PDX Squared 2018 - Photography Competition in Portland, Oregon
On the evening of May 18th, 2018, PDX Squared was off to another round.
This is a yearly photography competition /slash/ scavenger hunt where 72 participants are randomly assigned areas of downtown Portland, Oregon, to shoot and explore. We get 24 hours to photograph their area, and live judging takes place at the end of the 24 hour time frame.
The number I picked out of the hat placed me in North Portland, with Northgate Park all to myself.
Off I went to explore the area with all my camera gear, lenses, tripod, speedlights, lightstands, strobes and softboxes in hand, ready for any surprises that I may capture. Being lucky enough to get a park all to myself, I decided to focus on my strong suit - nature photography.
I explored the neighborhood, gardens, and flowers around houses, walking a fine line between exploration and being creepy.
I stopped to smell the flowers.
I also stopped to see the inhabitants and the living life in the neighborhood.
As the evening dawned on me, I decided to go back home and get some rest.
Before drifting over to sleep, I took the chance to take some selfies and drool over the $1,600 lens I had borrowed - a Panasonic Leica 42.5mm f1.2, with some test shots in my small studio.
The next morning I woke up early to investigate what seemed to be a peculiar house - as seen from Google Maps. There appeared to be dozens of circles, or umbrellas around the front and backyards!
After walking a fine line between being a creep and a quasi-detective, I found out the house belonged to a nice gentleman with a passion for roses. There were hundreds of varieties of roses to explore.
He was kind enough to allow me to linger on, and this is where I spent the rest of the day, hours before submissions were due.
In the end, hard work paid off.
Although I didn't win any of the main categories, I was honored to receive an Honorable Mention award for Creative use of Focus in the image below -
