Time Lapse No 18 - Las Vegas, Nov 2011

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That is all.

Where Does the Time Go?

I've really fallen off of the blogging bandwagon this year. I won't make excuses, I'm just not into it. However I do want to put some more photos here to help keep people updated... after all this is where you go if you type in the website from my business cards, I should have something here.





More of the same with the city and nature photos. I haven't taken a whole lot of pictures this year, but I do still get out a little to enjoy myself when I have some time. Nothing takes my mind off of my problems like three hours at sunset with my camera in a nice setting.





I still try to catch the special events here in Portland. Although I did miss two of the big fireworks displays for the year, I made it to the fourth of July. Hitting up the Rose Festival fleet was a little easier, since they were around for several days.







I've found myself working in the Poker industry this year. I really enjoy what I am doing now, it's fun and I am meeting a lot of great new people. I was lucky enough to visit Vegas during the World Series of Poker this year, it was a blast and I hope I can make it back in 2012.

My photography has also come in handy at the club where I spend most of my time. I get some great pictures of the local players, although few are as good as the shot of my fellow dealer Clint, above.

Anyway, just checking in. Thanks for taking a look!

A Quick Drive Through the Gorge

One of my Flickr contacts has been posting photos of serious flooding up near Mt. Hood this week, so I decided I should probably drive out to the Gorge and get some pictures of the waterfalls with above-normal flows.  I guess I would have been smarter to get out there two days ago, when it was pouring rain and melting all the snow off the mountains, but these are more dramatic than what I've gotten during the summer.

I didn't do any hiking, instead I just drove my car down the Columbia highway and hit a few of the dramatic falls on that route.  It took just over an hour to get from Multnomah Falls through Latourelle, luckily there wasn't much traffic and the crowds were very light... at Latourelle, I was the only one there!



As usual, there are more photos from this and other series' over on my flickr page.  I hope you've enjoyed these few photos, and hopefully I'll be getting more of them here soon.




I guess this is as good a spot as any to throw in the photos I took a few weeks ago when the gorge was all frozen over and I didn't really get to see anything other than a frozen Multnomah Falls. That was pretty neat.



Thanks for looking in! Have a great week, everyone.

Portland's Peacock Lane

Last week I visited one of Portland's oldest holiday traditions, Peacock Lane. Since 1929 residents of this three block long street have decorated their homes and drawn people from all over town. I visited on opening night, when the street was closed off to cars, which made for much easier photography.









Luckily there was a steady rain falling for most of the evening, and I was able to get some nice reflections on the sidewalks and streets. The street was really crowded with people, but I did my best to take long enough exposures that none of them cluttered up the final pictures. You can see a few spots where someone stood in the same spot for the twenty or so seconds I shot (one in the above photo, and two in the below) but considering the crowds I was pretty happy with that.






Things came out really well for me, I was happy with how the pictures came out in the end. I hope you've enjoyed them, and as usual you can see more shots over on my flickr page, http://flickr.com/pdxsean. Thanks for taking the time to look!

Portland's Christmas Ship Parade

The Christmas Ship Parade is a long-standing holiday tradition in Portland, with two fleets of ships that ply the Willamette and Columbia rivers. Recently I took a walk down to the Willamette to catch the fleet as they passed under the Steel Bridge.







These ships were tricky to shoot properly. The zoom lens I own is not really appropriate for low-light conditions, with a maximum aperture of f/3.5 and at these moderate zoom levels it was usually around f/4.8. Add into that the ships were moving at a decent clip and it took a lot of patience and some luck to get reasonably clear shots.







I hope you've enjoyed these, thanks for taking the time to view them. As usual you can see more images from this shoot, and others, on my flickr page, http://flickr.com/pdxsean.

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!

Riverfront Sunset, Downtown Rain, and Park Macros

It's been pretty cold here in Portland the last couple of weeks, and I've been pretty lazy about getting out and taking photos. We had a tease with some snowy weather in our forecast, but sadly it never materialized. As it is, I've managed to get out a couple of times to take some pictures when the conditions demanded it.





When I find myself stuck inside too long because the weather doesn't inspire me to get out, I'll occasionally take matters into my own hands and head out with my spray bottle and macro lens and take some creative shots. This was the case yesterday when I took a walk up to Washington Park and took some photos as I walked the peaceful grounds.





With any luck, I'll get out and take some great shots this month. December is usually wet, and with the added lights of the holiday season I should find plenty of opportunities. I've got my fingers crossed, anyway. I hope you've enjoyed looking, and as usual you can see more from these shoots on my flickr page, http://flickr.com/pdxsean.

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.

More Long Exposures of Portland's Skyline at Dusk

We've had some great cloudy sunsets during the last week, and I've gone out to catch a couple of them with my camera.  The first time out, the clouds sort of cleared up as I was shooting, so the results weren't quite as dramatic as I would have liked.  The image above is the only one from that shoot that made the final cut, you can see that there are only a couple of clouds still in the sky.



The next day I went out and did the macro photography that I featured in my previous post, and the clouds were a lot heavier as the sun crept below the horizon.  I was able to catch some really great long exposures.  My goal was to take a lot of 90-120 second shots, and for the most part I was successful.  However a couple of the test shots I did at 20 or 30 seconds ended up looking great, so I've posted the best of those as well.






I hope you've enjoyed!  I've been pretty motivated to go out and shoot lately (it's this great fall weather) so you can expect plenty of more photos to come.  I have a whole set from last night, and more than likely I'll get out to do another couple of shoots this week.  Good times.

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!