Favorite Photographs from 2009

2009 was played close to home. As Ian's arrival approached, my miles away from home decreased in inverse proportion. Except for Seattle, a trip to Arizona and a visit to Port Townsend after Ian was born, 2009 was spent in Portland.

Photography wise, I am happy to return to some black and white after laying it aside during the conversion to digital. Setting the Canon EOS Xsi to monochrome gets much better results than merely draining out color saturation with Photoshop Elements. There is still much to learn on this front. Perhaps next year a wider angle lens is also in order.

The selection below follows last years template, with a few pictures in excess of the traditional ten. (Click on photos to expand..)





The Fecheimer & White Building, Skidmore Oldtown District, Portland Oregon. January 15 2009.

Cast-iron allowed Portland to go from a wooden side-walked frontier town to Pacific Northwest's first metropolitan center, without the large amounts of artisans and stone workers it would have taken using traditional methods. Physical location aside, this is where Portland's uniqueness began.






Jill, Hotel Vintage Park, Seattle Washington, January 25 2009.

A couple of weeks free from morning sickness was a good reason to spend a weekend in Seattle.







Parking garage, Seattle Washington, January 25 2009.








Bath tubs in Rejuvenation's back lot. Portland Oregon, February 14 2009.







Hiway Host Motel, Main Street, Mesa Arizona, March 14 2009.

Bright Arizona light, highs in the seventies and a roadside stretch of old motels!








Union Pacific GP-38-2 #522, the former UP 2022 built in April 1974 approaches the Steel Bridge, Portland Oregon. April 5 2009.

What little railroad photography I did tended to be local. Riding my bike gave me plenty of chances to photograph the the transfer run between Albina and Lake yards. The train is a favorite of mine because it is often powered by some of Union Pacific's original GP-38-2 units, unsung regional stalwarts since the presidency of Richard Nixon.








Southern Pacific #4449 departs Union Station at the beginning of a cross country journey. Portland Oregon, July 3 2009.

Usually when I photograph steam locomotives, I try and remove as much evidence of the present as possible, an attempt at timelessness. For this picture I decided to fully embrace the anachronism of steam power in the twenty-first century head on by including Portland's modern skyline and condominiums built on the site of rail yards.









Ian, July 30 2009.

The big day! After a spectacularly loud debut, Ian rests on a heating pad in the recovery room. This is probably his first yawn.








Neon North Portland- the Westerner Motel, Interstate Avenue, Portland Oregon. August 15 2009.

Taken for Illuminating Interstate on Cafe Unknown.








Point Wilson lighthouse near Port Townsend Washington, October 10 2009.

Almost a year to the day that we were last at Port Townsend, we returned for our first trip with Ian.








Union Station phone booths. Portland Oregon, December 6 2009.








Ian, happy to have mastered the art of the roll-over. December 16 2009.








The Coelancanth: Third and Oak, Portland Oregon, December 28 2009.

The Bishop's House, Cameron's Books, the Golden Dragon and the Portland Outdoor Store; like the thought to be extinct Coelacanth fish, the block bounded by Third, Second, Oak and Stark seems outside of time. Next year I plan to write a piece that will show the glacial but steady change on the block.