Portfolio Werk

As I contemplate my portfolio, I talked to Steve about photos to place in it, and in doing so I've realized just how much I've been focusing (literally) on only Trains. There's nothing really wrong with this; it's where my bread and butter, where my income, has been coming from of late. So it's fit that my portfolio reflect my interests, specialties, and sources of publication. But I don't want to get stuck only in trains as a subject. In fact, that's one of the reasons that transit appealed to me as a subject; it has more people, more life; transit runs through cities, and as such interacts with modern culture in a way that a traditional railroad doesn't nearly anymore. Railroading like I practice in C-Town is an anachronism; it's more dead than alive in many ways. Of course, that's part of the challenge... to find life in what many dismiss as an interactive museum display.

But to get back to my point, I've realized, with Steve's help, that I need to widen my portfolio in the other fields that I might want to work in, as well as other fields purely for artistic range. I've also come to realize that snapshooting, carpetbagging, and running on instinct have limits; focusing on a subject or target before leaving the house is a much better approach.

So I'm cooking up some ideas for some non-rail subjects. Amongst the ideas so far:

Jackson Street, Seattle. It's a crappy street running uphill from King Street Station, very accessible to me via Amtrak. It also runs through the heart of Chinatown. Not really a pretty district by any means -- it's rather seedy -- but unlike Portland's Chinatown, it's full of life. Real Chinese people, speaking Cantonese and Mandarin; streetside markets full of fruits and vegetables; cheap junk stores full of asian advertising and plasticy goodness. Its like a street scene out of Bebop

Highway 99W. My hometown highway, it's a mixture of Route 66, stripmall America, and scenic country byway. It's peculiar to my beloved Willamette Valley, only running from Portland to Junction City, which is 2/3rds down the valley to Eugene. I've always had a thing for it -- hence my website URL -- and I've never done it any justice with the camera.

I also want to do some photography with food and culture angles, and maybe other forms of transportation than rail. (No, no airline foaming, however.) I'm also considering shooting some current events as if I were covering them, just so I can have some PJ like work to show, but that idea is still forming. I know I'm not going to go after architectural photography -- too competitive and too much specialized equipment needed -- but travel, transportation, food, and culture are all interesting to me, and I want to branch out and work in those fields too. Heck, if for no other reason than money! If I could get hooked into two more publications, or maybe three, I won't even need a day-job at all.