Nancy Lynne Photography

Sunday was a road-trip day, and an awesome day for it. The surf was huge and just booming against the rocks, an amazing sight. This is from the State Park just north of Depoe Bay. This is Cascade Head, we watched a couple of sufers headed in. The weather was nice that day, not too windy and not raining. A great day for discovering. Those same surfers a few minutes later... you can see the surf behind them as it completely obliterates a huge rock. The waves were nothing short of spectacular. This was atop a carport roof in Pacific City. Definitely an eyecatcher. Nuff said. We came across this little Jack Russell Terrier with a fetish for sticks. I had picked up and inspected that same chunk of wood a few minutes before they came along behind us, and he was carrying it. It was nearly as big as he was, and he eventually left it behind when he got tired of carrying it. One of the overlooks we stopped at... someone had left these cans of food behind... they are so bulged that they...

This is the time of year for new beginnings and for starting over with a clean slate. The solstice is the mental turning point for me, I know that the new year is the turning point for most, bringing hope and promise and things unknown and as-yet unexperienced. I think 2009 is going to be a very exciting year for me. I will be learning and growing and adding lots of adventures and wisdom to my life. Some things will change, most things will remain constant... and for that I am very thankful. I hope the new year ahead brings you the things you want most.

Now we are 10 days from the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. Also the longest night of the year. The changing of the seasons again, and after the solstice, the daylight hours will increase incrementally and imperceptibly. But we know. I always look forward to spring and the ability to spend some quality time with my horses after work. As it is now, it's completely dark before I even leave the studio at 5, so I don't spend a lot of time with them... I sure do miss them. I love to be outdoors doing just about anything. I'll be celebrating the solstice as I'm sure many of you will in your own ways. December also brings a very special visitor to the studio. Come out and bring your friends and family for my 4th Annual 'Portraits with Santa' event! Toledo has a whole slew of exciting events happening this Saturday including the lighted parade at 5:30. Freckles and I will be walking in the parade this year with lights and bows and bells on our toes... ...

As I mentioned earlier, Freckles and I drove to Corvallis this past Friday, and since it was such a beautiful warm autumn day, we spent a little time at Avery Park in Philomath on the way. Miss Freckles had fun sniffing around all the pretty fallen leaves... and sat for me for a moment while I caught her picture on my cell phone. This is also in Avery Park. What a beautiful place. The pic is small but if you look closely you can see Freckles sitting on the landing between the engine and the coal car. Yesterday I was treated to another water-day, fishing and crabbing. This hungry pelican came right up to the boat and let me feed him a herring. He didn't like the chunk of croissant I tossed him, and after tasting it he spit it out and let the gulls have it. They say the brown pelicans have been here in record numbers this year and they are staying late. They'll get on with their southerly migration soon. They are stunningly beautiful birds and seem very docile. We ended...

I posted on the lighthouse blog here about the event last night. What fun! Oh, and I found this and this pretty interesting in a "Thank God he's out of my life" kinda way... It's a gorgeous day here on the Oregon coast, and I'm driving to Corvallis to pick up my mom and bring her home for the weekend. She is very homesick. She is undergoing radiation treatments 5 days a week and stays at the Mario Pastega House . Send her all your good thoughts, ok? Have an awesome weekend!!

I was invited to go salmon fishing yesterday up the river towards Elk City, and it was another awesome day. It rained some but it wasn't cold, and the scenery was, as usual, spectacular. I reeled in this fish... a 32 lb. chinook hen. She was gorgeous. And tasty. :) I snagged a coho buck in the middle of the back so we let him go, but not before I got a shot of his hooked beak. Looks like we'll be out trolling again this afternoon, I hope we get lucky again. The fish were jumping out of the water all around us all day, what an amazing thing to see. Very cool.

I had the honor of capturing some beautiful senior portraits of a very lovely young lady recently. Here are a couple of my favorites. We went out onto the South Jetty at Newport, among the giant rocks, huge driftwood and eroding pilings... one of my favorite places to shoot because of the awesome scenery and amazing variety out there. We came across a rock that someone had carved the word 'awesome' into. I agree!

A day trip to Shore Acres State Park on Monday proved to be an awesome time, even tho it rained all day. I'd been to the park for their legendary annual Christmas Lights display, but had always visited after dark. So I'd never seen the amazing scenery there before. Now I can't wait to go back! Of course, no trip down the coast is complete without a stop to catch a photo of the Heceta Head Lighthouse . You know me and lighthouses... Sea Lion Caves is just around the corner, and they were out in droves. The next stop was Cape Arago Lighthouse. Next time I want to go out there onto the bluff... Then Sunset Bay State Park ... Where we saw an unusual-looking jelly on the sand. The way the rocks have eroded is just fascinating. These looked like skeletal fingers to me. There were mushrooms everywhere!! These are on the edge of the bluff overlooking the ocean. This tree was hanging over the bluff. Life always finds a way to survive. This was an eye-catching stump, with th...

Last week, my friend and fellow photographer took me out and showed me a 'steam donkey' that he had been told about and then subsequently searched for and found in the woods. As far as we can tell, it was used in the late 1920s, and has been abandoned in the woods to rot along with the gigantic stumps of the trees the loggers cut. They placed this steam engine on two huge logs for a platform, and then they would use the engine and steel cables to pull the logs they'd cut up the hill to the road. The two huge logs were used for stability, and they are still bound together with axles. It is slowly sliding down the hill... Freckles stands on one of the stabilizing logs, you can see the scale thanks to her... she had a blast running around in the woods. One of the stabilizing logs has put such steady pressure on this tree that it has flattened out and grown to surround the end of the log. Another shot that shows the size of this thing... This plate says "Willamette Ir...

It seems like I've been in the local paper a lot lately... Here is a story featuring my Halloween Costume Portraits Event... which was an awesome event again this year, the weather was nice and we had a great turnout. Here is my write-up in regards to running for a seat on the Toledo City Council, which, by the way, I did win. Woo hoo! And this is in today's edition. What a blast that was!! Life has just been crazy for me lately, lots going on all the way around. But, I have been able to do some fun sightseeing and will post some new pics very soon!!

The chill of autumn is in the air, the leaves are turning colors and collecting on the ground, and that can only mean one thing... it's time for the annual Halloween Costume Portraits Event here at the studio. Woo hoo! I have my scarecrow in the window - this year it's Miss Muffett and her spider - and am getting ready for this years' little ghouls and goblins... bwa ha ha ha... Can't wait to see what fun and creative costumes you all come up with this year!

Wow, it's been a really busy time for me... and that's a good thing! I'm having a blast with both of my avocations. There are plenty of other things on my plate right now as well, including 10 weeks of advanced obedience school with Freckles. We've been having a ball with that, especially when we walk up and down the waterfront in a pack of 40 dogs and owners. The people come spilling out of the bars to watch the parade of very well-behaved dogs. We all get a big kick out of it. Tonight we'll be walking around in a beach-side neighborhood in Newport. I hope it stops raining, cuz we'll go rain or shine. Recently I had the honor of capturing some lovely images of Toledo's new City Manager and her husband and labradoodle Abbie... what fun! They are very, very nice folks. I'm running for City Councilor in our little town, so that's keeping me extra busy... and planning for the upcoming holiday season, including the Halloween Costume Portraits Event here ...

One of my favorite things to capture is High School Seniors. Usually they are very adventuresome and will do nearly anything I ask them to in order to create some fun and interesting images. Here are a few from some recent sessions. If you or someone you know is a Senior this year, get your appointment made while we still have the gorgeous weather!

Sometimes it seems like it to me, too. I love to share images of the fun things I do, and I am lucky enough to really enjoy my work as well as my play time. " Inside Lincoln County " filmed a segment on the Friends of Yaquina Lighthouses and I was there to capture some images of them at work. Of course, the incredible scenery out there, especially early in the morning, is what really caught my eye. Friends of Yaquina Lighthouses recently assisted with the installation of stair supports for the 110-step staircases, which have had thousands of people climbing them over the years. It's definitely worth the climb, this is the light mechanism inside the First Order Fresnel lens at the top. And the view from the top is nothing short of spectacular. Scads of brown pelicans are among the large number of birds that call the rocks at the Head home. And, at the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, the local Master Gardeners group maintains a vegetable garden where they teach local elementary...