Last weekend Bob, Tim and I went camping at Timothy Lake at the base of Mt Hood. It was fun! I took a lot of photos of Tim on the the lake (Tim on Timothy Lake, ha!) And I set up on the shore just before sunset to capture Mt Hood & the lake during the sunset. There was another photographer who had the same thought so we were both armed with our tripods and remote shutters and sat there at our respective picnic tables snapping photos as the sun set. It was very cool watching the changing lake and light as the sun went down. Dragonflies came out to fest on the flies, as did the fish, who jumped out of the water to catch their dinner. And later just as the night was fully descending, the bats came out to feast as well. There were fishermen and boaters out on the water enjoying the view as well.

I had thought to get up before dawn to capture the sunrise. But even though I woke up in time, I truly did not want to deal with climbing out of my sleeping bag, getting dressed and trying to look somewhat presentable after dealing with what were essentially outhouses with no running water, and then traipsing down to shoreside with my camera gear. We have another site reserved in mid-September at the same lake. Tim may take it to use just with his friends. But if he does not, this site is right on the shoreline, so perhaps I will be able to capture the sunrise then.

Meanwhile I'm happy with these.

I love Mt Hood. Somehow I feel like it's "my" mountain. When I was in my early teens I asked my mother, who was an oil painter at the time, to paint me a huge painting of Hood so I could put it on my bedroom wall. I kept that painting until just a few years ago (although it was in our attic for many years.) When I was in my late teens my parents and I were driving on I84 towards the east side of Portland, not far from the entry to the Columbia Gorge. As we rounded a corner, Hood appeared in the near distance. My first thought at that moment was that I was going to live out in this area when I was older. We were passing the Gresham exit just at that moment. I remembered that and when Bob and I started looking to purchase our first home, we set off to look in Gresham. Now every time I drive home from work I see Hood. I love that we live close enough that we can be at timberline in less than an hour. :)

My father died in a climbing accident on Mt Hood in 1987. You would think that would sour me on the mountain. But it didn't. In a strange way it made the connection even stronger.

I love this mountain.

( more photos under here…. )

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Current Mood: calm
Current Location: cic

Here is a photo from our dinner the other night with S (aka

redteekal) & T.

:)

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Current Mood: happy
Current Location: cic

I have some photos from a small venue performance she did here in PDX last weekend.

I'll be honest and admit ~~I'm old~~ I didn't know who she was when my friend Rebekah said she had an extra ticket and did I want to go. I checked out her music online and while it is not my typical genre of music, I found myself intrigued by it. So I decided to go.

Then Rebekah said she was Neil Gaiman's wife and I went all fan-girly. Had vague hopes that he would show up. But alas, no.

Still I had a wonderful time. It was for a local fund raiser and was a very small venue and a small group of people. One of the opening acts was a girl group called The Doubleclicks, who wrote and sang fandom filk songs!!!! Star Trek, other sci-fi shows - it was cool.

Later in the evening while Amanda was singing/playing piano/ukelele for us, she commented that she wished Neil had come because we were "his people". :) She seemed to be having a great time. Mingling with us and performing and telling stories. Her piano pieces are wonderful.

I really found myself enjoying her music. One in particular really grabbed me both before, during and kept playing in my mind afterwards. I'll like to a video of it. But be aware the video is NSFW as it contains nudity. I love the special effects in this video.
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( video under the cut … NSFW … nudity )

Again, this is not my typical music. But I really found myself enjoying it.

And I loved taking the photos of the audience and Amanda. After I posted them on FB, I had all kinds of Amanda "f*cking* Palmer (aka AFP) fans coming out of the woodwork to comment and send me messages. Was kinda cool. :)

Here's a link to the Flickr album with all the photos - there are a lot.

Below and under the cut are some of my favorites along with stories from the evening.

( photos under here... )

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Current Mood: content
Current Location: cic

I had so much fun yesterday. I'm reading the book "Quiet," which if you are an introvert you must read. As I was reading I caught up on about 90% of our laundry. Whew, am so glad that is almost done.

Then from about 1pm to 3am (yes 14 hours) I went through my backlog of photos and worked on some of them. It was so much fun that I stayed up until 3am which is when my eyes finally crapped out on me. I would have still been going if it were for my eyes deciding they really needed some sleep sometime soon. I'm really hoping to spend today much in the same way.

I was a bit worried that I was so overtaxed due to work and RL stuff that I would not be able to remember anything from my 3-day photography class. I was so happy that I did remember a lot. I think the class really paid off.

I first spent a few hours going through a lot of my previous SPN con photos. I'm determined to finally use my own photographs at Vancon for autographs. I have it in my head to perhaps put something together with at least one photo from each of the six cons I've been too. I've been playing with layouts for several weeks but I actually have to find some photos I'm happy enough with to use. After yesterday I may just give up on this idea and go with either a single shot or a composite of no more than 3 shots. It was both gratifying to see how far I've come in photography and frustrating to see so many bad photos from the early cons.

I've said before that SPN cons were the impetus to my getting back into photography and this time (as opposed to 20 years ago) spending time and effort (and $$$) to learn how to do it right. I started at the first LA with a simple point-and-shoot camera that I even bought specifically for that con. After seeing the resulting photos, I never used that camera again. It wasn't the camera's fault of course. Point and shoots will never work well in a convention-type venue. Although it did take pretty good videos! I think that con was the first (and last) con that I ever attempted to video. I recorded the whole J2 breakfast, including Jared's engagement announcement. That was fun to re-watch.

However, most of the LACon 2008 photos sucked. Big time. I played around with this shot of Jared for quite a long time.

And ended up with this....

A slightly different version - composite with a very blurry Jared-in-motion-laughing photo. If (and that is a *big* if) I decide to use the composite version, I still need to work on it. This was a draft that I had to walk away from because I was finding it frustrating to work with such poor and grainy images.

Photobucket

Then I decided to see if I could find a Jensen. I was even more frustrated by my Jensen LACon 2008 photos. Then went through the J2s. Again with the frustration. I played with a few a bit before I gave up in complete frustration.

I then browsed through photos from ChiCon 2008, LACon 2009, and Vancon 2009. Chicon 2008 was where I invested in a good DSLR but still knew crap about it and didn't realize how important the right lens was. I was using a 20-year old (decent quality) lens from my old Canon EOS film camera. But the lens was not fast enough, so again I was frustrated. I have some *great* J2 moments from LACon 2009 and some are even in focus (most are not), which was more dumb luck than anything else. If I continue with this idea of using a shot from each con, I will be challenged to find the 1-2 I most want to use. I gave up partway through looking at Vancon 2009 - that damn pink lighting. Although I think with what I learned in my recent photo class, I might actually have a chance of getting rid of some of it.

So anyway. Frustrated. I broke for some lunch and laundry. A couple hours later I started going through my non-SPN photo backlog. And that's where the fun really began. Below are some of the results. I'm hoping to spend more time doing this today.

above :: This one and directly below are from my mother's house. I was over spending a night with her (she's doing fantastic btw, her recovery is close to complete) and wanted to play some more with interior HDR shots. I specifically choose to make both these photos hyper-realistic/surreal. The shot was not dramatic enough to keep it to a more realistic version (IMO). I really love the red chair and the pillows on the couch. I may post with the before and after of these shots later. I used a *lot* of the techniques I learned in class a few weeks ago. Most of which were non-HDR techniques involving layer masks. Finally conquering masks in PS was worth the price of class alone. These were a lot of fun to do. Especially since I now have more idea what to do with the weird-ass photo merges that come out of Photoshop when I do the initial HDR merge.

above :: Queen Anne's lace from the side of the road a few weekends ago. For some reason I can now barely recall, I always associate Queen Anne's lace with my father. :)

above :: I had to double back when I spied this field with several abandoned vehicles. There was an ugly white structure in the background between these two cars. Which I removed.

..

I spent the remainder of the night working on some photos of a friend of mine from the beach retreat we took in early June. I *very* excited by how they are turning out. I may share those when I'm done with them.

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Current Mood: waking up
Current Location: cic

Here's one of my favorite photos that I worked on today. This boy was at Emily's award ceremony, directly in my "line of fire" if you will. His table was between me and the stage.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: cic

A photo I took on Friday while driving with my mother around the area where I grew up. This was on top of Cooper Mountain (which is more a foothill than a mountain), overlooking the town of Beaverton, which is where I spent years 9-18. I went to grade school not far from here. This was a newish (hell anything that wasn't there when I was there is newish to me! ha!) nature park at the crest.

These three girls were playing. But they were doing it so seriously. They were sitting on this rock just as we pulled into the parking lot and I was getting out of my car.

I tried some of the techniques I learned in the Digital Artistry class I took a couple of weeks ago. There was so much information in that class and I'm finding it hard to remember a lot. Good thing I did take *some* notes.

(click to enlarge)

Now that June is finally over (thank goodness), I still haven't really had a chance to fully recharge. Way too much going on. Our vegetable garden is going grand! We had gorgeous salads yesterday with lettuce from our garden and other veges from the local farmers market. Yesterday Bob bought a "leaker hose" (my term-a hose with tiny holes in it that seeps out water gently) and a timer so we can program early morning and late evening watering of the garden. Now that summer has *finally* hit and this garden is in our SW facing back yard and literally bakes in the summer - this will be a good thing.

Today is Bob's annual union picnic at Oaks Amusement Park. I am so torn. Honestly (shssh, looks around) I find these a bit on the boring side. I've stopped going to my own company picnics decades ago. And Oaks Park is ... I don't know ... like I said, I'm torn. It could be a wonderful opportunity to get some great candid shots. There are crowds of people. Amusement rides. Lots of kids. And everyone is taking photos so it's not like you stand out as a creeper or anything. Plus since I now have my 70-200mm lens I could get some close up shots without being close up.

But then again, I've about 6 weeks of a lot a great photos that I've had no time to do anything with. I had hoped to do some of that this weekend. But here it is Sunday morning and I've only done one photo (see above) and that one I took this weekend! And if I go to Oaks Park it's just more photos backing up in my queue. Sheesh. (Plus did I mention? A bit on the boring side?) Plus I can't eat any of the picnic food. And it's going to be a hot one today and there's little to no shade.

I don't know, I guess I'll decide on the spur of the moment in a bit. Right now I'm leaning against it. I really could use some downtime.

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Current Mood: waking up
Current Location: cic

Today I finished the 2nd of a 3-day photography class on Digital Artistry. I'm learning SO much. My brain is overflowing. It's amazing what you can do with Photoshop. I already knew this of course, but the photographer who teaches this class, Dan Burkholder, really takes it to the next level.

This is the class I'm taking:

And about Dan:

( a lot more detail under here as well as some of my HDR photos from today's class.... )

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Way too much detail I know. But this is for my reference later as well.

Tomorrow we will delve deeper into Photoshop techniques - so excited.

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Current Mood: tired
Current Location: cic

One of the photos I took yesterday at Portland Saturday Market of a child playing in a fountain.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: cic

Been VERY busy. Almost through all the graduation events. Mom is recovering from her fall. The family is taking shifts on a 24x7 schedule to stay with her while she is healing.

Emily's college graduation is later today. Can't believe both our kids have graduated. *beams*

I have a photography class coming up next Mon-Weds. Looking forward to it. It's photoshop-centric.

Been VERY busy at work. Keep getting new projects assigned. While I'm flattered our department head only wants me on some of these big projects, I'm concerned about the volume of work.

Hopefully after next weekend (not this coming, but the one after), things will move back to normal.

Meanwhile I've been taking loads of photos - but have had no time or energy to do anything with them. Here is one from some shooting I did up at Crown Point in the Columbia River Gorge on the evening of Emily's college award ceremony - which, btw, she won most outstanding restorative student!

I've so many great photos from the past 3 weeks, I can't wait to get the time to do something with them.

.Edit: Went and grabbed one from the Crown Point shoot - this one is of Mt Hood. Taken from our car as we were moving. Hence the ghost outlines in the image.

Edit: Okay one more

Current Mood: happy
Current Location: cic

While driving through NW Porlland today I came across a Leverage filming with Chris Kane.

I had thought it was Grimm filming and was standing on the sidewalk since my car was blocked from passing through. A guy came out of a shop behind me with some lunch and sat down near me. I did a double take when I realized it was Chris Kane. I couldn't get my mindset out of thinking this was a Grimm shoot. Nope - Leverage.

While I was still trying to figure out in my brain why Chris was even there (I was VERY tired today), I pulled out my iPhone to snap some photos. He spotted me towards the end and it looks like he's scowling at me. I felt slightly bad about that. But he once snapped my bra strap at the Leverage Con Con in PDX, so heck I can snap his photo when I accidentally find myself standing next to him on a Portland street.

Seriously, I was driving back to the hospital to visit with my mother after lunch and was stopped due to a blocked off street near the hospital. Got out to see filming going on. I assumed it was Grimm. Then I did a double take when I saw this guy sit down practically right next to me. Christian Kane? What is he doing here while they are filming Grimm? Seriously, in my own defense I am VERY tired. 12 hours of sleep in 3 days due to graduation events and then my mother breaking her hip last night. But even after seeing Kane I did not connect the filming to Leverage until someone else standing next to me pointed out the Leverage t-shirts on the crew members. They filmed the street scene VERY quickly. 15-20 mins of filming Kane walking up to someone and talking for a few seconds - about 5 to 8 very quick takes. Then they were breaking down and letting traffic through. After the past 12 hours I felt like the universe was trying to give me a 15 min break of something good.

They were filming by the Food Front Co-op in NW Portland, just a few blocks from where I work. The street was temporarily blocked for a short period of time while filming a scene in front of the co-op with Chris Kane walking up and talking to a woman, who (I believe), made to strike him at the end. I thought I saw Chris demonstrate to the woman how to punch out at him.

Below are the photos I snapped with my iPhone.

( more photos under here ... )

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Current Mood: tired
Current Location: cic

Just a few. I have more, but am so busy with all the graduation/birthday/other activities that it's going to take me a while to do all the others. I did these just before I went to bed last night as a way to relax after a full day of work and then coming home to clean the kitchen (I was away ALL weekend) and cook dinner for 5 - fresh sockeye salmon with dill yogurt sauce, fire roasted fresh corn salsa (with fresh tomatoes and apricots and herbs), sauted local new potatoes with onion & garlic, fresh local asparagus and broccoli. Had to use up a lot of fresh, organic, local produce that had been delivered to our door on Friday after I left for the coast. We are trying a local organic-deliver-to-you service.

The weekend was wonderful and both relaxing and intense. It was a reunion of a "Creating the Life you Want" workshop I took four years ago at the same location. I drove down with a friend I met at the first workshop. The couple who run these have been doing them for 10 years and once you attend the main workshop you can go to the annual reunions for refreshing and renewing and reconnecting. They are a wonderful couple and it was great meeting new people that had attended other workshops. Had another epiphany this weekend (I had one at the first event as well.) Perhaps more later.

above :: this is the view from the lodge we stay at.

( photos under here... )

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Current Mood: getting ready for work
Current Location: cic

Thanks to everyone who voted for Tim's film, Time Chaser, in the International Youth Silent Film Festival! We won't know the results of the viewer voting until June 7th.

Tim's film did not win the judging contest unfortunately. There were a LOT of really good films. I was very impressed. It was so cool to see Tim's film on a big screen and with live organ music accompaniment. The guy (kid) who played the organ is one of the organizers of the event. Turns out he is the son of someone I grew up with - a former childhood neighborhood friend who is now in local politics. Small world.

This is the second year for the event and it's become so popular that it has gone international. And is expanding outside of Portland in the US as well. They have several regional and international events coming up.

Tim was not upset to lose. He thought the two winning films were great. He ended the evening saying, "I'm going to blow them out of the water next year." =D

Here are some photos I took before and after the event. It was mostly too dark inside the theater to get any decent shots. This is the old Portland Hollywood Theater, which was built in 1926 and in in the National Register of Historic Places.

( photos under here... )

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Current Mood: busy
Current Location: cic

(click to enlarge)

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: cic

My mother and I went to the Woodburn Tulip Festival yesterday morning. First time I've been.

( photos under here ... )
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Current Mood: groggy
Current Location: cic

(I blame Rebekah for this... She started on about how I should be cataloging anytime I learn someone has linked to or used my SPN con photos. I initially resisted because the last thing I need is another obsessive *something* surrounding SPN. But she planted the seed ~~weed~~ and it took root and I couldn't kill it.)

The thumbnails are screenshots directly from where the photos were used. Frequently my original photos have been filtered/modified in some ways. Each thumbnail can be enlarged by clicking. Under each thumbnail I state which con the photo is from with a link to that con's master post.

theBerry

Uploaded by theBerry on July 26, 2012
Discovered August 2012

Original image here from BurCon 2012

SweetonJensen

Uploaded by SWEETONJENSEN on July 26, 2012
Discovered August 2012

Original images here, here, and here from BurCon 2012

Found somewhere on Tumblr

Uploaded by unknown on unknown
Discovered May 2012

Original images here, here, and here from BurCon 2012

Jared/Jensen [J2] - We Found Love (For TheJessy34 ♥)

Uploaded by Padackles4ever91 on Feb 15, 2012
Discovered August 2012

My photos in this video (click to enlarge):


LA Con 2009 J2 Panel link to orig img

I Do • J2 (Jared&Jensen)

Uploaded by MsLyraGW on Nov 16, 2011
Discovered August 2012

My photos in this video (click to enlarge):


Vancon 2009 J2 Breakfast link to orig img	Vancon 2009 J2 Breakfast link to orig img	Vancon 2009 J2 Breakfast orig img


Vancon 2009 J2 Breakfast orig img	Chicon 2008 J2 Breakfast orig img

charming smiles [Jensen]

Uploaded by Maghana on Jul 27, 2011
Discovered August 2012

Original photo (the one on top) here from Vancon 2009

stereo hearts | jared + jensen [J2]

Uploaded by doode25 on Jul 25, 2011
Discovered August 2012

My photos in this video (click to enlarge):


Vancon 2009 J2 Panel link to orig img	LA Con 2009 J2 Panel link to orig img

Tweeted by Misha

Uploaded by Misha on Sep 9, 2009
Discovered Sep 2, 2009

Original image here from Vancon 2009. And posted about here.

J2 - Tick Tock

Uploaded by SecretlyToDream on Aug 21, 2009
Discovered August 2012

My photos in this video (click to enlarge):


LA Con 2009 J2 Panel link to orig img	LA Con 2009 J2 Panel link to orig img

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: cic

OMG people I took WAY too many photos of the J2 Panel - 2,500. Yes, that was just of that one panel. Good grief.

Normally this would not be a problem - but too many of them are good photos that it's taking me a while to find the great ones. And I can't post ALL of these. Cripes. I supposed this is a good problem to have, but man oh man is it ever freaking me out as it seems like I've been editing and rejecting photos forever and it looks like I haven't scratched the surface. I am DETERMINED to get these posted today.

Sheesh. And one of my new year's resolutions was to take less photos. Fail. I even thought of it while I was shooting. But I did I listen to myself? No. I kept thinking, "What if I miss something?"

Sheesh.

*back to editing. sigh*

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Current Mood: overwhelmed
Current Location: cic

Hey, I could sure use some help here.

I posted here about how I have to whittle almost 500 photos down to 20-25 before Tuesday. Well I've gotten down to 37. I'm walking away from these for a bit because I can't see straight at the moment.

You could help me break my own ties but letting me know which of these you like the best. Even 3-5 (or less or more) would help me.

I've numbered each photo below the photo. You can click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

Edit :: You can also view these on Flickr here. I think there's a way to favorite them - which would also work.

( photos under the cut... )

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Current Mood: undecided
Current Location: cic

Yesterday I went on the photo shoot for this class on Sacred Spaces. We visited two churches. The Parish of St. Mark and the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral.

And boy did my back ache after four hours of carrying around my Canon 7D, four lenses (50mm, 40-105mm F/4.0L, 24 f/1.4L (rental), and 16-35 f/2.8L (rental, and now btw is on the top of my wish list. It was already on the list, but kept changing places as to first place.) I also carried my VERY heavy 1988 Manfrotto tripod. Luckily I have a carrying case for that with a strap that goes across my shoulders. But man is it heavy. Plus my camera case. Plus my raincoat. Ouch.

It was a great experience, but here's my challenge now...

Guys, I took 492 photos yesterday. SO failing at new year resolution to focus on quality and not quantity. Although, to be honest. Without that resolution it would have likely been twice that many photos (not joking.) So I guess that's progress. And here's the thing. I like a LOT of them. Usually when I do my first walkthrough from a shoot I can easily reject a good portion of them. During last night's walkthrough I barely rejected anything. So I'm sitting here with an interesting problem. I have to edit down to 20-25 photos to share with the group this coming Tuesday. And I'm overwhelmed by the volume of good photos. So now rather than editing out the bad ones to whittle down. I need to pull out the really great ones. Good problem to have I guess.

If any of you watch Project Runway (LOVE that show), just think of Tim Gunn telling one of the contestants over and over and over again that he/she (why does it always seem to be more "he" that need to edit themselves? *ponders*) needs to edit themselves. And the guy/gal NEVER seems to be able to do it. Their enthusiasm for their craft just makes them throw more and more bangles, sparkles, ruffles, trims, something on to their creation.

In a way, that's me. I have so much trouble rejecting photos that are good, just because they are not GREAT. Part of that is that sometimes I can't SEE the difference. My objectivity is somehow shot. Sometimes I have to walk away from looking at the batch of photos for days, weeks, even months before I can see the difference. But I only have 2 days. And really it's only today since I have work tomorrow, plus a family birthday celebration tomorrow night.

Ok, now I'm panicking. I didn't really think through that I really do only have today. So much for housework.
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Current Mood: procrastinating
Current Location: cic

Just found out that one of the two churches we will be photographing next weekend will be the Parish of St. Mark over on NW 21st. Near my workplace.

AND it happens to be where I took this photo ~~two~~ three (my how time flies) years ago.

I was walking along the street going to meet a friend for lunch. This was a tiny alley-like walkway on the street. I actually did a double-take and tuned back because I caught a glimpse of this. I took a quick photo with my little point-and-shoot camera. And found myself looking at this interesting looking church and wishing I could get inside it's grounds to take photos.

Guess I got my wish. Just ~~two~~ three years later!

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Current Mood: tired
Current Location: cic

Still going through old Vancon photos.

These are from the first Vancon in August 2009. I was too exhausted when we returned and after I'd posted all the panel photos, so I abandoned these for the most part.

They turned out to be perfect items to try some HDR tricks on. And I LOVE how they turned out.

( photos under the cut... )

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Current Mood: stuffy
Current Location: cic

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G R O W Y O U R W I N G S

T h e * E a r t h * i s * D a n c i n g

Entries tagged with photography journal

Photos :: Timothy Lake & Mt Hood

Dinner with Redteekal

Anyone on here know (or care) who Amanda Palmer is? (In addition to being Neil Gaiman's wife)?

Some photos (Some J & J and some RL)

(no subject)

Mother may I?

Photography Class :: Digital Artistry :: HDR

Photo from Saturday Market

Update (and a photo)

Leverage filming in Portland (photos)

A few photos from this weekend at the coast

Silent Film Festival

Spring

Tulip Festival

Sightings of my SPN photos