2012, Day 354 - Heavenly figure

That person at the top of the stairs is my friend Julie, she and I had a photo adventure last week after a lovely dinner.  It was windy and cold but we braved the elements and came away with some nice shots.  Sometimes a little discomfort makes for a great photograph.

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 24/f3.5L TSE Mark II
24mm, f4, 2 sec @ 400 ISO

2012, Day 284 - Switched

Rolling past, stopping briefly to load and unload cargo, this rail yard sees almost constant activity.  Forklifts whir past leaving trails of light in their wake and people walk up and down the rows of containers to inspect them, their flashlights bobbing with each step.  All this activity is noisy; trains rumble in, the incessant beeps of vehicles in reverse, the slow drone of the container lifts.  It is life, albeit in a mechanical form, and its careful choreography is enough to make any type A person catatonic with pleasure.

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 24-105/f4L IS
45mm, f5.6, 0.8 sec @ 400 ISO

2012, Day 281 - Depot

I love exploring the world at night.  Everything looks so different and you notice details you might not otherwise.  Scenes like this are fun to explore, I wish Waldo was hidden in here somewhere so that I could give everyone a reason to really examine all the little details.

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 24-105/f4L IS
24mm, f5.6, 1 sec @ 400 ISO

2012, Day 271 - Gilded shadows

Photography is all about light, the abundance or lack of it is captures by our cameras.  At night every light source is obvious and here the tracks are worn smooth and reflect the streetlamps.  The tracks provide a visual anchor for what would otherwise be negative space and help provide a sense of balance.

Canon 1D X, Canon 50/f1.2L
50mm, f8, 5 sec @ 320 ISO

2012, Day 264 - Beware the empire

Somehow it seems a bad idea to turn your back on the empire but Brian seems to be doing that very thing, distracted by technology while his camera fires away behind him.  And it does look like some sort of evil empire with the bright blue lights in the windows, the rim of light above the roof like there is some kind of covert experimentation going on within.  I like images where my imagination can run wild.

Canon 1D X, Canon 50/f1.2L
50mm, f1.4, 1/2 sec @ 320 ISO

2012, Day 261 - It's all so hazy

More photos from my little urban adventure with Brian.  One of the great things about fast glass is that you can create a wonderful shallow depth of field.  In this case I focused on the tracks so that you can see the timbers, the rail and the rocks clearly while the bridges and buildings in the distance are out of focus.  It has a rather special look and helps to focus on the grain of the ties, the texture of the stone, and the smooth worn surface of the rails.

Canon 1D X, Canon 50/f1.2L
50mm, f1.4, 1/2 sec @ 320 ISO

2012, Day 260 - Like a bolt

Trains are what made this country possible, they connected one coast to the other and allowed greater expansion than the world had seen in generations.  Now they primarily move goods and materials but there is something nostalgia about train travel, maybe because it isn't a very common form of transportation anymore so it isn't something people commonly embark upon.  Air travel has lost its glamour but train travel still has a special feeling about it.

This was taken on my last-minute excursion and it was a fast moving passenger train so there was little time to set up the shot.  Still, I like the light trails, something about it reminds me of the Delorean from Back to the Future.

Canon 1D X, Canon 50/f1.2L
50mm, f8, 4 sec @ 320 ISO

2012, Day 105 - All roads lead

Yes, the Fremont Bridge rears its head again!  It seems that you can't avoid getting a glimpse of that bridge from all over Portland.  Not that I'm complaining, it is a nice piece of engineering and it certainly adds to the skyline.

This shot was taken earlier this week in the rain in the NW industrial area.  The weather was memorable because although it was wet it was not at all cold.  In fact I unzipped my jacket to cool off a little bit.  These tracks are obviously no longer in use but they lead to the Montgomery Park building which was probably a very helpful feature when it was a mail order warehouse for Montgomery Ward.

Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II
35mm, f5.6, merged layers of 2.5 and 5 sec @ 400 ISO

2012, Day 99 - Tagging

This evening my friends and I cooked dinner at our favorite homeless shelter.  It's a great place that given career training and advice so long as they remain sober.  Most men who leave do so with a job and housing and there is a waiting list for a place in the program.  It's always a lot of fun and kind of neat to see how quickly a group of people can put together a differ to feed almost a hundred hungry guys.

After we finished serving dinner and congratulating ourselves on another triumph I took the long way home through Portlands east side industrial area.  The clouds broke for a little bit, just long enough for me to get a few pictures, before they closed ranks again.  It was a really nice way to end the day.

Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II
16mm, merged layers of 1/200, 1/25, and 1/13 sec @ 200 ISO

2012, Day 90 - Split

I left like Gordie from Stand By Me this evening as I walked along the train tracks with Brian Matiash. There were no dead bodies to be found this time but I still hold out hope that one day I'll find one.  Until then I am happy to explore Portland's more industrial areas.  I've never really thought of Portland as an industrial city and to most eyes it isn't but there are still plenty of areas where heavy industry makes its home and the city defends the integrity of its industrially zoned areas with great conviction.  The upshot is that much of the surviving areas are rather old but generally in good repair which makes those neighborhoods a joy to explore!

Canon 1Ds Mark II, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II
30mm, f8, merged layers of 0.4, 0.8, 1.6, and 3.2 sec @ 200 ISO

2012, Day 80 - Midnight maintenance

This photograph was the one after which I said to myself, "I'm done."  In reviewing it on the back of my camera I was certain that I captured what I wanted.  That's not to say it is perfect, I would have preferred that the Union Pacific obelisk further from the center but to the right there was a huge floodlight that would have been distracting and to my left there were a lot of trees and brambles that would obstruct the view because, you see, this was taken from the concrete barrier along the side of a freeway onramp.

I sat there, checking my composition, looking over my shoulder to make sure there were not semis coming (their draft was tremendous and could have caused camera vibration), and trying to keep warm.  When the trucks weren't barreling past you could hear the ding ding ding of the warning bells as train after train entered the rail yard.  I like that all the distractions of real life are absent and the yard have a feeling of tranquility, the stillness that we witness only at night.

Canon 1D Mark IV, Sigma 50/f1.4EX
50mm, f5.6, merged layers of 2.5, 5, and 10 sec @ 200 ISO

2012, Day 78 - Confluence

Last night I went out adventuring with my friend Julie.  She was relying on me to take her somewhere interesting to shoot because she's a country girl and I live in the city.  Well, there was a false start when I tried taking us to an industrial area but accessibility was poor so we left and went to try another area I had kind of scouted previously and success!

This is the interchange where I-5 and I-405 meet right by the Union Pacific rail yard.  I love the graceful arcing lines of the freeways as they intersect, it almost looks like someone was starting to build a basket out of our highway system.  You could hear the muted roar of cars passing overhead and the chiming of bells as trains entered and exited the yard.  It was a nice night to be running about and enjoying some of the lesser seen sides of Portland.

Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 17-40/f4L
20mm, f8, 13 sec @ 200 ISO

2012, Day 34 - Like a flash

What a hectic day, it was filled with appointments and meeting up with great people but I am exhausted.  The day ended with a little photo adventure in one of Portland's industrial neighborhoods.  Brian Matiash kindly allowed me to use his Tilt/Shift lens and off we set.  Less than five minutes into our shoot we noticed a train coming an a snail's pace so we were able to prepare for it as part of our composition.  I like this shot in particular because the cars going by were partially open so you can see the structures beyond and I like the reflection off the train because it makes it look like it is jumping to warp speed.  Jeez, I am such a nerd...

Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I can't wait to get out there again.  I have one image in particular that I am anxious to share but it will have to wait until it is perfect :)

Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 24/f3.5L Tilt/Shift
24mm, f8, 20 sec @ 320 ISO

2011, Day 354 - Holiday travel

Brian Matiash and I were doing the hobo thing last night; walking along the train tracks looking to score some crack, to fight with other drifters, and to take a few pictures.  Unfortunately the first two goal bore no fruit but the third was met with reasonable success.  Seeing as the holidays are bearing down on us images evocative of travel seem particularly apt.

I think that all seasoned photographers whether they be hobbyists or professionals know that under the current state of affairs governments officials and their law enforcement personel are highly suspicious of anyone taking photos of infrastructure, especially when it is on private property.  There are countless stories of people being harassed and accosted by law enforcement offices around trains especially.  Did these cautionary tales deter us?  Not even slightly.  They did make us a little cautious but if you are too cautious it looks like you're up to no good.  The simple solution is to adopt the practice taught to me by my grandfather, pretend you know what you're doing and that you have every right to do so and people will be a lot less hostile when they call you out on your actions.

We were able to shoot for about forty-five minutes unmolested.  I was still shooting when security approached us and was in the middle of a thirteen second exposure so I let Brian talk to him to buy myself a little more time.  He saw the guard coming well before I did and seemed anxious but this being Portland I felt relatively confident that he would rather give us a friendly warning than go to the effort of getting confrontational.  It was a bit of a risk but most people out here don't see the point, especially if you are polite, apologetic, and do as you are asked.  As it turned out the guy was a complete gentleman, he reminded us that the railroad is on private property and that we would have to seek permission next time.  He even went as far as to tell us how we might go about obtaining the required permit.  We thanked him for his time and for how courteously he handled the situation and adjourned for some amazing rustic cornmeal crust pizza.

Canon 1Ds Mark II, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II
33mm, f5.6, merged layers of 1.6 and 3.2 sec @ 200 ISO

2011, Day 031 - The yards

As the sun was setting this evening and the clouds started to darken I grabbed by camera and ran out the door. There is something about industrial areas that are so interesting, I think it is because they're off limits and filled with giant skeletal machines.

Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II

21mm, f4, HDR of 0.3, 0.8, 2, 5 and 13 sec @ 400 ISO

2011, Day 007 - Light at the end...

While I am no longer jet-lagged I either have a touch of the flu or am developing agoraphobia because I've been unable to leave the house unless absolutely necessary for the last few days. I think it is the former as my sister Laura had the flu when I was in California and now I'm tired, achy and all around gross.

However, this evening, when I woke up from the last nap of the day (you know, the one that immediately precedes bedtime) I decided that I needed some new material so with the help of Google Maps I went out towards the rail yard. Unfortunately it was already quite late and the tracks were not well illuminated but the wooden frame bridge made for an interesting subject and the floodlight in the background really helped to make it special.

Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 24/f1.4L Mark II

24mm, f2, 2.5 sec @ 200 ISO

Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 24/f1.4L Mark II

24mm, f1.4, 1.3 sec @ 200 ISO

2010, Day 339 - Bracing

Another fun-filled day of running around while trying to get ready for my trip. It certainly makes it hard to feel prepared but I am doing my best not to let the stress get the better of me.

After meeting with my friend Choy, a native of southeast Asia and operator of a small tour company, I headed home and stopped off at Dogwood Park in Milwaukie. The railroad caught my eye and this is what I captured.

Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II

23mm, f4, HDR of 1/800, 1/400, 1/200, 1/100 and 1/50 sec @ 200 ISO