Portland Nights is a series of motion controlled time-lapse sequences around Portland, Oregon.
During one of the parking structure rooftop sequences I stirred up a bit of suspicion. It was probably because I was literally hanging half of the 6′ rail off the edge of the building with the cart and camera slowly creeping out to the end as the shot progressed. Maybe two thirds of the way through the shot I noticed a bright light shining up at my camera. I looked down and saw a cop car blasting its flood light up at me. Then after the time it takes to drive in a circle 8 times there were two squad cars at the top of the building approaching me. I thought I was busted! The first officer got out, asked me to take my hands out of my pockets and asked what I was doing. When I told him he then told his fellow officer “oh he’s just getting a time-lapse”, they got back in their squad cars and drove off. In the shot you can see the flashing brightness of the flood light and then the brief light from their headlights on the top of the building.
Every so often when documenting the distortion of time, there are some strange unexplained occurrences that end up in the photo sequences. For instance, during the second shot of the Portland Timbers crowd, there is some sort of weird blurry lens flare looking thingy that shows up directly centered around the bright clock as soon as it’s revealed from behind the mask art and then dissipates. It was raining, perhaps it was a perfectly placed rain drop…?
Thanks to Thomas and the Momos crew, Tim O’dell, Mariela Brooks, Andy Parish for the amazing soundtrack, Jared Yanez and everyone who inspired me along the way. This project is for you, enjoy!
-Lp-
