Archive for June, 2008

Oaks Park – a pinhole field trip

A trip to Oaks Bottom Park

I made this photo with a P.90 pinhole camera. In contrast to the digital camera experience, this kind of subject (with a lot of motion) is a situation in which the result is always a pleasant surprise once the film is processed.

Oaks Park along the waterfront is a small amusement park adjacent to a city park and a wildlife refuge. It is over 100 years old. On a cool, misty, Portland day in early May there were a lot of families out keeping the children entertained and hoping for the return of summer weather.

I was originally attracted to this place when I heard about the floating floor of the roller rink. At Oaks Park there is an indoor rink with a beautiful 100 ft by 200 ft wooden floor. Because the area next to the river is historically prone to flooding, the floor structure is made so that it can be detached from the building when flooding is eminent. Because the floor rests on floats it is then able to float above the possible flood waters until they recede. The last time this happened was 1996.

In addition, the Oaks Park rink has the largest remaining skating-rink pipe organ in the world. Impressive even for a non-skater like me.

 
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