Portrait Photography and Working in the Basement

We're making lot's of progress in the basement. My sister-in-law is the Dungeon Master and the Mudder! Please say mudder real slow! The two bedrooms are finished except for baseboards and trim around the doors. The new floors look great. And it looks like we're going to be able to finish the ceiling, install the floor, and finish the painting this week on the Rec Room. I thought my family would like to see the picture of the Rec Room with hardly anything in it. They will understand what a miracle this is! Perhaps the rest of you won't, unless there is someone in your family that stacks everything from the past 40-years from floor to ceiling and wall to wall! Then maybe you too will understand.

It's been a wonderful project to work on. I have gotten to know my little brother and his wife Kim much better than ever before in my life. They are fine people and I have learned to love them very much. This project has been a joy to work on with them, if for no other reason than this.

This is the baby of the family, my little brother Tommy. I love the way he thinks things through. He just doesn't screw things up. Doing a great job!

And this is my Dad. He pitches in and helps here and there. I can tell he really likes the transition and is excited to have it put back together in a way that our family will really be able to enjoy it. We'll have a pool table, a dart board, air hockey, video games for the kids, and lots of sleeping spaces available for the many family members that visit during the year.

My niece Santana has had a visitor from Germany during the past month. Marika was a foreign exchange student last year and lived with Santana and her family. I told them I would do some portrait photography for them, and since this was my first attempt to do something nice in this genre I did it for them for free. I thought it would be nice if they had something to commemorate their friendship. They're BFF's you know. I was pleased with the results but have much more to learn. I think I need some studio equipment which I hope to be able to purchase this fall. Lot's of fun though. And the girls were great!

County Fair

The Malheur County Fair is 100-years old this year. It was originally known as the Corn Festival. And by the looks of these square dancers they could still be corn growers. There's lots of corn grown in this country. The old-timers say that during hot weather you can go out in a corn field and hear it grow, it grows so fast!

A bunch of family went over on Wednesday evening to watch the County Fair Talent Contest, which my niece Santana competed in. She won first prize and $300 and the right to compete in the Oregon State Fair. She sang some country western song, something about losing her man, smoking a cigarette and drinking a six-pack of beer. She hit the high notes though.

I had alot of fun with my photography. The three photos posted here just might make my triptych collection. They're my favorites. I've posted more in a slide show and hope you all enjoy them. Click on the slide show to the left to view them in larger scale. Hope you all enjoy your county fair as much as I did.

Prey-Man's Thunder...

Prey-Man's Thunder by Patrick Braniff

My friend was born to fly
Through billowing clouds of sky-home.
And with wingtips stretched in freedom's search
Others joined
In the soaring brotherhood of life.
And all thinking the wing-flight
Would endure forever.

Then the Prey-Man's pointed thunder sparked
And mangled wing and fiery pain
Mixed with fearful screams of reason.
Yet my friend lived
Through the tumbling fall of darkness
Seeking to enjoy
The settling dusk of beloved sky-home
Until the thudded thump of impact
Brought blissful peace
And pain no more.

Life to life or life to death?
My friend still soars
And the Prey-Man's thunder
Speaks no more.

200 Model T Fords...

200 Model T Fords recently drove through Vale. They were on a road trip from New York City to Seattle. My friend Rosann called me up at 6:30 a.m. to inform me of this earthshattering event and we agreed to meet at the Livestock Sale Yard to view the parade of cars as they drove towards Unity and John Day.

The Model T Ford was manufactured from 1908 to 1927 and was known as the Tin Lizzie to the masses. 1908 is the historic year that automobiles came into popular use. It is the first affordable automobile that put America on wheels.

The Model T was designed by Childe Harold Wills and two Hungarian immigrants Joseph A. Galamb and Eugene Farkas. Before starting a Model T with the hand crank, the spark had to be manually retarded or the engine might 'kick back'. The crank handle was cupped in the palm, rather than grabbed with the thumb under the top of the handle, so that if the engine did kick back, the rapid reverse motion of the crank would throw the hand away from the handle, rather than violently twisting the wrist or breaking the thumb.

The car's 10-gallon fuel tank was mounted to the frame beneath the front seat; one variant had the carburetor (a Holley Model G) modified to run on ethyl alcohol, to be made at home by the self-reliant farmer. Because fuel relied on gravity to flow forward from the fuel tank to the carburetor, a Model T could not climb a steep hill when the fuel level was low. The immediate solution was often to drive up steep hills in reverse.

Consistent with the practical-mindedness of folk in those 'make do' days, the cost of the car was rationalized by added duty. The vehicle was used much like a farm vehicle by taking off the rear wheel and uysing belts, etc to power commonly available belt-driven equipment of the time. An example is a wide belt, powered from the rear hub, used to move hay from the ground to the hayloft in the barn.

Small Town Patriotism...

I don't think there is anything more special than witnessing our nation's birthday in a small town. Vale has a long tradition of celebrating the 4th of July, always with lot's of family, flags, parade and rodeo. The Vale 4th of July parade was 101 years old this year. The Vale Rodeo turned 95.

The citizens in this part of the country have a strong sense of national pride. Sure they're opinionated, when it comes to politics, and they'll all tell you that government should stay out of their business! But when it comes to loving our country they are willing to die for it. Many have sent their sons and daughters to war over the past many decades to defend America's freedom and liberty, and die for our country is what many have done.

I rode in the parade with my dad in his 1942 Chevrolet pickup, throwing candy to all the kids on the parade route. Put on my best 'Great Gatsby' look and had a great time. Also spent a couple of nights doing some photography at the rodeo. Hope you all enjoy the pics.

Must say, I'm grateful to be an American! No matter what our problems, I'm very very grateful.

Dog Wash!

Car wash, yes. But I've never heard of a Dog Wash. And would love to see a Cat Wash!

My niece, Santana, is a Cheer Leader at Vale High School. And today the Cheer Leaders had a fund raising event and it was a Dog Wash! I have never given Dakota a bath and didn't know how he would react so decided that I would take him to the Dog Wash and let them sort it out. I was the first customer of the day. I made sure I arrived early because I wanted my niece to do the honors, which she did beautifully. By the time they were finished shampooing, conditioning, cleaning ears, coat waxing, perfuming, and pedicuring, the line for Dog Wash was really quite long. Must have been six or eight dogs deep waiting for their turn. Of course I bought the super deluxe pamper special for $9. And because the girls did such a good job I also left a $1 tip. Lest you think I'm cheap, a 15% tip would have brought the total to $10.35 (so what if I was $.35 short of the 15% good manner tip). Still happens to be a good tip percent for Vale!

Thank-you 5th Graders...

For the past two years I have been a volunteer in Ms. Scotta's 5th grade class in the Mission District in San Francisco.

10-year old kids ask the most fascinating questions. My favorite came from a little hispanic kid who asked, 'Mr. Braniff, if the universe blew up would God still be alive?' You have to be sharp to keep up with these kids, let me tell you. My response was to answer his question with a question. 'Well, what if God created 10 universes and only one of them blew up, would he still be alive then?' 'Hmmm' he said and that was the end of that.

I just received a packet of letters from the '09 class and want to share some of the excerpts from their letters to me. I have quoted the excerpts exactly as they were written to me, bad spelling, bad grammer and all. Two of the kids spoke no english at the beginning of their 5th grade. One of them was Roxane from France, the other Muthana from Yeman. They speak english now, which speaks volumes about the kind of teacher Ms. Liz Scotta is. All the letters start out, 'Dear Mr. Braniff'.

'I think that you are an amazing and fun student teacher. You helped us a lot on every subject and you especially spend your time on comming to fieldtrips. When you came to some of the field trips you were always taking picures of us. Ms. Scotta told us that you are an excellent photographer and when she told us that you are were going to give us a dvd with pictures, videos, and music. I thought that it was the most special gift I ever had. When Ms. Scotta show us the dvd I was almost crying. Again thank you for this very special gift. I don't know if you remember but I am from France and I remembered that you were helping me at pronouncing number in english.' Roxane D.

'thank you for the pictures and I like all the fleacher marin headling. thank for make a dvd for us pictures. I like watercolors and I like the boats.' Muthana

'When we needed you you were like always there. I remmeber when we went to the moma museum I was in your group. I really miss you and friends miss you too. Thanks for being a good phothographer.' Paola H.

'First, I want to tell you thank you for helping Ms. Scotta with the students, and reading with us. Also, thank you for taking our halloween pictures, and our first 5th grade photographers. Next, I appreciate you and Ms. Scotta for having us improved our writing process, and my mathe skills.' Also, helping us do algebra, and fraction and even decimals, and percents. In conclusion I hope u could come back, and visit our school, and class again.' Tynesha D.

'Thank you 4 everything u did 4 us all year and u were a awsome photagrapher. It was a blast being with u in all the field trips. I really liked the Dvd u made 4 us it made me kinda like bursting out of sadness and crying.' Antonio Q.

'Thank you for being our class photographer and our class helper. We mostly liked that you took pictures of memories of our fifth grade year. I hope I have a teacher just like you in middle school.' Michael D.

'Thank you for giving us all your love to all the students I realy aprishiate that. Ms. Scotta chowed the students and me all the videos that you had done. That was so nice from you Mr. Braniff. I remember we went to the exploratorium and we so the eye of an cow and it was dicusting I really didn't like it because it was wird too.' Leslie P.

'Thank you for been whit us all the time and for been taking us photo and for been helping us and go whit us all the field trip and corect us no say bad words because there alot of them that are saying bad word in the school and Thank you for been reading whit us and been hyelping all the time and some times I didn't go whit you because I stay at home.' Anderson H.

'Thanks for being such a great volunteer. And I also wanna thank you for being our class photographer and for reading with us. In halloween I liked the costume you were wearing It was really funny when you pressed a button and water squirted out of the flower. When you came to our field trips it was funner than usual. The best field trip you were with us was Slide Ranch because you took pictures of us milking goat except me I did not want to milk one because it felt pretty weird.'

Volunteering the past two years has been a wonderful and rewarding experience for me. Sometimes it was frustrating. And sometimes when I was finished with my weekly four hour commitment I wanted to head to the nearest bar for a stiff drink! Thank you Liz for letting me be a volunteer in your classroom. And special thanks and gratitude goes to all of the students I have worked with over the past two years. You're the greatest!