Driving Distance Photography: Portland, Oregon as an Object-Lesson
Anyone with a full-time job knows it can be pretty hard to get through a travel checklist. Those few weeks of vacation every year are likely to be spent on a 1-2 week family jaunt, with anything left over going to housework or the odd three-day weekend.
I have always found that one of the best ways to get the most photographic variety out of a long weekend city trip is to rent a car and head out of town to the nearest nature-focused destination. This will provide a strong contrast to the urban nature of the rest of your weekend, and take advantage of the fact that nearly any major city in the USA – including New York and Los Angeles – is within a reasonable day-trip distance of some pretty beautiful scenery.
In the case of Portland, Oregon, you can get that scenery right from a park in the city itself. But for a quick drive, you can get a whole lot more.
Portland is a great city, chock-full of interesting (or rather, loony) people and surrounded by superb sights. In fact, you can stay in town and make use of resources like Washington Park (above) or the Lan Su Chinese Garden (below) to get enjoyable photographs without ever renting a car.
But for nothing more than a half-hour drive east, you can spend some quality time photographing and hiking around the spectacular Multnomah Falls, which plummet more than 600 feet in two courses, allowing you to stand on a footbridge at the base of the first course and directly over the second course, capturing the feeling of the falls bursting out directly beneath your feet.
Needless to say, this footbridge is an ideal place for cooling off from summer temperatures and perhaps a little light protection for your camera. But the twisting angle of the path gives you lots of opportunities to capture the falls from different heights and positions, and provides a pretty easy hiking trail for those looking for a nice, short hike.
Naturally, I have some images from the falls that I edited in some way or another. That said, if you get your light right at the falls, things will pretty much work out where you won’t have to edit too much. Keep in mind that the thick, well-watered trees do a lot to block out excess sunlight, so you may want to keep this in mind for overall photography lightness purposes.
And if you don’t feel like stopping in and checking out the falls, you also have the option of driving towards Mount Hood, or onwards towards other mountains (the drive to Bend takes 3-4 hours and is pretty awesome). At the very least, the car is worth it so you can step outside the city and get yourself a nice moment of quiet reflection in the middle of nowhere. It will be a nice change from the tofu downtown.
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I especially like the shot of the water looking down from the footbridge, and the black and white.
We’re fortunate to be surrounded by nature at home, even with NYC visible from our street, and have snapped some great pix from our top-floor balcony. My favorite — unlikely but true — is of a red-tailed hawk who perched on our balcony railing long enough for my partner to get a photo of it.
Thanks for reading, Caitlin. I live about 45 minutes from NYC and people routinely disbelieve the amount of wild animals we have out here. I love living in an area where there is such ready access to urban and rural environments.
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It’s a great combination, and one that amazes me. We have wild turkeys, coyotes and many red-tailed hawks, deer, raccoons, slkunks. As I type this all I hear is a chorus of birds.
Michael,
Thank you for covering some nice point of one of my favorite cities. I lived in Portland for four years, as it was growing into what it is today–a mecca for food and affordable, high quality of life living. Multnomah falls is wonderful. But there is also the amazing Mount Hood and Three Sisters and Crater lake. Don’t forget the scenery in Eastern Oregon also, the Alps of Oregon.
Entirely agreed. Portland is definitely one of those cities (San Francisco is another) on the West Coast where you are spoiled for choice for the number of amazing sights within a day-trip drive. You can add Cannon Beach and plenty of other things as well. It’s a very fun area to visit and explore.
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