Early December Catch-Up

It's been a pretty good week for photography for me. I've gotten out a few times, made an effort to find some new industrial macro shots, and the clouds have cooperated for waterfront sunset shots. I hope you enjoy these best-of shots from the last week or so.












I hope you've enjoyed, and as usual there are more photos from these shoots available on my flickr page, http://flickr.com/pdxsean. This should be a good month for me and the camera, not only is winter one of my favorite times to shoot, I tend to look to bump up the annual shot count as the year comes to a close. Thanks for looking!

Highlights of Several Recent Shoots

I've been out taking a lot of pictures lately.  The weather here has been great for photography, in that it has been raining modestly with little wind.  Over the last week, I've gone out several times to take some pictures, getting a pretty decent variety of shots, the highlights of which I am showing here.  As usual, there are additional pictures from these shoots on my flickr page.















Fall and winter are among my favorite times to take pictures, so with any luck I'll be a lot more active over the next few months.  We don't get a lot of snow and ice here in Portland, but there's often some to be seen a short drive away, so I'm expecting to catch some of it in the next few months.  Should be a good winter for photography.

Thanks for taking the time to look, I hope you've enjoyed.

Industrial SE Portland

My absolute favorite type of photos to take are these industrial style images, with my 60mm macro lens. Although I don't necessarily get too many highly magnified "macro" style images, the clarity of the lens and ability to get in close to my subjects really makes the macro lens worth hooking up for these industrial area walks.



I'm always surprised that I don't see more of this sort of photography when I look around online. There are so many little hidden treasures to be found looking around manufacturing and industrial areas. I don't take a lot of risks for any of these shots, all of them are taken from public sidewalks and the like... I don't get why other people don't see the same sort of things all that much.




As it is, I'm happy to be able to express myself through the camera in this fashion. My love of this sort of photography is the basis for the name of this blog, as I view my tripod and spray bottle to be the most important tools in making these images work. Although I could shoot this stuff handheld, and without wetting it down first, I wouldn't be able to get the level of complexity I do were I to approach it in that manner.



Thank you for looking, I hope you've enjoyed! As always, you can see more images on my flickr page, and you may follow my infrequent remarks over on twitter @pdxsean. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Weisendanger Falls, Some Industrial Stuff, and a Sunset

I've been trying to stay active the last week, pushing some boundaries and just doing my best to be motivated and getting out.



Spring time is my favorite time to go hiking, I love the wet trails and generally busier creeks. I was hoping the recent wet, cool weather would equal plenty of snow melt and higher water, but it wasn't really anything I noticed.



The rain was perfect for me, coming down heavily for about fifteen minutes as I reached my turn-around point, and then just sort of spitting out a little bit for the two hours I shot on my way back to the trail head. The wind wasn't really a factor, so I was able to use my umbrella when needed, and caught most of these exposures umbrella-free.





I've also decided that it is time for me to familiarize myself with post-processing on my images, mostly in hopes that when I am taking pictures for a living I will be prepared to fix up some images that aren't quite where I want them. I shot this industrial shoot with that in mind, it really required me to rethink my whole approach.



Lucky for me I haven't had the need to learn much yet, although what I've picked up in the last week has been really helpful. I've learned to heighten my contrast without giving an artificial look to my images, which is great. I've also picked up a tip or two I might need when I take some portraits, although none of those practice images are here.



I hope you've enjoyed seeing these! Not much else to report, I'm just keeping my head down, working through my planning, and trying to stay positive. I'm on my way to making this work!

Some Modest Recent Results

On Sunday I went for a walk with my camera and new tripod, with the intention of catching some industrial shots and then switching to the downtown river shots as the sun set.  Things worked out well enough for me, although the industrial area I chose was a rather boring one and I didn't find a lot to shoot.  You may recall, I did find a bolt.  I was mostly interested in the item on the ground and using it as a background, but sadly it didn't come out.  The shot I did like, however, is still pretty good.



I walked throughout the neighborhood and got some good exercise, which is probably the most important part of these shoots... I am pretty lazy and do need to keep up with occasional exercise.  Turned out the few shots I did take came out interesting enough, so it's all good in the end.



The afternoon had started out partly cloudy, and I had been pretty excited about getting some great cloud shots.  They thickened up as sunset approached, however, and by the time the sun went down they were pretty thick overhead.  As usual, I was pretty happy with the way the camera is able to pick out some more interesting textures in the clouds than my eyes.

A Few Wet Industrial Shots

Over the weekend, we had plenty of rain here in Portland. On Saturday, the rain let up a bit, and I decided it would be a great day to head over to the industrial area and see if I could round up anything interesting. Plus, I wanted to try out the new tripod base that my parents had bought me for Christmas. Yes, I would once again have a tripod where one leg didn't tend to slowly collapse upon itself. That really helps.



I did manage to find a couple of good shots at the first place I stopped. However, the wind picked up soon after I arrived, and was blowing the misty rain about in gusts. Unfortunately, this doesn't work very well with the umbrella... it either blows the rain around it, or tries to blow the umbrella away.

I tried to wait it out, but the weather only got nastier the longer I waited. Which was too bad, because it really is nice when things are already wet down and I don't have to mess with the spray bottle. I guess there's always next weekend.



I also received a response from KLM Royal Dutch Airlines this morning. They won't compensate me for the image that they would like to use. However, they only wanty to use an image that I don't really care much about at all. So I've decided to let them use it. I am really surprised that they wanted it... although I guess it does have a good photojournalistic style to it.

My First 2010 Industrial Shoot

I realized the other day that I haven't done an industrial shoot in months.  I think the last one I did was in October, when the sunset was creeping around 6:30 or so and I stopped in North Portland after work.  Maybe there was a failed attempt after that, all I know for sure is that my macro lens hasn't been on my camera for months.  I decided yesterday was the day to correct that.



Scanning Google Maps, I found a new pocket of industrial area that I was eager to check out.  I drove out there and realized that everything in the area was fenced off or really remote.  For some reason, I'm not as bold when it comes to approaching remote places as I used to be.



Luckily, I had a backup plan.  I drove across the river and stopped in <s>beautiful</s> downtown Vancouver Washington.  I hadn't visited for a year or so, and thought that maybe I'd be able to find something interesting and new.  Unfortunately, I was mostly wrong.



I visited the train yard and walked around downtown, but didn't find a lot of things to catch my eye.  I was surprised at how little was going on at the train station... maybe it was the Sunday afternoon that kept it slow.



I came home after sunset, happy that I had gotten some exercise and out of the apartment.  I parked my car in the new garage (yes, I've changed again) and realized that I hadn't taken any picture of this new space.  So I shot a few until I heard the garage door opening and someone coming in.  Then I tried to scramble and pretend I was putting my camera away into the trunk of my car.  Just a casual guy leaving, not some weirdo taking pictures of the garage.  Heh.

Last Weekend at the North Coast

As you'll recall from my last batch of photos, I took a quick drive out to the coast last weekend.  The sunset was a pleasant surprise, the main focus was a quick visit to Forts Stevens and Columbia.  Those of you who have been following me for some time will recognize this sort of place, as I've taken many trips over the last few years to the many decaying military batteries lining the Pacific.



It's tricky trying to find new things to shoot, especially at Fort Stevens.  I think this was my fourth visit there with my camera... possibly my fifth.  It's a small enough space that there aren't many things I haven't shot already.



Once I figured this out, I realized I could try something different with the familiar settings.  Long-time fans will recognize this scene, a long-time favorite, but with a new twist.  I haven't really done any of these zoom-in shots recently, so I was happy that I thought of it while at Fort Stevens.




Across the river from Fort Stevens is the smaller Fort Columbia.  It's on a steep hillside overlooking the mouth of the Columbia River, the Astoria Bridge, and Astoria beyond.  All this, and somehow it has terrible views.  There are too many trees and fences to make any scenic pictures work.




Another little trick I wanted to try was playing around with my flashlight in a shot.  So I did!  I thought it might make things look haunted or something sweet like that, but instead it looks like I played around with a flashlight.




Another of those zoom-y photos.  Intense!  Did I mention I was there on Halloween?  It's true.  Too bad the place isn't really all that scary.  At least both of the bases were almost completely empty, I think I ran into eight other people at both parks combined.





This would be a great place to visit in the fog.  It's a shame it is two and a half hours away, I don't know how I could plan out such a visit, since the weather is so unpredictable.  One of these damp and cool weekends, I'll have to get a hotel in Astoria so I can at least double my chances.



While I was there shooting, I kept thinking about how I wasn't really finding any good shots.  Just this doorway and that hallway and some window and broken rail... of course when I got  home I looked through the photos and found a ton of them that I loved.  I had a hard time paring them down, as usual.  There are a few bonus shots on Flickr that everyone can see, if you feel like the eleven here aren't enough.




As I mentioned, Fort Columbia doesn't have much of a view of anything, and when I saw the potential for a beautiful sunset I decided I had to cut my visit short and head back down to Fort Stevens.  Twenty minutes later, I was at the beach and getting ready for the sunset.




The sand kind of got the best of me, as my tripod tended to shift without me noticing.  Many of these shots are slightly crooked, but there are a few that are way off!  And I really need to get that sensor cleaned, as the dust spots are just awful.  You can't see them in these, of course, but they're very obvious in the shots I took at f/22.



As usual, thanks for taking the time to look at my pictures!  I hope you've enjoyed.