Last week I had a shoot in Portland for Morrow Equipment Company shooting their giant tower cranes. Normally with an assignment like that I will scout out the area to find the best locations in order to make the best possible images of the subject. The tower cranes are located in SW Portland, but I also checked out various locations on the other side of the river in SE Portland. This involved a lot of poking around along the river bank and on the hill above the river along Highway 99E.
The area down by the river is actually very beautiful and thought that if I could make my way down there I might have an impressive shot with the cranes reflecting in the Willamette River. Part of the area is quite industrial, and to make it down to the river I found myself climbing around some concrete supports then down a fairly steep incline to toward the river. The area is filled with debris and graffiti from all kinds of various activities and not what I would call hospitable to any kind of life. After slipping down the hill and banging my knee I took a few shots down by the river and then decided to check out the area up by the highway for other vantage points.
I parked my car at on a side street and walked about 3/4 mile along the highway where bumper to bumper morning rush hour traffic flew by at over 50 miles an hour. To cross that four lanes of traffic on foot would be nearly impossible. Portland is full of bike lanes and trails, but here there were no bike lanes, and very little room to walk. There was a bit of a walking path just two feet off the roadway, just above a curb. So I walked along the highway to the point where I got some okay photos of the cranes. Still not the best view as there were power lines running across my view.
So I turned to retrace my steps back toward my car along the highway. I passed a little forested area, not more than a quarter of mile along the road and probably less than 100 feet deep and that was where I saw the first movement. It was not more than 30 feet from me. A four point buck saw me first, but he didn't seem bothered by my presence. Just behind him was a three point buck, and just behind him was a little spike deer following. I just crunched down low, literally a few feet off of the highway with all these cars just whizzing by. As I shot photos of the deer I couldn't help thinking how amazing it was that this little band of deer were so seemingly comfortable here in their tiny patch of wilderness near the heart of such a busy city. If they can make it here, they can make it anywhere!
The area down by the river is actually very beautiful and thought that if I could make my way down there I might have an impressive shot with the cranes reflecting in the Willamette River. Part of the area is quite industrial, and to make it down to the river I found myself climbing around some concrete supports then down a fairly steep incline to toward the river. The area is filled with debris and graffiti from all kinds of various activities and not what I would call hospitable to any kind of life. After slipping down the hill and banging my knee I took a few shots down by the river and then decided to check out the area up by the highway for other vantage points.
I parked my car at on a side street and walked about 3/4 mile along the highway where bumper to bumper morning rush hour traffic flew by at over 50 miles an hour. To cross that four lanes of traffic on foot would be nearly impossible. Portland is full of bike lanes and trails, but here there were no bike lanes, and very little room to walk. There was a bit of a walking path just two feet off the roadway, just above a curb. So I walked along the highway to the point where I got some okay photos of the cranes. Still not the best view as there were power lines running across my view.
So I turned to retrace my steps back toward my car along the highway. I passed a little forested area, not more than a quarter of mile along the road and probably less than 100 feet deep and that was where I saw the first movement. It was not more than 30 feet from me. A four point buck saw me first, but he didn't seem bothered by my presence. Just behind him was a three point buck, and just behind him was a little spike deer following. I just crunched down low, literally a few feet off of the highway with all these cars just whizzing by. As I shot photos of the deer I couldn't help thinking how amazing it was that this little band of deer were so seemingly comfortable here in their tiny patch of wilderness near the heart of such a busy city. If they can make it here, they can make it anywhere!
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