Tag: Oregon

Where Am I?

A closeup of vertical lines in a pair of adjacent garages in the Irvington neighborhood of Portland, Oregon

Vertical lines. Wood and concrete, moss. Sun and shadow. Where am I?

A closeup of grids and vertical lines in a pair of adjacent garages in the Irvington neighborhood of Portland, Oregon

Let’s pull back a little. Grids. A window. Am I? Am I?

A pair of adjacent garages in the Irvington neighborhood of Portland, Oregon on a cold, sunny winter morning

I am! I’m at my favorite pair of garages on a cold but sunny winter morning.

The World of Water

A harbor seal peaks over the waves in the pouring rain at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area in Newport, Oregon on October 7, 2017. Original: _L1A8594.CR2

Ours is a world of water but not so much as theirs, particularly on days of water above and below. You should have seen the smile on my face when the rain really started chucking it down as I watched the harbor seals frolic in the surf. Water defines so much of what I love about the Pacific Northwest, the lush greens of the forests, the snow on the mountains, the waterfalls, the seasonal ponds, the wetlands, the mountain streams, the rivers, the oceans, the tide pools. All the animals therein. I’m trying to soak it in while I can in case I end up in a world still defined by water, but by its absence rather than its abundance. But I’ll love photographing those places too, I learned long ago to focus on what you love about where you are rather than what you miss about where you were.

📷: Canon 7D II | Canon 500mm f/4L IS USM + 1.4x III
🗓️: October 7, 2017

To California

A California scrub-jay perches on a grape vine in a backyard in Portland, Oregon

I photographed this California scrub-jay in our backyard in 2005, back when it was known as a western scrub-jay. The species was split into two in 2016, the California is who you’ll usually see in Oregon. Emma was particularly fond of the large, gregarious birds like jays, crows, and flickers, so if she was on watch I always knew when one landed in our backyard.

Uh Oh, He’s Photographing Garages Again

The rare double-car garage in the Irvington neighborhood of Portland, Oregon

Starting to get some nibbles in the job search but all so far will require a move, the odds that we can stay in our house aren’t zero but nearly so. One thing we’ll likely get no matter where we end up is a double-car garage, something I’ve missed in the last 16 years as we have a small single-car garage. Many houses in this old neighborhood don’t have garages at all, but this is one of the rare doubles. I’m rather worn out from the job search, compounding the emotional toil is the time investment for researching these opportunities, I haven’t taken a full day off in a while. I haven’t been out hiking since the layoffs at the start of November but I’m hoping that will change if not this week than the next.

Drop Box

A large orange trash container sits on a snow-covered Siskiyou Street in the Irvington neighborhood of Portland, Oregon

I finally found the Dropbox everyone’s talking about, it’s supposed to be good for sharing files on your computer but if I leave it there aren’t I just sharing my entire computer? I didn’t see anything else worth sharing in there, I don’t mean to be unkind but frankly it all just looked like trash.