A Walk and Swim

Seemingly every photographer on the planet has walked through Manhattan with their camera. I'm no different. I considered not bringing a camera. I was very close to leaving it in the room. I just couldn't do it. I'm glad I didn't. It made me look at things more carefully and linger in spots a little longer. I also took a drive out to the Jersey Shore for no other reason than to say I've swam in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, walks the shores of the Lake Michigan and dipped my toes in the Gulf of Mexico this year.

My Favorite Oregon Duck Football Photos from the 2012-13 Season

I shot every game except Arkansas State, Tennessee Tech and Cal. I traveled with the Ducks to University of Washington, Stanford, Arizona State, and USC. I only shot one Oregon State Beaver game besides the Civil War, which was at Stanford.

My favorite photo came when the Ducks walked through the tunnel at USC for warmups. Another photographer had some green-gelled lights set up and I just happen to have shot a photo at the exact same moment he did. It made the players look like storm-troopers.

I also loved seeing the Ducks beat USC on the road. The USC fans were not pleased.

Overall, it was a great year to be the Ducks beat photographer for The Oregonian.

©The Oregonian/2012

Oregon Duck Football Collage

I've been thinking about doing something like this for a long time and this morning I just went ahead and whipped something out. And since I'll be shooting the Oregon Ducks play the Washington Huskies tonight, I thought made some sense. This is really only a test to see if my technique will work. I think it did but I'd like to have a better reason to put it to use. If it do it again I'll probably get someone to help me with better handwriting. In any event, I think the distressing method worked out pretty well.  

A Seattle Trip

This assignment was to shoot several spots around Seattle including the University of Washington and Bainbridge Island. Pike Place Market was not on my list, but it was nice to go to some places I hadn't been to before. I always love a good ferry ride and it as actually fun to run around shooting seriously for the 40 minutes I had. I was at the Seattle Great Wheel  at the perfect time for make some photos. I got on moments after the sun dropped and by the time I got off it was almost totally dark. Ten minutes earlier would have been awful light and ten minutes later same thing.

©The Oregonian/2012

Video: Curt Carlyle, professional juggler in Portland, Oregon

Rob Finch enlisted me to work on this short demonstration video with juggler Curt Carlyle. He wrote a nice blog post here. We ran four cameras and did a 20-minute interview with him. Curt did a great job and had some impressive moves.

©The Oregonian

Video: Dip-Netting Chinook on the Klickitat River

I spent the evening hanging out at Klickitat Falls watching the Yakama Indians dip net fish. They are true experts at catching fish this way. James Kiona grew up as boy watching his grandfather dip-net salmon at the Celilo Falls and has taught his own son how to dip-net on the Klickitat at Lyle Falls. Even though 60 percent of the chinook have already passed through, the were still catching a lot of fish.  

©The Oregonian

VIDEO: Yakama Tribal Fisherman Rex Zack

Here's the video that goes with this story: http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2012/09/ooodles_of_fall_chinook_savvy.html#incart_river_default

Video: Kids practice their circus skills at Pickathon

Kids practice their circus skills at Pickathon from Thomas Boyd on Vimeo.

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]

Pacific Lamprey Harvesting Underway at Willamette Falls

Native Americans from the Yakima and Warm Springs tribe harvest lamprey eels from the Willamette Falls in Oregon City. This ended up being a very challenging shoot. The rocks were slippery as ice. Normally, there are board installed above the falls to minimize the flow of water. This year, however, this was not the case so it was punishing to be under the falls. The amount of water was overwhelming to both fisherman and photographers.

I was really impressed with the tribal youth that fished. Some of them were doing it for the first time and they were troopers. The jumped in and went for it. I was even a little weary when eels where wrapping around my ankles when I crossed through the pools at the base of the falls. These kids were unflappable and bagged hundreds of fish.

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Olympic Trials iPhone Instagrams

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2012 Olympic Track and Field Team Trials at Hayward Field

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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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