Fall
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Hood and the Fog at Jonsrud
Its a testament to persistence. I live about 45 minutes from this viewpoint, Jonsrud Viewpoint, near Sandy Oregon. Because this is fairly close, and so cool looking, an image form here has been on my list for a long time. And I go, often. Every time a strikeout. This is the first image I have ever posted from here. I have been there about 6 times, and I finally walked away with an image I liked.
This is a tough spot to shoot. It has great fog in the valley in the morning, but sunrises back-lite Mt. Hood. You can shoot a sunset, but then you don't get the fog. You can see this in many of the mages people post from here. They have fog, and good color in the sky, and then they wash out Hood in the processing and it looks horrible. You just can't get it all when you shoot from here unless you let your tripod sit there all day and shoot both. However, then creeps in the third issue. Clouds. If you live in Portland you know, Hood is a cloud magnet. If you want a sunrise with clouds to catch the color, then you often (99.999 percent of the time) loose Hood in those clouds. If you see Hood, you usually have no clouds. To get hood with clouds around her but not obscuring her, you need patience, and tons of it.
So in this image, I opted for the fog. Clouds came in about 10 minutes after I shot this, but they swallowed Hood. Sigh. Not an easy place to shoot.
The last challenge, the right tripod location. You have to get here early to get the primo tripod spot. Here, I had to show up 1.5 hours before sunrise and wait there, to steak out my spot. When I walked away there was about 12 photographers there. I can't imagine how many there would be if the conditions were even more ideal.
So my hat is off to anyone who got the great trifecta- detail on Hood, colored clouds in the sky and fog in the valley. Its a near impossible feat.
St. John's Bridge in color!
In 1997 the City of Portland opened the Water Pollution Control Lab right next to Cathedral Park, the park that sits under St. John's Bridge. The building studies, as you might have guessed, ways to treat pollution in water run off. As a testament to what they do, they created a water garden outside the lab. This treats urban runoff from the surrounding community before it runs into the Columbia River nearby.
When the structure was completed the water garden honestly looked a bit barren. There was a very cool wall that surrounded essentially a swamp. Not all that decorative though as it looked a bit out of place and too new! It was hard to see the 'garden' in the garden. However the 20 plus years has changed the place for the better. The wall is now covered in Portland moss, the swamp has reeds and the surrounding foliage has grown significantly to become an unquestionable garden.
The iconic bridge, my favorite bridge ever, seems to stand watch, as if it's approving of the water garden and the color it brings in the Spring and Fall. I don't want to paint too rosy of an image though. While this garden is cute for sure, the homeless situation makes the area seem...well, you need to be on your toes for sure. I have seen some rough stuff around Cathedral Park for sure. Hard to have that take away from the beauty though.
To get this image, I ventured out onto a cat-walk like structure that lets you venture out into the garden. That's great, but that spot did not line up the Bridge and the wall quite like I wanted. In order to get this view, and have the Bridge in a low position like you see it here I had to get creative. They don't let you go into the swamp after all. So I took my new tripod (finally a big-league tripod with 36mm legs), extended the legs and held it upside-down so the body was just a few inches above the ground/swamp. I flipped the screen out on my 6dMII so I could see the comp from above, and then used a remote to trigger the body. I know people don't like the 6DMII but I have grown to love that body, and I use the flippy-screen all the time. It keeps me out of the mud. Same was true here.
Let me know what you think, and happy Fall!
Fall at St. John's Bridge
The game is on. Every season finds you seeking out images that show the basics of that season. This fall has been hard. We have set out multiple times trying to get fall images. We even did a loop through the Gorge to the Fruit Loop and over the Hood through Lost Lake. That was a whole day, and we did not get anything that really screamed 'Fall.'
We have had some good luck at Cathedral Park near St. John's Bridge. so I thought I would give that a try on the way out to work. Home run here. The colors were crazy here. And everyone else knew it too, there about 7 other photographers there.
For those of you who are not familiar with this fantastic bridge, this is Portland's most beloved bridge (and we have quite a few). I easily put this on the same level as the Golden Gate, though it is a bit smaller. It actually not that close to Downtown though, so you would have to make a special trip if you were in the City.
Enjoy, let me know what you think