What’s a sun dog?  That’s the same thing I asked when my girlfriend Christy noticed one outside of Morning Glory Cafe in Eugene, Oregon.  We were in there for breakfast after seeing a concert in town the night before.  When we walked outside, I noticed that everyone outside was staring up at the sun and making lots of “Woah..” sounds.  I looked up and noticed that there was a  beautiful rainbow ring around the sun.  It was just gorgeous.  Since I had all my gear with me, I busted out my camera and started snapping shots.

My original goal was to get a shot of the sun dog over Morning Glory, which by coincidence has a rainbow on its sign.  But as I was trying to get the sun dog to look right in the photos, I realized that the only way to really see the colors of it was to block out the sun.  I went to a light post to test my theory, and as I was there, I heard a voice of a local guy calling out to me in the middle of the intersection.  In the shadow of what essentially is a big tall compass decorated artistically, was a man helping me scout great locations for the sun dog.  I’m not sure if I would have managed to get the shot above without his help.  So thank you mystery assistant!

The Rose Festival is one of Portland’s biggest events.  One of its features are the Dragon Boat Races.  Teams from all over Portland practice rowing in preparation for two days of paddling the dragon boats down the Willamette River from the Marquam Bridge to the Hawthorne Bridge.

This year, I have become friends with several members of the “Show No Mercy Corps.” boat racing team who work (wait for it..) for Mercy Corps.  I was only able to be there for the Saturday races, but it was a blast being able to shoot the races and all the teams.

Also, my good friend Jen who I know from High School came up from Springfield to spend the day with me shooting.  She is a fantastic photographer who shoots entirely on film.  Since I shoot only digital, spending time together shooting gives me a wonderfully fresh perspective.

While waiting between dragon boat races, Jen and I wandered around Portland’s Waterfront Park.  Everywhere we looked there were interesting subjects to shoot.  Jen came up with an incredible gallery of her results.   If you’d like to browse through mine, please click the link below.