Any current or former SOU student will recognize this setting. A few feet forward and you are standing under the Southern Oregon University entry arch. Walk across the street (being careful not to get hit by a car), and you will have survived the trip to Mihama’s (Case Coffee, 7-Eleven, the Electric Beach, etc.). In the distance a freshly powdered Grizzly Peak overlooks the town.

I’m frequently asked if I own Case Coffee Co. (being that my last name is Case). The answer is “no.” It turns out there are several Cases in town. The owners aren’t closely related that I know of. They seem to do a great business though. The location has been a revolving door of businesses over the years, none of them doing much business until Case Coffee Co. took things over. Now the place always seems busy. I haven’t done business there since it turned into a coffee shop though. I can’t stand the stuff. Just the smell turns my stomach. Actually drinking coffee to me would be like drinking bad breath. No thanks.

I was kind of hoping that the old Island Juice (which wasn’t very good) at this location would turn into a Jamba Juice. Alas, we are still left without a single Jamba Juice in Southern Oregon.

March 10th, 2009 | Tags: buildings, clouds, grizzly peak, skywatch, Southern Oregon University | Category: places | Comments (2)

The other day on my way to work I slipped my camera into my pocket as I headed out the door. My wife asked, “What are you taking that for?” My response was, “Because I can.” I smiled as did she. You see, previous to my LX3 purchase I only took my old, large camera places on “special” occasions. It was simply too big and too much of a hassle to haul around. Not so anymore.

Later in the day, the clouds started going crazy so I had opportunities to take several pictures that would never have been captured in my old S3 days. The above is one of them. Omars is an Ashland landmark, but I’ve never had a reason to take a picture of Omars before. Nor have I ever had a camera on me when in the vicinity of Omars. But while waiting to cross the street, Omars looked rather marvelous with the sky doing its thing so I whipped out my LX3 for a quick picture.

Omars has been around for more than 60 years, something few restaurants/bars can say–especially on the west coast. The name is a fluke of sorts. The original owner’s name was Omer. But when he ordered this sign the company made a mistake and spelled his name Omar, and the rest is history. Have yourself a great steak, fine seafood, or just grab a beer at Omars the next time you are passing through Ashland.

March 9th, 2009 | Tags: buildings, clouds, food, lx3, skywatch | Category: only in ashland, places | Comments (2)

Friday night we went to see Hanneke Cassel (center) at the Unitarian Fellowship. It was the first time I’d been back inside that church since we stopped attending maybe 6 or 7 years ago. The show was great, really amazing at times. On the cello was Ariel Friedman and on guitar was Keith Murphy.

One of the reasons I’m sharing this photo though is to show off the low-light capabilities of the LX3. The lighting was absolutely awful for picture taking purposes, and I wasn’t going to use a flash. I was several rows back, too, so I had the camera on 3.6X zoom. In addition, the subjects were moving, and the picture still came out pretty decent. No other camera I have owned would have done nearly as nice a job.

I have some good video with the LX3 from this event too. Perhaps I’ll show that to you in a later entry.

March 8th, 2009 | Tags: lx3, music, people | Category: people | Comments (3)

Grizzly Peak panorama

This image isn’t done justice in a blog window. Hopefully you have a decent monitor (18+ inches) and can click on this to expand it to its full width.

If you look closely you can see not only cows but also some trucks on I-5.

March 7th, 2009 | Tags: grizzly peak, landscape, mountains, panorama, snow, wildlife, winter | Category: nature, only in ashland | Comments (1)

On the plaza sits these enticing “natural Lithia water” fountains. Don’t they look inviting? For kicks, on a hot summer day I should stand nearby and take pictures so you could see the looks on tourist faces when they sample the natural water. Let’s just say that no one who samples this water once tries it again.

March 6th, 2009 | Tags: plaza | Category: only in ashland, places | Comments (3)

Given that it was a school day, and it had been raining, it isn’t surprising that Ashland’s new ice skating rink sat empty earlier this week. The new rink has taken the place of the old Darex Family Ice Skating Rink generously donated by the town philanthropist. This one is sponsored by Ashland Rotary and was strongly pushed by one of Ashland’s famous residents, Tai Babilonia.

March 5th, 2009 | Tags: sports | Category: lithia park, places | Comments (1)

Yesterday was a good day for taking photos in Lithia Park as it was raining and yet there were spots of blue sky. The rain is good for photography as it keeps the people away while at the same time making the moss extra green and the rocks a richer, darker color.

This picture looks much better (on a big screen) if you maximize your browser and then click on it.

March 4th, 2009 | Tags: lithia park, trees, water | Category: lithia park | Comments Off on Lithia Park in the rain

While lying in bed the other morning I noticed my bedroom door glowing red. I decided to get up to investigate. One look out the window and I had to make a mad dash downstairs to get the LX3 before anything changed.

I was curious to see what Photoshop could do with this image. I loaded it into Photoshop and hit “Auto Levels.” Absolutely nothing happened. I think that is first time Photoshop did not tweak anything at all. Photoshop deemed this to be the perfect picture. 😉 I love my new LX3. When Photoshop can’t improve what it produces you can’t complain.

March 3rd, 2009 | Tags: clouds, home, lx3, skywatch, sunrise | Category: nature | Comments (8)

I’m digging my new camera. My old S3 would not have been able to capture the entire rainbow.

March 2nd, 2009 | Tags: clouds, home, lx3, mountains, rainbow, skywatch | Category: nature | Comments (2)