Today is March 1st. Technically we are in Spring now. Although it doesn’t show here in the Pacific Northwest. It’s freezing cold and it’s still raining. As promised in my last post I’m showing a few more photographs I took on Portland’s “Pill Hill” the other night. Marquam Hill, as the real name is, provides for some spectacular views across downtown, the Willamette River with its many bridges and on clear days onwards to Mount Hood and Mount St. Helens. Join me for some evening views of Portland by continue to read after the jump….
Marquam Hill (where the Oregon Health and Science University and the Portland VA Medical Center operate large hospitals – hence the nickname “Pill Hill”) can be easily accessed by driving up Terwilliger Boulevard. There are some turnouts where you can stop to have a first glimpse up towards the Aerial Tram’s upper station that is built into the OHSU hospital. It offers also views of the Portland Downtown Skyline and the bridges of the Willamette River.
I did find some free (up to 2 hours) parking up on Sam Jackson Park Road and then just walked down towards the Tram Station. To access it, you need to go through the OHSU building.
The platform can be accessed and from the open side you have splendid views across Portland. You can do this also in the rain, as you are protected by the station’s roof. In dry weather there are plenty open air walkways around the OHSU and VA buildings that you can explore for different views of the cityscape and the mountains beyond.
The image above is a more wide angled version of the one in yesterday’s post. Due to a relatively slow shutter speed I was able to capture the light trails of the flowing evening traffic.
To capture the photos I used my Olympus OM-D E-M1 with the mZuiko 40-150mm F/2.8 Pro Zoom as well as the Olympus PEN-F with the mZuiko 12-40mm F/2.8 Pro Zoom. Bringing two bodies for sure is luxury, but then again a mirrorless camera is not that big and it spared me the need to change lenses in the rain and wind. For the longer exposures (the last two images) I put the cameras on my Rollei travel tripod, the rest of the shots I did hand held. You’ll notice that due to the low light available, most photos I took with a f-stop of f/2.8 which is the widest aperture on both lenses. But the Olympus Pro Zooms are awesome lenses that are tack sharp across the images already wide open. Really great pieces of glass!
This little evening photo shoot on the “Pill Hill” of Portland is a good example that even on business trips with a full agenda there are some opportunities for a bit of photography. I have my gear in the car and got going here despite rain and the late time of the day. It was definitely a good start to see more of Portland in the coming months.
Have a great day!
Marcus
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