Wow, the first post of the new year and it already almost March! A lot of times, blogging and being really busy are inversely proportional and that’s the case for me. I try to strike a balance and post regularly, but when it comes down to paying bills, blogging is lower on my list of priorities.
Beer, however, seems to stay at the top of that list. So, mixing beer and photography is never a stretch for me. In mid February, I was sent to Eugene and Corvallis on a beer journey by: Travel Lane County, Visit Corvallis, and Travel Oregon. My job: hang out with brewers and drink beer. Sure, when you boil it down, it sounds like a breeze. In reality, while fun, it’s also a lot of work. Try this experiment at home: stand in a cramped space, surround yourself with giant metal tanks, turn the temperature down to 50 degrees, turn off the lights, take notes, take photos, hold and drink a beer, and change lenses. You find strange places to hold things in these situations.
On the trip, I did six breweries over two days. Whew! I came back with over 10 GB of photographs. On Saturday, I hit Hop Valley Brewing, Ninkasi Brewing, and Oakshire Brewing. On Sunday, it was Oregon Trail Brewery, Flat Tail Brewing, and Block 15 Brewing. I used this trip as an opportunity to rent a lens and I ended up with a Canon 35mm f/1.4 L. Hot damn! Great focal length for cramped spaces, and a wide aperture for all of the low light situations. I shot with this lens for 95% of my trip, making it a good candidate to replace my ailing, if not broken 50mm f/1.4. The price points for these lenses differ greatly, so I need to start replenishing my photography gear fund if I’m going to be able to add a $1400 lens to my bag of tricks…
I’ll be writing several articles on the trip at my other site: portlandbeer.org. If you want to read about the details, you can start here.
