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During the dot-com boom I had a job as a travel photographer for an ill-fated company that wanted to create virtual tours of the entire world.  As I would travel around creating images and panoramic photos for the web, people would ask me “how does this company make money?” The questions would always make me laugh.  Of course I wasn’t laughing when the venture capital abruptly dried up and i was left without a job (or several owed paychecks) right before Christmas of the year 2000.  So desperate was I to find work taking pictures that I got a temp job photographing kids on Santa’s lap at the Lloyd Center Mall.  As you can see I had a real knack for bringing the best out of my subjects.

It’s hard to believe that was almost a decade ago.  My life has changed so much over the past nine years; I’ve gotten married, become a father and grown a business of my own. 

Over the past two day, there has been a strange, thick fog covering Portland.  It’s given a bit of a magical appearance to the city, especially at night.

Last weekend was the Cathedral Park Jazz Fest.  It’s one of the few times in the year that people from all over the area travel to St. Johns. 

Last month I photograph a nine-year-old boy with autism who is also something of a musical prodigy.  His caregiver, Shane de Leon, seen above has become part of his musical act as well as his record producer.  Their band is called Road Race and they are having a CD release party at Back Space in NW Portland.  You can read the whole story at The Portland Sentinel website site.

Saturday was Independence Day.  Before our daughter Anika was born, my wife Summer and I used to go to a side-street in a neighborhood to watch the fireworks over the Columbia River.  On the Washington side, Ft. Vancouver played host to the largest fireworks display west of the Mississippi.  The place Summer and I had found afforded a great view of the spectacle while avoiding the crowds across the river.  This year we thought Anika was finally old enough to stay out late and see a fireworks show.  She was very excited about it.  My parents drove up from West Linn to join us.

We drove out and found a nice patch of grass next to the yacht club where we had a great view of Ft. Vancouver location.  As we waited for the twilight to wain, I noticed that there was no barge on the river.  Usually the fireworks were set off from a barge.  As time passed we could see distant firework displays going off all along the Columbia shore—but still there was no barge in front of Ft. Vancouver. 

Finally, I pulled out my Blackberry and Googled Ft. Vancouver Fireworks.  “Due to a lack of funds the 4th of July Fireworks Show has been canceled for 2009” came back in first listed response.  I guess I should have looked it up before I took my whole family out to the edge of the river—but it never occurred to me that such an iconic Northwest celebration would fall victim to the recession.  Still, the weather was warm and pleasant with a cool breeze coming off the water and the other people gathered at our location were providing their own fireworks—though on a smaller scale. 

Here in Portland we are having our first heat-wave of the summer.  It’s been in the 90’s for the past several days.  The current the weather makes it hard to believe that it was just a week ago that Anika was playing in the snow on the continental divide in Glacier Park.