Portland, October

I feel differently now, I guess partly after taking a little break from film photography, or maybe partly because I’m older, or probably partly because it feels in that time like everything has changed. I mean, it hasn’t all changed, but the world feels different to me.

I was (cautiously?) optimistic about three rolls of film I sent to the lab this week, hopeful for a few shots I could swoon over, but really nothing came out all that exciting. Nothing “good” in the sense of what anyone else might consider good. But then I remembered that it’s more about evoking a feeling, or bringing me back to a place. And there I was in Portland back in October again, running before work on the path by the river and carrying a little Kodak Ektar H35 half frame camera I bought just after it was released a year or two ago, but hadn’t used yet.

It’s kind of a perfect camera for just that thing, a work trip to a city you don’t know. It’s light, pocketable, easy to use, and you get double the number of photos on a 35mm roll of film. Crappy weather? It’s plastic, no batteries or fancy knobs. Bumping around in a pocket? It can take it. Expired film? Meet imprecise lens.

Usually I get my half-frame rolls scanned with two images per frame, but the lab couldn’t do it this time. While I like some of these images as singles, I do want to see what the natural pairings look like. I really need to get to developing and scanning my own film, but the scans never quite come out the way I like.

This is Portlandia. I’d venture to say she is a goddess, reaching down from a section of a building in downtown Portland. I had to gaze at her for a while as I stood under her, her hand offering (what… welcome? respite? elevation?) something unsaid, beyond reach. I like her in this photo.

And another Portland building, all lines and boldness. I forgot how much I like photographing buildings.

It was cloudy most of the week, and I remember now that I had to time my morning runs so as not to head out in the dark (you know, safety and not knowing the lay of the land) but to go at such a time that I’d be able to still get coffee, shower, make myself look like I haven’t just worked at home by myself for the last 25 years, and get to the office on time for all-day meetings. Simple-ish.

When I was little, we spent many holidays in Pittsburgh with my dad’s family, and when we took the occasional trip into downtown Pittsburgh, I fell deeply in love with the bridges there. Portland felt a little like a dream about Pittsburgh, and not just because of its bridges.