Portland’s Japanese Garden is beautiful. It is the home of The Tree (a gorgeous, often photographed,  Japanese maple tree worthy of its own Flickr group).  Considered by some “the most authentic Japanese garden outside of Japan,” It is worth visiting if you are in Portland.

I visit often because I find it relaxing. There are all kinds of nooks and crannies that are made for sitting and meditating. The park was made explicitly for this purpose: meditating and reflecting.  So as you wander around you are not overwhelmed by color and architecture. Instead you are calmed by the ponds and pools,  or the varying shades of green in the shrubbery and trees.

It was overcast and rainy the day that I went and because of the trees, a little dark for my 100 speed iso film. My exposure times were longer than I like. However, it ended up being perfect for the venue. The photo above was exposed for more than 6 minutes. I am sitting inside an alcove on a bench and my camera (aka: the Magic Wooden Box) was sitting next to me doing its thing. As I sat there, relaxing, a family came and sat next to me. Eventually they asked about my camera (as strangers usually do) and I ended up having a really nice conversation with a really nice family. It was lovely.

Same story with the photo below, except I had to stop a nice older man from picking up the camera as it was exposing my shot of the small waterfall.

Camera: Zero 2000
Film: Fuji Reala
Pinhole: 0.18mm
Focal Length: 25mm
ISO: 100
Aperture: f138
Dev: C-41 by Lab
Scan:Epson V500