Portland's 2010 Fashion Night Out

Twitter has served me well over the last year or so, drawing my attention to some interesting local events that I'd never have heard of otherwise. Last night's Fashion Night Out is a great example of this. I'm neither interested in fashion nor consumption in general, so I'd never have heard of this event were I not following a Portland current events account.










It was a fun afternoon. Every thirty minutes the models would do their walk down the runway and basically stop and pose at one specific point. As the night went on, it became easier and easier to plan my shots and get the timing down right. The lighting was a little tough, it was overcast and even with no filters I had trouble getting a fast enough shutter speed to get crisp shots. I probably should have hiked up my ISO to compensate. Unfortunately I didn't notice the softness of many images until I came home and saw them on my PC.










All said, it was a fun way to spend a few hours and some great practice I wouldn't get otherwise. I'll definitely keep my eyes open for future runway/fashion opportunities, if nothing else it's very rewarding to take pictures of attractive people.

As always, these photos and more can be seen on my Flickr page, http://flickr.com/pdxsean. Thanks for looking!

Portland Symphony Waterfront Concert Fireworks 2010

The Oregon Symphony has an annual event wrapping up the summer down at the waterfront.  Last year, I got some great pictures of ballerinas and a decent shot of a cannon blast, but had to skip the fireworks.  This year, I decided to go with the light show. 






I've never seen the east bank of the Willamette so empty for fireworks.  A few of the Flickr Nightowl group were there, as I had expected.  Other than that, nobody else seemed to care.  I arrived more than an hour early to get my spot, but could have shown up at the start and still had the same space.





I haven't had much luck with the fireworks this year.  I wasn't so thrilled with my 4th of July shots, and the Rose Festival show was rained out.  I've also made a few attempts at taking pictures of the fireworks at nearby PGE Park with no success... so I was pretty excited to have a good opportunity for a winning shoot to wrap up the summer.  Although I didn't have as many shots to choose from as I might have liked, I was still really happy with the shots that came out. 





Getting the timing down is the hardest part, as you have to guess when the shells will explode, adjust the shutter opening based on brightness (I'm on BULB setting using my remote) and try to close the shutter before the next barrage explodes.  I'm still trying to get the correct brightness level of the city, I'm not sure if that's possible considering the brightness of the fireworks.

All together it was a good night.  It was warmer than on Independence Day, it was not crowded at all, and the technical challenge of firework shooting provided some rewarding results.  Hope you've enjoyed!

Overdue Summer 2010 Update

I haven't been taking a lot of pictures this summer, but I have gotten out a few times with the camera. I haven't been posting anything here (not sure why, I do update another site regularly) but you haven't missed out on much. If you'd like to see more, you can click any of these images and get to my flickr page, where you can see several additional images from each shoot.



The Rose Festival came and went, during a surprisingly rainy June. The festival traditionally opens with fireworks, but the night was so windy and rainy, I wasn't able to get any interesting shots. I did get down to the bridges (with my umbrella) and took some pictures of the fleet.



When I was a teenager, Pacific City was my favorite beach on the Oregon Coast. I haven't been there for many years, so I decided it was time to spend an afternoon there with the camera. The beach is a lot more popular than it was 20 years ago, but it's still a nice place to stop in, and the pictures around the back of the cape are worth the drive.



After having the Rose Festival fireworks rained out, I was particularly eager for the show on July 4. I took plenty of pictures and really enjoyed the fireworks, but I think I could have chosen a better vantage point. I just hope I can remember to consider that next year.



Portland's Hawthorne Bridge turns 100 this year, and in celebration half of the bridge was decorated with a light-art display. There were numerous technical and logistical glitches with the display, although after a few days the display looked pretty nice if you happened to see the bridge after 10:00 at night.



Finally, last weekend we had the annual Twilight Criterium over in the Pearl District. This bike race brings in plenty of racing talent and is a pretty fun event to watch. The atmosphere is festive but the crowds are reasonable... it's easy to circumnavigate the track and you can cross to the inside easily if you wait for the trailing motorcycle to pass.