Soccer tournament

In my free time, my wife and I direct the Nathan Thomas 6v6 Fall Tournament. This year was the 19th year, and the last year that it will be named after Nathan.  The Oregonian recently did a wonderful job of presenting the history of the tournament and the story of Nathan.   It is available here.

The McMurry Thomas family goes a long way back with my family, they lived in another state for a long time when I was young and I did not get to know them until I was older.  I was too old to play in the tournament, but my brother played.  My parents were involved in organizing the tournament for many years. I served on the committee several years ago as a way to honor Nathan and his amazing family. When I moved back to Portland, I re-joined the committee and was asked to take over as director.  I was glad to do so.   I wanted to continue to share the lessons and messages of strong community relationships, through the tournament.

In my opinion, this year was our best tournament. The weather was good, not great, and in fact it rained through most of the morning.  But it was great to see the smiling, happy faces. I didn't get time to take many pictures, but I could fill an album with smiles, and someday I may do that. What made this year great was seeing that we were able to get to the core of what the tournament is all about. We taught sportsmanship and fair play. We honored the Portland community, and we encouraged youth to be themselves and have fun. It was truly an amazing experience to see and hear Nathan's parents talking to the crowd of players, coaches, and families.  I am personally incredibly inspired by Greg, Martha, and Benjamin.  I will carry with me the value of forgiveness and grace that I see in them, and I hope that I can reflect those values as well.

Swifts

A very strange and unique thing that I got to experience for the very first time actually has nothing to do with the city itself, its people, culture, or anything else. It is all about a chimney in a school in NW Portland that for some reason is distinct. Each year in September, thousands of little tiny fast birds, called swifts nest in this chimney in their migratory trip south. The fascinating part of it is not so much that they nest there but that they swirl around and spiral into the chimney for quite some time and fly like a big cloud into the chimney as the sun sets. People set up camp on the field and around the school, the kids and parents at the school sell tshirts, popcorn and snacks, and it is really an entire event. I took lots of photos, including of the kids sledding down the hill on cardboard boxes or skateboards, but those will be for another day. Today, I will share one of the birds themselves. This is the moment that probably a few thousand of them flew around and into the chimney. It was a good opportunity to set up the tripod and try some low light shooting. It really did turn out pretty well.

Joe

Blueberries

One of the gems of Portland is Sauvie Island. It is only a few miles from town, but is basically farmland, and feels completely like a seperate place entirely. People go out there to ride their bikes, hike, shop at little markets and vendors, camp, maybe go to the clothing optional beach, or go to the farms. I remember many years of my childhood going out there to the pumpkim patch. Sometimes it was a field trip for school, sometimes it was with family.
A few weeks ago, I went out to the island to pick blueberries. It's a fun experience, and the berries are many times more flavorful than those you get in the store. And you can get tons of them for not much cost. The picture above is one I snapped really quickly with my phone. Indeed, I am posting this from my phone as well. It's been a long time since I updated anything, I wanted to get one up. I have been working on creating a Facebook page, so there will be new photos there soon.

JO

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Camping Trip

It's not exactly in Portland itself, but this photo was taken a few hours away on the North Skamania River. I went on a campong trip out there over the last weekend, and it was awesome. The weatherwas great, the group of people was fun, and we had all kinds of great stuff to do. One thing that has always been true, I have found, is that I seem to always wake up early while camping. I think it is because the sun rises and it affects my internal clock so much more in a tent than when I am in at home. On Saturday morning, this was the case, and since the weather was so great, the sky was so clear, and the light was so good, I took the opportunity to go shoot, as I typically do in these situations. Here is one of my favorites from that morning. I saw this guy fishing, but it took me a while to get a good angle where I could see him clearly. Once I did that, I had to zoom in really far, as he was still far away, and then I had to work really hard to get the shutter to fire when hi sline was visible and in a good spot. I was suprised at how tough it was to get that timing down.

After I got this shot, I walked along the river hoping to get even closer, but by the time I got to the next clear spot, I couldn't see him any more. After the trip, I decided to crop this one, as it originally had been vertical. I think the tighter crop works better, personally.  It only needed minor touch ups after the crop, so I am pretty happy with it.  I just wish I could have gotten more angles and variety, but overall it worked out well.  

July?

The calendar says July. All the events that happen in June have come and gone. I am hearing about 4th of July sales and summer events.  I am going to a summer wedding this weekend.  So I just can not figure out why it is so rainy.  I know this is Portland, and that we famously get a lot of rainy days.  I understand that, I really do.  But this is not a sprinkle or a small shower passing through.  This feels like fall weather.  I just about hydroplaned on the way to work, and had my windshield wipers on nearly their highest setting for most of the drive.  It is just nutty.  It feels like we skipped summer altogether and it is now fall.  I saw leaves that had fallen off of trees yesterday.  And now there are huge rain clouds. 

The forecasters last night said that after today's shower it is going to warm up and that we will have our first 90 degree day by the end of this three day weekend, but based on today, it is hard to imagine.  I guess I will believe it when I see it.  I know my shorts and summer clothes are ready to go, just waiting for it to be dry again, like the three days we have had so far this year. 

I tired to stop and snap a photo that showed this, and didn't really get one that does it justice just how rainy it is today.  But this one shows it some.  It does not show the huge downpour, but it certainly does not look how July is supposed to look. 

JO

 

Zoo

It has been a while since I posted about Portland, so here is a new photo.

Portland has a great zoo. I guess I did not realize that untill I saw other zoos in other places, and expecially those that are mostly cement and steel. The zoo here is full of grasses and natural settings, and seems much more friednly, comfortable and acessable than others I have seen. I was there the weekend of the biggest event in the city, which brought a lot of people out. It was also the first nice day in weeks, and the sun made the crowd even larger, so there were a lot of people there.

The last few times I was there, the giraffes were inside because of illness, but this day they were out, and I got this shot of some of the crowd checking things out. The animal walked around and then ate some food, and it was amazing how graceful and agile he (or she, I don't know) seemed. It was pretty cool to see.

Joe

Kenton

I went to the Kenton Street fair last weekend, and got to spend a lot of the day out at the event. Despite the off and on rain, it turned out to be a great event. I got lots of great photos, and combined several of them into the collage here. There were lots of smiley faces and good turnout. There was music, vendors, and fun activities. For a first year event, it went really well.

art?

Here is another picture from the little photo trip I took around to some parks a few weeks ago. I guess some people set up these giant acupuncture needles around the city partly as an art instalation and partly for awareness of sustainability and environmental issues. I am not really sure the entire point, but I am sure it means something. I like the contrast between the cold, straight, solid steel materials and the natural shapes of the trees. The sky also had some quite interesting features in it that day, part of why I went out to shoot that day in the first place.

Simple things

It amazing what seemingly simple things (in this case a puddle) can be. Whenever I get good shots like this, I am reminded why it is so important as a photographer to look in all directions. I was doing good looking around at all the other scenery, and I nearly missed this view untill I looked down and saw it. Good thing I did - I like the photo that I ended up getting.

Joe

St John's Bridge

The St. John's bridge must be the most photographed bridges in Portland, and for good reason. I went out there this afternoon and took advantage of the slightly overcast skies that diffused the light really well to get some good shots.  It is a fun place to go, partly because they made the area under the bridge a really cool park, and partly because it is just such a cool bridge to see, and the experience of going under it like that is fairly unique.  I hope you enjoy the photo!

Paul Bunyan

Hey everyone! Welcome to my first real post. Today we are going to look at a small historical piece of Portland, the Paul Bunyan statue above. It was recently repainted, and since the sun was out, I stopped to take some pictures of it today. The plaques by his feet tell us that the original statue was erected in 1959 to celebrate Oregon's 100th birthday and to celebrate the logging heritage of the state. It also tells that it was renovated in the 1990s in addition to being repainted I am sure many times. I have heard that it was placed in the locatioon that it is in because Interstate Avenue was at the time the main road in from Washington, and with all the expected visitors for the 1ooth birthday celebrations it wouold be seen by many people. This corner is also a main set of streets in the Kenton Neighborhood, and since the Kenton Business Association built it, it makes sense to be where it is. The plaques also say that he overlooks the Expo center which is where the celerations were held in 1959.
What I like about this particular shot is that it shows him towering over the trees, which is of course what Paul would be doing in real life. I wish there was a giant blue ox statue somewhere nearby, but I have never seen it. Maybe they can build that for the 200th birthday of Oregon, which will not be until 2059, quite a ways off.

Of course, please leave your comments below.

Thanks! I hope that in the course of these posts I can share some of the wonderful things I love about portland, and this is one of the great examples of what makes it unique.

Joe

Introduction

Hello!

Welcome to the new site.  This site will be a place to explore the city, sights, neighborhoods, areas, surroundings, culture, and environment of Portland Oregon.  This is the city I have spent most of my life in, and I hope to share all the amazing parts of it through my photos.  All the photos will be available for sale, just send me an email.  I hope to post my first photo soon, make sure to check back!

Joe