As much as I love to be behind the lens, I really do hate to be in front of it. I’ve tried self portraiture before, but have always had such a hard time making an image that was anything more than a reflection of my likeness. I have always wanted to do more; to see more; to find a piece of my soul in the image.

Tonight, while playing with my Lensbabies 3G and macro add-on, I turned the camera on myself, shut off the flash, and shot this image.

I think I’ve finally caught a little piece of me.

Well, not so much sloe gin fizz.   Mostly damn good coffee and iced tea.   Make that damn good coffee, iced tea, fun, excercise, friendship, and bruises.  Yes, bruises.

I visited Portland yesterday to participate in a the third anniversary PDX [Portland] flickr meetup.  I met a lot of wonderful people and had a great time taking in the city from behind the lens.  Some folks made it up to the Pittock Mansion for the 6:05 AM sunrise.   I- being me, of course, was a half hour late.   But we take the time to get acquainted over warm beverages at Stumptown Coffee.   I swear, this was the best mocha I have ever tasted.   I’m now officially ruined for all other coffees.

After Stumptown, we walked around Old Town Portland for a bit.   I have not experienced this part of the city as I am so often stuck behind the steering wheel instead of enjoying the freedom of being on-foot.   This isn’t far from the Saturday Market, so I’ll have to make plans to visit again soon. 

The group then took a bus (thanks so much for the passes, TJ!) to The National Santuary of our Sorrowful Mother- also known as “The Grotto“.   I have never been there, but this has long been on my list of places to see.   We spent roughly two hours walking through the serene grounds and photographing the trees, statuary, and birds that were abundant within.   One of the folks on the meetup even let me try out his 15mm fisheye lens in the Meditation Room.   I’ve got to get one of those— it was so much fun!  (TJ- that was amazing!  Thank you so much!)

After a delicious (and hard-earned) lunch at Steamers Restaraunt and Lounge, we piled ourselves and our gear into two cars and headed over to Hippo Hardware.   The kind folks at HH agreed to let us bring our cameras in and pretty much gave us free reign to shoot as we pleased.   Boy!  There was a lot of interesting stuff - all lit by either vintage lamps hanging from the ceilings or by large windows in the walls and ceilings- paned with aged glass.  I really enjoyed this leg of the journey and I think I have finally found the perfect bathroom towel bar!  (I’ll just have to head up there again soon to purchase it.)

My new friend, Bonnie and I hung out for a while- heading over to Blue Moon Camera and Machine to pick up some photos she had processed. I came dangerously close to purchasing a pinhole camera. Seeing the great shots that Bonnie captured using her Zero Image didn’t help my cause. But we made it out- and I didn’t spend a penny. (for which I should be commended). We met the members of the group (and a few others) at Proper Eats to enjoy dinner (for some of us), drinks, the smoky atmosphere, and great conversation.

We closed out the day shooting the St. Johns Bridge- something I have always wanted to do.   I consider this a recon mission…   I know I’ll be back soon to shoot this magnificent structure.

I really had a great day, made some new friends, learned a lot about the city, and managed to bruise myself from carrying gear, twist my ankle (mildly, this time!), and use every ounce of energy that I could muster.    And after all that, I cannot wait to get back up there and do it again.

I had to clear off my memory card tonight in preparation for my trip up north on Saturday. Most of the images were shot during last weekend’s weird weather. These two were captured while on an early morning walk in my neighborhood on Sunday. Snow in April really is rare in this part of the country.

I had fired off about four shots of this lantern in rapid succession- not knowing until tonight that they chronicled the progress of the water droplet as it made began it’s freefall.

These grape hyacinth have seen better days, but the remaining purple blooms look especially vibrant in contrast to the aftermath of our wild weather.