While I have been a long time member of NPN, I have not been an active member. I recently returned after observing the activity on the revitalized site. I live in Lake Oswego a suburb of Portland, Oregon. I have lived in Oregon for 23 years and grew up in Miami, Florida. You can’t live in two more extreme environments. To me, Oregon is a natural paradise. I have dabbled in photography most of my life but really became a serious photographer once I retired. While I did not enjoy digital at first, I am a total convert, and really enjoy the creative aspects of the digital darkroom.
While creativity is not that evident is wildlife photography, it does present itself in macro, flora, and landscape photography. While not applicable to this community, I also enjoy street and black and white photography. For nostalgic reasons, I still pull out my Mamiya 645’s for certain projects, although I usually convert the negatives to digital anyway.
I see there are over 22 members of the Pacific Northwest group. If any of you live in the greater Portland or Vancouver area and want to join me for a shoot, please contact me through my profile page.
I am glad to be back and excited to be part of the community. My best to all. Ray
Welcome back, Ray! Yes, the PNW is well-represented, and there are local groups that get together. I’ll let Dennis tell you about one, meeting coming up in April in Eugene.
Your “Street” and “B+W” photography is most welcome - the STREET would go into the “Non-Nature” category, and the “B+W” into whatever gallery it would otherwise fit into.
For the week of January 27-Feb2, the “WeeklyChallenge” topic is B+W - so the timing is perfect for you!
Looking forward to your posts and comments!
Sandy
(used to live in Sandy, OR, now in Brookings)
Welcome, Ray. The organization Sandy mentioned is called Nature Photographers of the Pacific Northwest or NPPNW. They meet twice a year cycling from the Ashford area to the Portland area to the Olympia, WA area, then over again. If I recall correctly the next one is at the south end. Each meeting costs $10 in advance or $15 at the door. They always have an excellent speaker and both print and projected image competitions. You can find them on the web easily. There are usually over 200 people there and name tags list location, so it’s fairly easy to hook up with folks from your neck of the woods.