Saturday’s track meet at Joseph High School was a great event, despite the clouds and rain.

Clouds are a photographer’s best friend. When it’s overcast, you don’t have to worry about where the sun is in relationship to your subject. You can shoot from anywhere. That resulted in some of my best shots of the season thus far.

The other factor is that everyone in charge at the meet knew who I was, so I was never told “you can’t stand there.” Getting in close is a key to good sports photography. While long lenses help, having clear unobstructed views of your subject is better.

Like so many events and activities we shoot, there is finite room for them in the print edition. Generally we post the rest of the shots online when the story goes up at wallowa.com.

Occasionally, we also share some through Facebook. It sure beats the old days where you spent a day taking hundreds of photos and a photo editor selected one and the rest wound up on the cutting room floor.

Track season is rapidly coming to a close. It has been a great year for both the Joseph and Enterprise squads. There are some amazingly talented athletes in our schools.

SPEAKING OF Facebook, our moderated forum last week was on civil discourse, and I’m pleased to report it went well. How do you disagree without being disagreeable?

There were many good suggestions and outstanding insights into how big a problem this has become, particularly online. If you missed it, I recommend you go back and read the thread.

TODAY’S CHIEFTAIN contains a new monthly column I believe you will enjoy. Mountain Medicine will review and summarize selected medical topics with an emphasis on newer drugs, vaccines and general healthcare topics.

The purpose of each column is to provide evidence-based assessments and recommendations to readers, and to inform them of the methods used in the clinical sciences with the goal of helping them make rational choices in their own health care decisions. Column topics will come from Wallowa County medical practitioners based on their patient interactions.

The column editor is my friend Ron Polk, Pharm.D., Emeritus Professor of Pharmacy and Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University and resident of Lostine.

The Associate Editor is Kelsey Allen, D.O., a family medicine physician at Mountain View Medical Clinic in Enterprise. Dr. Allen graduated from medical school at LMU-DCOM and graduated board-certified from a family medicine residency in Provo, Utah. Dr. Allen will collect column ideas and help edit and review columns with support from Wallowa County Healthcare District clinicians.

Let us know what you think.