What an adventure. Lewis & Clark contacted me the other evening in anticipation of impending snowfall in Portland. Since it snows so infrequently around here, PubCom was eager to make sure they could update their photo stock of some of the campus' iconic fixtures covered in snow. I was pretty excited, always happy to be given the opportunity to capture the Lewis & Clark campus when it looks particularly seasonal. I headed to campus around noon (before the snow started to fall) along with my pal Siani (acting as my assistant for the day) to minimize the amount of driving we would have to do in the snow. The shoot went pretty well, but we decided to leave before too much snow built up on the ground - we didn't want to get stranded, after all. To our great dismay however, about 10 minutes into the drive home (usually a 20 minute affair), we found ourselves losing traction as the car trudged slowly up the hill to the freeway in bumper to bumper traffic. Eventually, it completely refused to move, causing a brief traffic jam. With the help of a few good samaritans who were watching the situation unfold from the sidewalk, I managed to maneuver the unchained rental car (my car has been in the shop for the last few months while I wait for a recall to be dealt with) into a nearby driveway at a college house. The friendly college students were very hospitable and allowed us to hang out in their hilariously weedy living room while we tried to figure out what we were going to do. After learning that the nearby bus lines were all delayed by more than two hours and that AAA was only making calls for emergency situations, we resigned ourselves to hitchhiking. We found a fellow named Bill who offered to give us a ride, but after getting some weird vibes ("Thanks for picking us up! What are you doing in this part of town?" *15 second pause* "....Going to the IMAX.") and sensing something peculiar (there isn't an IMAX anywhere nearby and he was definitely living out of his car, which on its own wouldn't have been a red flag, but contributed to our feeling of unease), we decided to abandon ship, and had him drop us off at the closest running bus line. Three busses later we still were a ways away and decided to take a break from travel, stopping for some warm curry at Thai Peacock - it was a well-earned respite. We eventually took the streetcar the rest of the way home, finally arriving about four hours after the car first stopped working. Like I said before - it was an adventure - one that I was very grateful to have had company on (cheers, Siani). So what do you think, were the photos worth it?
