Portland Bridges

Portland has some of the best bridges in the world.  Here’s some of the pictures I’ve taken of them over the years.

©2009 Gary L. Quay

Another shot of my favorite Bridge in Portland. This one was taken from Tom McCall Waterfront Park near Riverplace. Of all of Portland’s bridges, Hawthorne is lit up the best at night.

Camera: Calumet 45,
Lens: 150 Fujinon,
Film: Arista.edu 100

©2006 Gary L. Quay

The St johns Bridge has become one of my favorite subjects since I “discovered” it about 20 years ago. Who’d have thunk that someone would put a bridge like that by that sleepy section of Portland. But, it was the Great Depression, and folks needed to work. As a result, we have one of the world’s most beautiful bridges,

Camera: Hasselblad 500 CM
Lens 55mm Carl Zeiss
Film: Fuji Pro 160S

©2010 Gary L. Quay

This is the Saint Johns Bridge in the fall from about a decade ago, showing off its cathedral arches surrounded by autumn splendor.

Camera: Sinar Alpina 4×5
Lens: 90mm Nikkor
Film: Kodak Portra 160 VC

©2006 Gary L. Quay

My first Lith Print. I experimented with lith printing for a short time when I first had a darkroom 15 or so years ago. I liked the look, but I found the process to not be exact enough. The results are not repeatable. I got good results out of this one, though.

Camera: Minolta XG-1
Lens: 50mm Minolta MD
Film: Konica Infrared.
Paper: Foma Bromide FB developed in Maco SuperLith and selenium toned for 5 minutes.

©2011 Gary L. Quay

Every time I got ready to take the shot, the sun poked out from behind the bridge, and I had to move the camera again, and reframe the image.  This is why I call this one “Fleeing the Sun.”  Large format is a time-consuming proposition.

Camera: Sinar Alpina 4×5.
Film: 150mm Fujinon with a red filter.
Film: Arista.edu 100 developed in Kodak Xtol.

©2009 Gary L. Quay

From my series of St Johns Bridge images. This one was taken in late October with the bridge backlit in the late afternoon.

Camera: Deardorff 8×10
Lens: 12″ Kodak Ektar
Film: Adox CHS 100 developed in PMK Pyro.

©1999 Gary L. Quay

This is the Hawthorne Bridge in Portland, Oregon, as seen from Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

Camera: Hasslblad 500 CM
Lens: 80mm Zeiss Planar
Film: Fujichrome Velvia

©2012 Gary L. Quay

Another picture of the Saint Johns Bridge.  This time it’s with a remarkable lens.  It’s a 760mm SK Grimes lens.  I call it “SK Grimes” because it’s the only name on it.  SK Grimes is a machine shop in Woonsocket, Rhode Island that specializes in helping photographers mount their strange optics into shutters (among other photographic necessities), and they built the barrel for this lens and mounted it in a shutter.  The optics are reportedly from a Nikon copy lens.  Jake, the owner of Blue Moon Camera in Saint Johns, told me that I was likely the first person in 40 years to photograph the bridge on 8×10 with a lens with a focal length that long.  I like that.

Camera: Kodak Commercial Studio 8×10.
Lens: 760mm SK Grimes.
Film: Ilford Ortho + developed in Kodak HC-110.

I will add more in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

Thanks for looking.