B&W Portland

The other day I had to go to the lab to get some film developed and I decided to just do the 4 miles by foot and bring a camera with me. The weather was great and I got a few B&W shots of Portland I like. All the pictures were shot on my Zeiss Super Ikonta III from the fifties with medium format rolls of Kodak Tri-X. Most of my path was on the waterfront so you'll see quite a few bridges in these pictures.
In the afternoon, there is a guy sitting by the stop sign at the entrance of the Hawthorn bridge. He's cool, a bit weird but does a good job at entertaining the long line of cars slowly passing by.


The bridge has a central part which is 2 ways, 2 side parts that are 1 way and 2 sidewalks with markings for a bike lane and a pedestrian lane. It's interesting to see that cars actually just drive on a metallic grid and you can see the water bellow under the "road". Kind of creepy (and slippery as well). The central part of the bridge lifts between the 2 towers, kind of like an elevator, to let tall boats pass. There's a guy that is sitting there all day, waiting for big boats to horn. I've seen it up only twice, but there is probably 1 or 2 boats a day :). When it happens the entertainer gets a lot of work as the line grows: operation of the bridge is really slooow.


There's a pedestrian path on both banks of the Willamette in the downtown section, with drinkable water fountains. Lots of people walk around there, or run, bike. It's a very live and enjoyable area.


More B&W Portland pictures here.