Big Mountain, Little Dog
With Mount Rainier hovering, Ryan Trebon rolls on during the Rapha Gentleman’s Race This summer, while photographing a bike race, I popped out of the woods and rounded a bend on Pittsburgh Road above the town of Saint Helens, Ore. Three beautiful volcanoes, Mount Rainier, Mount Saint Helens and Mount Adams, came into view. It […]
Shadowy Future
I just overheard the boys, now five and three, chatting in the bath. “Jack,” Leo said, “dinosaurs are dead. People have never, ever seen them alive.” Saturday, while on a little adventure in The Columbia River Gorge, we found ourselves face to face with a ten foot long sturgeon named Herman. He’s the freak show […]
Cyclocross: Alpenrose
Well they turned out in droves today for the first Cross Crusade race at Alpenrose Dairy. They negotiated the parking lot first. Then the check in. And then the real race began… Riders ran up the famed staircase, sprinted through the old-timey townsite, crept along the off-camber grass, bounced through bumpy pastureland and they finished […]
The Heart
I was fine until I got about two blocks from the hospital. Suddenly I realized I needed to pull over and think. The slicing open of a man’s chest. The removal of a vein from his leg. The heart beating slowly. Very slowly. It wasn’t the first time I’d photographed open heart surgery. But there’s […]
Unplugged
Just last night, Portland band Blitzen Trapper played an acoustic show at the Portland Playhouse in front of about 150 people. The audience was silent. The air was still. Vocal harmonies filled the room and sent chills across my skin. It was a different vibe than the past times I’ve seen the band. Those guys […]
Rapha Gentlemen’s Race
Many times throughout the day, riders asked me if I was doing okay. How was I holding up to the heat, the miles. Was I getting enough water. It was, after all, closing in on 100 degrees and the race snaked through the Coast Range for 123 miles and more than 6000 feet of elevation […]
Post Pickathon 2010
Langhorne Slim at Alberta Street Pub on Tuesday night Every year, something unplanned seems to happen a few days after Pickathon that brings a few folks back together to share a hug, a beer and some stories. Last night, Langhorne Slim and Woody Pines showed up at Alberta Street Pub and cranked out some tunes […]
Carthage
Near Three Creeks Lake. The color of wheat, with deep brown eyes and a tiny black nose, a tough little street puppy found us one late night in Carthage, Missouri. She had worms and fleas and no home. That was thirteen years ago. She made us whole ever since. You may have known her by […]
Summer of the Fish
First fish. Timothy Lake on Mount Hood, Oregon We’ve already spent a good chunk of these summer days out camping somewhere in the Cascades. Mount Hood, the Metolius River, the McKenzie River and two different Clear Lakes. The driving force and unexpected thrill of all of this has been watching Leo, 4, dive into fishing […]
Passing Time
My dad, brothers and I heading out to go fishing in Colorado in 1977 Leo, age 4, with my dad in 2010 Photo editor and fellow PDXcrosser Mike Davis suggested on his blog just before Father’s Day to “make a picture of your dad, if you can, to remember him as he is this year, […]
Finally Summer
Huckleberry ice cream The sun was watching the calendar up here in the Northwest. On Monday, as if on cue, the weather and my attitude changed with the flip of the switch that sent us into Summer. High lake, still snowy We were up in the Cascades on the Metolius River when it happened. The […]
Farewell Plum
Grazing, August 2008. Yesterday’s wind and rain storm knocked out a few young tomato plants around town for sure. And sadly, it took down my favorite old plum tree. Part of the curved trunk still stands, barely. The mass of the tree tumbled into the neighbor’s yard during an especially gusty few minutes in early […]
The House Concert
Walter Parks warms up before performing a house concert in southeast Portland. There’s the old debate about whether or not there is a “first annual” anything. But you see it all the time. First annual festival. First annual sale. First annual meeting. The AP style book sends a quick reminder that the word annual should […]
Helping Hands
Leo, age four At least once a day, something happens around here that makes me kind of cringe. Markers, crayons, water, paint, sand and on and on. Something happens. And this is normal, I tell myself. I remember my mom sweeping the kitchen floor as the five of us would track pounds of dirt and […]
Coming right up
Willie Nelson, 1998 I was just looking through the line up for the concert series out at The Edgefield. A couple of the shows should be a good time. Willie Nelson is, of course, legendary. I’ve seen him play a few times and it’s always interesting. Nothing beats the time I saw him play in […]
Recycling Day
LTD at the zoo Around here, we call it “Living the Dream.” It’s code for taking care of the kids. There’s a loose knit group of us and we LTD weekly at the zoo or at the museum. We hit the park or a coffee shop. We love our kids and our time together. And […]
Perspective
Saul Zaik, shot for Oregon Quarterly The very moment I walked into Portland architect Saul Zaik’s office, he looked across the room to see who was coming in through the door. “How much does a gallon of water weigh?” he asked. I gave a non-definitive answer. So he rifled through an ancient tome of weights […]
Rainy, smiley ride home
It was cold and nasty today and little-kid cycling weather seemed very far away, but there we were at Seven Corners chatting with Corey, petting the shop dogs and sizing up a tiny, red bike. The weather was so incredibly beautiful this past weekend people were gardening, studying blooms and standing on the street corner […]
Black Shampoo
Wilco performs at the Roseland Theater in Portland in 2004. Last week when we saw Wilco perform, it was just like the first time. No camera around my neck and girl named Sara at my side. The first time? That was November 17, 1994 at an unannounced show under the name of Black Shampoo at […]
Pickin’ on Vivaldi
Fiddle player Frank Fairfield (right) will be playing Pickathon again this year. The morning routine around here requires our wonderful all-classical station to be on. At some point, we shift over to something a bit more rootsy. The afternoon could be almost anything, most likely singer-songwriter oriented. Dinner prep and the meal itself require another […]
F.T.F.
I thought I’d hid that cape. We didn’t need another episode. But Leo appeared out of nowhere last night with headlamp, suspenders and a gold cape ready to zoom through the night in a rush of spring fever. Just a few days earlier, his pal, cape securely fastened, made a leap from the top bunk […]
Just Looking
Berlin, 2009 I remember walking around in Chicago with an exchange student from Switzerland when I was maybe a freshman in high school. He took pictures of everything. Up, down, up, down. He was blown away by tall buildings and the people walking swiftly along the sidewalks beneath them. Berlin, 2009 I know the feeling. […]
Merry Christmas
We here at the LaBarge home wish you a happy holiday. I know I’m a few hours early heaving this wish upon you…but there’s a chance I’ll forget to send it tomorrow with Santa coming by and all. Cheers.