Burnside Man - 1970

Burnside Man - 1970

West end of Burnside Bridge Portland Oregon. The photos were taken within a few minutes of "Two Pigeons". The man was willing to pose. I don't recall for sure but I think I walked with him to a cafe and paid for his breakfast.

Photos taken with a 200mm lens at f4-f5.6 at shutter speeds like 1/250th. The grain structure shows that the negs were sent to a photofinisher. Tri-X when processed in fresh developer with all baths at 68f had a much tighter grain structure. Tri-X was wonderful film once you learned how to use it.

Fire Control - Fort Casey ca. 1970

These were taken at Fort Casey on Whidbey Island.

Two Pigeons - ca. 1970

Two Pigeons

A very early photo, before I started processing my own b&w negatives.

It was taken looking down from the west end of the Burnside Bridge in Portland Oregon. Film was Tri-X and the lens was a 200mm.

White in Green - Fort Lawton April 23, 2006

Homage to Edward Hopper

Homage to Edward Hopper - - Fort Lawton April 23, 2006

One sunny afternoon in the winter of '92 I walked into the Ricciardi Gallery on the water front in Astoria Oregon ordered a single latte and while I was waiting for it took a look around at the work currently hanging when my eye was drawn to a large oil on the south wall. The latte woman handed me my coffee and I made my way around the little island in the middle of the room, where Corinne Ricciardi who was preoccupied with paperwork at her desk, to take a closer look at this large oil.

After studying the painting for perhaps thirty seconds I said out loud to no one in particular, "This fellow studied Edward Hopper". Corinne Ricciardi stopped what she was doing and came over. She knew the artist and agreed that he was clearly under the influence of Hopper.

I had several more conversations with Ms. RIcciardi in the months that I spent in Astoria. I didn't care for espresso which was too bitter for my tastes but it was a clean well lighted place, where you could read the NY Times or the NewYorker without paying for it and there were opportunities for conversations with people from out of town, an oasis of "culture" in Astoria.

Lake Burien Park

Lake Burien Park isn't on a lake. The lake is several blocks away with no public access which is no big loss since Puget Sound is close by and the lake isn't much of anything more than a glorified pond.

On my way back from my walk I stopped at this little postage stamp park and hauled out the camera. Spotted this tree in a neighboring back yard and wondered how I was going to get it with the light which wasn't bright. The sun was visible through the overcast as a bright area in the middle of the clouds giving a very soft but directional source which is great for portraits of young women but a little flat for other subjects like trees.

Tried to violate some of the laws of physics on this one. 300mm shot hand held at 1/200th with the lens wide open at f4.5. The result was softness over all but the extremely out of focus foreground gives an illusion of sharpness to the subject.

Three Greens

Marsh #1 - White Center

Two Birch

This was captured at the east end of the White Center baseball park. The telephoto was extended to about 270mm (35MM equiv.) and the aperture was F5 so the trees in the foreground are well separated from the background.

The sensor in my D-SLR is 4/3 format which gives more depth of field than a full frame 35mm but far less than my fixed-lens 12X zoom with a 1/2.5 sensor. When I first started shooting with the fixed-lens ultra zoom I was puzzled by this since I hadn't really gone to the trouble to figure on the impact of a sub-miniature sensor. After some thinking about it I recalled years ago working 4/5 view and 5/7 studio cameras which at times required F64 to get things into focus.

For technical treatment of depth of this issue see: Depth of Field.

The Parade Ground Fort Lawton 4/16/06

Two views from the parade ground at Fort Lawton. One view looks NW showing the one remaining building on the west side. I also dug out a shot from winter of '05 which shows the building up close. Another view looks east up toward the ridge where the officers quarters are still standing and the radar dome dominates the skyline. There used to be a whole row of buildings on the lower west side of the the parade ground but the government decided they were too much trouble to maintain and burned them down which opened up the view to the west but really abolished the historical look and feel of the place. Now it is just another park.


There used to be a rifle range south west of the parade ground with the firing toward the bluffs. Early in 1942 my father was at this fort to qualify with the 30-06 for the army. He achieved the top rating (expert ?) with the rifle but only marksman with the Colt .45. Then he was off to MIT for a one month crash course on Radar after which he was shipped off to Iceland to command a radar installation where he remained for the duration of the conflict. When I was running out here in the late '60s you could still find shell casings laying in the grass.

Hard Light on Elliott Bay - 04/16/06

Lighted Ship - Eliot Bay 04/16/06

Bearded Man - Pike Place 04/16/06

Passover

Photo taken at Fort Lawton (aka Discovery Park) on Sunday 4/16/06. This fine looking group of young people are standing at the view on the south bluff which looks over Eliot bay. This is a wonderful place. I used to run this trail when I was attending SPU in the late 60s. At that time the Indians were staging an occupation claiming that by treaty the land was rightfully theirs since the Fort was surplus federal land. I didn't follow the details but when all the smoke cleared the Indians got the short end of the deal (once again) the feds gave them a cultural center but not the land.

Black Beret - Pike Place early 70's

You can see more of this fellow under Black Beret.

By the Sea

Three Tree Point

Took these on the way home from Lincoln Park today. I am Looking south from the bluff just north of Seahurst Park in Shorewood. Three Tree Point is in the foreground and behind it is Point Robinson on Maury Island, if you click on the top photo you should be able to see the lighthouse at Point Robinson.

Green Trees and Bench - May 2005

Lincoln Park May 2005, see Empty Bench for winter scene.

More Okanagan Trip '72 - More "Bad Art"

This is another bad art post to remind you that I posted the best photos early on so you need to look in the archives to find them.

New Angkor Market - White Center

This is the first post in a series on White Center Washington. The New Angkor Market took the prize for the shop on main street most worthy of being photographed. It was a difficult project complicated by traffic which kept trying to get in my way and run me down. The physical dimensions of the subject required a lot of photos and sort of shoot around the store approach.