Chris is an insanely busy guy with lots of projects going on. I understand, and HE knows I understand.

Such is life. However, I do miss my cool creative-inspiration friend, just in general. Chris, if you are reading this, SEND ME A CD!!! Something good of your music!! Thanks, dude...

Anyway...

Good news. Someone I know thinks she MAY have a good Nikon in her old packrat pile of stuff... she says it when she first bought it about 20 years ago it was the among the fanciest ones they had on the market... she says if she finds it, I can have it. :)

That is... if she finds it... wish me and her luck, and SOON...

This past week, I had "BranchLight" enlarged to get the detail, and I was finally able to bring it within 80 percent of the quality of the original via Photoshop. Posted it on the front page of the website for this week. It is now my absolute favorite shot. Hope someone else out there likes it too.

Out on Hy 26, east of North Plains, is a short railroad line which runs east and west out of the spine of mountains where Skyline Blvd is located. I have been facinated by this line for YEARS. Never considered doing much about this facination until this week, and photography is a good excuse.

So off I went on two separate days... first to Rock Creek Road where I remembered a parking place and a cool railroad tunnel. The parking place turned out to be bulldozered to nonexistence, and the walk to the tunnel had some pretty threatening "No Tresspassing" signs all over. Considering the ultra-sensitive state of the world these days, I decided not to take any illegal walks. I parked where I could and tried some experiments with the sunset that was happening instead. Lovely moon and clouds. Hope it turns out OK...

Yesterday I went exploring that rail line again... this time endeavoring to hit every road that crossed it. This is a hilly farmland area. Zooming up one road near Helvetia turned up a delightful surprise... a big, old-fashioned, incredible HUGE wooden railroad trestle! Too big to photograph without a wide angle lens! I did my best with what I had, and made note that this was another place to come by when I get a real camera. That thing was darn-near MAGICAL!

Got a few sunset shots on Helvetia Road, along with some more experiments with powerlines, with the moon starting to shine in the lines. Hope those work...

As I crossed another road west of Helvetia, I caught THE coolest shot of sunset reflecting on curving railroad lines into the distance! Let there be justice and have that shot turn out! Then again, I can always come back when the light is better, but STILL...!

I am glad to realize that there are so many opportunities for loveliness within a half-hour drive of my city. Half-day trips to Silver Falls are expensive on my lack-of-gas-mileage. I definitely appreciate Portland.

September 29, 2002:
Not enough time right now to write as much news as there is... last week I went to Saddle Mountain, which is somewhat between Portland and the coast. At 3283 feet, Saddle Mountain is the highest peak in Northwest Oregon. From the summit, visitors have a panoramic view of Nehalem Bay and the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Columbia River to the north, as well as many snow-capped peaks in the Cascade Range to the east. That is, if it isn't raining.

I went with 4 disposable cameras. Three were normal with differing film speeds, the forth was a panorama camera. The normal camera shots were ordinary. The panorama camera shots were incredible. I have some serious scanning to do.

Found my lost roll that I lost months ago. Made a new page for the website for it. Yay! :)

Got in contact with a friend who works in a very impressive local photo lab. Had HIM look at my shots here on Dreamcircle. He remarked: "Ah, so you have learned the Rule of Three!" I said: "The Rule of WHAT?" Phil didn't believe that I didn't know: "It's all over your pictures!" Me: "OK, will you please explain this?!" It got rather comedic from there.

Basically, the Rule of Three has it that whatever horizon happens on your shots needs to occur at about the first bottom third of your photographic composition. If the image has three main parts, they need to be equally spaced from the one third to the next third on up. Supposed to be a rule of great composition in both drawing arts and photography. It seemed to amuse my friend greatly that I somehow already knew that, but it still had to be explained to me. Figures!

October 6, 2002: I have my Saddle Mountain shots, and I get to scan and post some of them today. The experimental background that I have now put on this blog page is from that trip. Of the 4 rolls, I will just post the panorama shots for now.

The LAST time I went to Saddle Mountain (early in July) I cluelessly tried for a Darwin Award application by trying that steep, slippery trail with normal shoes, no hiking boots IN THE RAIN.

Of course I fell down a steep slope. Of course I had to be rescued by some fellow hikers. Of course I ended up in a hospital in Seaside so I could have 2 dozen stitches put into my right arm. Oh, yeah, of course, it wasn't fun.

The sign at the beginning of the trail said "Experienced Hikers Only!" OK, well, I got my experience. Yeah, I qualify now.

The wounds have healed, and now I have a couple of fine scars, one straight one on the outside of my wrist and a jagged mark all over my elbow. Real dramatic. I just wish I had a better story than "Errr... I fell off a mountain trail." How about "I ran into a burning building to rescue a puppy from an angry terrorist mob and I battled them on the stairs on the way out. Just the puppy and I were the ones who made it out of the building alive and intact by the time it was over." THERE ya go. Now THAT is a good story! :)

I really should hold a web contest for good heroic "how elana got her scar" stories. That would be fun. :)

Anyway, this time around, I had proper hiking boots, and it was sunny. I made it to the middle part of the "saddle" (we are talking about a mountain with 2 summits) and looked up... and proceeded to get serious height-fear looking up at the summit. I REALLY got some height-fear when I looked DOWN... and saw a microscopic white square among the trees - my motorhome. What confirmed it was how NARROW and precarious the trail to the summit was.

I have a body made out of too much web-surfing and waaaaaay too many chocolate muffins. Twiggy, I ain't. It would make sense to not try that trail with two normal-sized human feet trying to safely balance my current weight in that dangerous place. I've gotten the hint. Time to lose weight and take that trail again next year. Even though I did not get to the summit, I DID get some pretty cool shots on the way, though.

The person with the possible Nikon donation got vetoed by her husband. Oh, well.

The pics with the railroad trestle came out HORRIBLE. That is what I get for buying Kodak 800 film for cheap. There are few shots which that roll which somewhat didn't inspire ipecac-type reactions, so I will at post those on this site.

Photography class starts next week! :)

I have been feeling pretty disgusted with how I need to drive an hour plus away from the city to get to incredibly beautiful places for photography. (Yeah... I should complain. Watch me get flamed now from someone stuck in a visually boring part of the planet!) I am easily motivated to exercise by finding adventure and cool places I have never seen. I'll walk for hours on difficult terrain for that. Get me next to a treadmill, and you will re-learn the meaning of the phrase "ain't gonna happen". I hate exercise that keeps me moving in one place which I've already seen.

So how to solve the problem of needing to get some exercise, and find lovely places that don't require long drives for cool photography? Geocaching, that's what!

I've got me a GPS unit for cheap (a Magellan 330 worth $250 on sale for $130!). I have already found some cool caches in Portland, and am discovering neat places I never knew about in my city. Lots of Portland spots to discover. Actually inspires me to exercise too, as well as using the new hobby to scout for cool photo-opportunities! :)

(Later...)

And it just figures we have either Photoshop or scanner problems, and I cannot process the rest of today's photos. Might as well post what I have and try again next week.

October 20, 2002:
Hey... got SOME of the panoramic shots on the page finally, that's cool...

Nov. 17, 2002:
I need my own freakin' computer and net-access.

I have about 7-8 new rolls to scan and maybe 4 possible hours a week to do so, on my friend's computer. My pictures are getting better and better, but no one reading this website would know that...

Reading this website... hmmm... I have gotten some positive response a few months ago, but more lately, no email saying this or that pic is cool, or people asking me questions, or whatever.

One email maybe once every 2 weeks or something from anyone would be nice... would be encouraging... but as it is, I find myself still happy to do pictures, but not much encouragement to keep the website up. Would anyone notice the difference? I don't know...

Self-doubt is a very difficult thing to overcome, just in general.