Niños de los Andes

Our first activity was a visit today to a privately funded center, Children of the Andes, for the assessment and rehabilitation of teen-age boys Who Have run into trouble with drugs. Here are a couple of pictures of families from That center.

Day 1 in Bogota

Street artist in square near our hotel

Dramatic clouds over Bogota, from Montserrate Hill

Watching the sunset from Montserrate Hill

Evening in the Marina

Taken yesterday in Fort Lauderdale. Now we are in Bogota, Colombia.

Seen on the River Walk

 Along the New River in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Sky, Ship, Sea, Surf, Sand, Snooze

Fort Lauderdale Beach Park

Rewards

Central Eastside Industrial District, Portland

Two Strange Scenes

 Sometimes two pictures seem to go together, even if they have no evident connection

 - except being taken in Portland.

Lead Abatement and Repainting

Detail of Loading Dock

Shapes and Colors

Washington Park in Portland

Steel Bridge on a Cloudy Day

Two views of the Steel Bridge and I-5 from the Burnside Bridge in Portland, taken this time on a cloudy day. A different feel from yesterday's, but impressive in its own right. These almost monochrome renditions remind me (jealously) of David Plowden's great black & white pictures of bridges, perhaps the definitive work on the subject.

We will be traveling for the next three weeks, with uncertain internet connections, so daily postings may or may not happen. I'll try.

Late Afternoon Sun on the Willamette River

Portland in winter is not always gray and cloudy/rainy. These photos were taken on the Burnside Bridge as I walked from the east to the west side of the Willamette. The light was beautiful.

Balusters along the approach to the bridge

Steel Bridge and storage silos seen from the Burnside Bridge

Interstate Highway 5

Faces on Telephone Poles

Telephone poles in Portland are often heavily covered with many layers of posters, notices, etc. Occasionally some of the exposed under-layers show something striking. In the Central Eastside Industrial District.

A Darker MacLeay Park

On our most recent walk in MacLeay Park it was near dusk and the woods were darker. The greens were less luminous, and the mood was more somber.

MacLeay Park in Fog

The second time we walked in MacLeay Park it was foggy, and the bright greens showed against a subdued background. A lovely effect.

Balch Creek

The backbone of MacLeay Park is Balch Creek. 

Its level depends strongly on the amount of recent rainfall.

The walking path runs - more or less - along the creek.

At the entrance to the park is this picturesquely decayed catwalk, presumably a maintenance access to the large wooden trash screen that funnels the creek into a pipe leading down to the Willamette River.

Luminous Greens in MacLeay Park

MacLeay Park in the western hills of Portland is a component of the larger Forest Park, the largest urban park in the United States. We walked there for the first time a few weeks ago, and were astounded by the glowing green moss on the branches, and the overall luminosity of the scene. I posted the pictures on my Here and There blog (for which this is the replacement); but I want to make sure that they don't get lost, so here they are again. More to come in the next few days.

Colors of the Back Alleys

The loading docks on the back streets of the Central Eastside Industrial District in Portland have some beautiful colors, initially bright and vivid, now faded into lovely pastels. Add the geometries of stairs, ledges, window bars, and the occasional glyph, and some sumptuous images result.

Portland's Northeast Alberta Neighborhood

Yesterday we continued our project of exploring our new home city of Portland, Oregon, by walking on the main commercial street of the NE Alberta neighborhood. It's somewhat counter-cultural in a way reminiscent of the 1960s, and filled with colorful signs and murals. Here are a few examples. The first one sums up a significant aspect of the Portland ethos in the most succinct way possible.

I'm going to try to augment (hopefully, enrich) this blog by writing occasionally about some photo topics that I find noteworthy. One of the photo sites I look at daily is A Photo Editor. Its content rotates among contributors during the week, but Friday is often the most interesting. It's written by a fine art photographer named Jonathan Blaustein, and generally consists of his comments - with copious illustrations - on contemporary photobooks.

Today's column struck me as particularly worthwhile. Blaustein begins with ruminations on the Charlie Hebdo massacre and the role of images in inflaming fanatics. He then segues into comments on the work of five photographers, whose work he was reviewing for Photo NOLA. The photos, all quite different, are very moving and interesting. All in all, a fine sampling of the riches and implications of contemporary photography.

Pipes and Cables

I like to exploit the graphic qualities of the standard accessories of an industrial environment, especially when they're accompanied by swatches of color. On SE 3rd Avenue of the Central Eastside Industrial District in Portland. Click photos to enlarge them. 

Pearl District NW 13th Avenue

Let's see how a B&W photo looks on a black background.

Central Eastside Portland

My first post on Blogger, getting ready for the migration from the University of Minnesota's UThink blogging system. (See http://blog.lib.umn.edu/victor/hereandthere). I won't be posting here very often for now, but I want to get started to see what Blogger is like. I like it at the beginning.

These are photos taken in the Central Eastside Industrial District of Portland, Oregon. Near the Willamette River, on 3rd Street between Burnside and Morrison. Quite different subjects, but similar structure and color.