Appealing starkness

A number of years ago I attended a Photoshop conference in Portland. The conference lasted all day and, of course, I remember nothing of what I learned. What I DO remember were the occasional breaks and the lunch break, where I simply wandered around the building, around the block, taking photographs.

I particularly like this one, taken inside the convention center, composed of three basic sections -- the black/grey swoop in the right third, the gentle grey curve in the lower left, and then the repeating, seemingly delicate, light-colored rectangular windows in the upper left. Lines and curves, lights and darks, all working together beautifully.

I'm in Nova Scotia right now and prepped this image in advance to appear while I am gone. 

©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh.

Cyclists in spring . . .

A lovely spring morning in Portland, Oregon. Looking down from our hotel room a number of years ago I was watching lives going by and ended up really liking this shot. I like the pair of cyclists, the strong parallel lines running diagonally, which contrast nicely with the  curving arrow coming down from the top of the frame.

Ah, spring. And May is just about (to me) the loveliest month of the year to be here.

©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

Signs of the times . . .

Walking around the industrial sections of Portland gave me a lot of opportunities to photograph parking signs. I tried to find ones that were either interesting or were placed in front of colorful buildings.

Why shoot these things? Well, they're colorful, they're spare, and, damn it, SOMEBODY has to do it!

©Carol Leigh

Portland. Keeping it Weird. Part 2.

More interesting graffiti from last weekend's shoot in a burned-out building.

I love the lion head on the person's body. The meek and mild-looking posture and the quizzical look on the lion's face really caught my attention. And the rest? Well, I love the reflections in the puddles. And the final one sort of represents how I'm feeling lately regarding changing over from the PC to a Mac.

©Carol Leigh (who likes using just two keystrokes on the Mac to create the copyright symbol, versus the five keystrokes necessary on the PC)

It's a good day to . . .

. . . not get caught red-handed!

An industrial bit from Portland. ©Carol Leigh

Portland. Keeping it Weird.

You never know when a memorable moment is about to occur. You just have to be open, be ready, and go with the flow.

Chris and I spent the weekend in Portland, and one of the things I wanted to do on Sunday was revisit an industrial area that Linda H. showed us a few years ago.

But before shooting on Sunday, we had dinner with Linda and Hugh on Saturday night, and Linda told us about a building that had burned, leaving just the walls and a lot of charred beams.

Chris and I found the place the next morning. It was all fenced in, alas, but aha! We found an opening in the fence, and that’s when the madness began.

Oh, my. It was incredible. The roof was gone, the walls were braced to prevent them from falling in, and colorful graffiti covered everything. Here and there were very large puddles of water, perfect for reflections.

What immediately caught my eye was an old TV set, staring out from the middle of a huge puddle. The sight was startling, incongruous, and totally absurd. Sitting in the water next to the TV was a bright red fire extinguisher. Ridiculous. I took a few shots.

And then a couple of guys on motorcycles arrived. They saw the TV, the puddle, and immediately placed one bike next to the TV. They took a few photos with a little point-and-shoot camera. Then they brought in the second bike. Then they found part of a radio and leaned it against the TV. They embellished the scene with a black high-heeled shoe they fished out of the water. For reasons known only to them, they left the fire extinguisher in place throughout. Never touched it. 

Voila! Instant art, They took a few more photos and then were on their way. 

But while the biker guys were still assembling their art, Chris and I began talking to a man who was shooting, just as enthralled as we were with all this graffiti.

Turns out he’s been shooting at this spot for a long time, even at night with moonlight reflecting off the water. He recognized a lot of the graffiti art, told us who made it, gave us a lot of the backstory.

His occupation? He works for the graffiti abatement department in Portland! Ha! What a fascinating and fun guy to talk to.

But that’s not all.

While biker guys were still working, and while graffiti abatement guy was still talking to us, some people dressed as “Clockwork Orange” characters were conducting their own photography tableaus. So now and then we’d spot a woman brandishing a club, a guy posing moodily in a doorway, and another woman dressed in black wearing a clear plastic mask.

This was one of the strangest, most surreal events I’ve experienced in a long time. It was weird, interesting, bizarre, absurd, and so much fun!

I’ve not had time to really do any processing (it takes 3.5 hours for us to drive home from Portland), but wanted to get something quickly posted while the day remained fresh in my mind.

Portland. Classically weird. And proud of it!

©Carol Leigh

A few days in Portland

I spent a few days in Portland attending a Photoshop seminar as well as visiting a couple of art supply places. During seminar breaks and an early-morning walk around downtown, I shot a few quick images.

I like the contrast of stark metal with the softer rose in the center in the first photo. Spring has truly sprung as you can see in the second shot.

The top of a light post stands out nicely against the brick background building, and an unknown person glowers above a little cafe. Finally, just had to take a photo of the windows and curved architectural elements in the Convention Center.

What you don't see is what a wonderful dinner I had with Linda and Hugh H. at The Fishwife restaurant. Fantastic food with terrific people. Thank you both!

©Carol Leigh

An afternoon in Portland

Chris and I had a great time in Portland Thursday with Linda H., who took us to an area she KNEW I'd like — the more industrial part of the city. So great to be shooting with someone who, if I'm taking a photo of a crack on a wall, doesn't make fun of me! We walked under bridges, along railroad tracks, through parking lots, finding interesting signs, businesses, windows, shadows (it was an incredibly sunny day), and murals. Thank you, Linda, for everything. It was a terrific day. ©Carol Leigh

Hang on, hang on, hang on!

Who doesn't like a harbor cruise, right? Well... Fortunately or un-, I think I had the best time. And I got the wettest. Since the jet boat ride was pretty much my idea, I had no business complaining about being wet and cold and voiced the utmost sympathy to Chris and our two relatives about their discomfort.

We boarded the Osprey for our two-hour tour of the Willamette River, all the way to Willamette Falls. Imagine our surprise when we learned that the highlights of these jet boat rides are their 360-degree spins in the water! I was in the seat right next to the water. You do the math.

But anything that gives you a different view of a place, a way of seeing/photographing from an angle that you don't ordinarily see, well, it's worth getting wet. 75% of my group would disagree, but, well, what can I say?

For me the highlight was seeing the backs of really old, funky, grungy buildings. I would love to hire someone with a boat that could take me past s-l-o-w-l-y to fill my frame with patterns and textures and forms. But when the boat skipper yells, "Hang on! Hang on! Hang onnnnn!" it's time to cover the camera and hunker down as we go into yet another spin.

The falls were beautiful. The locks were interesting. Saw turkey vultures, cliff swallows, crows, a deer, and a bald eagle (plus nest). After lunch, we bid adieu to our relatives (who were probably pleased to see the last of us) and headed over to Astoria, to camp at Fort Stevens State Park and to do some photography I'd been wanting to do for a long, long time. More to follow . . . ©Carol Leigh

Mall photography

Early the following morning I walked over to a mall which isn't doing so well. Big, empty parking lots and a huge building that's being torn down — there's gotta be something here. An auto transport truck was being unloaded and I saw this beautiful vintage Chevrolet Impala, '60s vintage, off to one side. Overcast lighting was perfect for it.

Over at the building that was being torn down, I was drawn to the bluish color of the stone blocks and the starkness and grace of the tree contrasting against it.

And then a block of red and a balancing block of blue at another building enabled me to create an abstract image of sorts.

It pays to be up and about early to visit a seemingly nondescript location with a camera and an inquisitive eye. Breakfast, and then on to the jet boats! ©Carol Leigh

Downtown Portland

We headed up to Portland to spend an evening and a following morning with relatives who were traveling through. But first a quick stop at Art Media in downtown Portland to check out their art supplies. Great place and the staff is (are?) helpful and generous. We had just one hour's worth of parking and a number of blocks to walk, not leaving me much time to shoot a few reflections coming and going. Being isolated on the coast, we've become country bumpkins of a sort, so this big city was quite exciting! I must return to spend many days just wandering around and shooting. More to come, including shopping mall photography, views from a jet boat, and abstracts from Fort Stevens. ©Carol Leigh

Portland 9

A skyscraper and part of a hotel create a good background for this "9" that I found on a tide gauge in a marina up the coast. Yet another photograph gives a sort of rainy-window look to the entire piece. ©Carol Leigh

Birthday getaway 2010

Chris and my birthdays are exactly a week apart, so we usually do something to celebrate them both at the same time. Last year we went down to Gold Beach on the Oregon coast. http://carolleighdailyphoto.blogspot.com/2009/05/it-was-more-of-just-fun-getaway-than.html and this year, we drove up to Portland to see Cirque du Soleil. We stayed at the Waterfront Marriott where our room overlooked Tom McCall Waterfront Park and the Willamette River. From our 12th floor balcony we could look down on bicyclists and pedestrians in the rain, a drawbridge, and more.

We walked to the Cirque du Soleil venue (luckily no rain during the walk) and then through a heavy mist which turned to rain just as we reached the hotel on our walk back. Next morning we visited Powell's Books and a couple of other stores and then drove back home. A delightful, relaxing birthday trip for us both.

I haven't figured out how to put captions underneath my photos, but here you see a walking path/pedestrian from our balcony, also our view over toward the drawbridge, and cyclists at an intersection. Oregon is incredibly green right now -- quite luscious and soothing. And then you see reflections in a skyscraper, a view looking up at the freeway where, if you want to go to Seattle, you need to be in the left lane. And a shot of a newly-installed sculpture in the park promoting acupuncture and health. ©Carol Leigh