Photography

Season’s Greetings from the Pacific Northwest
The Community Trail in the Methow Valley, in Washington State, is one of the best skate ski trails in the United States, outside of Alaska. Photo taken in February 2013.

I can think of few better ways to enjoy a winter holiday than skate skiing. Hoping you find a way to enjoy yours, and that it brings you closer to nature, friends, and the world around you. (Click on the photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)

Fisher Auto Body Plant, Detroit

Just off Interstates 94 and 75, north of downtown Detroit, at St. Antoine and Piquette and Harper, stands the abandoned and crumbling Fisher Auto Body 21 plant. It closed in the 1982. It used to produce auto bodies for GM, then limos and ambulances, before finally shutting its doors. Its design was not compatible with auto manufacturing needs, and the industry had long changed, moving to single story, vast production plants, located throughout the country.

The plant has frequently appeared on blogs celebrating the industrial decay of Detroit, of which I would have to count this web site among them, except I am not celebrating massive economic de-industrialization in the Motor City. I found this on my own, just driving. The plant stood out prominently, and I circled back to it once I left the freeway. It was completely surreal to see it, standing next to apartment buildings still being used and across the street from functioning businesses and a warehouse. No one in those buildings coming and going seemed to look or notice the structure, as it had become part of their environment. I saw a couple of guys hanging out there, and decided they were either security or perhaps folks I didn’t want to meet with a lot of camera equipment. Scores of photographers have been here before me, and will come after me, and you can see the wreckage in very accurate detail on Google Street View.

For many, it is just another eyesore and reminder of what was, and also a visible icon of what a declining industrial city looks like. (Click on each photograph to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)

 

Tourists of Rome, and everyone is loving it

Rome has been on my mind lately. So I dug up some of my old shots from my only trip there in 2006. It was perfect, in every sense. Even the horrible trip coming back to the United States, getting stuck in Paris, getting harassed by French security officials, train stoppages and bus mishaps–it all faded in the dazzling memories Rome left behind. Here are tourists in Rome, quite of few of them in nuns’ habits. They were having a grand time too. (Click on each photograph to see a larger picture in a separate picture page.)

 

 

Urban critters: here, there, every where

Earlier this week near my home I saw a coyote leap out in front of me from its hiding place. We both did a “whoa, what was that” jump. It dashed back to the shadows, on a bluff above a nature reserve near the Willamette River, where they are known to congregate in numbers and howl. So, in honor of the urban wildlife I see in the Oregon, here are two random and not really connected shots. In Alaska, the critters might be moose, eagles, and perhaps a bear if you’re lucky. Here, you settle for lesser critters in our pantheon of majestic animals we idolize.

(Click on each photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)

Roger Gollub: doctor, leader, mensch

A year after the utterly senseless killing of the best man I have ever known, Dr. Roger Gollub, I decided to pay tribute to him around Westchester Lagoon, in Anchorage. I put these signs up on a cold November Saturday, in 2009. It is where Roger often went for walks with his dog, Sophie, and it is where we spent some memorable moments walking and talking about nothing in particular at all. I cannot claim to have known him that well. But I still miss him, and so do hundreds and hundreds of his former patients, coworkers, family members, and friends. Thanks for everything, mensch!

A final burst of color as the storms brew darkly

Today was one of those days when the weather prediction for showers not only proved 100 percent accurate, it forgot to include the hail. But in the Northwest in November, you can stay indoors, or just get wet and enjoy this transition period from fall to winter. Most of the leaves in Forest Park, in my home town of Portland, Oregon, have fallen. They covered the forest floor in a mosaic of brown, yellow, and red. It was too wet for me to try to use my tripod. So I just held my FujiPro camera as steady as I could and clicked the shutter. I got a couple of OK shots. It was fun to see the colors and the many smiling people outdoors enjoying the rain, hail, rain again, and breaks of calm.

Random fall candids in Portland

The leaves are now falling en masse and the glory that is autumn is drawing to a close. I took a couple of shots over the past few weeks and decided to post them without any particular message, other than I enjoy sharing the season’s colors. I took two of these shots with a GoPro and one with my FujiPro, in really bad lighting without a tripod. But I still like the outcome.

Click on each photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.