In the summer of 2006, I participated in a week-long photo tour of Oregon. We began in Portland, drove up to Astoria in the northwest corner of the state and then slowly drove down the coastline on US 101, visiting Cannon Beach, Tillamook, Depoe Bay, Newport, Florence and Bandon before returning to Portland. The week long trip brought many special photographic opportunities: the sights of Portland, including Multnomah Falls and Rose Garden; the spectacular rock bound coast line with its villages, light houses, ship wrecks, sand dunes, waterfalls, sea lion colonies, bird rookeries, tide pools, and vistas, as well as special photographic visits to a dairy farm, aquarium, art gallery, winery, furniture maker, and abandoned factories and stores. If you've viewed the previous galleriesof travel impressions I've posted on this site, you'll note that my photographic intentions are focused on interpretation, rather than description. I wanted to make more than just a record of the sights I saw in Oregon. I want my pictures to express my own feelings about them, rather than just describing the appearance of what I saw. Aside from sharing these pictures with you on this website, I also am using many of them to teach the principles of expressive travel photography on my pbase website http://www.pbase.com/pnd1) as well as in the tutorial workshops I give in Phoenix for those desiring instruction in photojournalism, expressive travel photography and digital imaging.

These 70 images were gleaned from the more than 1,000 digital pictures I shot during this trip. I used an eight megapixel Panasonic FZ-30 to most of these images. It features an amazing 36mm-420mm Leica lens with image stabilization, allowing me to use its long telephoto in low light situations with remarkable clarity. Its flip-out LCD viewfinder allows easy use at low and high angles, making it the single most useful tool for travel photography that I've used to date. I also made some images with a Leica D-Lux 2, a pocket camera offering a 28mm wideangle view within a 16x9 frame, a shape similar to a high definition TV screen. The subjects of each of these images were best defined within such a frame. I've edited all of these images with Photoshop to correct and refine the hue, color, contrast and sharpness levels, hopefully making my pictures more vibrant and meaningful. Although all of these photographs were digitally enhanced to some degree, none of the content has been significantly manipulated. The facts are all here, as I captured them. I hope you will enjoy these photographic impressions.

To view my images at their best, just click the "slideshow" button in the top right hand corner. To end the slide show at any time, press your "escape" key. I welcome your comments and questions. Phil Douglis Director, The Douglis Visual Workshops, Phoenix, Arizona, pnd1@cox.net