{"id":2148,"date":"2026-08-01T13:40:43","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T20:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thatbigredsun.com\/blog\/?p=2148"},"modified":"2026-08-01T14:49:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T21:49:33","slug":"oregon-again-the-pretty-woman-behind-every-waterfall-photographic-verisimilitude-and-animated-photographs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thatbigredsun.com\/blog\/oregon-again-the-pretty-woman-behind-every-waterfall-photographic-verisimilitude-and-animated-photographs\/","title":{"rendered":"Oregon Again, the Pretty Woman Behind Every Waterfall, Photographic Verisimilitude, and Animated Photographs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This writing finds me back in northern Utah at what appears to be the end of that difficult part of Summer when monsoonal rains kick down soaring temperatures. This breaking point is invariably well received, at least by me. In Southern Nevada things are still boiling with some of the hottest weather they have had there in the fifteen years that we have been diligently following it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This writing also finds me at another sort of end or beginning depending on one’s outlook. I’ve completed the editing related to three large sets of photographs from trips begun in early February. These brought us to various places in India, Paris France, Newport Rhode Island, Coastal and Interior Northwestern Oregon, and our regular haunts of Park City and Southern Nevada. My tally is at around 12,750 photographs for the three trips including some home-based shots taken while moving from one trip to another. There were also a few hundred other wedding photos from a wedding in India which I haven’t included in the tally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My style of editing has changed over the breadth of a little more than 13,000 new photos, inspired by a desire to bring out more in the darker complexion of Indian faces and carried over to all sorts of other things. I also have applied new methods on my Paris and Oregon photos from over the last fifteen or so years. Part of it is technology which, as can be said, doesn’t rest. Much more is possible with current methods than was the case before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oregon was the last of our almost half-year sojourn involving seven states, three countries and three continents. I am a little bushed but came back uninjured which wasn’t the case on my returning from Oregon last year. None of the three trips were planned by me or as photography outings. I am becoming a bit of tag-along, camera in hand. I’m good with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Columbia River transportation corridor near Arlington. \u00a9 Jim Owens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The view from a restaurant parking lot in Dalles on the Columbia River. \u00a9 Jim Owens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This time we arrived via the small town of Ontario from Boise and followed the interstate along the Columbia to Portland. From there we headed south to Lincoln City where we spent a week followed by multi-day stays in Silver Falls State Park near Silverton and in Bend. We culminated the Oregon leg of this years travel with a Head and the Heart Concert on the Deschutes River. I can think of no way to better end it. From there we shot home through Burns and Boise. It appears that we got out in the nick of time as fires have erupted throughout the eastern part of the State and both of the major routes that we took, one coming and one going, have been closed for intervals because of fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photographs from Oregon are present in the recent Oregon albums of my photography galleries<\/a>. Also early Oregon photos have been re-edited. Photos from Park City, Rhode Island, Nevada, France and India have all been posted in their respective galleries and discussed in prior posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around, the Oregon images come from along the Columbia and in Hood River, Lincoln City, Pacific City, Newport, Cape Perpetua, Cape Haceta, Cape Kiwanda, the town of Silverton, Silver Falls State Park, and Bend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The beach in Lincoln City. \u00a9 Jim Owens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
A damp and chilly morning detail from the beach in Lincoln City. \u00a9 Jim Owens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Low tide in Lincoln City. \u00a9 Jim Owens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
A private garden with public access in Lincoln City. \u00a9 Jim Owens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Cape Kiwanda State Recreation Area near Pacific City. \u00a9 Jim Owens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Conditions ranged from nothing but sunshine to downright dreary. As has been the case over the last three years, things were wonderful crossing the interior on our way in and extremely toasty on our way out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coastal locations on this trip are more or less the same as those on earlier trips with the three exceptions being the Connie Hansen Garden Conservancy, a small private garden open to the public in Lincoln City, the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, and Cape Kiwanda. All are nifty spots. Cape Kiwanda because of two things. One is that it is a massive sand accumulation right on the water and the other are the flat-bottomed dory fishing boats which literally slide right on to the beach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
An early-July evening along Newport’s Nye Beach. \u00a9 Jim Owens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The Cape Perpetua coast viewed from the Cape Perpetua highlands. \u00a9 Jim Owens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Trail access to the rocky coastal terrain in Cape Perpetua. \u00a9 Jim Owens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Cape Haceta lighthouse. \u00a9 Jim Owens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We stopped by Silver Falls State Park last year but just for a small part of a day and we didn’t do the trail system. This time around we spent three nights and covered all of the major trails including the Trail of Ten Falls. Four of these falls are of the walk-around-behind-the-falls variety. The whole place, built by the CCC during the depression, reminds me of another favorite spot, Watkins Glen in the finger lake region of New York. The precise environments are different but they are quite similar in a lot of ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A flower seed field near Silverton. \u00a9 Jim Owens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
North Falls, one of four falls with behind the falls trail access on the Trail of Ten Falls in Oregon’s Silver Falls State Park. \u00a9 Jim Owens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
A detail from the rim trail in Silver Falls State Park. \u00a9 Jim Owens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Finally we arrived in Bend and spent a few days with high temperatures up in the 90’s. I enjoyed Bend more this time than I did the last, two years ago. We stayed right on the river near one of the spillways and a favorite park. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everywhere we went, Utah, Nevada, India, France, Oregon and Rhode Island, we encountered the pretty young woman, either with a posse of similar women or with a young fellow in tow, posing alone in the frame for social media. This brought me back to an earlier time when I photographed and wrote for regional magazines. The editorial complaint I heard most often was that I didn’t include enough people in my photography, and this meant, without it being put directly, the pretty young woman. It’s remarkable that after fifteen or so years the pretty woman has dispatched with the photographer, the writer, the editor, the publisher, and is the one part of that whole industry still left standing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Downtown Bend, a western American classic town. \u00a9 Jim Owens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Trails and green-space along the Deschutes River which forms the backbone of Bend Oregon. \u00a9 Jim Owens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My current style of photography is something I like to call photographic verisimilitude. Verisimilitude is a literary technique to figuratively bring a person to a place and allow them to feel being there. In photography it becomes more available when many images can be scrolled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On one level an image needs to stand by itself. The best images convey a story within the single image. Another approach became popular with magazines where a cluster of five or so images are used to provide a sense of being there. Now large numbers of images can be scrolled and these can be structured to build an entire environment and place the viewer within it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, I’ve started becoming familiar with a new AI feature available in Adobe Lightroom. I still am not enamored with how well AI works within Photoshop and Illustrator when the programs attempt to create an image from text. I do find the evolution of a lot of AI related editing features along the lines of extending images spatially to fill larger frames, extending video or music temporally, removal and replacement of things within an image, color manipulation in vector illustrations, and creation of depth of field as having reached a point of practical indispensable usefulness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve just been toying with the photo-animation feature and find it very interesting. My initial thoughts are that with a maximum resolution of the produced videos being only 1080p it really isn’t ready for primetime except for short clips used in social media. Also, of around 100 images I tested there were only three videos which I decided couldn’t be used and of these only one manifested spurious qualities that I would call extreme. Another several required removal of either the beginning or end of the clip because of spurious events. These all could be extended in Premiere Pro simply by slowing the videos to their original length.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two other important considerations are whether or not the clips can be considered original work by the person who produced them, and that this is early days in the evolution of the technology and it can only be expected to get much better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the clips I produced clearly apply someone else’s drone footage to my image. These show information in the video which is accurate but not present in the submitted photograph. So who actually produced the clip? Others apply behaviors to people and animals which probably are derived from other videos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In general I find the techniques and technology amazing and look forward to seeing it evolve and improve with the generation of 4k clips a high priority in whether it will prove successful or not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At its outset I was a strong critic of deep fake technology and what it could lead to as it becomes better and better. I still maintain those reservations. I’m not quite sure where this technology lies on the spectrum from editing aid to deep fake creation of scenes. I suspect it has something to do with the intent of the creator whoever or whatever that may be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What follows is a compilation of the clips which I didn’t reject. Many are not perfect. Many are extraordinary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n