When I’m not photographing and writing I work as a historical landscape architect for MIG. The firm, which has offices in seven west coast cities including the mother ship in Berkeley, gets the whole gang together once a year for a two-day workshop where we share ideas related to the multi-disciplinary work we do – everything from the how, to the why, to the what. This year I taught a course on new media and social networking and how to apply those tools to the work we do.

It’s a high intensity, jam-packed two days where we get to connect with each other and add some energy and new ideas to the work we do. Fortunately those of us in the Portland office also got to soak up a little of Berkeley’s warm sunshine on the side. Sunlight feeds the soul!

Leading up to the workshop each office was asked to take a group photograph. We brainstormed a “Made in Oregon” theme based on the famous neon sign that graces our city’s skyline and decided to take the photo next to the infamous bench that we observe from our second floor studio each day. The bench’s infamy stems from its center stage role in daily urban dramas including make-out sessions, break-ups, drug deals, fights, lunch meetings, and impromptu band jams just to name a few. Add “group office photo” to that list and you can see this bench is quite the place to be and be seen in the City of Portland (now affectionally becoming known as Portlandia).

Here is the final shot and some outtakes from our photo shoot.

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