The Vagabond Opera performs at the Mt. Tabor Park Caldera Amphitheater

The Vagabond Opera performs at the Mt. Tabor Park Caldera Amphitheater, in Portland, Ore., on Tue., Jul. 17, 2012. The concert was part of an ongoing series of free concerts produced by the Portland Parks and Recreation department. The was the second concert of the season. There are free concerts seven days a week at different parks around Portland through Aug. 30. [gallery]

Prefontaine Classic, 2012

Track season started for me at the Pre Classic in Eugene this weekend. The Pre is a great meet in that it's televised and only lasts a few hours. The downside is that it's impossible to for one photographer to shoot every event. I missed a ton of great moments because I was stuck on the finish line. It was a nice primer for covering the Olympic Trials coming up on June 21.

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ESPN Assignment Published in May 28, 2012 Issue Now on Stands

I was assigned to shoot the Seattle Sounders game with photographers Rod Mar and Bruce Ely. We covered a game from start to finish. Rod started out with a fan getting is massive mohawk setup and had inside access to the locker room and behind-the-scenes of the entire process. I covered the Emerald City Supporters from the time they had breakfast at the Fuel Bar until they wrapped up their day at Temple Biliards. They ran two of my photos in the magazine. Here's a link to the story by Doug McIntyre and the online gallery.

Latourell Falls

When I arrived the light was perfect. I was streaming down through the trees and it was raining and the mist from the Latourell Falls filled the air. By the time I set up my tripod, it over. I settled in and waited for the light. It came but there were no people. Some people showed up and light left. I gave up and started to retract the legs of my tripod. The light broke through and four people appeared. I quickly got the legs back out and started shooting. This is what I saw.

Nye Beach, Oregon

I was dispatched to Newport's Nye Beach to for a travel story on the Sylvia Hotel. Here's a link to Lori Tobias' story: http://www.oregonlive.com/travel/index.ssf/2012/03/sylvia_beach_hotel_easy_to_get.html And here's my take:

My Favorite Pictures from the University of Oregon Ducks Regular Season

I went through all the games I shot this year, including the Pac-12 Championship and found 79 images I thought stood out as either an important moment in the season, or a photo I like for being a little different and surprising.[gallery]

Pickathon 2011

This is my third year shooting Pickathon. I love the energy at this thing and better yet, it's only about a half mile from my house. I ride my motorcycle down there shoot, and hear some every special music. It's now a summer tradition for me. http://thomasrboyd.smugmug.com/Portfolio/Pickathon-2011/i-qZ2hHxv/0/L/pickathontbMG1401-L.jpg http://thomasrboyd.smugmug.com/Portfolio/Pickathon-2011/i-Vn94vsD/0/L/pickathontbB1C1180-L.jpg http://thomasrboyd.smugmug.com/Portfolio/Pickathon-2011/i-gmHkNGM/0/L/pickathontbMG1103-L.jpg http://thomasrboyd.smugmug.com/Portfolio/Pickathon-2011/i-RcHdH5X/0/L/pickathontbB1C1192-L.jpg http://thomasrboyd.smugmug.com/Portfolio/Pickathon-2011/i-2sNnW6B/0/L/pickathontbMG1137-L.jpg http://thomasrboyd.smugmug.com/Portfolio/Pickathon-2011/i-jfgK6pR/0/L/pickathontbMG1176-L.jpg http://thomasrboyd.smugmug.com/Portfolio/Pickathon-2011/i-B8CrmH3/0/L/pickathontbMG1255-L.jpg http://thomasrboyd.smugmug.com/Portfolio/Pickathon-2011/i-7dfVKBh/0/L/pickathontbMG1333-L.jpg http://thomasrboyd.smugmug.com/Portfolio/Pickathon-2011/i-Z5kxs3B/0/L/pickathontbMG1577-L.jpg http://thomasrboyd.smugmug.com/Portfolio/Pickathon-2011/i-wJbs6vr/0/L/pickathontbMG1678-L.jpg http://thomasrboyd.smugmug.com/Portfolio/Pickathon-2011/i-TMJjk9h/0/L/pickathontbMG1791-L.jpg http://thomasrboyd.smugmug.com/Portfolio/Pickathon-2011/i-CVmJ3FM/0/L/pickathontbMG1859-L.jpg http://thomasrboyd.smugmug.com/Portfolio/Pickathon-2011/i-fLChHpm/0/L/pickathontbMG1898-L.jpg http://thomasrboyd.smugmug.com/Portfolio/Pickathon-2011/i-MqdGFR3/0/L/pickathontbMG1913-L.jpg

Afternoon of Games

My son Cole and I headed out not knowing exactly what we wanted to do and we ended up at Milwaukie Bowl. This place hasn't been updated since the day it was built. It's a total blast from the past...and that's the way I like it.  

It reminded me the way it was when I went with my grandparents on bowling night at North Bend Lanes in the 1970's when the smoke was so thick you could hardly see the pins. Of course, the air in Milwaukie Bowl is as clean as an operating room these days. Other than the Monster drink cooler there aren't many clues that say it's 2011.

From there we went to the nickel arcades and blew some money. Here are a few snaps from my iPhone using the Hipstamatic app.

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One of my photos is in Sport's Illustrated magazine's Best of Photojournalism photo editing win

Sports Illustrated photo editor Jim Colton submitted one of my photos that ran in the Leading Off section of the magazine to the Best of Photojournalism competition. The category was Photo Editing for Magazine Recurring Feature or Series. He won second place behind National Geographic Magazine. My photo of a high school shot putter was one of 13 images submitted from the year. SI usually runs three Leading Off images per issue. With 52 issues he had about 523 images to choose from for this entry.

Top 25 of 2010

I somehow decided that these 25 images out of the over 95,000 that I shot during the 315 assignments this year are the ones that stuck. In some cases, I was attracted to them because they broke new ground for me creatively. In other cases, I just like the content, or the image resonated on purely artistic level. Looking back, 2010 was a year heavy on sports, travel and music assignments. In end, these images say something about what I've seen, where I've been, and how I see it. I also have a small sense of pride that all but two of these 25 images was shot in my home state of Oregon. The cowboy boots was shot in New York City somewhere in Midtown and the guy with the net was shot on a beach in Louisiana during the BP Gulf oil spill.

Oregon v. Arizona

This Oregon victory sealed the Pac-10 Championship and a guaranteed trip to the Rose Bowl, but that would be a let down if they don't go to the National Championship. Here's a few of my favorite images:

Assignment: Basketball Player Emony Foreman

I had a chance to photograph Jefferson High School basketball player Emony Foreman for an international athletic shoe and apparel company. It was really refreshing to have full access, willing subjects, and an assistant.

Happy Hollyweird!

I spent a couple hours poking around Hollywood Blvd. Friday night. There were a number of huge halloween parties advertised so I thought I go down and do some night time street shooting. This is what I saw:

Portland Fashion Week, 2010

I spent a few hours on the first two nights documenting the scene at the Vigor Industrial Shipyards on Swan Island, in Portland, Ore. There was some awesome creative energy there not only from the designers and models but the other photographers as well. It was really interesting to see how a runway show comes together.

iPhone Snaps, 2010

A fellow pro photog is curating a gallery show of iPhone images and asked me to submit some photos. The only rule is that they show "Portland". This is what I'm going to submit. [smugmug url="http://thomasrboyd.smugmug.com/hack/feed.mg?Type=gallery&Data=14094605_yD85B&format=rss200" title="iPhone%20Snaps" description="2010" imagecount="100" start="1" num="100" thumbsize="Th" link="smugmug" captions="false" sort="true" window="false" smugmug="false" size="X3"]

Haley's Senior Portrait

In the last 20 years I've shot exactly two senior portraits. In both cases they were children of my first cousins. The first time was my cousin Donna's daughter Ashley. That was probably four years ago. Then a few weeks ago my cousin Ronda called. Her daughter Haley needed senior portraits. This would be the first time I met Haley. What a sweet kid! Senior portraits are kind of an unknown genre of photography for me. I don't know how to do the standard poses. This is probably a good thing because I think most of what I see out there I think looks stupid. I absolutely hate the classic senior girls pose that shows the girl on her stomach in the grass with her feet in the air and her chin cupped in hands. I won't do that.

But, I almost wish I knew some of the other poses because looking at the photos, I probably had too many with her hands on her hips. But, I thought she looked good like that. That comes from me only working to have one to three different images from an editorial shoot.

Here's a few of my favorites from the take.

Oregon State v. Arizona State, Oct. 2, 2010

I shot the Oregon State v. Arizona game. It started at 3:30 and the light was really difficult to deal with. But with difficult light comes opportunity. After the sun went down the sky was absolutely beautiful. There were some cloud formations I've never seen before. Here's a few snaps:

B.J. The Clown, Portland, Ore.

I followed B.J. The Clown around town for a day. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. It's really great to see kids squeal with delight. It's joyful and just plain fun. I addition to the still photos I'm posting here, I also shot a video.

B.J. The Clown makes hard work look like kids stuff