Portland, Oregon. 26th December, 2025.
Had the day off yesterday and decided to go on a drive to explore new-to-me places. Saw some bald eagles. I swear two of them separately looked at me directly and then flew away, with what I assumed was a, “city boy with camera 🙄” vibes…
…this little waterfall with a bunch of Fall-en leaves…
…a farmer who said hi, and also, “what a lovely Oregon day!” as I was standing in cold rain and the sky was gray and the temperature was 43°F, but I genuinely agreed with her, because it was true…
…this horse chilling in a field some distance away, and this other one right by the road…
…these birds flying in a nice pattern…
…this viewpoint, where the view was just some trees in a fog so thick my camera app said, and this is no joke, “clean your lens”…
…these mossy trees, and my favorite trestle bridge, although, to be honest, I only really know one…
…yes, it was a good day. Love you Oregon ❤️
Walking on Powell Butte often brings me into a black and white state-of-mind. That’s what happened when I wrote a post about a photo walk there in December.
Last weekend I found myself there again. This time I constrained myself to “black and white photos with the iPhone using Obscura, mostly with the new 4x lens”. I find contraints to be helpful for creativity.
Obscura has become my go-to app for a manual UI for iPhone photography. Like any sophiticated interface with a purpose, it takes some getting used to, but that’s worth it. I thought I would make edits in post-processing, but in the end I didn’t touch the files at all, except one crop.
I’m pretty happy with how this experience turned out, and look forward to similar explorations with Obscura in the future.