I had the opportunity to go into what is incorrectly referred to as the Old Union Station building down on Saint John Street this morning for a meeting, what a neat old building. I would have loved to have seen it as a train station. I want to go back just to photograph, but here is one Photograph that I did get after my meeting.
The building at 222 Saint John Street was not the station itself, but it was the Maine Central Railroad General Office Building. The station was next door (where Maine hardware is now) and it was torn down in 1961 so a lame strip mall (that now sits half empty) could be built. The demolition of the station irked some Portlanders, and that is what started the preservation movement in Portland, and the creation of Greater Portland Landmarks.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Rainy nights in Portland, a last minute show and more . . .
This past week has been a busy one, with getting ready for a last minute show which is now hanging at Gauchos Brazilian Steakhouse 100 Commercial St. Portland, ME, for more information you on my show you can go here. Also with the past few days of rainy weather I have been really inspired, so I have been photographing a lot especially at night, you can see some photographs over on my website, and there are more below as well. This week I have been trying my hand at some digital pinhole photography with my DSLR after I came across this blog post earlier in the week. It has been very neat experimenting with it and getting the pinhole “just right”, not too big/small, getting a perfectly round hole etc. The whole digital thing is great because I am not wasting a bunch of film, though this digital pinhole work has showed me just how dirty my sensor is with what looks like a water mark or ring, and a bunch of other crap. So this week I am going to pick up a sensor cleaning kit and try cleaning it myself, but I am not looking forward to doing this task.
Show at Gauchos Brazilian Steakhouse
go check it out
Rainy Nights in Portland
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| Portland |
To see a night 3 shot panoramic of Portland from Stand pipe Park in the East End, and more photographs click here
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| Novare Res |
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| Bicycles |
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| Spring and Park Street |
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| Stars & orbs |
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| Regency Hotel |
MacWorth Island
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| Tideline |
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| Ducksoup |
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| Fall Dance # 2 |
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| Fishing |
Some digital pinhole work
(with a very dirty sensor, though cleaned up the shots a bit in photoshop)
Monday, September 13, 2010
September Canoe Trip
Last weekend a buddy and I went out on a 2 night canoe trip on Scraggly and Junior Lakes here in eastern Maine. It was supposed to be a 3 night trip, but Hurricane Earl got in the way of the first day. Turns out Earl was nothing to really worry about, anyway we set out last Saturday (9/4) before the storm completely ended.
The first half of Saturday it rained, but the winds were calm, but they started to build a bit (due to a cold front that was following Earl). Around noon we stopped for a break to stretch our legs and make a cup of coffee and warm up. By the time we set out again there where patches of blue a good sign. The winds where still building, but they where at our backs, I even took out the umbrella and did some sailing. We reached camp with plenty of day light to spare.
All night long the winds blew, that morning breaking camp leisurely to say the least, with a feeling of apprehension coming from my buddy. The winds where not building any more, but they where sustained, with higher gusts from time to time. I am very comfortable on the water (I have been canoeing and kayaking for over 18 years mainly sea kayaking on the ocean, and I have been boating for longer than that), but I felt bad for my friend, because we where going to be fighting the winds all day, I gave him some pointers on dealing with the wind, and we put a large rock in the bow of his boat, and moved his gear as far forward as possible to keep the bow lower in the water so that it would not catch the wind as much.
At one point I turned around to see how he was doing, and the wind was spinning him round and round, I told him earlier in the day that if a gust is too much to handle just stop paddling until the gust stops then regain your course as a way to save energy, and to keep a sane mind. When he reached me we switched canoes with the thinking that it would be easier for him in my canoe. It was a tough slog.
We stopped for a break at the thoroughfare between Scraggly and Junior Lakes, we only had about less than 2 miles to go before we reached our second nights campsite so I suggested that we keep moving, because it looked like we where not going to have to battle the winds head on, but yes they had changed by the time we got back on the water and out on to Junior Lake.
Canoeing into the wind is like sailing (for me), you do not head into the wind head on you tack (zigzag) because you let the wind work with you as much as you can. Anyway we had we had the winds in our faces again, now with the skies spitting scattered showers at us. By the time we rounded McKinney Point I realized that my friend had enough, and frankly so did I, but the island with our campsite was in view. By the time we reached camp we where beat. We set up camp, had dinner, watched the sun set and had an early night.
Our last day dawned sunny and cool with light winds that soon started to build. I made a cup of coffee and found a nice sunny spot on the lee ward side of a boulder for some meditation before a breakfast of curried rice. We where on the water relatively early, and the wind was not in our face (yet), so we did some exploration before we started out last leg of our journey, but sure as shit the wind picked up even more, and to say the least it was variable coming from the side then the back then we fought it till the very end. the short time that the wind was coming from behind we made good time, so much so that I called my father to tell him to pick us up at the Duck lake boat launch 2 hours early, by some freak good fortune I was able to get a good enough cell phone signal at the far end of Duck Lake (my phone works great on any other lake in the area but Duck Lake)
On the way back to my fathers house we picked up some beer at Raymonds (a local general store), that evening we had plenty of beer a good dinner and a cake that my father had made and then we sat down and watched Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations all night long it just happened to be a marathon (I usually cannot stand TV marathons, but for his show I will make an exception), great surprise planning on our part we even got to see his 100th episode, I want a TV and cable just for his show.
The first half of Saturday it rained, but the winds were calm, but they started to build a bit (due to a cold front that was following Earl). Around noon we stopped for a break to stretch our legs and make a cup of coffee and warm up. By the time we set out again there where patches of blue a good sign. The winds where still building, but they where at our backs, I even took out the umbrella and did some sailing. We reached camp with plenty of day light to spare.
All night long the winds blew, that morning breaking camp leisurely to say the least, with a feeling of apprehension coming from my buddy. The winds where not building any more, but they where sustained, with higher gusts from time to time. I am very comfortable on the water (I have been canoeing and kayaking for over 18 years mainly sea kayaking on the ocean, and I have been boating for longer than that), but I felt bad for my friend, because we where going to be fighting the winds all day, I gave him some pointers on dealing with the wind, and we put a large rock in the bow of his boat, and moved his gear as far forward as possible to keep the bow lower in the water so that it would not catch the wind as much.
At one point I turned around to see how he was doing, and the wind was spinning him round and round, I told him earlier in the day that if a gust is too much to handle just stop paddling until the gust stops then regain your course as a way to save energy, and to keep a sane mind. When he reached me we switched canoes with the thinking that it would be easier for him in my canoe. It was a tough slog.
We stopped for a break at the thoroughfare between Scraggly and Junior Lakes, we only had about less than 2 miles to go before we reached our second nights campsite so I suggested that we keep moving, because it looked like we where not going to have to battle the winds head on, but yes they had changed by the time we got back on the water and out on to Junior Lake.
Canoeing into the wind is like sailing (for me), you do not head into the wind head on you tack (zigzag) because you let the wind work with you as much as you can. Anyway we had we had the winds in our faces again, now with the skies spitting scattered showers at us. By the time we rounded McKinney Point I realized that my friend had enough, and frankly so did I, but the island with our campsite was in view. By the time we reached camp we where beat. We set up camp, had dinner, watched the sun set and had an early night.
Our last day dawned sunny and cool with light winds that soon started to build. I made a cup of coffee and found a nice sunny spot on the lee ward side of a boulder for some meditation before a breakfast of curried rice. We where on the water relatively early, and the wind was not in our face (yet), so we did some exploration before we started out last leg of our journey, but sure as shit the wind picked up even more, and to say the least it was variable coming from the side then the back then we fought it till the very end. the short time that the wind was coming from behind we made good time, so much so that I called my father to tell him to pick us up at the Duck lake boat launch 2 hours early, by some freak good fortune I was able to get a good enough cell phone signal at the far end of Duck Lake (my phone works great on any other lake in the area but Duck Lake)
On the way back to my fathers house we picked up some beer at Raymonds (a local general store), that evening we had plenty of beer a good dinner and a cake that my father had made and then we sat down and watched Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations all night long it just happened to be a marathon (I usually cannot stand TV marathons, but for his show I will make an exception), great surprise planning on our part we even got to see his 100th episode, I want a TV and cable just for his show.
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| Late Summer |
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| Untitled |
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| Clearing Out |
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| Untitled |
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| Meditation |
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| Untitled |
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| Untitled |
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| Untitled |
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| Untitled |
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| Untitled |
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| Waiting for me |
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| Picking up |
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| Almanac MTN from Scraggly Lake |
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| Coming Around McKinney Point |
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| Untitled |
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| Almost Deja vu |
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| Sunset Virga # 2 |
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| Sunset Feast For a Bird |
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| Good Morning Blue Sky |
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| Be different |
If you would like you can see more photographs over on my website
Sunday, September 12, 2010
SPACE Gallery BLOCK PARTY (9/11/10)
Last night here in Portland Maine we had a great public art event with a great vibe, it was hosted by Space Gallery they had a block party here on Congress Street. The night was filled with: block printing with a steam roller (just that faint smell of the ink put a smile on my face), art, music, seeing old friends and seeing some new friends too. There was so much going on it was hard to see all of it, but here is some of what I saw
Block Printing with a steam roller
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| 1 Inked Block |
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| 2 Placing the canvas |
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| 3 Smoothing it out |
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| 4 Making it cozy |
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| 5 here comes the roller |
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| 6 Slow and steady |
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| 7 Checking the print |
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| 8 getting ready for another print |
Bowdoin Taiko
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| Looking Down Congress Street |
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| Looking Up Congress Street |
SOUNDS FROM THE CITY
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