Good Morning Portland

[Michael13]

This is the view from on top of "Pill Hill" (OHSU, Shriner's & VA hospitals) looking north towards Vancouver, WA. A tranquil sunrise on a rare clear day in winter. That's Mt. Saint Helens in the distance. I had access to the roof at my job, I thought it was the best viewpoint in all of Portland.

 

[AlanLichty]

I like your viewpoint - neat scene overlooking the Willamette and the downtown bridges. Great view of St. Helens.

I watch the gondolas zipping up and down that hill from the freeway when I pass by but have never gone up to the top.

 

[JimFox]

This is really cool looking Michael. What a great viewpoint you have from here. This is just so awesome, the bridges, the buildings, etc. So much to take in. Getting Mt St Helens in it too is super cool. You could crop this image at the distant inversion layer and still have 2 completely stand along images that would be great. Having it all in one scene is kind of mesmerizing.

Great thinking to go on top of your roof! Back in my work days I would do something similar when I worked in Los Angeles. I could go up to the top of our building at night and see the fireworks from Disneyland. They also would shoot of fireworks from the Queen Mary in Long Beach and I could see those. And back when there was the big LA Riots and we were stuck at work, several of us went up top to watch where the destruction was going on and gauging how close they were getting to our location. We ended up being just on the edge of it.

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Really nice view. While I have visited and passed through Portland many times, I have never done any cityscapes there.

 

[Michael13]

Thanks guys, here's another from the same viewpoint on a different day with no sky.

 

[AlanLichty]

Your views of the downtown area are better than what I could do with a drone and you can shoot with better cameras.

 

[Michael13]

Alan, definitely no FAA regs to deal with when you're tripod is on the roof!

 

[AlanLichty]

Alan, definitely no FAA regs to deal with when you're tripod is on the roof!

Actually there are hardly any regulations around your hill at all. All of the surface level airspace regs for PDX stop at the river for the downtown area. The helipad is an unregulated facility. That said why fly when you get just as good a view from the roof and you can plant a real tripod on the roof? Drones are nice for getting the view we can't otherwise have but mine is no match for my DSLR.

 

[David S]

I love this ! What focal length were you using ?

 

[Michael13]

@ David S - 70-200 zoom @ 200mm

 

[David S]

they could honestly put a few full frame cameras at different zoom lengths up there and have them all coordinate in software - so say theres a major crime committed , the next day they could "zoom in" and try to find the suspects car turning a corner at a specific time or something like that... Just keep recording and have the data for later. I got this idea form hearing about some city doing this with a weather baloon thing. But privacy would be impacted... Interesting how nice the picture is !