Eric Patrick McCormack Photography

Old Car and an Old Camera How Fitting

The other day I was running to Safeway, the neighborhood grocery store, to pick up something for the dinner menu.  Parked in the lot with two spaces to the right was an old Chrysler DeSoto! They really do not make them like they used to. That auto really stood out! I had with me in my car my Rolleiflex Twin Lens Reflex camera. I fgure my camera and the DeSoto were made around the same time.

What a find!  There was another woman who took interest in the old car and was snappin’ away with her iPhone.

My camera still works like new, must be that German engineering!  I really love the images I get from it. Check out some other work by photographers who use old technology to make photographs here on Flickr. Here is a specific Rollei link. Here is another Rollei specific group. Enjoy Cool things happen when you least expect them.

 

I live in the Woodlawn neighborhood in NE Portland, OR. It is a neighborhood with a rich history and a checkered past.

The neighborhood is going through significant changes. There are new businesses and lots of activity. Woodlawn Park is full of people playing soccer and families at the playground and activities like movies in the park and Star Trek in the Park. It is a cool place.

The businesses that have grown over the last five years are The Firehouse, Good Neighbothood Pizzeria, Breakside Brewery, and Woodlawn Coffee and Pastry.

 

 

 

Jungle Paradise Introduction to the Howler Monkeys (Monos Gongos)

So Rocky Balboa, I had to ask him twice to be sure that in fact that was his real name. So now the seven of us were moving along at almost a snails pace through the mountains between San Isidro and Dominical. You see Rocky just had new brakes installed on his mid 80′s Toyota van. He was taking it nice and easy for sure. I really think he was sweating it out and not trusting his mechanic the pads were not quite smoking but really smelled as if they were about to catch fire any minute. Rocky even stopped the car to get out and check the brakes, he spat on the calibers to see if they were hot. After this rudimentary check we forged onward.

We finally arrived in Dominical after Jord retrieved the directions from somewhere in the recesses of his pack I began to decipher and translate the directions simultaneously. The dirt road from the highway was easy the hard part was finding the road to the house. We finally arrived and what a cool place it was.

San Jose

Leg One

My brother Jordan won in a lottery  a week stay in a house that sleeps 8 located in Dominical Costa Rica. Yeah I was in my wife suggested I go. Sure why not free time away from the family, a chance to take some amazing photographs, hang with my brothers and brush up on my Spanish. Yeah I was in! I understand that the rum there is good! The whole group of us were six: Jord, Nick, Heather (Nick’s girlfriend) Jeremy, Zach and myself. I only met two members of the group before.

To get to Dominical we had to fly into San Jose, Costa Rica. Which Jord, who had visited before, informed me that it was the armpit of the country. Since we all had slightly different schedules we needed a spot to convene before we all headed to Dominical. I Goggled hostels in San Jose. The Lonely Planet recommended Hostel Pangea. Sounded good to me and relatively inexpensive. Everyone was on board for Hostel Pangea. Sweet! I arrived in San Jose around 9:30pm and needed a taxi from the airport to the hostel it was about a 20 min ride as we were approaching the hostel I was thinking holy crap am I going to get robbed and dropped in the middle of San Jose! The area around the hostel was pretty rough not like inner city Detroit back in the day but rough.  I mean the entrance to Pangea is a steel door with a smaller peep door to see who was ringing the bell. There were no other markings as to the hostel other than a small stencil painted ” Hostel Pangea” in orange in the huge steel door. There is no way that I would have been able to find this place on my own.When I read the small stencil on the steel door I knew things were ok.

Outside of the foreboding exterior the hostel itself was a labyrinth of rooms and full of color. The rooms were spartan but clean as was the whole place quite clean. The staff was very warm and attentive “Pura Vida” as it goes in Costa Rica. The coffee was great the food was top notch and the drinks were pretty inexpensive.We met some interesting people from all over the world; Great Britain, Ireland, Denmark, The Netherlands and Costa Rica! But our favorite at Pangea was Jessenia wish I had a photo of her. She was awesome always happy had the best smile and was full of useful information.

After a couple of days of drinking and eating, the others from the group arrived it was time to go to our destination Dominical. We all grabbed a taxi to the bus station and boarded a bus to San Isidro. The trip was rather uneventful which was nice I grabbed some sleep. We arrived in San Isidro and when we got off the bus we were swarmed by men who wanted to take us to our next destination. They did not care where we were going they knew we had cash. Since we were 6 with luggage there was only one guy who had the vehicle for the job and that man was Rocky Balboa.

 

The photos below were all taken while my brother Nick and I walked around the center of San Jose. I have to say that on two different occasions two guys approached us and said it was not safe to be in this area with cameras. Luckily we both got out with out incident.

Cool Developments at Newspace Center for Photography

My first experience with Newspace was back in 2005. I displayed my series From the Shadows at Newspace back in May of 2005. It was a combined  show with the artist Liz Haley. Newspace has grown considerably since 2005. The  list of services include a host of classes to be taken,

a traditional black and white darkroom(for those of you still enamored with shooting, processing, and printing film), a gallery space and a digital lab dig deeper and you will find more.

 

They have also developed a pretty nice digital lab with a Nikon Coolscan 900, also and better than the “Supercool” scanner is the Imacon scanner. This is awesome if you shoot any format this scanner rules! I have scanned with this scanner and it produces great files. The photo at right was scanned with an Imacon scanner.

 

Industrial Landscapes Continued

I have been biking along North Columbia and connecting with the Columbia Slough trail. It is full of all sorts of industrial goodness and a plesant mix of nature. The city of Portland seems to excel at this mixture of green space within the city. I have taken my boys along this path we have been enjoying the scenery and the ride. I like riding with the boys it gives me a different perspective when riding with them. I can show them some interesting things along the way and we have time to view parts of Portland from different viewpoints.

I have returned with my bike and motorcycle and my camera to photograph some of the more interesting things that North Portland has to offer. Every time that I go out a new scene presents itself. I have had fun exploring and photographing this part of Portland, OR. I will continue to post more.

 

 

Industrial Landscape or Urban Landscape

I have been wrestling with the proper title for the series of images that I have been shooting lately.

I initially called them Urban Landscapes, however I felt like the images were more industrial than urban. As of now I am leaning toward Industrial.

 

 

 

 

 

Just Added

I have just added a new gallery page here. The gallery is a portfolio of some of my past work. Please enjoy!

My Rollei and Urban Landscapes

For the last several years when I need a quick get-a-way,  I get on my motorcycle and ride what I call goin’ around the block. I take N. Columbia Boulevard and ’round  back home. This small tour takes me past a very industrial area of Portland, OR. There is generally  some auto traffic and some semi traffic, but at the time I travel usually the road is good to go.  It is really fun because in some stretches of road you can really open it up. After several loops around I figured I needed to bring my cameras with me there are some interesting visuals along the way. I have been wandering around with my Rolleiflex loaded with film looking for interesting urban landscapes. Along these curvy roads without much police presence and open land  filled with long buildings and cranes for loading off in the distance lend to some interesting subjects. I have been drawn to these sort of ‘scapes for some time.

Very close to my home there is an abundance of industrial business, seems a possible commentary on my socioeconomic status, or maybe it’s  just what I gravitate towards.

 

 

Looking up the Columbia Photograph

 

I was asked again this year to donate to the Marin Montessori School. Last year I donated a print called Worst in Show. It was of a photograph of a motorcycle labeled “Worst in Show” at The One Motorcycle Show in Portland, OR in 2011.

The Photo was a success and was bid up from the asking price of the print. I was asked again this year for another donation. I sent the committee 3 choices and they selected the photograph titled Looking up the Columbia. I was told that the framed photo was met with excitement by the committee and the auction goers. I am happy to be able to donate to the school and look forward to their future success.