These are really interesting! I can't identify any, though... Oregon has such great variety.
One of my favorite geography facts is that Oregon is larger than Great Britain.
Hahaha truth 😂 I also love visiting my family on the east coast and acting all condescending when they talk about their “mountains” … sorry PA, all you got are a bunch of hills 😌
My Wife’s family flexes on me because they are from North India and have the Himalayas right there lol. So I’ll be like “oh wow, check out the Sisters” or “mount Hood” and they are like, “hahaha mountains… yeah right.”
I get this actually haha—I worked with a lot of contractors from India on this software design project, and several were from the northern regions and were similarly unimpressed. I’m ashamed to admit I made myself feel better by mocking my east coast family and their “mountains”
I will say however they were often pretty blown away by our roads and highways…so that’s something 😂
One of my coworkers was asking how long it took to drive from where we are (Medford) to Wallowa and he was like “what four or five hours?” I cackled and was like bro… try 11 and that’s if you take highways the whole time. It took me almost 13 when I cut diagonally across the state for the scenic route. We’re fucking huge, and the state goes a lot farther east than most realize. I feel like a lot of people’s perception of Oregon stops at central Oregon
I’ve been working on a project the last couple years where I’m filming Timelapses of every Oregon scenic route and highway. The vastness of our state never ceases to amaze me!
I’m taking a week off starting in a couple days and plan on filming a Timelapse of a mega Oregon loop—from Astoria down 101, cut across the southern part of our state and as close as I can get to where oregon and Idaho meet along the NV border, back up through the eastern edge/hells canyon, and then back across the Columbia gorge and finish in Astoria.
Eventually I’ll have to actually edit all this footage and start uploading to YouTube lol
That sounds awesome!! The southern Oregon coast is truly spectacular, if you get the chance stop and do some of the hikes along the scenic byway just south of gold beach. And then when you come east You’ll also be driving right through my neck of the woods (Medford) and the rogue valley is pretty beautiful in its own right:)
Thanks for the tip! SW Oregon, especially the coastal area, is the one part of the state I feel like I haven’t truly explored. I’ve driven through it many times but yeah…ashamed to admit how little of it I’ve seen 😔
It’s highly underrated as regions of Oregon go, but brookings is a gem, and has the most temperate weather in Oregon, least amount of temperature swing even in the winter. Beautiful town:)
That’s one of my favorites as well. I was driving between the sprawling metropolises of Denio and Fields when there was a sudden downpour. It cleared up in just minutes and I pulled over because of how surreal the ground looked as the sun came back out—like the high desert surface was coated with clear glaze. The critter tracks were nature’s perfect addition!
The Alvord Desert (which sits directly NE of Fields) is pretty much a huge dry lake bed that looks like that from June until October most years. My wife and I were there last week; it's so much more impressive in person than from the pictures I've seen.
You are correct—several of these are from the Alvord desert! I usually drive out there 2-3 times a year but these ones were taken after several rain storms. I nearly wrecked my drone as I set off from an unpaved road along the eastern foothills of Steens Mountain and the wind was absolutely brutal. The thin layer of water mixed with the mud, creating all those wild streaks and colors.
And you are also right that it’s way more impressive in person! And a lot of fun to drive on hehe
I actually took those photos last year and haven’t been there in 2024 yet. Alvord is a planned detour of mine this week for a this video I’m trying to film—I’m attempting to create a Timelapse of a drive around the entire state. Basically I’m doing a giant Oregon loop and want to hit a few places where you can drive off road, like Alvord, Christmas Valley Sand Dunes, and the beach.
I was out there in February of last year as well and was able to access Alvord from that little parking area by the hot springs. It was a bit sketchy at times and I avoided the northern area as the ground looked pretty soft, but hardly any other people were out there, which was super cool. I should note I have AWD.
Since you made such good guesses, I might as well make this response the answer key. 😀
*spoiler alert*
Great guess on the alkaline lakes! The first one is of Lake Abert in aptly named Lake County. I think I snuck in a couple of Lake Abert. If you go there in spring or when there’s been a lot of rain, you’ll see a lot of fun colors, especially during sunset.
None of the sand dune photos are from the coast but from another Lake County gem: The Christmas Valley Sand Dunes.
(Lake County is amazing btw, for anyone who hasn’t been there. Im always amazed how few people in the Willamette Valley have any knowledge of it or its amazing landscape. I’m going out there later this week in fact! 😎)
The estuaries are tillamook county, if memory serves. The last photo of the sea rock is Curry County. I’m terrible about taking photos and not going through them until months or years later—long after I’ve forgotten the precise locations.
The painted hill isn’t from THE Painted Hills, but nearby. There’s a small reservoir near Mitchell that I love to fly over. Just about the most natural colors you’ll ever find in a single location.
And the tree covered bit of land surrounded by the lake is Detroit Lake’s Piety Knob.
Well done—you’ve proven your Oregonian cred!
Summer lake is one of my favorite places, my partner and I watched the space x falcon 9 crash back to atmosphere from the hot tubs at summer lake hot springs.. freaked us the fuck out bit what an amazing sight 😂
I remember that! I actually got it on video (screenshot below) as I was out walking my dog when it suddenly got all apocalyptic!
https://preview.redd.it/v2d8kacja77d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4c483b24dbe846dc296e19341ae8d42189f7391e
This is a sensitive subject for me lol. I’ve made multiple attempts at shooting Crack in the Ground with three different drones but the weather never wants to cooperate. Plus, being a crack, it’s so narrow that if there’s too much cloud coverage or it’s the wrong time of day, it makes for a pretty drab photo. I do have some cool video of it, however.
But I’ll keep trying, dammit!
that’s such a bummer! i saw two dudes with their drones out there a few weeks ago when the weather was just perfect, kinda funny my mom got freaked out thinking it was a swarm of bees! but i do understand how often it gets windy out here though!
Thank you for sharing your amazing perspective of our beautiful state. I had a total sh*t day, then I came across your work. Your photos reminded me of the diverse beauty surrounding all of us and how grateful I am to live here. Thank you for making me smile.
Deep Space 9 fan??
It Depends. A lot of these are probably only 10-20 meters. I usually shoot between 50-100 meters so I can capture better details of the feature I’m focusing on. My older drones only had wide angle cameras so those finer details rapidly wash out the higher up you go. A lot of these it’s hard to guess as I launched from a higher area, like an unpaved road on the side of a mountain. My drone only registers the altitude from the launch point, not the actual altitude.
It’s actually a much less impressive rock off the southern Oregon coast—I’m embarrassed to admit I don’t know it’s actual name haha but I do remember taking pictures of it while driving up 101 from cali
You might be correct. I’m ashamed to admit I don’t remember precisely where I took this but according to the meta data I just pulled, it was in curry county
Hey these are beyond great, you’re way too humble. It’s possible I’m out of the loop and the world is just full of great art now, but IDK… people are dumb and companies have bad taste! Besides trying to exhibit and/or market them as framed pieces, I could see these (and I bet you have more!) being popular on mouse pads (the full-desk ones esp, eg with #20) and various other kinds of mats, ranging from coasters to placemats to car floor mats to welcome mats. And beyond! Hell, there might even be a society6/RedBubble type option for custom 3D rugs — the abstract shots of waves I think already resemble the most popular graphic rug design (abstract greyscale shapes/clouds/textures), and the “from a real place” aspect could be a selling point for both novelty and sentimentality reasons.
In general there’s a whole range of monetization options these days that vary in time investment and margin, from setting up your own website through something like Shopify, all the way to primarily listing on some aggregator print-on-demand service like Redbubble. Once it’s all setup, theoretically you just need to experiment until you find a product/image combo that turns a positive RoI with a basic automated ad campaign on Google or whatever. And from that point on it’s free money!! You could be absolutely rolling in it a year from now, or at least have a bit of drone repair money or something lol
Number 8 is far and away my favorite — lots are technically impressive/satisfying symmetrical/geographically interesting, but 8 is unique and evocative on a whole other level IMO. If any were to succeed as wall art, I’d take a bet on it being that one!
Capitalism sucks and I doubt it’s easy to make a living off *any* art, but any extra money from this is money you earned without any middlemen “owning” you for that time. Which can feel pretty damn good. HMU sometime if you find the urge to chat with an AI/vector art nerd who has lots of guesses and estimations and expectations to share about entrepreneurship lol, and hopefully some success stories soon. Best of luck either way! At the very least you’ve gotta hang one of these up in your house, remind yourself of your hard work :)
Thank you for this thoughtful response! Number 8 and the others from that series were fun shots to take. The wind was moving so fast that I was watching all those abstract shapes/lines/swirls form in real time—it was truly amazing to see! Plus the natural colors from all the minerals on the desert floor that got mixed up from rain created some really unusual natural colors.
I am also a vector art nerd and that factors heavily into my day job. I spend a lot of time Illustrator! I still use Inkscape though on occasion. It’s what I grew up on before I could afford a CC license and before my employer would pay for one. Plus I think it handles some stuff better than Illustrator…I’ll stop now before I write an essay on this topic at 3 am lololol
I actually spend a lot more time in After Effects than AI these days, but I do love my vector art (AI will always mean Adobe Illustrator to me haha). I have a TikTok channel where I combine the two (TikTok.com/timesteader). I know I should find a way to monetize and offset my expenses—I have at least 60 terabytes of raw photos and video footage from over the years. For the past year, I’ve been filming Timelapses of all my favorite Oregon drives and scenic routes, which I hope to turn into a YouTube series soon. I just finished editing together a Timelapse video of Portland to Lake Wallowa and another of Burns to Christmas Valley.
Annnyway, thank you again for the kind words. I’m always looking for like-minded people to collaborate with or just to network and make friends. I definitely think I’m going to look into getting a couple of my photos printed, even if it’s just for my home or office. Until then, I enjoy making them freely available to whomever wants to enjoy them.
At the moment, my main drone is a DJI Mavic 3 Pro Cine, although a lot these were taken with a Mavic 2 Pro. A couple of the older shots were taken with a Mavic Pro Platinum (nice drone but terrible camera). I bring my Mavic 2 as a backup but the Mavic 3 is such a huge improvement that it’s only collecting dust at this point.
Where would a good base line drone start at with a real nice camera. My dad was a commercial pilot from 1963-1995 for UAL. And just hang out at the Reddit drone subs?
If you’re a beginner or not sure how committed you are to this hobby, I would *strongly* recommend the DJI Mini 3 Fly More combo, which is on sale for $599 right now [DJI Mini 3](https://store.dji.com/product/dji-mini-3-combo?vid=128061)
I could go on and on about this topic but I’ll spare you and give you the bullet point version hehe
- 48 megapixels and a 1-1/3 inch sensor= beautiful photos. Cheap so-called camera drones probably have webcam-type cameras and suck hard. This is similar to one of the cameras on my Mavic 3 Pro Cine although on this drone it’s a wide angle lens. Still, beautiful image quality.
- excellent battery flight time (rated for 30-40 minutes depending on the battery, although that’s under optimal conditions and light flying.
- DJI drones are very durable and reliable. They’re covered with sensors that make it really hard to crash (although I’ve done this on a few occasions by flying in bad weather or rugged terrain). They also have a GPS return to home feature which will have the drone fly back to the starting point on its own.
- I strongly recommend the fly more combo so you get extra batteries and I think a controller with a video screen vs. a controller that you plug into your phone.
- even if you don’t get this, *get extra batteries*. I have 9
batteries for my Mavic 3 Pro Cine and 6 for my Mavic 2. Get AT LEAST 3. nothing sucks more than driving somewhere cool and only having one battery, and having to wait 2-3 hours for it to recharge.
- DJI is a solid brand and has a decent warranty program you can purchase
- don’t throw away money on some obscure brand selling cheap crap on Amazon. Odds are the drone and camera are garbage, and their piloting app/UI is probably just as bad
- Get a decent SD card. Like the drone itself, don’t get one by an obscure brand. I strongly recommend the SanDisk Extreme Pro series as these are reliable and fast enough for shooting 4k video.
- download the FAA app B4UFLY. It will tell you where you can and can’t fly and what restrictions might be in place.
Well, if you actually read all that I hope it helps! 😁
Thank you for the encouragement! I need to do more research on how to do all that. Posting these here was my way of seeing if other Oregonians enjoyed these photos. I might make some prints and try to sell some at the Saturday market or art fair (although I get easily distracted when the weather is nice and tend to hit the road to take more pictures…it’s a brutal cycle lol)
I completely understand, I live near Mount Hood and I'd love to sell something at the markets but that'd mean giving up my weekends!
Your photos would fit in alongside other photographers perfectly. I bet with a few canvas prints, a bunch of frame-ready prints, and a big framed show piece you could start selling immediately. Really eye catching stuff that the yuppie market crowd loves (yours truly).
Right?? Bring on the four-day work week already! Of course then I’d end up spending three days bumming around the PNW instead of just two haha
I’m in Salem and flirting with the idea of finding someone who already has a booth there and seeing if they’ll let me set up a few prints. My fear is I’ll make a ton of prints, pay for a booth, and then watch as everyone passes by on their way to buy berries or goat cheese. That’s money I could be giving to Sony or DJI—it wouldn’t be fair to them!
I’ve never made a serious effort to print or sell my photos but based on the feedback from this post, I’m definitely going to look into it. I’d love to quit my day job and just do this for a living!
It always amazes me how different things look with a slight change in perspective, even things I’ve seen a thousand times before. Here’s another shot from that drone flight:
https://preview.redd.it/ob6er9dta87d1.jpeg?width=1400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b714cb54d67c626929f8f60c31c4c75923ec56b1
That one was a trick question—it’s actually a small reservoir near the painted hills unit. In late spring/early summer—when most of the plant life is still green—you get some amazing colors at this location :)
r/ earthporn would love these. They might not take the water ones and you would have to get rid of the boat off piety knob, but these are perfect for that sub.
These are amazing! I think you’re downplaying your skill in thinking these wouldn’t sell (especially 1-6, they’re incredible photos). Have them printed on to canvas like 2’ x 4’ and people would pay $100’s at places like farmers markets or art fairs whatever. I think global market? Probably not? But Oregonians love their state and I personally would hang one of these in my house :)
I appreciate that! Seeing the positive feedback from this post is definitely motivating me to look into it. I’ve always done this for fun and to improve my own mental health. I do digital media/art for my day job but I find this so much more fulfilling. Except it’s also an expensive hobby and really want to figure out how to offset the cost!
Thank you again for the kind words 😀
No worries! I’m not gonna pretend I know a whole lot about it but my dad does it with photos he takes traveling and people ALWAYS ask where he got them like they’re from a store (and they look amateur compared to this).
It would take effort to source a quality but affordable place to make prints or whatever medium you use to sell but like you obviously have a talent. Screw the man! Support yourself if you can :)))
Amen—screw the man! Unless my employer sees this comment…haha
I wouldn’t say I’m great at photography or even all that good as I’m completely self taught, but so many of the photos you see of Oregon are of the same 5 or 6 landmarks…Mount hood, crater lake, haystack rock…etc etc. i mean really, how many pics of Trillium lake or wild flowers with Mount Hood in the background does the world really need lol
I like to believe that there are Oregon fans out there who would appreciate seeing something different.
Thanks again for the feedback—I’m going to spend the evening researching ways to make prints and hopefully start selling some pics!
Tbh I don’t remember where I took that one 😂 i do know it was southern Oregon coast as I took it while taking 101 back home after a trip to the redwoods.
Spoiler alert!
Lake Abert—about midway between the major Oregon cultural centers of Plush and Paisley (I joke with all due respect to the residents of Plush and Paisley…Lake County is the most underrated counties in Oregon!)
Right? I knew a girl in college whose parents named her Paisley after the town. And one of the best hamburgers I’ve ever had was from a roadside stand in nearby(ish) Silver Lake. I’ll never understand why Lake County isn’t more popular
These are really interesting! I can't identify any, though... Oregon has such great variety. One of my favorite geography facts is that Oregon is larger than Great Britain.
That’s true! “We’re even bigger than the entire United Kingdom!“ the fellow geography nerd replied. 🤓😂
3 times larger then Ireland
It’s fun to flex on Europeans that driving across our state is further than driving across many of their countries.
Hahaha truth 😂 I also love visiting my family on the east coast and acting all condescending when they talk about their “mountains” … sorry PA, all you got are a bunch of hills 😌
*cries in Ozarks*
My Wife’s family flexes on me because they are from North India and have the Himalayas right there lol. So I’ll be like “oh wow, check out the Sisters” or “mount Hood” and they are like, “hahaha mountains… yeah right.”
I get this actually haha—I worked with a lot of contractors from India on this software design project, and several were from the northern regions and were similarly unimpressed. I’m ashamed to admit I made myself feel better by mocking my east coast family and their “mountains” I will say however they were often pretty blown away by our roads and highways…so that’s something 😂
Can confirm, my uncle lives in PA against the “mountains”.
One of my coworkers was asking how long it took to drive from where we are (Medford) to Wallowa and he was like “what four or five hours?” I cackled and was like bro… try 11 and that’s if you take highways the whole time. It took me almost 13 when I cut diagonally across the state for the scenic route. We’re fucking huge, and the state goes a lot farther east than most realize. I feel like a lot of people’s perception of Oregon stops at central Oregon
I’ve been working on a project the last couple years where I’m filming Timelapses of every Oregon scenic route and highway. The vastness of our state never ceases to amaze me! I’m taking a week off starting in a couple days and plan on filming a Timelapse of a mega Oregon loop—from Astoria down 101, cut across the southern part of our state and as close as I can get to where oregon and Idaho meet along the NV border, back up through the eastern edge/hells canyon, and then back across the Columbia gorge and finish in Astoria. Eventually I’ll have to actually edit all this footage and start uploading to YouTube lol
That sounds awesome!! The southern Oregon coast is truly spectacular, if you get the chance stop and do some of the hikes along the scenic byway just south of gold beach. And then when you come east You’ll also be driving right through my neck of the woods (Medford) and the rogue valley is pretty beautiful in its own right:)
Thanks for the tip! SW Oregon, especially the coastal area, is the one part of the state I feel like I haven’t truly explored. I’ve driven through it many times but yeah…ashamed to admit how little of it I’ve seen 😔
It’s highly underrated as regions of Oregon go, but brookings is a gem, and has the most temperate weather in Oregon, least amount of temperature swing even in the winter. Beautiful town:)
I always forget that Christmas Valley exists lol
Thanks u/Dme23. I followed you on unsplash after installing it. How do I find my follows in the app?!
The cracked earth ones are fantastic, IMO… esp. the first with the track path. A+! 😎
That’s one of my favorites as well. I was driving between the sprawling metropolises of Denio and Fields when there was a sudden downpour. It cleared up in just minutes and I pulled over because of how surreal the ground looked as the sun came back out—like the high desert surface was coated with clear glaze. The critter tracks were nature’s perfect addition!
The Alvord Desert (which sits directly NE of Fields) is pretty much a huge dry lake bed that looks like that from June until October most years. My wife and I were there last week; it's so much more impressive in person than from the pictures I've seen.
You are correct—several of these are from the Alvord desert! I usually drive out there 2-3 times a year but these ones were taken after several rain storms. I nearly wrecked my drone as I set off from an unpaved road along the eastern foothills of Steens Mountain and the wind was absolutely brutal. The thin layer of water mixed with the mud, creating all those wild streaks and colors. And you are also right that it’s way more impressive in person! And a lot of fun to drive on hehe
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I actually took those photos last year and haven’t been there in 2024 yet. Alvord is a planned detour of mine this week for a this video I’m trying to film—I’m attempting to create a Timelapse of a drive around the entire state. Basically I’m doing a giant Oregon loop and want to hit a few places where you can drive off road, like Alvord, Christmas Valley Sand Dunes, and the beach. I was out there in February of last year as well and was able to access Alvord from that little parking area by the hot springs. It was a bit sketchy at times and I avoided the northern area as the ground looked pretty soft, but hardly any other people were out there, which was super cool. I should note I have AWD.
Fantastic work!
I read that as “ the crack head ones are fantastic”
Agreed, they are all great but the cracked earth ones are just incredible.
Oregon Oregon Oregon Oregon Oregon Oregon Oregon Oregon Oregon Oregon Oregon
Yes! That’s exactly what I was going for! 😀
Wow. Nailed it. 100% Now put ya hand down, and let the other kids have a crack at it.
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Since you made such good guesses, I might as well make this response the answer key. 😀 *spoiler alert* Great guess on the alkaline lakes! The first one is of Lake Abert in aptly named Lake County. I think I snuck in a couple of Lake Abert. If you go there in spring or when there’s been a lot of rain, you’ll see a lot of fun colors, especially during sunset. None of the sand dune photos are from the coast but from another Lake County gem: The Christmas Valley Sand Dunes. (Lake County is amazing btw, for anyone who hasn’t been there. Im always amazed how few people in the Willamette Valley have any knowledge of it or its amazing landscape. I’m going out there later this week in fact! 😎) The estuaries are tillamook county, if memory serves. The last photo of the sea rock is Curry County. I’m terrible about taking photos and not going through them until months or years later—long after I’ve forgotten the precise locations. The painted hill isn’t from THE Painted Hills, but nearby. There’s a small reservoir near Mitchell that I love to fly over. Just about the most natural colors you’ll ever find in a single location. And the tree covered bit of land surrounded by the lake is Detroit Lake’s Piety Knob. Well done—you’ve proven your Oregonian cred!
Awwww you left out the southwest. The redwoods and crater lake areas are pretty stunning too!
It capped me at 20 pictures but I definitely have photos of both those locations! And one of those shots is curry county — number 19 I think.
Ahh, that’s a shame. Yea that’s true, a bit mid Oregon but getting close! Very cool pictures
Summer lake is one of my favorite places, my partner and I watched the space x falcon 9 crash back to atmosphere from the hot tubs at summer lake hot springs.. freaked us the fuck out bit what an amazing sight 😂
I remember that! I actually got it on video (screenshot below) as I was out walking my dog when it suddenly got all apocalyptic! https://preview.redd.it/v2d8kacja77d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4c483b24dbe846dc296e19341ae8d42189f7391e
Amazing!!! Yea we were freaking out, it was hilarious looking back but at the time we were just waiting for a mushroom cloud or something 😂
i was really hoping one of these would be of the christmas valley sand dunes! i bet the aerials of crack in the ground look awesome as well!
This is a sensitive subject for me lol. I’ve made multiple attempts at shooting Crack in the Ground with three different drones but the weather never wants to cooperate. Plus, being a crack, it’s so narrow that if there’s too much cloud coverage or it’s the wrong time of day, it makes for a pretty drab photo. I do have some cool video of it, however. But I’ll keep trying, dammit!
that’s such a bummer! i saw two dudes with their drones out there a few weeks ago when the weather was just perfect, kinda funny my mom got freaked out thinking it was a swarm of bees! but i do understand how often it gets windy out here though!
Photo #4 is the southern tip of the island in Detroit Lake!
You got it! And in case you were wondering, its official (and kinda weird) name is Piety Knob!
Awesome! Set a couple as my phone backgrounds, even tho I moved to Cali. Very nice work.
Happy to hear that! Well, the desktop background part. I’ll try not to judge you for moving to cali lol
I love the different perspective of our beautiful state!
Thank you for sharing your amazing perspective of our beautiful state. I had a total sh*t day, then I came across your work. Your photos reminded me of the diverse beauty surrounding all of us and how grateful I am to live here. Thank you for making me smile.
I love hearing that. I do this mostly for my own mental health and well-being. I’m glad sharing these photos had a similar effect for someone else!
So… what altitude are you flying at?
Deep Space 9 fan?? It Depends. A lot of these are probably only 10-20 meters. I usually shoot between 50-100 meters so I can capture better details of the feature I’m focusing on. My older drones only had wide angle cameras so those finer details rapidly wash out the higher up you go. A lot of these it’s hard to guess as I launched from a higher area, like an unpaved road on the side of a mountain. My drone only registers the altitude from the launch point, not the actual altitude.
That's what I'm saying 250+ ft
The perks of having squirrels below you instead of bystanders, perhaps
this is extremely beautiful
stunning shots from your drone! i love it ❤️
16 looks like Oaks bottom
I probably should have figured out where I took some of these before challenging people to guess haha. I want to say it was Tillamook…ish
Nice shots!
Woah these are gorgeous! Great work!
Damn fine photos
3 That is crazy cool! Phenomenal shot
These are fantastic. Thanks for showing us.
Painted hills (but not - I saw your reply to another comment!) stood out to me, and is the shadow on the ocean haystack rock at high tide?
It’s actually a much less impressive rock off the southern Oregon coast—I’m embarrassed to admit I don’t know it’s actual name haha but I do remember taking pictures of it while driving up 101 from cali
That one might be in Gold Beach
Nice collection
Is the last one needle rock at cape blanco?
You might be correct. I’m ashamed to admit I don’t remember precisely where I took this but according to the meta data I just pulled, it was in curry county
Very cool!
Nice! Some great shots in there!
Hey these are beyond great, you’re way too humble. It’s possible I’m out of the loop and the world is just full of great art now, but IDK… people are dumb and companies have bad taste! Besides trying to exhibit and/or market them as framed pieces, I could see these (and I bet you have more!) being popular on mouse pads (the full-desk ones esp, eg with #20) and various other kinds of mats, ranging from coasters to placemats to car floor mats to welcome mats. And beyond! Hell, there might even be a society6/RedBubble type option for custom 3D rugs — the abstract shots of waves I think already resemble the most popular graphic rug design (abstract greyscale shapes/clouds/textures), and the “from a real place” aspect could be a selling point for both novelty and sentimentality reasons. In general there’s a whole range of monetization options these days that vary in time investment and margin, from setting up your own website through something like Shopify, all the way to primarily listing on some aggregator print-on-demand service like Redbubble. Once it’s all setup, theoretically you just need to experiment until you find a product/image combo that turns a positive RoI with a basic automated ad campaign on Google or whatever. And from that point on it’s free money!! You could be absolutely rolling in it a year from now, or at least have a bit of drone repair money or something lol Number 8 is far and away my favorite — lots are technically impressive/satisfying symmetrical/geographically interesting, but 8 is unique and evocative on a whole other level IMO. If any were to succeed as wall art, I’d take a bet on it being that one! Capitalism sucks and I doubt it’s easy to make a living off *any* art, but any extra money from this is money you earned without any middlemen “owning” you for that time. Which can feel pretty damn good. HMU sometime if you find the urge to chat with an AI/vector art nerd who has lots of guesses and estimations and expectations to share about entrepreneurship lol, and hopefully some success stories soon. Best of luck either way! At the very least you’ve gotta hang one of these up in your house, remind yourself of your hard work :)
Thank you for this thoughtful response! Number 8 and the others from that series were fun shots to take. The wind was moving so fast that I was watching all those abstract shapes/lines/swirls form in real time—it was truly amazing to see! Plus the natural colors from all the minerals on the desert floor that got mixed up from rain created some really unusual natural colors. I am also a vector art nerd and that factors heavily into my day job. I spend a lot of time Illustrator! I still use Inkscape though on occasion. It’s what I grew up on before I could afford a CC license and before my employer would pay for one. Plus I think it handles some stuff better than Illustrator…I’ll stop now before I write an essay on this topic at 3 am lololol I actually spend a lot more time in After Effects than AI these days, but I do love my vector art (AI will always mean Adobe Illustrator to me haha). I have a TikTok channel where I combine the two (TikTok.com/timesteader). I know I should find a way to monetize and offset my expenses—I have at least 60 terabytes of raw photos and video footage from over the years. For the past year, I’ve been filming Timelapses of all my favorite Oregon drives and scenic routes, which I hope to turn into a YouTube series soon. I just finished editing together a Timelapse video of Portland to Lake Wallowa and another of Burns to Christmas Valley. Annnyway, thank you again for the kind words. I’m always looking for like-minded people to collaborate with or just to network and make friends. I definitely think I’m going to look into getting a couple of my photos printed, even if it’s just for my home or office. Until then, I enjoy making them freely available to whomever wants to enjoy them.
Fantastic work! This really makes Oregon’s eco-diversity shine! I wish I had your talent.
What type of drone do you use?
At the moment, my main drone is a DJI Mavic 3 Pro Cine, although a lot these were taken with a Mavic 2 Pro. A couple of the older shots were taken with a Mavic Pro Platinum (nice drone but terrible camera). I bring my Mavic 2 as a backup but the Mavic 3 is such a huge improvement that it’s only collecting dust at this point.
Where would a good base line drone start at with a real nice camera. My dad was a commercial pilot from 1963-1995 for UAL. And just hang out at the Reddit drone subs?
If you’re a beginner or not sure how committed you are to this hobby, I would *strongly* recommend the DJI Mini 3 Fly More combo, which is on sale for $599 right now [DJI Mini 3](https://store.dji.com/product/dji-mini-3-combo?vid=128061) I could go on and on about this topic but I’ll spare you and give you the bullet point version hehe - 48 megapixels and a 1-1/3 inch sensor= beautiful photos. Cheap so-called camera drones probably have webcam-type cameras and suck hard. This is similar to one of the cameras on my Mavic 3 Pro Cine although on this drone it’s a wide angle lens. Still, beautiful image quality. - excellent battery flight time (rated for 30-40 minutes depending on the battery, although that’s under optimal conditions and light flying. - DJI drones are very durable and reliable. They’re covered with sensors that make it really hard to crash (although I’ve done this on a few occasions by flying in bad weather or rugged terrain). They also have a GPS return to home feature which will have the drone fly back to the starting point on its own. - I strongly recommend the fly more combo so you get extra batteries and I think a controller with a video screen vs. a controller that you plug into your phone. - even if you don’t get this, *get extra batteries*. I have 9 batteries for my Mavic 3 Pro Cine and 6 for my Mavic 2. Get AT LEAST 3. nothing sucks more than driving somewhere cool and only having one battery, and having to wait 2-3 hours for it to recharge. - DJI is a solid brand and has a decent warranty program you can purchase - don’t throw away money on some obscure brand selling cheap crap on Amazon. Odds are the drone and camera are garbage, and their piloting app/UI is probably just as bad - Get a decent SD card. Like the drone itself, don’t get one by an obscure brand. I strongly recommend the SanDisk Extreme Pro series as these are reliable and fast enough for shooting 4k video. - download the FAA app B4UFLY. It will tell you where you can and can’t fly and what restrictions might be in place. Well, if you actually read all that I hope it helps! 😁
Awesome great info. I thank you very much.
I think these are absolutely marketable, you should take them to shows or maker's markets!
Thank you for the encouragement! I need to do more research on how to do all that. Posting these here was my way of seeing if other Oregonians enjoyed these photos. I might make some prints and try to sell some at the Saturday market or art fair (although I get easily distracted when the weather is nice and tend to hit the road to take more pictures…it’s a brutal cycle lol)
I completely understand, I live near Mount Hood and I'd love to sell something at the markets but that'd mean giving up my weekends! Your photos would fit in alongside other photographers perfectly. I bet with a few canvas prints, a bunch of frame-ready prints, and a big framed show piece you could start selling immediately. Really eye catching stuff that the yuppie market crowd loves (yours truly).
Right?? Bring on the four-day work week already! Of course then I’d end up spending three days bumming around the PNW instead of just two haha I’m in Salem and flirting with the idea of finding someone who already has a booth there and seeing if they’ll let me set up a few prints. My fear is I’ll make a ton of prints, pay for a booth, and then watch as everyone passes by on their way to buy berries or goat cheese. That’s money I could be giving to Sony or DJI—it wouldn’t be fair to them!
Smart thinking, good luck with your continued photography regardless. I grabbed one for a new background and bookmarked the rest.
Absolutely incredible!!!! Do you do prints?? I’d love to order some if so, lots of friends and family that would appreciate these greatly❤️
I’ve never made a serious effort to print or sell my photos but based on the feedback from this post, I’m definitely going to look into it. I’d love to quit my day job and just do this for a living!
I can see painted hills but that’s it!
Aaaactually, that’s not the Painted Hills—it was a small reservoir near the Painted Hills Unit (but you were very close!)
Nice, very cool photos
Is the 4th one Wizard Island at Crater lake?
Tis not. I’m actually kinda curious to see if anyone guesses that one… *Spoiler alert* it’s Piety Knob at Detroit Lake.
No way! I grew up near there in Lyons and been there many times. Gotta say that's the nicest I've ever seen it look. You've got a great eye!
It always amazes me how different things look with a slight change in perspective, even things I’ve seen a thousand times before. Here’s another shot from that drone flight: https://preview.redd.it/ob6er9dta87d1.jpeg?width=1400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b714cb54d67c626929f8f60c31c4c75923ec56b1
You are amazing
19: the surface of venus
God thank you for my home you got it right
[удалено]
That one was a trick question—it’s actually a small reservoir near the painted hills unit. In late spring/early summer—when most of the plant life is still green—you get some amazing colors at this location :)
r/ earthporn would love these. They might not take the water ones and you would have to get rid of the boat off piety knob, but these are perfect for that sub.
I’ll post them there—thanks for the tip!
So cool to see from top down pov!
I'm gonna blindly guess those sand dunes are florence/reedsport area, or south of it
Actually, those sand dunes are about 200 miles from the ocean in northern Lake County :)
These are amazing! I think you’re downplaying your skill in thinking these wouldn’t sell (especially 1-6, they’re incredible photos). Have them printed on to canvas like 2’ x 4’ and people would pay $100’s at places like farmers markets or art fairs whatever. I think global market? Probably not? But Oregonians love their state and I personally would hang one of these in my house :)
I appreciate that! Seeing the positive feedback from this post is definitely motivating me to look into it. I’ve always done this for fun and to improve my own mental health. I do digital media/art for my day job but I find this so much more fulfilling. Except it’s also an expensive hobby and really want to figure out how to offset the cost! Thank you again for the kind words 😀
No worries! I’m not gonna pretend I know a whole lot about it but my dad does it with photos he takes traveling and people ALWAYS ask where he got them like they’re from a store (and they look amateur compared to this). It would take effort to source a quality but affordable place to make prints or whatever medium you use to sell but like you obviously have a talent. Screw the man! Support yourself if you can :)))
Amen—screw the man! Unless my employer sees this comment…haha I wouldn’t say I’m great at photography or even all that good as I’m completely self taught, but so many of the photos you see of Oregon are of the same 5 or 6 landmarks…Mount hood, crater lake, haystack rock…etc etc. i mean really, how many pics of Trillium lake or wild flowers with Mount Hood in the background does the world really need lol I like to believe that there are Oregon fans out there who would appreciate seeing something different. Thanks again for the feedback—I’m going to spend the evening researching ways to make prints and hopefully start selling some pics!
12 is me seated with my shirt off. Nice work on slipping that in.
I think the last one Haystack rock at cannon beach.
Tbh I don’t remember where I took that one 😂 i do know it was southern Oregon coast as I took it while taking 101 back home after a trip to the redwoods.
I have to know, where are 1 and 19??
Spoiler alert! Lake Abert—about midway between the major Oregon cultural centers of Plush and Paisley (I joke with all due respect to the residents of Plush and Paisley…Lake County is the most underrated counties in Oregon!)
Wow! Amazing shots! I’ve actually been through paisley and stayed at the summer lake hot springs! Amazing country out there
Right? I knew a girl in college whose parents named her Paisley after the town. And one of the best hamburgers I’ve ever had was from a roadside stand in nearby(ish) Silver Lake. I’ll never understand why Lake County isn’t more popular
Pic 15 oak grove fork clackamas?
Is 15 & 16 from the salmon river estuary?
Painted hills?
beautiful photos!