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Thread: Landscape Photography in the Portland Oregon area?

  1. #21
    bob carnie's Avatar
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    Re: Landscape Photography in the Portland Oregon area?

    Quote Originally Posted by paulbarden View Post
    I think the truth of the matter is that if you go hunting for subjects in new, unfamiliar locations, the only weapon you bring to the experience - the only one that matters - is your own unique way of seeing whats in front of you. If you go to the west coast and hit the beach/dunes, etc., sure enough you will see the same scenes thousands of others have made photos of. The trick (if you can call it that) is to see something in a scene/place that nobody but you has seen.

    Many of the photos I have made in the past five years were made within 3 minutes walk of my front door. If I can't find something to make a photograph of/with within walking distance of home, then I'm just not trying hard enough and I can only pin the blame on the failure of imagination. If you come to Oregon expecting to be confronted with nothing but the same visions thousands have seen already, then you're asking yourself the wrong questions entirely.
    All of my recent photography efforts revolve around this idea.. I do still lifes now with an old studio camera and I have gotten all my objects from stores or shops within two blocks of my studio. I am about to start in July three sets of work, my dogs Bones, Military Helmuts from a store 1/2 block away and the dreaded flowers which have been photographed One Zillion times before, the shop is two doors from me.

    I have stopped looking for photographs by walking with a camera and now bring the objects to my camera..

  2. #22
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Landscape Photography in the Portland Oregon area?

    Such things have already been taken only if you're trying to replicate a stereotype of what they're supposed to look like. Burn all your postcards first; that might help. I too generally concentrate on overlooked things. and I don't like tourists or crowds, so generally go the opposite direction from them. I have exactly one picture of El Capitan in Yosemite, but I'm quite certain it's unique. I've got a Brett Weston book on the shelf with a picture of the Mittens rock formation in Monument Valley taken from the exact turnout as millions of other pictures, including many published LF ones. But it looks distinctly BW and nobody else that's ever lived that I'm aware of. I've even thought of setting up a big 6X7 telephoto right there in the Multnomah Falls parking lot behind six tour buses, and I'm absolutely certain I could bag an image unique to me, especially after I've personally printed it. Go East? Ha. Go anywhere, except to stereotypes of scenery. But if you do need fresh territory per se, there are still plenty of spots in the West view cameras have never been. I've taken hundreds of backpacking trips in the high Sierra, and there are still entire canyon systems and major basins I've never seen. Yosemite Valley is just a tiny percentage of the range.

  3. #23
    Vaughn's Avatar
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    Re: Landscape Photography in the Portland Oregon area?

    Quote Originally Posted by Greg Miller View Post
    ...So I think that rules out Columbia River Gorge and the Oregon Coast. The thought of wandering around a redwood forest appeals to me, but I don;t think there are any close enough to Portland....
    Sorry, over the last 40 years I have already taken all the redwood images in northern California (there might be a few still down in the redwoods of the central coast of CA...I haven't been down there much.)

    But if I am in a new-to-me environment, I do not expect great images. Sometimes I get lucky, but my chances increase greatly as I get to know a place and experience it in different types of light. It is one of the reasons I have been photographing along the same stretch of creek for 40 years. I take my experience from the creek to Death Valley, the Sierras, Dry Falls (WA), and elsewhere...and bring back to the creek my experiences with the light of those places.

    A couple images from the Gorge. An 11x14 silver gelatin contact print and a 5x7 carbon print. The 11x14 print does have some subtle detail in the black which got lost in the translation. The 11x14 was along the road, the 5x7 was a bit of a hike, and the area most likely burned in 2017.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 1HorsetailFalls1.jpg   FallsMultnomahCr_Carbon.jpg  
    "Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China

  4. #24
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Landscape Photography in the Portland Oregon area?

    There's an incredible side canyon within walking distance of Multnomah Falls, less than a mile away, that is just outside the burn impact area. I've never seen anyone else there. It's hard to shoot because it's rather dark and windy, so problematic with long exposures. But next time I'm up there, I've gotta try again. There is no lack of potential subject matter. But who is behind the camera is just as important as what's in front of it. I don't see how a defeatist attitude of "someone's photographed it before" does any good.

  5. #25

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    Re: Landscape Photography in the Portland Oregon area?

    Thanks for all the input.

    And when I said I am not interested in making a photo that's already been made, what I intended to convey is that I normally put a lot of effort into being at the right place at the right time to get the light with the intensity, color , and direction that I want. That usually means several trips at the right time, to get the right weather and conditions. I can do that with my local scenes, but I would just have to be very lucky top get that with a cliche scene while on a road trip where I cannot control when I am there, and with a limited number of days to work. So I choose not to do it. I would prefer to go somewhere else and capture more intimate scenes using the light and weather as they are. So it's more of a stumbling upon an intimate scene that has ideal light and conditions, as opposed to fully planning out the bigger scene.

  6. #26
    Jim Graves Jim Graves's Avatar
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    Re: Landscape Photography in the Portland Oregon area?

    Greg ... nice website, by the way ... .

    I have three suggestions:

    1). From Portland head East up the gorge ... stopping at Multnomah Falls ... I know, I know ... heavily photographed BUT ... there is a great old lodge (with a really nice restaurant right next to the falls) and the trails allow you to climb quite high up the gorge side ... with shots of water, stonework, many different types of foliage, and some high-up views. If you have time to make a full day of it ... then proceed East up the gorge to Latourell Falls.

    2) From Portland head Southwest to Dundee, Newberg, and McMinnvile ... this is Oregon's renowned wine region ... in May the vines will have leaved out and can make for great photos ... AND, like Mr. Galli suggested earlier, you can taste your way to photographic excellence .... and there are some pretty good restaurants along the way also. The Willamette Valley is gorgeous in the Spring.

    3). From Portland head East through Sandy on to Mt Hood up to Timberline Lodge ... a great 1930's lodge ... also with a really nice restaurant. You should still have snow up there and the forest... you'll get some Alpine terrain up near the lodge and a lot of forest on the way there and back. The depression era paintings and murals in the lodge are worth the trip.

  7. #27
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Landscape Photography in the Portland Oregon area?

    Jim, that entire section of the Gorge catastrophically burned last year (teenagers deliberately tossing firecrackers in a dry side canyon). So the Multnomah
    section won't resemble a postcard for the next two hundred years. The lodge barely escaped. Eagle Creek, the crown jewel trail, totally burned. There are still plenty of spots to see that did survive, including Latourelle Falls, and of course,new kinds of picture opportunities of a devastation kind.

  8. #28

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    Re: Landscape Photography in the Portland Oregon area?

    creativity is most

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