Lens Baby

Portland has horse-rings in many of its old curbs. These rings were used to tether horses to when buggies were parked on the street a decade ago. Horse-rings fascinate me.

A few weeks ago I saw a tiny horse cabled to one of the rings. Since then I have noticed that it was swapped out for one in a less-worn condition. Last night I got the urge to go photograph this scene. This is a common urge for me (photographing horse-rings) but not one that I normally act upon.

Once the kids were down and Shari could take over I drove the two miles to NE 28th and Burnside, parked around the corner, grabbed my Lensbaby and D70 (D200 came back from the shop and I cannot find the battery, backordered everywhere, Oi!) and walked to the spot where I had seen this tiny horse. When I saw it last it was happily rearing on its hind legs beside the busy street.

Here is what I found last night.

"These rings were used to tether horses to when buggies were parked on the street a decade ago."

Make that a century ago!

:-)

You could not step twice into the same rivers; for other waters are ever flowing on to you.
Heraclitus of Ephesus

This is sooo sad! Poor little horsey. I love the story!

What aperture did you use?

Sam

see with the eyes of a child

Poor little guy he was too small to see! Neat story about the rings. A flash to the past. I would think bike riders could still use the rings. I enjoyed the pictures. -CharCan

Very cool, Craig. I think the last one is my fave but I also like them as a set.
A great piece of history. We've come a long way in a decade. :)

When I was a kid, in the 80's, I had some relatives back east and they thought that people in Colorado still rode around on horses. hehe


Thanks for sharing.

Peace and Happiness
AJ

[www.flickr.com]

Craig, I am not sure about the importance of the images, but the story is the point, because memories and vision are so tightly connected. Immediately I was taken back 20 yeard to Shwitzerland, where for the first time I saw those rings in front of grocery shop for the dogs of the Ladies comming into.
The dogs were so fertilized, like their proprietors.

Sad story and I feel some distress...

Lazar
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler. (Albert Einstein)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/2006 08:04AM by lazar.

Coolio...this is just another one of the many reasons why we love Portland!

[horseproject.home.comcast.net]

Kirsten Hunter
Director of Customer Happiness

I really like #3, Craig...I think it's great that some of them still remain. In Detroit, if isn't making any money or doesn't draw attention to the city, they'll tear it down...I so happy that Henry Ford had a vision to preserve some of our past.
Jaro

I love #2 the best :-)

Amanda R

Wonderful pictures wonderful story, Craig.

I had some similar shots with the monkey :)

Ta

History is great! I just got back from New Orleans and tried to bend in the grave yard there.

I think #3 is my favorite because I can see the ring. #2 has such a small sweet spot...how did you get that? I can't seem to get small sweet spots even with the larger apatures.

Thanks,

Steve

i love these...but so sad.

cu.

larry


"i like it when it's foggy. i get to touch a cloud." a.g.

I have been swamped and am just coming up for air to respond to y'all:

Sam, it did not hit me as sad so much as a curious set of events to be documented but now that everyone has been touched by it I guess it is somewhat tragic in a metaphorical sort of way. I used f8 on the first and third images, f2.0 on the second one.

CharCan, glad you enjoyed the photos. With the way bikes get stolen around here I think all the rings would be cut away and missing forever just to get the bikes.

AJ, the police in Portland have a few horses, not sure how they justify the expense. Preparations for end-of-the-world animal-assisted crowd control I guess. I do want to see/photograph a real horse tethered to one of those rings (that has not been smashed by a car).

Lazar, dogs, now that makes a lot of sense. Space them out with inconspicuous rings, I like it. Not sure about the fertilizer though. Is that the fertilizer produced by the dogs or the pampered and thus well-fertilized state-of-health that they maintained?

Kirsten, that is awesome. Now I have a map to my other subjects. Thank you.

Jaro, they replace old curbs constanty in this city and there are many, many ancient curbs filled with horse-rings that are worn and tell very old stories that I cannot seek out anymore. Better get the ones I can while I can.

Thanks Amanda, I was pleased with the small sweet-spot in that one and that it is tack-sharp at full rez at f2.0. Have to print that one.

Ta, thank you. Link to the monkey. I missed that one/those ones.

Tex, now that you mention it, #3 is my favorite too. I find the ring much more worthy of dwelling on than the toy horse which, in this one, gives a surreal context to the image.

Larry, thanks and sorry.


Thank you everyone for looking and for your comments.

Have a wonderfully beautiful week.

-Craig

You could not step twice into the same rivers; for other waters are ever flowing on to you.
Heraclitus of Ephesus

Craig,
Yes, fertilizing in the sense of parfumes and some dressing on, like the Ladies.. Oh, my...

Lazar
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler. (Albert Einstein)

Some kind of miracle that that horse survived crushing by a huge chunk of moving metal and it bounced back. Look, he looks good as new. Someone should alert the media, call the National Enquirer, report the event to the Guiness Book of World Records for most resistant lifeform. Now we should check to see if the tire print formed any images of The Virgin, because the combination of the two miracles would draw believers from all over the planet in the largest gathering of its kind ever, swamping Portland and creating the largest prayer vigil in human history. All for one little sweet horse, documented by you. Nice work!

To find out more about the horses, especially those not from Portland, visit: [horseproject.home.comcast.net]

Cheers,

K