portlandia

this morning, after running 10 miles with team in training in northeast portland [time 1:43], i decided to wander around and take some photos of the city.  thankfully, the weather cooperated very nicely.  it was pushing 60 degrees with partly cloudy skies - not bad for the end of january!

admittedly, what i really wanted to do was take photos of people, as i think that is truly what tells the portland story.  i seriously saw a guy today that looked like mc hammer -- à la the early 1990's!  there is just so much creativity and expression to capture in this city... but i just felt really strange about pointing a camera at random people like some kind of stalker.  i'd be really interested in talking to some street photographers about how they do this without offending people.  perhaps then i'd feel a lot more comfortable about it and actually give it a try.

anyway, here are a few shots for your viewing pleasure.  i'm proud to say i shot most of the photos today in manual mode.  the light meter is now my best friend.  i did use the aperture priority mode a few times and the shutter priority mode once or twice as well.  

i call these first ones my 'gritty southeast portland' shots.  i had a hard time getting inspired over on that side of the river today.  it just seemed very void of people and very industrial.  as such, i added a lot of grain in the following shots and changed them to black and white.  [actually, now that i've typed that, i realized that the second shot was actually on the west side...but i'm sure you get my drift.]

28mm ISO 100 1/640 sec at f/4 

80mm ISO 100 1/100 sec at f/5.3

28mm ISO 100 1/640 sec at f/4

the following were taken on the west side.

this looks like something the college might use on a promotional postcard or an annual report. 

48mm ISO 100 1/100 sec at f/4.8

i was trying to play around with slower shutter speeds on this one and catch the bike in motion.  it didn't really work that well, but i'm posting it anyway so you can see my first attempt at trying.

24mm ISO 100 1/100 sec at f/4.0

can't have a portland series without a brewpub!

18mm ISO 100 1/50 sec at f/3.5

21mm ISO 100 1/200 sec at f/4.0

this was a fountain that i came across.  it was dedicated to someone for their support of the arts.

38mm ISO 100 1/50 sec at f/4.5

38mm ISO 200 1/200 sec at f/4.5

this was taken at barista.  i love the variety of colors and textures in the bricks.  it makes such a complex look, especially given that most bricks look so straight, clean and boring.

35 mm ISO 200 1/60 sec at f/4.5

this might be one of the few times that you'll see a photo of chad.  he usually gets kind of annoyed when i stick the camera in his face!  

18mm ISO 200 1/200 sec at f/3.5

and because she's such a wonderful, beautiful wee girl, here is a shot of fife.

66mm ISO 1250 1/6 sec at f/5.3

now, in honor of the title, i'm going to watch the latest episode of portlandia online.  gotta love that show!!

p.s. chad bought me a crumpler camera bag today as a late christmas present.  so excited!