Halle’s Smooooth Words o’ Wisdom

Must go up…

To get down…

Old School:

New school:

This is an outtake from a bon bon story yours truly shot for Powder Magazine last spring. Thank you Dave Reddick. Not all photographers might consider this a bon bon. Me? Hell yes! I would have done the trip regardless of the assignment. Hence ‘bon bon’, a term I learned from a German DP working on a job for Addidas a few years ago.

Our goal here was a 4-day traverse of the Eagle Cap Wilderness, aka the Wallowas*, in northeastern Oregon from Halfway to Joseph. We succeeded although a tad more quickly than planned. Spring conditions were expected but, as often happens in the mountains, we got spanked. We had no chance to skin laps in the sun and position athletes with radios let alone dry our drawers, boot liners or sleeping bags. ‘My kingdom for a synthetic fill bag,’ was an unspoken refrain by night two.

I don’t recommend this trip when ma nature swings her paddle. Still we managed, had a ton of fun and only one in five came down with the nasty foot predicament.

*Wallowa is a Nez Perce word “used to describe a structure of stakes set in a triangle used to support a network of sticks called lacallas, for catching fish.” -Oregon Geographic Names by Lewis A. McArthur & Lewis L. McArthur

This is picture that I shot for the January issue of Oregon Business Magazine on Portland’s Willamette River and the river’s Superfund status. It’s a dirty ‘ol river and I was happy to have been handed the assignment. Art Director Martin Gee said that my being ‘outdoorsy’ had something to do with his decision. I’ve had women end the relationship for the same reason! Pictured here is North Portland’s Schnitzer Steel Yard. This was a fun story to work on that took me to a lot of local places I’d never been. It’s funny how you can learn so much about a place you live when you just take the time to look around slowly and patiently. Fortunately this assignment afforded me the time to be patient.

For one day this season we were ok with El Niño. Superbowl Sunday. Chris and I had a surprisingly good day skiing der Hood. We ditched the car in Govy, stuck out our thumbs and the first car up Timberline Rd. obliged. The clouds lifted and the snow up high was as good as Hood snow gets.

We met this local lady in Tygh Valley New Year’s eve day. This is the only photograph that survived the day. The reason? I uploaded it from my phone via a Flickr Tweet. The rest of the photos and my phone rest at the bottom of a pond. The reason? New Year’s Day my dog Jane fell through a crack in the ice and the phone was lost to the pond during her rescue. Jane made it as did I. The phone didn’t and won’t be fetched from the pond until spring. We are lucky. Phones are replaceable. Good ‘ol dogs aren’t.

…but often, those are the days that are most fun to work outside.

Big thanks to the Miller family for being game and for the Multnomah Falls café au lait.

Saw this after breakfast last weekend.

Darlene cuts my hair. Shaves my head is more like it. Seven bucks a whack. I give her a 10 and she keeps the change. She’s been around Portland awhile and each time she whacks me(my hair!) I am reminded of a bygone era. An era that’s fading fast. We have a shoot scheduled for December which is part of a project titled Voices of Et Cetera. I’m really, really looking forward to it.

Claudia and I experienced a banner day picking today. Chanterelles are more pleasant and are easier to clean when dry!