The Hills of San Juan Island
June 18, 2012. Above South Beach, San Juan Island, Washington June 18, 2012. South Beach, San Juan Island, Washington I shut the door of the van, turned and started running up a gradual hill. For just a split second, I thought I was in the rolling hills of northern Nebraska. But then the smell of […]
One Small Part of One Square Mile
This past Saturday, about 50 photographers fanned out across one square mile of downtown Portland as part of an entertaining ASMP project. The result is a collection of images that will be displayed somewhere down the line. My little quadrant was a few blocks in Southeast. I wandered, met a few folks, made some pictures. […]
Rain Delay
April 16, 2012. Mount Tabor We had a weekend of sunny and warm Spring weather. The kind where you cut the grass, work in the garden, go to your kids’ sporting events without your slicker, have people over for dinner and stand outside to simply absorb everything. Then, we got pounded with another round of […]
Chuck Palahniuk
I first photographed Chuck Palahniuk a decade ago as the Fight Club frenzy simmered and enthusiasm for his new book Choke swelled. He was hanging out in the aisle at Powell’s signing random copies of his own books. With more than a dozen books to his name now, he has a huge following. Just before […]
Paradise Found
Leo and I were reading a book recently. A character mentions that living in a country with libraries in every community must be paradise. Leo stopped me. “What’s paradise, Papa?” I told him it was the most perfect place you could imagine. A place of infinite happiness. Sounding a bit wistful, he said, “For me, […]
En Garde
In sport, there is almost always a need for force. Sometimes it is brute force, sometimes more subtle. I had an assignment a while back to photograph a small fencing tournament at Reed College here in Portland. It was a quiet affair, an annual event to honor an alumnus. The students were stopped by the […]
Biketobeerfest – Hopworks rings in the Fall
Bouldering Bike Bands Breaking Big Beers. Bizarro! Saturday was the third year for Biketobeerfest at Hopworks and it was quite a party. Rain fell, and in true Portland fashion, there was somber talk of the moisture marking the end of summer. Yet, those same people took some time to toss a bike, cheers on some […]
Cyclocross in Oregon
It’s almost like the holiday season and the urge to decorate and celebrate a few weeks earlier each year. There have already been several cross races and yet the big series is still weeks away. Yesterday’s race Pain and Suffer’n is an annual test of a racer’s ability to plow through pulverized hay fields and […]
Golf Adventure in Oregon
Pacific Dunes near Bandon, Oregon OGA Golf Course near Aurora, Oregon A friend called the other day and announced he’d hit a hole-in-one that morning. It reminded me that several years ago, I had an assignment to photograph a gentleman who’d hit that once-in-a-lifetime shot. I made a portrait and moved along to my next […]
Smooth Day at Sea
When you read stories about the Columbia River Bar Pilots, there are usually descriptions of giant waves, boats rolling and near misses coming down the ladder. So I was a touch worried after saying yes to an assignment for 1859 : Oregon’s Magazine that would involve spending time on a vessel picking up and dropping […]
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 […]
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 […]