photography is a dangerous sport

Today Eddie and I did the Bridge Pedal, which covered 13 miles and six (there was the option to cross more) of the awesome bridges that span the Willamette River. We, along with 20,000 of our closest friends, were treated to amazing views from the (mostly) otherwise car-only bridges. This is the one day of the year in Portland when folks can get up close and personal with these lovely panoramas.

For Eddie, it was about a lot more than the view from the bridges and the camaraderie with cyclists of all ages, shapes and sizes.

For those of you have read this blog for a long time, you may recall the post I wrote (almost three years ago to the day) about Eddie's chronic illness, Myasthenia Gravis, that often prevents him from galloping forward into new physical adventures. In that post, I described the difficulty he has with something most of us do without much thought when given the opportunity: walking across a bridge.

Here is that post.

This summer, Eddie made it his business to walk across the Broadway bridge. He did it by thinking about putting one foot in front of the next - over and over and over again until he reached the other side.  There were baby steps at first, trembling hands, spinning head. But he got across the bridge one morning several weeks ago. This gave him the confidence to try walking his bike across it. Then riding his bike across it. Then we tried another bridge. It was a process that went slowly.

But the process led to small victories that led to more confidence that led to greater accomplishments.

The greatest one occurred this morning when he rode across not one, not two, but six Portland bridges.

I rode alongside him - a proud wife and best friend.

I took pictures, of course. Crazy me - what was I thinking? - I took pictures while riding my bike. I wiped out, of course, but I did manage to record this special event.

It was a wonderful morning!

(Pass the Advil, please.)

day thirty-four

I'm winding down. Getting ready to end the summer visit to Portland and my "At Least One Photo A Day" project. The exercise has been challenging, but I like that I pushed myself to shoot every single day. There were days I got the shot in the first few minutes, but most days I wandered around town for at least a couple hours... often more. I certainly got to know the city of Portland well, and I met many interesting people.

For the most part,  I ran into people who like to be photographed. The people I met liked the attention. And they enjoyed encountering a stranger who found them interesting.

There were plenty of days I didn't want to shoot. There were days I just didn't want to power on. It was harder than I thought it  would be.

I hope you've enjoyed the quotes I found to accompany the photos.

I've also been shooting some color stuff while in Portland. That work is a lot more accessible and predictable. It's more of a record of the memorable things we did while in the Pacific Northwest this summer. I'll share the "best of" those tomorrow.

NW 10th Avenue

Saturday Farmer's Market, South Park Blocks

photos of triumphant olympians = awesome-ness

These are from the Sacramento Bee. Incredible pictures of incredible people.

Australian water polo players

British gymnastic team members

China's Wang Mingjuan

Denmark's handball players

France's Automne Pavia

Germany's Ariane Friedrich

Italy's Elisa Di Francisca

Jamaica's Usain Bolt

Latvia's Martins Plavins and Janis Smedins

South Africa's Chad le Clos

Taiwan's Chuang Chih-yuan

The Netherland's Marianne Vos

USA's Abby Wambach and Shannon Boxx

USA's Kami Craig

USA's Travis Stevens 

Venezuela's Sanchez Rivero

day thirty-three

"In a world where the 2 billionth photograph has been uploaded to Flickr, which looks like an Eggleston picture! How do you deal with making photographs with the tens of thousands of photographs being uploaded to Facebook every second, how do you manage that? How do you contribute to that? What’s the point?"

- Alec Soth

West Burnside Street

day thirty-two

"Black and white are the colors of photography. To me they symbolize the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is forever subjected. Most of my photographs are of people; they are seen simply, as through the eyes of the man in the street. There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment. This kind of photography is realism. But realism is not enough—there has to be vision, and the two together can make a good photograph. It is difficult to describe this thin line where matter ends and mind begins."
- Robert Frank

NW Hoyt Street

day thirty-one

"From his photographs [the photographer] learned that the appearance of the world was richer and less simple than his mind would have guessed. He discovered that his pictures could reveal not only the clarity but the obscurity of these things, and that these mysterious and evasive images could also, in their own terms, seem ordered and meaningful."
- John Szarkowski

North Mississippi Street

day thirty

"Within every man and woman a secret is hidden, and as a photographer it is my task to reveal it if I can. The revelation, if it comes at all, will come in a small fraction of a second with an unconscious gesture, a gleam of the eye, a brief lifting of the mask that all humans wear to conceal their innermost selves from the world. In that fleeting interval of opportunity the photographer must act or lose his prize."

- Yousuf Karsh

Mariah and Mike, SW 3rd Avenue

day twenty-nine

"... a fact about photography: we can look at people's faces in photographs with an intensity and intimacy that in life we normally only reserve for extreme emotional states—for a first look at someone we may sleep with, or a last look at someone we love." 
- Adam Gopnik

Junior, NW Broadway

henry

It's been a while since I've shared pictures of grandson Henry here on the blog. He's getting to be quite a big boy - almost two years old! Abbie sent me a great set of pictures recently. I think you'll like them, especially the very last one.

day twenty-eight

"[Photographs] are the proof that something was there and no longer is. Like a stain. And the stillness is boggling. You can turn away but when you come back they’ll still be there looking at you."
- Diane Arbus

Wedding Party, NW 11th Avenue

day twenty-seven

"Creativity with portraits involves the invocation of a state of rapport when only a camera stands between two people... mutual vulnerability and mutual trust."
- Minor White

Daniel, NW Lovejoy Street

day twenty-six

"For a street photographer randomness is everything, because that’s one thing the world has in abundance, and I am just passing through it with my snare. My camera is a snare. I can throw this sieve out there and I can capture things in it. And risking that gesture all the time is part of the joy of seeing, because I don't have to stretch a canvas, I don’t have to mix the paints, I don’t have to light the studio. I walk around in the world, which is bombarding me with sensations all the time."

- Joel Meyerowitz 

Dressing Room, NW Couch Street

day twenty-five

"It rubs me the wrong way, a camera... It’s a frightening thing. Cameras make ghosts out of people."

- Bob Dylan

Doorman, NW Lovejoy Street