martin Sexton / Ryan Montbleau

One of my rainy Saturday morning activities is looking for new music/artists. Typically I do this on a site called archive.org, a PBS hosted website that allows people to post audio recordings of concerts they attend. I highly recommend this site for anyone that wants to search through a vast archive of live music. About a year ago I found the group “Ryan Montbleau Band”; I really enjoyed their music and I have been readily waiting for a West Coast tour. The problem is they are an East Coast group and from what I could tell played very little on the other side of the States. However, to my surprise I noticed a string of West Coast towns added to the concert list which included a stop in Portland, OR. The only problem is that it was scheduled for the same date as a Martin Sexton concert. Those of you who know me are aware that Martin is one of my two favorite musicians and I rarely miss an opportunity to see him; even if it means flying to Denver to catch a show in Aspen with my brother and his wife. I contemplated which concert I would attend for nearly two weeks before I realized that Ryan Montbleau was the solo opening performance for Martin Sexton! No wonder they were scheduled to play on the same date! That being said, this concert was a “must” for me to attend. As always Martin gave a great concert. The only problem is that more and more people are becoming keen to his amazing talent which has resulted in a crowd that enjoys singing along to his music. In my opinion there’s a place to do this… YOUR CAR. I want to hear the crisp vocals bounce around the old auditorium the way they were intended, not the guy that smokes a pack a day screeching out his version to show his girlfriend he knows the music. Oh and to the lady standing beside me that can’t keep a beat… sober up and try again. Clapping is acceptable as long as you can keep the beat and the performer isn’t singing a song about an alcohol addiction that broke up his family. Strike two for you… Ryan Montbleau put on an astounding performance. I have never heard him without the band and I must say he can clearly perform as a solo act. In fact I was shocked at his ability to play the guitar which would most likely be masked by a full band. He has a butter voice and lyrics that tell unmistakable stories; overall and excellent performer.

 

About the photos: It’s tough to shoot without telephoto, fast glass and a tripod in a dark theater. These shots are far from clear, but it’s about all I could get with my 24-70 2.8. I even set my ISO to 2500 and slightly underexposed the shot. If anyone has a tip for my next concert please let me know. My next lens (135mm 2.0) will perform much better I think.  

 

Hawthorn Bridge

I took this shot of the Hawthorn Bridge the other evening. I went to Water Front Park to get a photo of the fountain but it has three different water cycles that it goes through, one of which is more photogenic than the other two. I sat through two of the cycles and finally got tired of the homeless lady yelling at me so, I snapped this, packed it up and went home. Maybe next time…

Pub Crawl

Don’t you love it when a plan comes together? It’s a notorious line from the 1980’s TV show A-Team. By the way, the movie is currently in post production and scheduled to release in 2009. I was downtown at a meeting a couple of weeks ago and saw an interesting pub that I had never been to. Before you ask, no, it wasn’t an AA meeting. I get into routines and always find myself going back to the same places, so my plan for Saturday was to meet my buddy Hank; go on a pub crawl in downtown Portland and only visit establishments that we have never stepped foot in. As I sit here on Monday Evening I must say… “Mission Accomplished!”

 

Final Stats: 7 bars 7 hours 2.8 miles

 

 

1          Buffalo Wild Wings         (Widmer Brothers IPA)

This was the only stop that I had previously visited, but it was chosen as a meeting spot as Hank was traveling on bike from the Hawthorn District and we needed a place to watch the second half of the Kansas vs Oklahoma football game. By the way, why would you continue to play a USC vs WSU match on 40 of your 50 televisions when USC is currently winning 62-0? I know we have a lot of Southern California transplants in this town but if I wanted to watch an unnecessary beating I would have preferred watching Cops.

 

2.         Kelly’s Olympian            (PBR Draft)

Kelly’s is an older establishment that was clearly a biker bar back in the day. My guess is that it has had some cosmetic work done in the last 5 years because someone obviously wanted to push the biker theme. The best part about Kelly’s was the photos on the wall. Many of them were older photographs of Portland. The head shifting part about Kelly’s though was the two 45 inch plasma televisions simultaneously broadcasting a black and white movie about Nazi occupied Europe. Humm…

 

3.         Tugboat Brewing Co.  (Hop Red)

I have wanted to visit this quaint brewery for a while. It is the second smallest brewery in Portland. I believe the bartender said they have a 4 keg brewing system, so I’m sure their taps change routinely. If you enjoy stouts, porters and the bitterest of hops this is a place you must visit. I sampled the bitterest beer I have ever tasted… maybe the PBR at Kelly’s set me up for that though. The bartender was friendly, however, he did subject us to a nature video in which he removed the soundtrack and replaced it with his own. I’m sure Van Halen didn’t intend on their 1984 hit “Jump” being played to the image of feeding lizards, but who knows. (I’m not joking)

 

4.         Bailey’s Tap Room (Firestone Pale)

Bailey’s is located across the street from Tugboat. This once Thai restaurant is now serving up a variety of Northwest Beers. I will revisit this establishment, the beer selection was awe-inspiring and since many of the taps were currently occupied with seasonal Fresh Hop brews, my guess is that they are changed often. The best part of Bailey’s was the availability of the classic strategic game Connect Four. There’s nothing like two guys attempting to make premeditated moves when they can’t even remember where they’ve been. 

 

5.         JAX (Full Sail Pale Ale)

JAX was selected due to the necessity of a bathroom after the long walk. The other reason was to catch up on all of the sports scores since none of the 3 prior establishments were offering sports programming.

 

6.         Yamhill Street Pub (Tall Boy Busch Can)

This Pub is located right off the Max line, so I have seen it several times. Not much I can say here. I think the photo and the fact that I paid $2.50 for two cans of Busch pretty much sums it up.

 

7.         Momo Bar Maximo (Don’t remember what I drank)

Stay away from 3 word titles when selecting your next dive to enter. If two words can’t adequately explain how much your establishment sucks, thee wont do much either. Maybe Maximo is of Greek origin and means don’t bother…  We ordered our drinks and hid in an over-sized red booth that I’m fairly sure was purchased at fixture auction from a bankrupt Chucky-cheese. Needless-to-say I was glad this was the last stop of the night. The only redeeming attribute was that Momo was located within 10 yards of the closest Max stop.

 

My Wife

This is my favorite photo from the weekend. My wife seems to glow in autumn with her eyes and brown hair. She will tell you she’s a desert rose, but in my opinion she’s the perfect complement for fall.  God made autumn for my Ashley

Hood River

Ashley and I went to Hood River with our friends Riann and Jamon this past weekend. The point of the trip was initially for pumpkins and apples since both are in abundance around the Colombia River Valley; however we ended up visiting two orchards, two wineries and a brewery, so clearly the bearing of the day changed. I don’t feel like I have really made progress in the photography realm as of late. I know it’s my nature, but I feel most of my recent photos are mundane and lack symptoms of progress. As I dialed through my shots on the camera yesterday I was again disappointed. That was until I got home and started to process the photos. I really feel like these photos represent my best processing work to date. I’m really thrilled by the “feel” I think I got out each shot, most of which is not from the frame itself, but by the post processing work.

   

The photo on the right is of a sunflower. While most of the ones at the orchard were on borrowed time they still have an amazing design. I know I’m from the Sunflower State, but I forgot how large the flowers can grow. Ashley is standing under one in the middle photo and it towers over her. I would guess some reached to nearly 6ft when they were in full bloom! The photo on the right is in the style of HDR photography or High Dramatic Range. Basically it’s combining several images that were exposed at different levels to give it a 3 dimensional and saturated look. If you have ever used your point and click camera on a bright sunny day often the sky looks white. That is because your camera is selecting an exposure to properly expose the image you’re pointing the camera at; while the person (or in this case a pumpkin) is properly exposed the sky is blown out. Now imagine taking two photos, one of the sky and one of the objects and combining them; basically that is what HDR imaging is. It is actually more in tune with how our eyes truly see color.  In this photo I only took one photo, however because I shoot in RAW format I am able to tweak my highlights and shadows to create the look. Technical? I swear I won’t do it any more in this post.

 

 

 

 

I noticed these chairs outside of the orchard. My grandparents had two chairs similar to these outside their cabin. I’m sure they are long gone, but I wish we still had them. I guess they just suggest a simpler time to me.

 

The grapes were from Cathedral Ridge Winery. I didn’t sample any wine there since I was eager to get down the road to the brewery, but according to Ashley the Reserve Pinot Noir was good. We also tasted at Pheasant Valley Vineyards; I think the all-around favorite there was the Red Zinfandel

If I had to title this shot of Elli it would be Folsom Prison Blues. She spent a portion of the day locked up in the car as we stopped of at our various destinations. This was taken outside of the brewery as we got some needed and deserved exercise. Don’t feel too bad for her… she just chewed up one of my shoes.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weekend (updated)

 

 

It was a beautiful weekend at the coast in Oregon. My dad and stepmom were in town to visit so we took off for Cannon Beach on Friday. These are the weekends you deeply appreciate as an Oregonian. October is the swing month when it comes to weather. The average temperature on October 1^st is 71 degrees while the average temperature on October 31^st is 58 degrees. I guess it’s a “get it while its hot” mentality in terms of weekend recreation. I love the Cannon Beach area, but I’m ready to travel to the central or southern coast soon. The beaches are rockier and you’re much closer to the crashing surf, which also makes it a better area to go beach combing. That being said, I think Haystack Rock is one of the more amazing formations on the coast. You can click here for my past photos of it.

 

**UPDATED**

 

It kind of sucks posting these photos of our beautiful weekend from last week while it is (and has been) pouring outside.  The rest of these have more of an “abstract” feel to them. Most were taken at the Chinese Gardens in China Town.  The photo of the tree has been turned upside down to really mess with the eye. If you can’t tell from the lily in the bottom of the shot, it’s actually a taken as a reflection in the pond. It’s kind of interesting  that the rocks in the bottom of the pond serve as clouds in the sky too.