Evoking superhuman scale in photographs really requires a human scale bar, and the tiny people on the bridge were obliging enough to wear rain jackets in red, yellow, and turquoise that stand out from the natural hues.
Category: Portland
Jackson and Portland Geometry
Though the Tom Clancy vibe of the USS Jackson may not fit with every part of Portland, Oregon’s hippy vibe, it was conveniently moored across the river from the twin towers of the Oregon Convention Center with which it shares a certain angularity
Sabbatical 2017
I finally finished processing the photographs of the transcontinental drive, transient spectroscopy, and Transamerica pyramid that made up my 2017 sabbatical from St. Lawrence University to Berkeley Lab for solar energy research. Check out my favorites, in handy chronological order, by clicking on the image of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge below:
Bunker Hill
Despite its name, I’m sometimes surprised to see Portland functioning as a port for ships with missions beyond the city’s current PNW hipster cliché (i.e. Portlandia) image.
Miniature Littoral Combat Ship
The stealthy trimaran design of the USS Jackson looks like a sci-fi spaceship.
Summer Rain Arrives in Portland
Sunset and rain arrived in synchronization to the Pearl District last summer. A corner apartment looked pretty cozy.
Awaiting a Summer Storm in the Pearl
Most of my photographs are either calming or energizing, but it’s a rare image that makes me anxious. Storm clouds rolling over Portland, Oregon, however, have me running for cover.
Portland Riverside
A fair, complete with Ferris wheel, alongside the river in Portland Oregon is just the thing to post on the first day of the Spring Semester back at St. Lawrence University. As I trudged through snow to get down to business, the memories of warm sabbatical nights last year were inescapable.
Snakeskin Building
Though not the building’s official name, I think “snakeskin” is the correct way to describe the tile pattern on the side of this new addition to Portland’s Pearl District.
Bunker Hill and Bridge
Two structures (ship and bridge) designed to cross water, though over very different length scales. The two-centuries-old advances in metallurgy that allow for steel production at this huge scale still amazes me.
Inside the LCS
For the stealthy, angular trimaran exterior of the littoral combat ship USS Jackson, peaking inside the ship reveals a more mundane interior (look, a forklift!) that seems oddly pedestrian.
Old Town, New Ship
Tomorrow marks the first day of classes for St. Lawrence’s Fall 2017 semester, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to look back at the strange sights of summer. The cutting-edge stealth trimaran USS Jackson is here juxtaposed with the sign for Portland, Oregon’s Old Town. Hippie holdouts in Portland seem like odd companions to a stoic Navy vessel.
Rail Over Willamette
Portland’s networks of light rail and vertical-lift bridges give the downtown a particular industrial style; I like to imagine that this is pretty close to what 1917’s “City of the Future” would look like if partially realized.
USS Jackson Visits Portland
This week, Portland was visited by the US Navy ships USS Bunker Hill (the missile cruiser in the background) and USS Jackson (the stealthy littoral combat ship in the foreground). The futuristic structure and military aesthetic makes for odd juxtaposition with Portland’s Old Town/Voodoo Donuts reality.
Morning Rays on Portland
Across the cityscape of Portland, rays of morning light slash down from the clouds. The reflective surfaces make a compliment for the texture of the skyscape.
Decaseconds 