Daily Notes from My Winter Photo Trip to Oregon

Episode 89 of the Fine Art Photography Podcast, stories from my Oregon adventure

In this episode of the Fine Art Photography Podcast, I’ll share the daily notes from my winter photography trip to Portland, Oregon, and beyond. Hear about my adventures and what kinds of scenes caught my eye.

Full episode transcript

In this episode: Notes from my recent photography trip to the State of Oregon, USA.

Intro

Hey everybody, welcome back to the Fine Art Photography Podcast. It’s my practice every year to make a photography trip in the first week of January when people are back at home and back at work and sites are less crowded. Traditionally I’ve gotten better rates on hotels and travel because it’s after the holidays although this year nothing was a bargain.

I just got back from a weeklong photography trip to Oregon, where I ticked off a couple of bucket list items. So far, I’ve been to all but three of the lower 48 contiguous States — Vermont, Nebraska, and Oregon — so now it’s down to two remaining plus Alaska and Hawaii.

The other bucket list item for me was to see and photograph the incredible sea stacks off the Oregon coast. What an experience that was!

I imagine to most people this looks like a vacation trip — and in many ways it was — but for me these trips are designed to capture a variety of photographs. I need the investment to make a return artistically and financially. I’ve talked about this in previous episodes, but this was actually a business trip and the goal is to make new work for the portfolio — and for the website.
But of course, I loved every minute of it. And I found time to visit art museums and the famous Japanese garden in Portland as well.

I went to Oregon in winter for a reason — the timing was intentional — and I got the light and atmosphere that I adore for photography. In every way, Oregon did not disappoint.
On this trip, I decided for the first time to keep a daily diary of notes from the day, and what follows is a reading of those daily notes. I hope you find it interesting.

First day: January 2, 2023

My day started with getting up at 2:20 AM to be at the Nashville Airport for a 5:50 am flight to Oregon, with a stop in Seattle.

Getting to the airport that early sucks but is also a blessing. Easy to drive in. Easy to park. Easy to get checked in, and because it’s the first flight of the day — no delays.

Arrived in Portland by 10:30 AM west coast time, and picked up a rental car — again — a pretty seamless experience, and I was on the road to the Dalles to do some landscape photography and visit the so-called ghost town at Friend Oregon.

Oregon — where have you been all my life? Everyone listening to this — quit your job and sell your stuff, tell your family and friends we are all moving to Oregon. It’s that amazing!

The highway to the Dalles runs along the Columbia River and there are few such stunning landscapes in all creation. Every bend in the road brought a new scene and a new level of awe. The entire stretch is lined with parks and many tall waterfalls, including of course the famous Multnomah Falls which I saw in all its splendor from the highway as I drove by.

I didn’t expect it to be so wintery in Oregon. In my imagination, it’s a wet and mild place, but in reality, it’s cold and snowy in many places. Driving out to Friend, the roads winding through the rolling grassy hills of the Dalles became increasingly snowy, and I wasn’t confident in my ability to keep the rental car on the road, but it was drivable all the way and I did just fine . . . which is good because the rental car developed a mechanical issue that, very fortunately, didn’t occur until I arrived in the hotel parking lot rather than out there in the land of blowing snows and no cell service.

The ghost town of Friend was situated in beautiful landscape but a letdown as a ghost town, especially after my visits to some incredible ghost towns like Union Level in Virginia and Glenrio on the old Route 66 in Texas — both epic. Friend has a nice remaining one room schoolhouse, from 1909 which has been maintained to a certain extent. It closed in 1942.

I didn’t see the old store, and I couldn’t find the old Friend Cemetery, which was surrounded by private property signs and no trespassing signs. I could have looked a little harder, but the signs were a discouragement. Plus the road was getting pretty messy and I thought it might be best to get out of there before the early dark sets in. It’s funny and a little prescient that while walking on that cold crunchy grass way out there in Friend, I thought man I hope that rental car starts because I wouldn’t want to be stranded out here with no cell phone signal.

A few hours later, I arrived at my hotel, with the screeching sound of metal on metal, I think something was grinding in the front wheel but I don’t really know what happened. I called the Rental Car company and they were very responsive. I rode back to the Portland airport with the tow truck to get a replacement car. He was a cool guy. He told me how he got into the tow truck business and I told him how I got into the photography business. He also gave me some tips for scenic spots to shoot in the local area.

With a replacement rental car secured, and after an 18-hour day, I reviewed footage and photos from day one on my laptop, but my eyelids were heavy.

I was grateful that the first rental car got me back to the hotel and didn’t strand me out there in the frozen middle of nowhere.

Day 2: January 3, 2023

On my second day in Oregon, I got out before dawn and crossed the mountains to visit the coast. The trip through the mountains in the dark was hair-raising. I encountered very dense fog, snow, and rain, and coming down a steep grade a saw a bunch of tail lights and put on the brakes as I approached, but the bridge was icy and I felt my tires slide a little. On the other side of the bridge, about a half dozen cars were scattered all a kilter. One was in the ditch, several others were scattered across the road at various angles. I’m not sure if there were any collisions but I was lucky to have avoided hitting anyone and I was able to maneuver through the mess and be on my merry way. 

Haystack rock at cannon beach was as epic as I’d imagined it. The sea was tumultuous and the surf was big and rough. I came away with a lot of photos and tons of footage. 

In reviewing the static video from my Sony ZV-e10, it looked amazing except for the one big dust spot in the sky in every single video. I cleaned that sensor before I left Tennessee but apparently missed a spot. Sony sensor cleaning is pretty useless. I have resolved to never remove the kit lens again after I get that sensor cleaned once and for all. That 16-50 mm Sony kit lens gets a lot of hate but I’m pretty satisfied with it anyways.

The benefit of the action camera is that it never gets dust on its sensor

After cannon beach I drove up the coast to see the Peter Iredale shipwreck. It was engulfed in the stormy surf with dramatic skies overhead. When I arrived only a few were present but the parking lot was filling when I left.

Along the drive I stopped at a roadside historical marker to read about a cannon that washed ashore on cannon beach, giving the beach its name. The cannon had come from a different shipwreck — a ship that had come down the Columbia river and wrecked as it entered the pacific. The entirety of the marker says, “Cannon Beach, named after the cannon washed ashore on this beach from the U.S.S. sloop of war “Shark” which was wrecked while attempting to leave the Columbia River September 10, 1846. This replica erected by the Cannon Beach Commercial Club, December 15, 1952.”

Day 3: January 4, 2023

On the third day of my Oregon trip, I decided to explore downtown Portland, and visit the Portland Art Museum. When I had my rental car towed on the first night, the driver who towed the car and brought me back to the airport for a replacement car told me not to let the people who live on the streets alarm me, because there are a lot of them and they can be aggressive.

Within 15 minutes of parking my car, I had an encounter where a young man followed me down the street yelling at me because I refused to make a video of him and some others who were sleeping in the portico of a big church. He seemed to think I worked for a TV station and he wanted his plight to be reported. I told him I’m just a tourist and he backed away.

While in Portland I also saw people living in tents on the hillsides along freeways. I saw tent cities under bridges. It’s a serious problem and an intractable one. I certainly don’t have an answer for the situation, but I thought about that young man and the others sleeping outside later in the day when I drove out to make photographs of Multnomah Falls, and a weather front came through, dropping the temperatures and bringing freezing rain and sleet. More about that in a minute.

I spent the morning walking through the galleries of the Portland Museum of Art. I was lucky to have seen an exhibit called Human Slash Nature: 150 Years of Japanese Landscape Prints. In that exhibit, I saw more than 60 Edo-period Japanese woodblock prints by some of the legendary masters of the art, including Hiroshige, Hokusai, and many others. Those beautiful woodblock prints are among my favorite art of all and I consider it a major influence on my photography. Japanese prints also influenced many of the greatest artists of the 1800s, including Vincent Van Gogh.

Mixed in were some American artists with images of Portland — the implication being that Oregon and Japan are similar in appearance and both have a mighty mountain that dominates the region. It’s funny because when I arrived, heading out to the countryside, I thought Mt. Hood looked like Mt. Fuji looming on the horizon. There was one terrific black and white photograph of a waterfall in the exhibit, made by Alfred A. Monner in 1941. It was called Fairy Falls, Columbia Gorge, and it was a silver gelatin print. Stunning. It was a treat getting to see a photograph among all the woodblock prints.

There were also some of the most iconic Edo-period prints ever made: The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai — I saw it there. 

After seeing the museum, I made the 26-mile ride out to see Multnomah Falls. 

If you’ve ever seen the pictures, you may have imagined it being at the end of a hike, but it’s visible from I-84 and is an easy and short walk from a parking lot. I managed to snap off a dozen or so photographs when I felt sleet begin falling on my face. I departed back to the car, and in a short few minutes, the highway back to Portland was already getting slippery.

But I made it back to the warmth and comfort of my hotel room. That brings me back around to the unhoused people living on the streets and in the parks of Portland. How hard must that life be? When the temperatures drop, they are vulnerable.

Every year I select a word that will be a guiding principle for my year. The word serves as a reminder and as inspiration over the course of the year. For 2023, my word is gratitude.

I’m very grateful for the blessings I have in my life. But for the grace of God, there go I.

Day 4: January 5, 2023

On my fourth day in Oregon, I had to improvise because my plan to go to Horse Thief Butte, across the river in Washington State and to points beyond, was hampered by the closure of I-84 due to snow and ice. 

Instead, rather than cross any of the higher elevations to exit the Willamette Valley, I rode South to see some epic waterfalls at Silver Falls State Park, especially the South Falls. It was an easy hike, and I was able to focus on shooting photos of the landscape, not just the falls, including some of the magnificent mossy trees in the vicinity of the waterfall.

It’s my last full day in Oregon. I’d love to stay longer but work awaited. I had a big project for a client waiting back in Tennessee, and I also need to work on some pieces for an exhibition coming up in New Orleans in March.

Day 5: Portland Japanese Garden

With a late afternoon flight back home, I had the morning to walk the grounds at the incredible Portland Japanese Garden. What a treat. 

The morning was suitably gray and damp — perfect mood for the garden in winter. The gnarly black branches of the maple trees were shiny with wetness on their bends and twists — the tips of their branches glistened with raindrops — even though it didn’t rain.

I enjoyed the vivid yet minimalist ceramic sculptures of Japanese-American artist Jun Kaneko that are scattered strategically throughout the garden, and also the exhibition of his drawings and ceramics inside the Pavilion Gallery, which overlooks the Flat Garden with its raked gravel and maple trees. It was a relaxing treat to sit on a wooden bench under the covered porch at the Pavilion and admire the garden. On the opposite side of the Pavilion is an overlook with a view of the Portland city skyline.

But a highlight, of course, was seeing the world-famous Japanese maple tree that has been photographed by an endless list of great photographers. The first time I remember seeing it was in a photograph by Peter Lik, but it’s been shot many times by many great photographers.

Approaching it, I felt the anticipation of meeting a celebrity in person. Imagine my surprise when I realized it was actually quite small! In the photographs I’ve seen, it’s usually shot from a very low perspective, which makes it look huge. And, it’s typically shot with full fiery red autumn foliage. The red canopy of course activates the frame and with energy, accentuates the black angles of the gnarly twisty trunk, and isolates the tree from the background. My challenge of course was to shoot the tree in winter with no canopy, in black and white.

I haven’t developed those photographs yet so I can’t say if I’ve gotten any keepers but it was a pleasure to stand in the same place as so many other photographers before me. I imagine in autumn, the narrow footpath looks like the scene at Delicate arch in Utah, with tripods toe to toe in a dense semi-circle around the tree.

By the way, I shot hand-held in the garden but tripods are welcome for a $10 fee, which is not bad considering a lot of locations these days are requiring much higher so-called professional photographer fees. But spaces in the garden are often narrow and may not be conducive to tripod use.
If I’m ever back in Portland, I will definitely return to the Japanese Garden, especially if I can go in other seasons. It’s a real gem. If you go, try to get there early and you’ll find abundant parking. You can pay for parking at an electronic teller machine at the lot or using the Parking Kitty app, which is used widely in Oregon.

Well that’s all I’ve got for this episode, thanks for listening.

I’ll talk to you again real soon.