Hey folks!
This past Saturday I continued a long-running tradition of mine to photograph small town America 4th July Celebrations — this year returning to photograph in Estacada Oregon for probably the 6th or 7th time (since my first Independence Day parade there in 2000).
Incidentally, Estacada is the first town I visited on my first trip to Oregon in 1989. I stayed with Barry, one of the drivers of the Green Tortoise bus that I rode on in a cross-country trip in the summer of 1988 (see my previous blog post for more information aabout that crazy bus).
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In March 1989 I flew out to Portland from Atlanta. Barry came and picked me up at the PDX airport. He drove me in his rusty 1970s-model Chevy S-10 pickup to his little off-the-grid cabin up in the hills about 5 miles outside of Estacada, overlooking the Clackamas River.
His cabin had no electricity. Water came from a spring up the hill. Heat from a wood-burning stove. And his bathroom was an outhouse with a lovely view of the river down below to enjoy while you took care of business. One dark snowy night he took me — along with 3 women from another Green Tortoise trip who were visiting him — out to Bagby Hot Springs. Wow, what a night!
There’s a lot more to say about that first visit to Oregon, but I’ll save that for another time. But what’s worth noting now is that it was on that very first trip to Estacada in 1989 that I fell in love with Oregon, which led me to decide to move here in 2005.
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Anyway, back to the parade in Estacada. What I love about small town parades is how much more quirky, community-focused and accessible they are. As I did this past Saturday, I try to get to the staging area a couple hours early, so I can meet and talk to participants as they prepare, and get more candid and detail shots (rather than those staged, choreographed moments you typically see during the parade). Then during the parade I’m able to jump right into the parade to get closer to the action, while also taking pauses to look turn my camera on the crowd.
Ok, I think that’s enough background. Here are my favorite shots (all shot on 35mm color-negative film, hand-developed and scanned Saturday night at Franklin FOTO.
best wishes,
Bobby
