Summers in the Pacific Northwest are pretty magical. For my money, it’s one of the best regions in the country to burn a few summer vacation days because of its proximity to the Bay Area, the great seasonal weather, and lush freshness of the surrounding environment.
It had been a while I spent any significant time in Portland, Oregon, so the idea of visiting for a long early summer weekend with my girlfriend, who had also not been to Portland in several years, was pretty much a no-brainer. It’s a quick and easy flight from OAK or SFO to PDX, decent hotel rooms can be gotten for decent rates, and it’s low key one of the best food cities in the U.S. It’s also got a good music scene, cool arts community, and a generally casual vibe — all things I like.
Even though there was lots going on while we were there — it was Pride weekend, and there were cool rock shows happening too (Mudhoney, L7, Fucked and Bound, a few others) — we skipped most of it, and opted instead to explore neighborhoods, parks, and food and drink. And of course I wanted to make photographs.
A quick note about gastronomic pursuits… We barely scratched the surface of what culinary Portland has to offer, but if you’re headed that way, you could do a lot worse than these extremely notable establishments, where we (over)ate and drank: Eem (Thai BBQ), Shalom Y’All (Israeli street food), Multnomah Whiskey Library (self explanatory), Urdaneta (traditional Spanish fare), Canard (casual and crazy good), and Jackrabbit (new American). We also ate at a food pod or two, hit a few bars and some coffee spots, and visited a dispensary — all very solid.
Some camera talk for the nerds… Before we headed north, I picked up a Fuji 28mm conversion lens for my x100f — I’ve always loved a wider-angle view, and have been wanting to try this lens. I was thinking that I’d be more interested in architecture and wider city- and landscape shots when stalking Portland for pics, so it seemed like a good opportunity to pull the trigger on it. After shooting exclusively with the 28mm for four days, in a number of situations, I can report that the lens build quality, light handling, and image clarity are all extremely solid, and though 28mm doesn’t sound like much of a stretch from the camera’s native 35mm, it’s definitely wide enough to feel the difference when composing shots.
I was not prepared to rely on the camera’s electronic viewfinder (EVF) to compose within the full scope of the 28mm view — the optical viewfinder (OVF) is scaled specifically for the 35mm; the EVF rescales automatically when it senses the conversion lens — and I killed the camera battery much faster than I normally would have using the OVF (which I prefer when shooting at 35mm). Not anticipating this, I didn’t bring a charger or a backup battery on my first day out (rookie move on my part). But all in all, the 28mm is a good addition to the rig (I think I might pick up the 50mm version as well).
Anyway, here are some photos from the trip, including a number of snaps from the amazing Portland Japanese Garden, a couple from the Portland Pride Parade staging area, and some views from various neighborhood locations in Portland’s East and West sides...
