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Over the Sandy River Valley

©2000 Gary L. Quay

 

Uploaded a sharper version 7/6/21. The description below is from 2009.

 

Being the parent tends to limit one's ability to get out on foggy mornings like this particular one back in 2000. I used to pack up the car with my Hasselblad and head to the Columbia Gorge, the Sandy River Valley, Mount Hood, or whatever location floated my fancy or didn't stretch my gas budget too thin. I don't catch many sunrises anymore. Not with my camera, at least. Maybe in a few years, when I can get off of the Graveyard shift at work, and when the teenager is sent safely off to college, that will change. For now, I'm reliving the past.

 

It was an early Fall morning, and I drove my Geo Metro off into the fog. I headed for the Sandy River Valley, a place that I was newly discovering at the time. The vistas are breathtaking. Parking near them is a problem. Even a Geo Metro won't hover in thin air, or park vertically on a cliff while I set up my tripod. Oncoming traffic can be an issue as well. Usually, I'm not in the mood for a long hike, due to limited time, and the fleeting nature of sunrises, so I try to park as close as I can to my subject as I can. I'm not very good at getting up a 3:00 AM to be in place to catch the first rays of the sun, either. I usually am frantically setting everything up as the clouds are turning purple, or orange. I wasn't too worried about that on this particular morning. The fog had rolled in, as fog is wont to do on Fall mornings, and I had plenty of time to set up. I was actually hoping that the fog would just get up and move on, maybe to Troutdale or Gresham, or maybe even SE Portland, where it could hide some of the graffiti, because behind the fog was a beautiful valley of golden trees, pastures and ridgeline known as the "devil's backbone." It's not what I would have called it, but I wasn't an early settler to the area. The fog wasn't budging, though. I took a few pictures, and headed back to get ready for work. The results are quite Zen.

 

Camera: Hasselblad 500 CM

Lens: 80mm Carl Zeiss

Film: Ilford PanF 50

 

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Uploaded on July 7, 2021
Taken on November 15, 2000