Back in the Rose City, staying once more at the Heathman Hotel on Portland’s Broadway. The week was all work without as much as a chance to touch my camera, but Friday night I took the Olympus OM-D E-M1 with the mZuiko 12-40mm F/2.8 along while going to the Target supermarket in Morrison Street to by myself some basic supplies (there is just no way eating out every night on a two-week business trip). The above photo I took in front of one of the shop windows of the Target. I loved the lady boxer, positioned myself at the rail of the city train station tin my back and then it was just a matter of the right person walking by. I took the image at 1/80 sec @ f/5 and ISO 1000 with 30mm focal length. For a fe more photos continue after the jump…
Sometimes one photograph is enough to tell the story of a whole day. Yesterday I arrived in Portland after another long flight. Went directly to the office, worked till late and went directly to the hotel. Jet lag hit me full in the face, I slept three hours from 11pm to 2am. That was all I managed. Was in the office by 6:30 am, worked until 8:30 pm. Back to the hotel pretty much destroyed, 14 hours work day on 3 hours sleep. Business travel reality. Feeling drained (pardon the pun).
Inspired by fellow blogger Uwe Richter’s recent post about light painting (you need to check out his awesome blog) I saw this gaudily lit faucet in my hotel and decided it is worth a try turning the reflections into a kind of abstract photo by using a slow shutter speed (2.8 sec) and just handholding/slightly moving the camera while pressing the shutter. This was actually my only attempt and it came out just fine (I realize you might have a different opinion but in the end, my shots only need to satisfy myself to put a smile on my face and make me feel better/good).
Photographically speaking, one shot that makes me feel good can save a whole day.
Taken with my Olympus PEN-F with the mZuiko 12-40mm F/2.8 Pro Zoom at 2.8 sec and f/2.8 at 12mm focal lenght (equals 24mm in full frame).
On the road again towards Portland. Well, I should rather say in the skies again, as I’m currently somewhere above Canada on my Delta flight from AMS to PDX. As usual I used the layover in Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport for some Street Photography in the Terminal. To see what I captured during this connection continue reading after the jump…
As the job that pays the bills denied me any time to go shooting these past days I need to dig in last weeks archive to send you into the weekend. All these photos are from past Thursday and I took them on my Delta flight from Portland to Los Angeles on my way home to Nuremberg. Camera was my Olympus PEN-F with the mZuiko 12-40mm F/2.8 Pro Zoom. I post the images in sequence from Mount Jefferson that we passed soon after Takeoff from PDX to the streets of Los Angeles while landing in LAX. For the full series continue after the jump….
Portland Aerial Tram Upper Station | 1/40 sec @ f/2.8 and ISO 1600
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….
Here it is, my first real photo of the Streets of Portland, literally. Last night after work I drove up the South Portland’s Marquam Hill (aka Pill Hill), where the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) and the Portland VA Medical Center operate large hospitals, whose modern architecture is quite fascinating of its own. But my real target was the upper station of the Portland Aerial Tram, from which you have a stunning view across downtown, the Willamette River with its many bridges and on clear days onwards to Mount Hood and Mount St. Helens. I found free parking behind the Doernbechers Children’s Hospital and walked over to the Tram Station.
I knew that from the station there is this great view of Interstates 405 and 5 merging and crossing the Willamette River on the Marquam Bridge. And this is the photo I really wanted to take. So I brought the Olympus OM-D E-M1, the mZuiko 40-150mm F/2.8 Pro Zoom and my Rollei travel tripod. Temperatures last night where just above freezing and there was a nasty rainfall. Camera and lens are waterproof, so that was more of a problem for me with my thin and not waterproof jacket. The good thing was that inside the Tram Station I was protected by the roof. I put the tripod on the railing at the far end that is open towards city and river, and snapped away. The photo came out just as I had hoped for. Image specs were 8 seconds (to capture the light trails of the traffic crossing the bridge), f/10 and ISO 200. Focal length was the far end of my zoom at 150mm (equals 300mm in full frame) and I used the 2sec self timer of the camera to avoid any shake after pressing the shutter.
This is a good example of a planned shot, where you have in mind what you want to do and then just execute.
I took a few more photos on Marquam Hill, but need time to process and edit, A post will follow. And then of course I need to really hit the Streets of Portland. But due to a full business agenda this might have to wait until my next trip.
Travel Day again, heading westward for another week of work in Portland, Oregon. Took the early bird 6:15 KLM flight from Nuremberg to Amsterdam, where I had enough layover to do some shooting in the terminal before continuing on a non-stop Delta flight to Portland’s PDX airport. To join me for for a stroll through Schiphol Airport and for a sky view of the Shetland Islands continue reading after the jump…
I’m safely back home from my trip to Portland. Crossing the Atlantic Ocean on a very northerly route, that took my Delta Airlines A330 over the center part of Greenland, I was on the lookout for Northern Lights, as I had a window seat on the left side of the plane. A few weeks ago I saw a Blog Post from someone who actually photographed the Aurea Borealis from a plane. As it is a dream of mine to see the magnetic lights in the sky, I stayed up (watching “The Accountant” with Ben Affleck – a super movie) and waited for the green flares to appear, but I didn’t saw any. As it turned out, I might have missed them by just one night, as from this fantastic blog here I learned the Aurea Borealis was active the night before.
But I got lucky on two very important aspects on my return flight. The first you see in the photo to this post, I was blessed with an incredibly colorful dawn high in the sky above France. The colors were insane. I took the photo with the Olympus PEN-F and the mZuiko 14-150mm F/4.0-5.6 Travel Zoom pressed to the window. Image specs were 1/10 sec @ f/4.9 and ISO 1600. The photo is a jpg out of camera.
Let there be light
Almost more important was the fact I saved 4 hours of lay-over at Paris Charles De Gaulle. The Delta flight got in 30 minutes early, which gave me an outside chance of catching the 8:35 morning flight to Nuremberg instead of the 13:00 connection I was booked on (and believe me, waiting 4 hours in the remote Terminal 2G of CDG is no fun). I gave up hope when we taxied in for 15 minutes and then on top parked at an apron position where buses took us to the terminal 2E once everybody was out of the plane. But then security control went so smooth and there was an immediate shuttle bus connection to Terminal 2G where I arrived just when Boarding started for the Air France / HOP flight to Nuremberg. I went directly to the Transfer Counter (where there was also no other passenger) and asked if they can put me on the early flight. The lady there told me it would not be possible as I was on a Delta ticket, and rebooking that would take too long as boarding was already in progress.
Refusing to give up I went directly to the boarding gate to try my luck once more. And there you go, the great guy at the gate typed something in his computer, made a phone call and then printed my new boarding pass. The flight was not even 1/3 full. Instead of coming home Sunday afternoon I was home in time for breakfast with the family, what a treat!
So the lesson learnt here is: Never give up, always try! Works wonder in travels! And: try to fly with carry on baggage only. With a checked bag this would not have been possible. I can live up to 6 days out of my carry on, I’ve optimized that over the years, so I never check bags unless I absolutely have to.
After a strenuous travel (Nuremberg-Amsterdam-Seattle-Drive to Portland) I went direct to the office for a first set of meetings. When I got into the hotel I was on a 26 hour day, minus two and a half of sleep I caught on the plane. This happens regularly and it doesn’t kill me as long as it doesn’t happen every week. Weather was gruesome and as feared, my super tight schedule didn’t allow me to see much of Portland during this visit at all. At least I stayed in downtown this time, in the very nice boutique hotel “The Heathman”, a Portland landmark (opened 1923) and recently the set for a few scenes in the movie “50 Shades of Grey”. An complementary upgrade to a suite really made my evening after this super long day. The hotel is beautiful with a stunning library and plenty art work. I plan to do a separate post about it in the future. To learn more about a cooking event I participated in and see photos of two of the PNW’s stunning volcanos continue reading after the jump…
It’s travel day again. I’ll get up at 4am to be at Nuremberg Airport for my 6:15 KLM flight to Amsterdam (remember the great Heineken bar in the Terminal?) and then onwards with Delta to Seattle where I’ll arrive at 11:24 am local time. Then its a 3 hours drive via Interstate 5 down to Portland where I’ll arrive just in time for the big Kick-Off meeting of my new project that will take me to the Pacific Northwest quite a bit over the next couple of months. It will be a 26 hour day before I get to fall in a bed again. Need to catch some sleep on the plane ! Going west helps with the Jet lag. Will try not to adapt too much to the 9hours time difference, as my flight home is already Saturday.
The photo of the Marabous I took a few minutes before sunrise in Tanzania last year with my Olympus OM-D E-M1 with the mZuiko 14-150mm F/4.0-5.6 Travel Zoom. Image specs are 1/60 sec (handheld) @ f/5.6 and ISO 200 with the zoom at the far end of its focal range. The RAW conversion was done in Lightroom CC, where I increased contrast, dynamic and clarity. I increased also sharpness a bit (you always need to do that when working on a RAW file. What is important is to mask the sharpness so you limited sharpening of pixels to the high contrast edges of the birds and the branches so you avoid over sharpening and subsequent introduction of unwanted noise in the clouds.
This week’s Weekly Photo Challenge has the theme “Shadow”. My entry perfectly reflects the current status of my life. Sometimes I feel like I’m spending more time in the air than on terra firma. For the job that pays the bills I’m working on a big project with a base near Portland, Oregon. For the foreseeable future I will be a lot in the Pacific Northwest of the USA as well as traveling to subsites around the globe. A lot of air time. A lot of time away from home.
This morning I got in from Detroit. But I shouldn’t complain too much as I got a complementary upgrade to First Class on my Lufthansa flight back to Frankfurt, so I crossed the North Atlantic in style. Thanks to the pilot’s decision to fly around the winter storm over the Northeastern USA the flight took even an hour longer than usual which was nice because I was able to get some sleep after a marvelous dinner. And I still was back in Nuremberg in time for breakfast with the family.
Next Wednesday I’m heading back over the pond, for three days packed with meetings. Not sure if I will have some opportunity to go shooting.
The photo above I took with my iPhone while approaching Brussels Airport. The Lesson: always have something ready to shoot with, you never know what jumps into your eyes.
There is something classic, timeless, about this flight board in Terminal 2F of Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG). This is also where the last Concord flights departed. Although I’m currently sitting in CDG as I wait for the final flight home to Nuremberg I pulled this image from an earlier visit to Paris from the archives (when just transiting you don’t get there unless you want to exit the security area). Designed by architect Paul Andreu, Terminal 2 was constructed in the 1980’s and expanded in the early 1990’s.
This is another example of “the best camera is the one you have with you”…I took this photo with the iPhone 4s I had at that time. Just loved the elegance of this extraordinary flight board and its reflection on the shiny floor. I had to capture it and it had to be Black and White.
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