Image of Mariposa Lilies blooming in the Oregon high desert

In some years it is rare to find any mariposa lilies blooming.  Because of our wet spring in the Oregon High Desert, there were quite a few blooming this year but having two healthy mariposa blooms in the same composition was still rare.  Having two vibrant blooms, with a few as of yet unopened blooms, adds an optimistic feel to this image.  I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that the film from my large format camera turn out well.  If anyone finds any good groupings of Mariposa lilies, please let me know!

Thanks for Reading,

Mike Putnam

Oregon Landscape Photography at Three Creeks Brewery in Sisters, Oregon

My work will probably be hanging at Three Creeks Brewery for a couple of months and I plan on rotating the Oregon Landscape photography that I display at this wonderful Sisters Oregon location.  The above image shows the images I currently have available at Three Creeks.  If you’d like to learn more about  Hoo Doo Voo Doo IPA From Three Creeks Brewery, follow this link Oregon Beer Reviews.

Thanks For Reading,

Mike Putnam

Central Oregon's Mount Washington

For those of you who who will be in downtown Bend, Oregon tonight for the First Friday Art Walk, please stop by and see me at Patagonia Of Bend(formerly Pandora’s backpack).  The above image of Central Oregon’s Mt. Washington is one of the several images that will be on display at Patagonia.   Art walks typically last from 5-9pm but things may close early if there isn’t much traffic in the Downtown Bend area.

Oregon's Sparks Lake at Sunrise

I’ll have the above image of Sparks Lake on display, it is one of the best sparks lake photos I’ve ever taken, so hurry on down and take a look!  As is usually the case, Patagonia of Bend will have a white wine of some sort available.  Their wines are wonderful for removing paint and other debris from under your finger nails and I’m told that their wines are very effective as a solvent to remove pine pitch from dog fur or from the hood of your car.  So if you have any solvent needs, come on down and grab a glass of Rod’s handy wine!

Mount Jefferson

The above photograph of Mt. Jefferson will also be on display at the First Friday Art walk tonight at Patagonia of Bend.  It is one of the best Oregon landscape photographs I’ve ever taken, and I’ll have a large framed version on display tonight!  If you are lucky, you might get to meet Patagonia’s manager, Mo. Mo is wonderful.  Helpful, personable, funny and empowering.  If you meet her, tell her I said she is awesome!

Oregon's Cascades at Sunrise

The above photograph of Central Oregon’s Cascade Mountains is one of my personal favorites.  Taken from the highest point in the “true” Central Oregon area, the summit of South Sister, I definitely earned this shot.  I’ll have a large framed 30×50 inch print of this image downtown tonight.  While at the Art Walk tonight, try to say hello to Rod Bien, the owner of both Patagonia of Bend and Fleet Feet of Bend.  Rod is a famous ultramarathoner, father, husband and retail giant.  Despite his fame, the real reasons we love Rod are his crooked legs, his affable personality, and his horrendous taste in wine.  If you are fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of his legs, notice the resemblance to to the famous yet crooked legged racehorse, Seabiscuit.  It’s uncanny!

Bend, Oregon's Shevlin Park

The above image of Bend, Oregon’s Shevlin Park will also be on display tonight at Patagonia of Bend.  Even if you don’t get to taste the awful wine and even if you don’t get to see Rod’s crooked legs, I think you will enjoy my photography, so please stop by tonight and say hello.

For those of you who have never been to one of my shows at Patagonia of Bend, they are located at 920 NW Bond St, in downtown Bend, Oregon.

Thanks for reading and I hope to see some of you tonight!

Mike Putnam

Love Your Mother!

Much of my work as a professional Landscape Photographer here in Bend Oregon is dictated by Mother Earth.  Will the flowers be blooming, will the sunrise be vibrant, will the wind be blowing?  It’s all up to her.  Because of that and my lifelong passion for the outdoors, I’ve been looking for a way to give something back to mother nature and Mother Earth.

Have you seen those “Make Local Habit” stickers around Bend?  Well I have and I love them.   After seeing one of those stickers on the back window of a Subaru Outback in downtown Bend, I had an epiphany.  I’d give 20% of my print prices to environmentally based non-profit groups and I’d make them local ones.  This commitment to Mother Earth will continue for one month.  Luckily there are some phenomenally well run environmental organizations with which I already have a great relationship, so the decision was an easy one.  I’ve decided that my contribution to Mother Earth will come in the form of donations to either The Deschutes Land Trust or the Oregon Natural Desert Association.

Both of these two organizations are efficient, have honorable missions, and they are staffed with talented, motivated  and affable individuals.  To describe these groups a bit better, I have borrowed some text from their respective websites.  To find out more, please visit the links for yourself.

The Deschutes Land Trust:  ”The Land Trust’s mission is to work cooperatively with landowners to conserve land for wildlife, scenic views and local communities.”

The Deschutes Land Trust Vision:

The Oregon Natural Desert Association:  ONDA is a 1,400-member, grassroots        organization committed toprotecting, defending, and restoring the health of  Oregon’s native deserts for present and future generations. Founded in 1987,  ONDA is the only group working exclusively to protect Oregon’s vast High Desert. Over the past 20 years, ONDA has earned many successes including the protection of Steens Mountain as the nation’s first “cow-free” Wilderness in 2000, and the removal of livestock from both the Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuge and the Wild and Scenic Owyhee River. In 2009 ONDA was instrumental in the designation of the Badlands and Spring Basin Wilderness Area, creating 40,000 acres of new desert wilderness.

Below is one of my favorite locations in Oregon, Jefferson Park, with possibly my favorite mountain in the world, Mt. Jefferson.  While you won’t be able to see flowers blooming in Jefferson Park for a couple more months, I couldn’t resist including this image in this spring photography primer because of it’s hopeful vernal feel.

Mt. Jefferson as seen from the beautiful Jefferson Park Area

The above Mt. Jefferson/Jefferson Park photograph can currently be seen at the Sage Cafe in the Northwest Crossing neighborhood in Bend, Oregon.  My work will be hanging at the Sage Cafe through the end of April and then it will sadly leave the cafe’s friendly confines.  My work is no longer hanging at the Volcano Vineyards Tasting Room in Downtown Bend but it is still showing at Pandora’s Backpack AKA Patagonia of Bend on Bond Street in Downtown Bend.

Bitterroot Blooms trumpet the arrival of Spring in the High Desert

The above photo of Bitterroot blooms was taken in the high desert area outside of Sisters, Oregon.  The Bitterroots are one of the earliest flowers to bloom in Central Oregon and they give a beautiful yet delicate announcement of Spring’s arrival.  Everybody get out and hike in the High Desert and let me know if you see any of these beauties in their full spring glory.

The following image of Balsamroot and lichen covered basalt columns was also shot in  Central Oregon’s High Desert.  This area near  the Alder Springs Trail Head is a wonderful spring hiking destination.  For more information about this hiking area, please visit the website for the good people of the Deschutes Land Trust.  They do a great job of preserving and protecting wild and beautiful places in Central Oregon such as Alder Springs.  Deschutes Land Trust.  Because much of the Central Oregon High Desert is lower in elevation than the city of Bend, the spring season arrives earlier in the high desert.  There are many areas in Central Oregon that will have big bright  yellow Balsamroot sharing their spring cheer in the next few weeks.  Their bloom season is short so plan a hike to one of your favorite high desert trails soon.

Balsamroot bloom with a back drop of lichen covered basalt columns in Central Oregon's High Desert

The next photograph of southeast Oregon’s Steens Mountain offers another reminder that spring comes early in the high desert.  While Steens Mountain is a lengthy drive from Bend, it is a truly beautiful place and it can offer an early dose of spring.  To learn more about Steens Mountain, visit the following link to the ONDA website.  The Oregon Natural Desert Association(ONDA) was instrumental in protecting Steens Mountain for current and future generations.  Steens Mountain.

Steens Mountain in the Oregon High Desert

If any of you Central Oregon hikers see some great high desert flowers starting to bloom, please let me know so I can add to my spring shooting schedule.

Thanks for visiting,

Mike Putnam

I’m pleased to announce that I will be in downtown Bend, Oregon for the First Friday Art Walk from approximately 5-9PM this Friday, March 5th.  I will start the evening at the Volcano Vineyards Tasting Room located at 126 NW Minnesota St I’ll be there from approximately 5-7PM.

The walls of the Volcano Vineyards Tasting Room festooned with beautiful Photography!

At 7Pm I’ll move to Pandora’s Backpack which is located just around the corner at 920 NW Bond St where I’ll reside from approximately 7-9pm.

Patagonia by Pandora's Backpack located at 920 NW Bond St. in Bend, Or

I’ll have some of my best work displayed at these locations so please stop by.

Volcano will have their always stellar wines available for a very fair price and the Pandora’s Backpack will have their always awful wine available for free!  It should be noted that while Rod Bien’s(owner of Pandora’s Backpack) taste in wine has been know to make winos gag, they do have a beautiful collection of Patagonia clothing that will make any outdoor enthusiast giddy with excitement.

smiling and helpful staff members, like Whitney, seen above, will be available to serve you some semi-toxic wine tomorrow(3/5/10) at Pandora's Backpack

Please stop by for good or bad wine and hopefully great Photography!  Below is a small sampling of the work I will have available.

Mt. Washington at sunrise.

Photograph of Shevlin Park in Autumn.

Photo of a beautiful sunrise from one of Oregon's most photogenic locations, Central Oregon's Sparks Lake.

Sunrise on Central Oregon's Broken Top Mountain with a wildflower filled foreground.

Please stop by as it should be a great evening!

All the Best,

Mike Putnam

Interior of the Volcano Vineyards Tasting room in Downtown Bend, Oregon

As the First Friday art walk for downtown Bend was cancelled for January( because it was on New Years Day) This Art Walk for February should be especially busy and exciting.  Below is another shot of the interior of The Volcano Tasting Room with some of my fine art landscape photographs on the walls.

My fine art photographs hanging at the Volcano Vineyards mothership in downtown Bend.

Finally one last shot of the lovely and affable Liz Ratcliff who along with her husband, Scott, is the owner and operator of Volcano.  If you see Liz on Friday night, buy a glass of their amazing Syrah and tell her the landscape photography looks stunning!

Liz Ratcliff of Volcano Vineyards fame!

I hope to see some of you Friday Night At Volcano! Come enjoy the Great Wine, Great Music and Great photography at my newest fine art photography gallery in downtown Bend!

Thanks for Visiting,

Mike Putnam

Sage Cafe in Bend, Oregon's Northwest Crossing neighborhood

For those of you who don’t live in Northwest Crossing,  you now have an extra reason to go visit this wonderful Deli/coffee shop/art gallery as my Landscape photography is currently hanging there and will be up through the end of February.  Sage Cafe is located at 2762 NW Crossing Dr. #102 on the West side of Bend, Oregon.  Below is part of the talented, affable, and hard-working staff at Sage.

Sage Cafe's talented and personable staff

Below you will see some of my Central Oregon pictures  with my hand crafted frames hanging at Sage which will temporarily serve as my personal Bend Art Gallery.  I will rotate images through Sage a couple of times this month, so please check back frequently to see which new landscape photographs they have hanging on their walls.

My Landscape PHotography hanging at Sage Cafe, at the Northwest Crossing, Bend Oregon.

If anyone would like a private showing of any of the work currently hanging at Sage Cafe or any of my other work, please call me at 541.610.4815.

Thanks For Visiting,

Mike Putnam

My 4x5 camera , "The Big Rig" which I use to capture all of the images in my fine art landscape portfolio.

THE CAMERA.  WHY I STILL USE A LARGE FORMAT 4X5 CAMERA FOR ALL OF MY FINE ART PRINTS.

1. I like it!  I like working with a semi-historic camera, I like the feel of it’s cherry wood body, I like the feel of the brass fittings and I like the fact that I feel like I am creating art with art when I am composing a scene with this beautiful camera.  It is a very Artisan way of capturing and creating fine art images.  In a time of ever advancing digital technology, Film simply film simply feels more real to me.  I consider myself a documentary artist.  My intention is to capture natural scenes at their very best with minimal post processing.  My 4×5 camera helps keep me in touch with that intention.

2. The deliberate process of using this camera makes me fine tune my images before exposure.  This camera is largely the opposite of modern digital cameras with which you can fire away without discretion.  The film is expensive as is the processing.  I estimate that it costs me about $10 per exposure with this camera.  The inherent deliberation required with using this type of camera, combined with the cost forces me to pay attention to composition, exposure and focus.  This extra attention to details actually saves me time in post processing and that I like.

3. Perspective Control.  Large Format cameras like mine are made with bellows so that the film plane and the lens plane can move separate of one another.  This separate movement allows me to change the plane of focus in a given shot so that I can get a larger percentage of a given scene in sharp focus than is possible with digital  and 35 mm cameras.

4. Big Image format.  Part of the reason that I refer to my camera as “The Big Rig” is that it is physically large.  The other reason is that it has a very large film format(4 inches x 5 inches, thus the term 4×5 camera).  The magic of this kind of camera lies in this large film format.  I have to enlarge my transparencies very little compared to digital and other types of film cameras when I want to make a large print.  Because of this large film format, I can also make an exceptionally detailed fine art print at very large print sizes.  I’ve read that a slow speed 4×5 transparency can be drum scanned and is the equivalent of a 150 megabyte digital camera.  That’s huge and that is a big part of why I love this camera.

THE TRIPOD( see the above image)

I use a Gitzo 1228 Carbon fiber tripod and I love it.(Come on Gitzo, how about a little sponsorship money!) It is light for a tripod that is so sturdy because of the carbon fiber material that it is made of.  It has plenty of stability, adjustability and it does a good job of dampening vibration which allows me to create images that are crisp and wiggle-free.  I also use a Gitzo ball head, for a full range of camera focusing options.

THE LENSES

I carry a small stable of lenses when ever I go out shooting.  Because telephoto lenses tend to have lower image quality than fixed lenses, I have opted to use only fixed lenses in my lens collection.  My lens collection is pictured below.

My Lens Collection. These lenses include 75mm,90mm,135mm,210mm, and 300mm and at the bottom of this image is my Pentax 1 degree Spotmeter

4×5 camera lenses tend to have a field of view that is 3x wider than the equivalent 35mm lenses.  That is to say that the 75mm lens for my 4×5 camera is roughly equivalent to a 25mm lens on a 35 mm camera.  My lenses include a 75mm,90mm,135mm,210mm, and 300mm.  In terms of a 35mm camera, this collection does not allow for a very long/telephoto option.  This is fine with me.  In general, the further away a photographer is from his or her subject, the lower the image quality is.   Not having a longer lens option, forces me to get closer closer to my subjects and therefore I have more sharpness in my images and greater image quality.  It is simultaneously a self control and a quality control mechanism!  These lenses are all very specialized and therefore very expensive but without a great lens you cannot have a sharp image, so I’m willing to pay the price.

The pentax spot meter at the bottom of the above picture is the tool I use to take light readings which I then use to calculate exposure times.  The fact that it is a 1 degree spot meter  means that it samples light from a circle only 1 degree in diameter.  This gives me greater control over exposure which is especially valuable is some unusual lighting situations.

Me and "The Big Rig" at my preferred office, high in the Oregon Cascades. Photo Credit: "Old Mike" Croxford

These are the high points from my gear collection.  I have a hand full of other goodies that accompany me on my photography outings, but they aren’t as critical as my camera, lenses, and tripod.  If you are an aspiring photographer and would like some further information or advice about photography gear, please feel free to contact me through the “contact” tab  at the upper right hand corner of the home page of this website.

Thanks For Visiting,

Mike Putnam

One of My Large Format Landscape photographs framed with the Cherry wood frames that I make by hand in my basement workshop.

Long ago, after I had printed my very first large scale fine art print, I took my print into a frame shop.  Lets just say that it is a very large chain type of frame shop.  This particular store frequently has 50% off sales, so I took a coupon in and selected some matting,mounting,glass, and moulding(the pre-made framing material).  When the charges were totaled, the price was mind bogglingly high!  Even at 50% off!  I quickly realized that I would not be able to afford to frame many large scale fine art prints with this ridiculous pricing structure.  A Do-It-Yourself mentality took over and I decided to try to make my own frame.  Because I am fairly handy and I have done a little furniture making in the past, I extrapolated from what I already knew.  An underlying insecurity drove me to select cherry as my wood of choice because I knew that if no one ever bought one of my framed prints, the prints would still match the mantle in our living room, which is also made of cherry wood!  I have to admit that I have also had a preference for cherry wood in that It is hard, works well, it often has wonderful grain patterns and I think it looks beautiful with a natural Oil finish which I prefer.  I’ll spare you the intricacies of the evolution of my framing techniques and I’ll jump straight to how I make my frames.

Before I delve into the intricacies of frame making, let me preface everything by saying that the following pictures are in no means fine art.  They are snap shots.  I’ll also add that my process of frame making is not fine art.  It is hard blue collar work, that makes me feel tough.  It is dirty, sometimes physically tiring, and after a long day of frame making, I’m exhausted.  That being said, I love the results.  I describe my frames as being simple, elegant, natural, and unique.  They are a perfect compliment to my fine art photography. They are not perfect, because the real cherry wood that I make them from is not perfect, but it does have wonderful character that makes it much more interesting that processed, fake frames.

I start my process with real, cherry wood that I buy at Hardwood Industries here in Bend Oregon.  The guys there, Tom, Hunter, and Mike are very helpful moving pallets of wood around with their forklift so that I can get to the high quality cherry wood that I need.  I go through big piles of rough sawn wood an select boards that have mostly heart wood and interesting grain that I think I can make into  a beautiful frame.  Below is a pile of hardwood in the raw at the Hardwood Industries.

Piles of rough sawn Cherry at Hardwood Industries, in Bend, Oregon.

After selecting the boards I want, I stuff these 10 foot long pieces of lumber into my truck and haul them down to my basement once I arrive at home.

I’d like to remind you that My basement wood shop, which I affectionately refer to as Lava Lands Wood Shop(because there are small basalt columns in my shop which are remnants of an ancient volcanic eruption) is not a show room and it is not especially pretty but is is efficient and I do a lot of real blue collar work there.   I bet the guys on “This old House” don’t have a lava flow in their shop!  Perhaps the only thing pretty about my shop is my new Cabinet grade Table saw(Thanks to the folks at Grizzly who made it).  I love my table saw!  I is burly(526 lbs) and will cut through anything.  Yes, Mom, I know it will cut through my arm too.  Below is a dusty shot of my workhorse grizzly table saw.

My Grizzly table saw in my dusty,"Lava lands wood shop"

Back to the frames.  I decide how many frames I want to make and of what size and then determine which individual board will work the best for my purposes.  I then chop the boards to approximate length with my Dewalt miter saw.

Cutting hardwood to length in my wood shop with my miter saw

Next I rip the wood to the appropriate width with my beautiful Grizzly Table Saw.

Ripping wood to width on my table saw.

I usually rip the wood for several frames at a time until I have stacks of wood of the appropriate dimensions as seen below.

Unstained cherry wood cut to dimensions for picture frames.

Next I examine each piece of wood and determine which of its two wide faces are best for the front of a picture frames.  I don’t like sap wood(white wood) to show on the face of my frames and I don’t want any cracks or worm holes to be present either.  After the inspection, I cut a “Rabbit” out of one corner of the bottom face of the wood so that I have a notch to fit the print, backing,glass,matting, etc. into.  Below is a picture of m cutting a rabbit out of a piece of framing wood.

Cutting a "rabbit" out of the back of a piece of framing wood

Next I step over to my vice and do some more fine tuned work.  First I plane out the saw blade marks from the ends of each piece of wood.

Planing out the blade marks from a piece of hard wood

Next step is the first of many steps involving sanding.  Sanding is dusty,tiring, monotonous, it makes my hands achy the next morning, and I do  a great deal of it on every frame I make.  Despite being a grueling part of making frames, the results are wonderful.  To feel a buttery smooth face on a piece of hard wood is always rewarding.  First I sand each exposed side of a given piece of wood with 100 grit sand paper, then I sand it with 220 grit sand paper.

Sanding the edge of a piece of hard wood.

Sanding is a very time consuming step in my frame making process.  After it is thankfully over, I miter the corners of each piece of wood as seen below.

Mitering the ends of a pice of sanded wood

Then I’m left with lots of little triangular pieces of wood.  I typically throw these pieces away but I suspect they would make great kindling for a fire place, so if any of you readers happen to live in Bend, Oregon and need some great kindling for your wood burning fire place, you are more than welcome to come pick it up at my house.

Waste wood/kindling for anyone who wants it!

After Mitering, I pair and mark  and number the corners so that I can accurately join the corners when glueing and clamping them.  I match up adjoining pieces and mark a joining point that serves as a marker for cutting a biscuit slot.

Marking a corner before joining and glueing

Below is an images of two mitered ends.  One with a biscuit slotted into the joint face.

Two mitered ends with a biscuit slotted into one end of one of the framing pieces.

The idea of adding a biscuit joint to picture frames or any piece of furniture is that having  a biscuit slotted gives more surface area for glue to adhere to, therefore making for a much stronger joint.  This might be a little over-kill for picture frames but I like the idea that my picture frames are very durable and under normal conditions should last a lifetime.

Picture frame being clamped up after glueing

You can see glue dripping off of the corners of the frame in the image above.  After 24 hours of hardening, I begin another long session of sanding to even out and round off the corners and to remove any glue that has been smeared on the frames face during the glueing and clamping process.

I start this session with 100 grit sandpaper and follow that up with 220 grit sandpaper.  Once everything is smooth, I burnish the entire surface of the frame with 0000 steel wool.  Burnishing serves to further smooth the frames surface and slightly darken it as well.  With vigorous rubbing, the surface of the frame actually heats and finishes with a wonderfully smooth finish which helps to highlight the beautiful grain of the cherry wood that I use to make the frames.  Burnishing  gives me a brisk upper body work-out and gives my frames an excellent quality finish.

After burnishing, I apply natural oils to the frame which slightly darken the wood’s surface.  Frames are often lighter in color than I want them to be after I finish oiling them so I set them outside in direct sunlight to help darken the frames a little bit.

Picture frames suntanning in my front yard

Suntanning my frames can be a little frustrating during winter storm cycles that offer little direct sunlight and frequent snow falls.  If I have a delay in framing, it is usually because of this set in my framing process.  For those of you not familiar with cherry wood, cherry naturally darkens with age and exposure to ambient light.  Each piece of wood has a limit beyond which it won’t darken anymore, but some pieces can get quite dark.  I try to reinforce this fact to collectors who select my framing rather than opting for their own custom framing.  I am quite proud of how my frames look and how they make my landscape photographs look but it is important to note that I am never offended if someone wants to have one of my prints custom framed.  I do the framing at cost so I receive no monetary benefit from someone selecting my frames.  They are also very labor intensive( hours of work goes into each frame) but because I enjoy the process and because I like how they make my prints look, I continue to offer these hand made frames at a very reasonable price.

I should also note that while I do make all of my own picture frames, I do not cut my own mattes or glass.  I leave that up to the guys at Art On The Go (David, Brian, and Matt) who do a great job at a fair price.  I don’t have the space for matting equipment in my home and I honestly don’t think I could do as good of a job as they do anyway.

While making frames is far from blissful, I do enjoy the results and the opportunity to make something beautiful with my hands.  It is a very blue collar activity but one that gives a little balance to my life as an Oregon landscape photographer.

If anyone has further questions regarding my framing Please feel free to contact me through my website, or E-Mail me directly at mputnam@bendcable.com

Thanks for Visiting,

Mike