Note: The embedded links in the following text will not be visible or active in the Flickr iOS or Android apps, but they should be in a web browser.

 

Links to Public Collections:

2010-Present: Portland Metro Themes & Districts

2010-Present: Walks, Hikes & Trips by Year (reverse-chronological order)

2011–Present: Walks, Hikes & Trips by Date (reverse-chronological order)

1980-1992: Climbs, Treks & Hikes in Alaska, Montana, Oregon, Washington (chronological order)

1960s-Present: Public Family Photos (reverse-chronological order - some overlap with other collections)

 

11/25/2025 - WalksInPortland Photoblog: After 15 years, thousands of miles, and roughly 40,000 photos, I closed and archived my photoblog. Consequently, many pnwphotowalks.com references to the former photoblog pages are currently non-functional. About 13,000 photos are still here, and I may trickle out more over time.

 

10/1/2025 & 6/1/2025 - 50 Plus Magazine article, New Adventures Ahead: I was honored to be featured in this Wandering Spirit story. Thanks, Jennifer and Brian. I enjoyed our time together! The article also marked the end of my 15-year journey on foot showcasing Portland. It feels like the right time for new adventures: spending more time with family and friends, traveling in the U.S. and abroad, cycling, power walk training, woodworking, fixing up our old house, and exploring new photography genres.

 

8/1/2025 – Collages, Flickr Engagement, Social Media: I’ve stopped posting to my photoblog, but I still explore Portland on foot occasionally. I now share collages instead of individual photos when many scenes repeat from earlier walks. At times, I set “Date Uploaded” to “Date Created” in my Lightroom Classic publisher plugin (Jeffrey Friedl’s), so my posts may not always appear in your feed if you check Flickr frequently. Finally, I’m limiting my engagement on Flickr for personal and professional reasons. See Flickr Following, Flickr Groups, and Social Media below.

 

7/1/2025 - Portland Metro Guide: I’m creating this large album of past and present photos for metro residents and family and friends visiting Portland. See the album description for more details.

 

7/31/2024 - PDXToday article: In this article Q+A: Take a walk in a Portland photoblogger’s shoes, I shared what inspired me to start photoblogging and the message I hoped to convey to those outside the Portland metro area. Simply put, I wanted to challenge the “Portland is dying!” narrative.

 

My Flickr Timeline: I've been an enthusiastic amateur photographer since 1978 and a Flickr Pro member since 2009. I rebooted my public Flickr account in 2019 and slowly rebuilt some of its collections. I also maintain a private Flickr account for family-related photos.

 

More About: I was born in Anchorage, Alaska, and spent my youth and years as a young adult living in rural and urban areas in Alaska. Alaska was and will always be a special place to me. I enjoy returning to visit family and friends. Aside from a one-year job assignment in Louisiana, I’ve now lived in Oregon for over 40 years.

 

Photography Genres: As an introvert, I’ve found that photography is one way for me to communicate what I "see" and think. I haven't specialized in a particular genre, but I'd like to learn about a few in depth. Nature, macro, B&W, abstract, and still-life photography are all interesting to me.

 

Photography Themes: Family, travel, outdoor adventures, Portland, quirky (Portlandia), architecture, housing, urban planning, and active and public transportation have been my favorite themes since 1978.

 

Flickr Following: I appreciate sincere engagement in life, and I like to follow people on Flickr of like mind. I don’t follow people if I learn they’re using scripts or bots to generate engagement through automated favorites or comments. I think this practice is disingenuous and cheapens our experience on Flickr.

 

Flickr Groups: In June 2024, I removed myself and my photos from the Flickr groups I was posting to. Unfortunately, I think many groups have outlived their original purpose. After I started rebuilding my collections in 2019, I found groups are frequently not moderated, there are very few discussions, and it seems many “award” groups exist to primarily support automated engagement. At a later date, it's possible that I'll join some groups again if they’re active and moderated.

 

Flickr Favorites & Explore: My favorites span many photography genres, from traditional fine art to human interest subjects. Beyond Explore, I hope Flickr never employs social media engagement algorithms.

 

Social Media: In 2019, after years on platforms like CompuServe, AOL, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, I chose to pull the plug and limit my social media engagement. That decision grew out of my IT career in data warehousing and metadata management, my University of Oregon graduate studies in applied information management, and concerns about emotional manipulation, surveillance capitalism, media bias, and social media addiction, especially among youth.

 

Privacy Matters: I strive to respect people’s privacy. In my public photos, I rarely tag individuals or use precise geotags. For general orientation, I tag Portland metro photos as ‘metro eastside’ or ‘metro westside’ to indicate which side of the Willamette River I was on. Finally, if you see a photo here that you’d like me to remove, please let me know.

 

Donations, Downloads: I don't sell my photos, but I'm happy to donate them to organizations, individuals, and companies upon request. If you see any images you'd like to use, I offer them free of charge with a simple credit. If you're interested in a photo that only appears in a collage, just let me know, and I can provide temporary access to the Lightroom album. The original files will likely be in either a 3:2 or 4:3 aspect ratio.

 

DCMA Takedowns, CC Licensing, Generative AI: I use Pixy to monitor inappropriate usage and issue DCMA takedowns. From 2009 to 2022, I applied a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND license to my photos on Flickr and my site. However, with the advent of generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications and lack of copyright enforcement, in mid-2022 I decided to apply an “All Rights Reserved” copyright to a large portion of my photos. Although it was likely too late, I wanted to discourage for-profit companies from using my content to train their AI models. I’ve been following AI since I completed my first AI computer science course in the early 1980s.

 

Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Stock Images: I frequently reference Wikipedia entries in my photos. I strip the internal references from the verbiage I copy and paste, so I include a link back to the original entry. Unfortunately, the URL references to many of my photos in earlier years were converted from HTML to plain text, so I need to find and fix those. At a later date, I might contribute many of my Portland photos to Wikimedia Commons.

 

Contact: You can contact me via Flickr Mail or mark [at] walksinportland [dot] com.

 

Thanks, Mark McClure

 

Last updated: 12/16/2025