This Time Tomorrow

R.I.P. J.D. Salinger

"That's the whole trouble. You can't ever find a place that's nice and peaceful, because there isn't any. You may think there is, but once you get there, when you're not looking, somebody'll sneak up and write "Fuck you" right under your nose."

- J.D. Salinger

Smith Rock in December

On December 18 and 19 we went rock climbing at Smith Rock. Although I didn't take too many pictures and I missed the most memorable parts of the trip, I still captured a few pictures that are interesting to compare to the past Smith trips I have been on.

Carter, Peter, and Sam


Sam on a pretty difficult climb


Carter near the crux


A more experienced Charlie

Long Exposure Pictures

A ten second exposure of Charlie


A ten second exposure of Portland which reminds me of Gothom City

Both of these were taken without a tripod. Something I should maybe get.

Train Hopping

Tonight Charlie and I had nothing to do.We took a few 10 sec long exposure pictures of Portland around the Vista bridge. After awhile we became bored, drove, and then got out of our cars and started walking. We were so bored that we switched off calling friends but no one answered so we continued walking. We came upon a freight train in the Northwest area of Portland that blocked our way toward the river. After a bit Charlie hopped on and off but as we walked away I decided we had to go back and ride it. We jumped on and rode it for five minutes. We were cold and scared. I worried about what could happen as I thought about Paranoid Park which is a book by Blake Nelson that we had to read in school and a movie by Gus Van Sant. We rode undisturbed and eventually decided to jump off. Maybe someday I will get on again and stay a bit longer for the ride wherever it takes me.

F100

In June 2007 I bought a Nikon F100 film camera. It was and still is the only camera I have ever owned. While my use of it has been sporadic, the camera has documented various moments of my life when I got around to taking time to use it. Unlike a digital camera where you are free to take tons of pictures, I learned to try to get the best out of the 25 shots available in roll of film. The F100 brings to mind the Ford pickup truck. The camera is built like a tank and has taken abuse from leaving it in a car for days during a hot Nevada summer to dropping it down the stairs of my house but it still works perfectly. I have taken terrible pictures from when I first got the camera and I was unintentionally messing with the ISO setting of the camera to what I think of as great pictures. Regardless of the quality of my photography I still have many pictures that I love. It is difficult to keep all of my pictures together as some of them are printed and in small brown bags while others are on my computer. In the future even when I do get a nice digital camera I will always come back and use my F100 or at least until the camera does not make the real noise a camera should when taking a picture which for me is half the reason of using it.

Below are some pictures that I found on my computer:

Joshua Trees

Ian Wayne climbing at Smith Rock in November of 2007

A less experienced Charlie Grant

A lifeless tree at Smith Rock

A silhouette

A younger Abby Conyers

The woods behind my house

Eddie Friedman at Tieton River Rocks in November 2008

Belaying

Chris Potts and his shadow

Big Ed

My backyard last winter

A picture taken by Charlie last summer. We biked from his house and spontaneously decided to go to Sauvie Island.

I never before knew the full value of trees. Under them I breakfast, dine, write, read and receive my company.

- Thomas Jefferson

A generation of Edens

Nowhere to Go

Nowhere to Go

I went on my boat with nowhere to go;
The sail was billowing because the wind would not blow.
I gazed up and the sky was blue –
And so I did not move.
Alone, I sung a tune,
About a wild typhoon.
I looked through my telescope,
I saw many things afloat.
Unlike those ashore,
I didn’t want anything anymore.
The water took me toward the dawn –
As I turned about the waves, I forgot what was foregone.

Chris Eden

The man Peter Green

Fred Beckey

“Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman -- a rope over an abyss.”

- Friedrich Nietzsche

Man on Wire

Philippe Petit

Carter McFarland using a grigri