I am a Children’s Librarian living in the Portland, Oregon area. When I am not Children’s Librianing I like to play with cameras and film. I also like playing the ukulele, knitting, sketching, and hiking.
Portland is a beautiful city. One of the things that makes Portland beautiful is that it is home to a lot of parks. Fact of the day: Portland Oregon is home to one of the largest parks within a city boundary in the United States. Portland is also home to the smallest park in the world. Cathedral Park is neither of these. It is, however, a wonderfully beautiful park. located under the St. Johns bridge in the hip neighborhood of St. Johns. The footings of the bridge are the highlight of this place and they create the cathedral-like atmosphere the park is known for. You will very often find a photographer shooting here on a nice day.
Another fun fact: The video for one of my favorite songs, “Never Listen To Me” by the Thermals (one of my favorite bands) was shot here. It was one of the last…
A couple of weeks ago I was on a mission. I will talk about this mission in another post, but this mission involved visiting all of the thrift and antique stores in Sandy to find this thing I was looking for. I didn’t find what I was looking for in the thrift stores but I found a lot of other great things. I found lots and lots of old cameras. I resisted temptation for most of it but this one I had to buy. To my credit, I waited an entire day to let it simmer before I went back to the Goodwill to buy this old camera. It is a Keystone Pocketflash 106 and I picked it up for $2.99. I decided I needed it because several months ago I accidentally bought 110 film from Lomography. I thought it might be fun to use it. I bought a film called Lobster Redscale.
I can’t express how giddy it makes me to hold this camera in my hands. I had one very similar to this when I was a kid, it was the camera I cut my teeth on. I took photos of everything with it! It was a blast to play around with this. It even has a flash! I am a happy girl.
The photos are terrible quality, as they always have been with these types of cameras but, still. There are a few from the roll that are passable. These I took at Cathedral Park in Portland, Oregon.
St. John’s BridgePhotographer Under the St. John’s BridgeJourney into the red trees
One of the things that I find endearing about these cameras is that the viewfinder is significantly to the left of the lens and the photo reflects this. All of the photos I took of my family from the Seventies have this quality and it makes me laugh when I see it.
I was reminded* that yesterday and today is Dia De Los Muertos. This is is very interesting because, as you know, I found myself thinking of Gary, the boyfriend who died in a car accident when I lived in New York. It is weird that my mom sent me the photo that was taken the day I found out he died, and also weird that he died around this time of year. His birthday was also the end of October. So he has been on my mind. I feel like I should write about him more, but I don’t even really know where to start.
I remember our first date. It was summer and he took me to a party at a friend’s house. We had the best time together that night, innocent fun! Laughing and joking with each other as we had a few beers from the keg. Alphaville came on the stereo and he remarked that it was his favorite band. I’d never heard of them, so he went to the record player and put on his favorite song, Forever Young.
It kind of gives me chills that THAT particular song was his favorite, since he died two years later. But every once in awhile it will play on my iTunes and it will make me think of him, which is nice.
Along those same lines, this morning as I was walking to work, “A Song For You” played randomly on my iTunes. This song has special meaning to my mom especially, and to me since my mom told me her story about it. I only hear it if comes on randomly so when I hear it I feel like it is Doug, trying to get my attention. It was strange that it played today on my walk, but it was nice to think about my Step-father this morning as well.
I wish that American culture embraced The Day Of The Dead. It is a beautiful holiday and it is a beautiful thing to remember those who have passed over. I am glad I had these moments to think about Gary and Doug. Their stories and their spirit will forever live on.
Today is my Favorite Person’s birthday! I am so glad he was born. He fills my heart and my life with love. Which is good, because all of the overflowing love is spread out to the rest of the world. ‘Cause that’s how love works. He makes my life interesting and I am honored to have him as a partner.
Rafael took this photo with the Holga Pinhole camera while we were on vacation in Seattle. It is another view of this sculpture from the Olympic Sculpture Garden. I saw this photo on my computer this morning and was so stoked that I had to share it with you (with his permission). I think he might be catching the Pinhole Bug, as well!
Blatherskite 