#12 - Saint John's

Portland, Oregon. May, 2017.

This is one of the photos I'd been wanting to make for a while. It required specific conditions (fog), so even though I knew I'd eventually get it, I had no idea when this was going to happen.

I was getting ready to spend an evening taking some photos up in Mt Hood. The weather was not the nicest and the rain that just had started falling was causing some terrible traffic conditions, so I decided to bail on that trip. I didn't give up on taking photos though, and I headed to St John's... just in case.

My excitement grew as I was approaching the bridge. The rain was creating some very cool atmosphere, and the river was slowly being wrapped in some dense fog. I parked my car, grabbed my camera bag, tripod and umbrella and walked to the spot I had in mind.

It was not an easy shot. Setting everything up under the rain never is. I was holding the umbrella with one hand while trying to put the filter on place. I had to repeat the process many times since a drop would fall in between the lens and the filter, over and over. All this next to dozens and dozens of cars and trucks.

Eventually everything was in place and ready to shoot. This was a 10-minute long exposure.

It wasn't until I got home and loaded the photo in the computer that I saw the real potential of the shot. I worked on this print for hours, trying to perfect every single detail. I think the final result was worth all the effort.