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The Wells Fargo and KOIN Centers in Downtown Portland.

The building at center is the 550' Wells Fargo Center. It is the tallest building in Portland while the building to the left, the "Koin Center" is third at a height of 510'

A stalled building, the Park Avenue West Tower, may or may not make the KOIN the fouth tallest. The lovely new skyscaper is currently scheduled to become the third tallest building in the city but thanks to the struggling economy, the struggling project may be reduced in height to resume work that came to a hault this spring.

amalfitanomichael has added a photo to the pool:

Portland's Hawthorne Bridge in all her glory.

Constructed in 1910, the Hawthorne Bridge is the oldest working vertical lift bridge in America. This year, she celebrates her 100th birthday and one big party is about to be held for her in the next week. The vertical lift portion of the bridge will be raised to transform the bridge into a huge projection screen showing 100 years of Portland history.

Here's what it will look like

As someone who loves this sort-of stuff, there are no words to explain how excited I am for this. The finale of the two week bridge celebration will be brunch on the bridge. Sod is going to be placed on the deck while tables and chairs will be added for a truly unique sunday brunch experience.

This is personally my favorite of the 10 plus bridges crossing the Willamette River in central Portland because it serves my portion of Portland crossing out of the city center.

amalfitanomichael has added a photo to the pool:

The lovely twin glass spires of the Oregon Convention Center illuminate as another perfect Portland summer day comes to an end.

Summers in Oregon are nada by sun, sun and more sun!

The sun was hitting "Big Pink" just right to make her glow. "Big Pink" a.k.a. The US Bancorp Tower is the second tallest building in Portland and Oregon. It was designed to change colors during the day as the sun hits it differently. Its over all pink granite gave it the nickname. She is directly to the right of the right tower of the OCC.

The blue "This is Our Hood" sign at the bottom was such a perfect little addition to this scene. The signs are everywhere in Portland. They feature a bottle of Heny Weinhard's beer that is brewed here in the city and a photo of Mount Hood which is 50 miles east of Portland. At over 11,000 feet in elevation, it is visible from many places in the city proper and the metro area.

Portland has more micro breweries per capita than any other major US city. Next weekend, I'm heading to the World's second largest Brew Festival, right here in the city, on the Tom McCall Waterfront: Oregon Brew Festival

If you love good craft beers, this is the ctiy to be in.

(At the bottom as well is a MAX light rail train. Portland leads the country in Public Transportation. We're highly regarded as THE model for what urban public transportation should be. Many urban planners have used Portland as a model. In the 1950's a massive highway proposal called the "Mount Hood Freeway" was to cut through SE PDX. Citizens of Portland were outraged. The project failed thanks to the grass route movement by Portland citizens who sighted the freeway would only help those in the burbs at the expense of Portland neighborhoods. Watch any documentary about getting rid of highways in the US and adopting light rail and you will always see Portland as the example.)

This effort by Portlanders is often considered the movement that made Portland a wonderful public transportation city. Instead of highways, planners focused on lightrail.

amalfitanomichael has added a photo to the pool:

Mount Hood over Portland. The mountain is actually part of many in the "Pacific Ring of Fire" America's famous Mount Saint Helens' is located 50 miles outside of Portland and was just to my left. It's pretty crazy seeing one of the most famous mountains in the US nearly every day from PDX. Mount Hood is about 90 minutes east of Portland and over 11,000 feet in elevation. Perhaps that helps to say how BIG she is. She's so big, you can see her from many parts of the city, e.g. McCall Waterfront, Powell Blvd, Hawthorne Bridge.

This afternoon I embarked on an epic mission to find a stunning location to photograph Mount Hood. After walking up and down the NW Hills for the bulk of the afternoon, getting one of the best work outs ever and actually shooting the city and mountain from two homes, I came to "THE" stunning house that had an amazing deck over looking the city and the mountain.

In a true Michael Amalfitano fashion -- I knocked on the door and kindly asked to use their deck. The couple have, by far, the best vantage. The gentleman owns a business in Portland and they have 4 children. One of the daughters is a model for Nike. (Don't even get me started as she went into the kitchen and extended me a cute glance.)

As if they were not kind enough to let me use their deck for an hour, they gave me 3 glasses of wine while I shot and talked to them.

We exchanged information and they have informed me I'm welcome back anytime. They plan to spread my name around and gave me some good networks here in Portland. I'm now going to a networking event in the Pearl on Thursday night thanks to these folks. My networking I've done in this wonderful city is paying off. On Friday I'm shooting for one of my favorite nightclubs. They've placed me on the Guest List every week now and are part of a big company here in Metro Portland.

The folks tonight were of the classic kind Portland folks. They may have seriously just really pushed things off for me.

They remaked on how they were positively blown away a 25-year-old who just moved here didn't think twice about knocking on their door to use their deck. One of the greatest things I acquired in my little hometown in Maine was a childhood where I interacted with adults at a very young age and became fearless to chat with anyone, anywhere.

This city is the most friendly of any Major US city I've ever seen. You've already been too good to me, Portland :0)

(I have more imagery that I shot over the course of this afternoon from 4 different locations, including another deck that I was welcomed up onto. But since I'm on tap to be up at 5:00 a.m. PT, I must wait until later. I plan to create a creative slide show of the imagery I produced today from various locations in the NW Hills. Get ready to see it this week)


"THIS IS OUR HOOD !"

amalfitanomichael has added a video to the pool:

(I'm still not sure if it automatically plays in HD. If not, click on the "HD" You're going to be blown away by the quality and clarity as I was. I've heard nothing but amazing things about the video on my camera and I'm wildly impressed!)

I. FINALLY. DID. IT
I turned on the HD Video on my 5D Mark II today.

I know. I know. I've had this new, professional camera for almost one year and have not once used the high quality video component to it.

Thanks to growing bored by still imagery and a couple last few shots that didn't quite come out to any degree as I really wanted, I realized it's time to start shooting video.

Please bare in mind this is my very first. I envision shooting months of video and creating a stunning 10 minute piece of life in the Pacific Northwest.

At 10:45 p.m. Friday, I'll be on a plane bound for the east coast as I am heading back to my hometown in Maine for a little over 3 weeks to visit family, friends, attend a graduation and do some work on my own. This will be my last post from Portland for almost one month. It sort of is also a way for me to be back in the Rose City from 3200 miles away. Portland has become a big part of my life now. And although I'll be back in less than one month, I'm going to miss this charming city many fold.

(Based on the mentioned above and my love for motown, I felt this song fit perfectly.)

amalfitanomichael has added a photo to the pool:

The Hawthorne District in Southeast Portland.

Located about 8 blocks away from my place in SE Portland is Hawthorne Blvd. Hawthorne Blvd. is SE Portland's "People Magnet." Okay ... this shot fails to demonstrate that, but I've desired to shoot the street on a damp evening.

Hawthorne is well known for attracting folks from all walks of life, buskers and a pretty happening night scene.

amalfitanomichael has added a photo to the pool:

Portland's Hawthorne Bridge crossing the Willamette River.

2010 marks the bridge's Centennial Celebration. At 100 years of age, it is the oldest vertical lift bridge still in operation in the United States.

This summer at the PDX Bridge Festival, the bridge will become the centerpiece for a huge projection screen displaying 100 years of Portland history. Here is a video of what it will look like: Hawthorne Centennial Celebration Installation

Typically when national media comes to Portland to do a story on how insane bikes are in this city, they always focus on the Hawthorne Bridge. This is a great video that depicts just how crazy bike traffic is here: Bikes on Hawthorne

amalfitanomichael has added a photo to the pool:

Portland's lovely Union Station on a rainy spring evening. I've desired to shoot Union Station a little closer than my first shot for a few days now but was waiting for an evening with some damp streets to reflect lighting. This building is surprisingly tough to shoot if you endeavor a clean composition without one side of the structure or clock tower looking like they are tipping. I had a heck of a time finding a perspective that gave me the composition I wanted while also picking up the colors of urban lighting without any cars or trees in the way before the sky was too dark for my style. This was the best I could find.

www.amalfitano-photography.com

amalfitanomichael has added a photo to the pool:

Portland from Sellwood. I waited over two hours for a nice glow. Right before I shot this, I thought 120 minutes of waiting was all for nada as the Portland Spirit slowly sailed up the Willamette behind me. Of course the issue was not the boat blocking the shot. It was that due to this being a 30 second exposure, a light streak would have been smack dab in the middle of this photo from the boat's lights.

amalfitanomichael has added a photo to the pool:

Portland's "central artery" with evening traffic at twilight -- the Marquam Bridge and Interstate 5 in Central Portland from OHSU. The Marquam Bridge is the busiest bridge in Oregon, carrying 136,000 vehicles per day through the City of Roses.

www.amalfitano-photography.com

amalfitanomichael has added a photo to the pool:

www.amalfitano-photography.com

amalfitanomichael has added a photo to the pool:

The Marquam Bridge crossing the Willamette River in Portland. The bridge carries Interstate 5 through central Portland. It is the busiest bridge in Oregon. Constructed in the 60's, the Marquam was built with the economy in mind. It's less than appealing design has resulted in debate for years about Portland's own "Big Dig" project to remove over two miles of I-5 and throw it underground.

I'm currently working on photographing Portland's bridges before I fly east for a couple weeks in 1 month for a graduation and to visit my family. The project is for a company in Beaverton who's named their conference rooms after PDX bridges.

Tomorrow's shot, if goes as I have envisioned, should be widely good. It's going to be from a vantage that shows the life of this bridge at rush hour from the other side of the river.

amalfitanomichael has added a photo to the pool:

On Court House Square in Portland is a sign with about 1,547 world cities on it -- pointing in their direction with mileage from Portland. It's interesting out of all of them, my eye first spoted the one for Portland, Maine. Tho I'm not sure if that's by air, because I was pretty certain it was over 3,000 miles from Portland, OR to Portland, ME. And according to this map this sign indeed needs an additional 600 miles added.

Few actually know that Portland, Oregon was named after Portland, Maine. Two men who owned the land the city is on wanted to name the town after their hometown. One was from Boston, the other, Portland. In a 2 out of 3 coin toss, Portland became the namesake.

www.amalfitano-photography.com

amalfitanomichael has added a photo to the pool:

Saint John's Bridge from a secret locale.

www.amalfitano-photography.com

amalfitanomichael has added a photo to the pool:

Evening traffic on 26 entering and leaving City Center. This was the first shot where I had to jump a fence in Portland to achieve the composition I desired. The other first time I scaled and jumped a fence was in Portland, Maine to create the 1st image on my website's homepage. (The tall building at center is the tallest building in PDX -- but about 14 stories shorter than Republic Plaza -- the highest building in Denver.)

I'm sort-of crazy about doing "whatever it takes" to get the shot and jumping a fence tonight didn't raise any blood pressure -- unlike the craziest. The craziest was prob. walking hundreds of feet out past the Burlington Bay breakwater on a melting Lake Champlain to get a nice shot of Burlington, Vermont. I could feel the ice going up and down and a huge crack formed between me and my tri-pod as I waited an hour for the light on that shot.

Lake Champlain is the largest mountain lake in the US and the 6th largest after the 5 Great Lakes.

www.amalfitano-photography.com

amalfitanomichael has added a photo to the pool:

City Center across the Willamette River from Morrison. The last week has been amazing in Portland -- abundant sun with high's in the 60's. The grass is growing, people are mowing their lawns, trees are poppin' and flowers are in bloom.

Of course this shot fails to demonstrate that.

I'm currently eyeing a shot near the Steel Bridge to demonstrate just how lovely it is in Portland currently. (I'm originally from the east -- and to narrow it, Northern New England. I moved to Portland in February after a few months in Colorado. I was amazingly surprised how Feb. in PDX is like early May back in Maine and Vermont)

This one is a tough exposure due to getting enough light on the ramp without over exposing the back ground. It's still a little under-illuminated in my opinion.