The wildfire that has been burning here for the past week tripled in size Friday night and is now 16,000 acres (or 25 square miles). Some areas near the town of Sisters are on pre-evacuation notice. The wind changed direction, blowing the smoke right into Bend. All we had to do to get away from the smoke a bit is go in the opposite direction of the smoke.
This is Todd Lake, another lake near Mt. Bachelor. I’ve been here briefly before but didn’t have a chance to walk around the lake. From the entry to the lake there is a wonderful view of the mountains called Broken Top. When you walk to the other side of the lake, there is a great view of Mt. Bachelor. The walk is an easy 1.25 miles around the lake.
There is a field on the far side of the lake that had thousands if little, tiny frogs hopping about. They were only about 3/4 inch in size and blended in with the mud in the area. I tried to photograph them but they were really, really quick. So the one photo that I have isn’t very good but you can see how they blend in with the ground. I’m going to come back in the spring when I think the field will be full of wildflowers. Right now, they have a pretty purple flower with a yellow center growing all around the lake.
Hopefully the smoke will clear soon and they will get the fire contained.
Maralee
Through My Lens 
Maralee, your images are just more and more amazing each time! What program do you use to process them? They look so perfect.
Thanks, Susan. The program I used the most is NIK Software – Viveza for landscapes and Color Efex for flowers. I’ll do some editing in Photoshop. I was doing a lot of HDR but found some of it to be too much. I still do a little HDR when the contrast in scenes is really drastic, but if possible, I use NIK. They have a 15 day free trial if you want to test it out. That’s what I did before I got the program. Their website is: http://www.niksoftware.com/index/usa/entry.php
Love the reflections in your photos.
BE ENCOURAGED! BE BLESSED!
Thank you so much, Francine
Great pics. Love the reflections!
Thank you so much. The water was like a mirror all weekend.
Such beautiful, vibrant colors. I absolutely adore your work
Thank you so much, AJ. I really appreciate that.
Gosh these photos are beautiful…
Thanks so much. This really is a beautiful place. There are so many incredibly beautiful places in this world. Today we are in a fog of smoke from the fire. It made for a gorgeous sunrise but I was driving and couldn’t stop to photograph it. I’m sure sunset will be gorgeous too.
Such beautiful pictures
When can I move in …. In the back spare room ???? Wonderful photos – sound like an old vinyl .. repeating myself every day. You have always been good on reflections in your photos – but that with the blue zodiac is stunning and the wood piece too. The zodiac photo is my pick today.
Beautiful, crisp photographs! I LOVE the 2nd one – wow! 🙂