Excuses and Bad Flight Manners_No Pictures

It has been a long time since I last blogged. In fact I have been wondering if I should take this site down due to a very hectic work schedule the last two months and helping out my wife Susan with our fourteen–month-old daughter Leah. So that is my excuse as to why I have had very little time to make any significant additions here. I wonder if anyone reads this anyway. I know one guy who does, and he has been living in Tokyo for the past five years for work, and I ran into to him this morning at the airport in Portland. He was on his way to New York, and I am on my way to Manchester, England, to cover the Manchester United Premier Cup World Finals. Something I do every year. Anyways, we were talking and he said, “You have not posted on your blog for a long time. What's up with that?” So Howard, this is for you, okay it is for me, but I needed an excuse to get me out of my prior excuse. Thanks for getting me back on here. So my goal is now to blog at least once a week. Perhaps on Sundays, after I put my daughter to sleep, and before my wife and I watch 30 Rock on pay-per-view. We both love good comedy. I would do it during the week, but we are always watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report from 8-9pm, which is our little nightly ritual that we started when Susan first got pregnant in 2007. We also watch these shows to help us self-medicate ourselves because of how inept our politicians are, and how downright ineffective the media are these days in reporting meaningful news stories. Don’t get me started. In cases like this, where I am traveling for an event or commercial photo shoot, I will try to blog more during the shoot. I promise. And if you do read this blog, please drop in a comment of two, just to let me know that Howard is not alone. So right now I am on my first leg of my trip to the UK. Portland to Chicago. Chicago to London. London to Manchester. Okay a note about airline travel. To all those people in the economy section that move their set backs, please do slow slowly. Pay attention to those of us behind you. The poor guy in the middle seat next to me, seat 7B, a rather stocky guy who looks like he could play linebacker for the Chicago Bears, just had his knees relocated in one second flat by rude passenger 6B. After doing this, 6B then moves his seat back to its upright position, turns around and gives the middle linebacker the evil eye, turns back to the movie screen, which is about the size of my iPhone screen, and proceeds again to make sure seat 7B leaves permanently with his knees embedded into his upper torso. This all done in about two seconds flat. So fellow cattle class fliers, be kind people when flying in economy. Check your review mirrors before moving your seat back. In fact, don’t do it without perhaps asking the person behind you. Remember that objects in your mirror appear father from you than they really are. Thanks for reading. I promise pictures as soon as I can get to my cameras in the overhead compartment, unless of course the contents have shifted, or seat 6C decides to recline my laptop into my sternum. Holy crap! Sear 6C just nailed my laptop and me. Happy flying all!

Start Your Torches

Here is an outtake from a recent editorial assignment. After the art director left, and I packed the lights up, I wanted to shoot a shot with the available light for myself. I just loved this guy's welding glasses.

Milling Around

I was in Bend a few weekends ago to visit one of my oldest friends whose daughter is only seven weeks older than mine. My daughter Leah is now eleven months old. This shot is of the stacks at the Old Mill District in Bend and was taken early in the morning from our hotel balcony. Leah does not sleep well in her portable crib especially in hotels, and I was up most of the night with her sleeping on my chest while I parked myself on the couch. Not a bad way to spend a sleepless night in my book. It is a wonder that I had the energy to pull out the camera and make a snapshot.

Fishing for Godot

Many who know me, know that I am an avid fly fisherman. Perhaps even obsessed about it. Particularly fishing for steelhead. Well, it has been a busy year, so busy that I missed most of the Winter steelheading opportunities that are so close to Portland. For those that don't know much about our area, we have two rivers very close to Portland, the Clackamas and the Sandy Rivers. So I finally made it out on Monday with my good friend and guide extraordinaire, Matt McCrary and his friend Tom. I have been helping Matt with photography for his new web site. By the way, if you want the best fly fishing experience, call Matt. He is the best. You can find him on the web at Action Anglers, or email me and I will get you in touch with him. By the way, we all use spey rods instead of the typical single handed fly fishing techniques. Matt hooked two fish and lost them both. A usual happening when I bring the cameras with me. Tom, hooked and landed one downriver summer steelhead. It was rather wet on Monday, but a fun day on the river. Oh, yes, I did not touch a fish. They say that steelhead are the fish if a thousand casts when you are trying to get them with a fly rod. Hence the "Fishing for Godot" title. Well, I have about 799 casts to go.

Matt McCrary waiting for a grab from Mr. Steelie.

Tom fights the lone fish landed of the day.

Coffee is a must on a cold and wet day. I hope I never see a Starbucks on the banks of the Sandy River.

Matt wading for Godot.

Matt shows off his newly found ornaments for his Christmas tree this year, courtesy of some negligent gear chuckers (okay, us fly fishermen can be a little elitist about our sport, and that is why we sometimes make fun of gear and bait fishermen. Hey when they leave this kind of crap on the river, they make easy targets).

Standing In and Standing Tall

It has been a rather busy two months, which is good when you are a freelancer. And I would like to honor a few people that were of much help lately by getting their pictures and names onto my blog. The last six weeks went as follows. I drove almost 1,500 miles for a cover story coming out in May for Portland Monthly. While waiting for good weather to do that shoot, I was working on another cover story with Jason Blackheart, the Art Director at Portland Spaces, and I was also juggling scouting for locations and helping to pick talent for a two-day shoot for Nike's Asia Pacific group here in Portland. That was last week. The people you see here are, Jason Blackheart in the kitchen having a yawn (it was a weekend shoot, and I think his kid woke him up early, who knows, but he works hard, and makes sure I don't have silly things in my pictures), assistant, photographer, and close friend, Dale Derry, doing some of his best yoga tricks for treats and applause from the rest of the crew, and Earth Oliver, digital guru and white balancing expert, saving face on the last shot of the day on the Nike shoot about sixty seconds before it started to hail. I think May and April were awesome. Thanks to all the fun people I get to work with.

Fuel for Thought

I know it has been awhile since I have posted. I have been busy shooting for Portland Monthly and Portland Spaces. Coming in May I will have the cover shot for both magazines. A true monthly double. I found this interesting abandoned gas station in Long Beach, WA, while on assignment for Portland Monthly. I asked a local about this abandoned gas station and the religious icons on the huge tanks behind it. They replied, "what religious icons?" Go figure. Anyway, I thought it was worth a frame or two. Hope you all get a little chuckle form this, and I hope I don't offend anyone.

Cheers from the Rose City.

SantaCon 2007 , Portland, OR

Today I followed a few hundred people dressed up as Santa Claus, or various adaptations, during the annual Portland SantaCon. It comprises a bunch of party animals that dress up like Santa, and then hit the bars, and have a lot of fun. This happens in a few of other cities as well. The first picture here is one of the female Santa's having a smoke and a beer at the first bar stop of the day. The next is the Rasta Santa, and the last is a bunch of Santa's filling the bar both inside and out. This event goes on well into the evening and early morning. Happy holidaze all you partying Santa's out there.