If you ever come to Portland I encourage you to give yourself half a day (at least) to explore the trails of Washington Park. This specific picture holds a great deal of meaning to me personally, which I'll share below.
I took the same picture roughly 10 times using different apertures, and without any other post production layered them over each other.
A lifelong friend of mine had recently passed, and I realized this specific evening was going to be a restless night almost the second I tried to lay down. I decided to take a walk.
It was habit for me to take my camera and tri-pod with me when I went just about anywhere and this night was no exception. Despite being January, the weather was warm that night. I'd guess it was 60 degrees or so.
I wandered around the trails for a few hours without much concern for getting lost, I know the trails well enough and the occasional glimpses of Portland's skyline help orient you pretty regularly, but it was still an accident that I ended up at the Pittock Mansion that night.
I said some goodbye's during the walk and despite being a fairly pragmatic person who doesn't put much faith in things I can't see, I just had a feeling that I wasn't alone on that walk. When I got to the mansion, a place I'd visited many times with that friend, a place we said we'd get married if we ever got old and bored of not being married, the feeling of being with her magnified.
A warm wind and mist started blowing around the time I walked out of the woods into the clearing, it was like the weather itself was gently crying with me. I didn't even need to take my coat out of my backpack, there was no coldness to it.
This bench sits facing the front door, it wasn't a place that holds any specific memory of her, just a place we'd sat and talked, a place I wished we could sit and talk again. It was the only picture I took that night. Maybe it was just grief and my need to reach beyond reason for closure, but I felt like she was saying goodbye.
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