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Photos 2004

Just under the wire: the December theme

All was madness this month, which means that I'm surely going to be one of the last people posting their entries in the WELL photography conference's Theme of the Month: "Lights".

Finally, some photos of Italy.

You see, eventually I give you what you want. But first I make you beg a bit.

Well, here are all of my digital photos from Italy. Miz Becky's camera started having troubles while we were in Florence, which means I switched to shooting film exclusively for the rest of the trip. Those you'll have to wait another week or so for. But here's a few images to tide you over. Just a few.

I'm also planning to get a few more episodes of my travelogue up over the holiday break... so you can get some of the explanations for these pictures.

Blinded by the cow

No, not Italy, some random image from this last year. But more Italian photos are coming in the next week, I promise.

Italy on the street

Quite a bit of the photography I did in Italy was my normal street photography work, but (obviously) in a new place.

It was both similar to and different from shooting in Seattle. On the one hand, it's a street, it's people, there's light, all of the usual issues and factors. On the other hand... where in Seattle do I have this kind of beautiful cobblestoned street to use as a compositional element? And when I'm in Seattle, is my mind being blown by the beauty and age of it all?

(that'd be "no")

Another tease

Here's another tease from my Italy photos, because Tim was whining at me in IM this evening...

Nice morning

Bus haze

Sunset with posts

Or something like that.

Look who we ran into

That's right, a few weeks ago on a blustery, blustery day, Miz Becky and I were on our usual hour-long route through the neighborhood when we were lucky enough to run into Debra and Ella taking a turn around the block.

Well, here we go.

The east coast polls are closing in a few hours.

To cop a line from my goyishe friends... "The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight."

Something strange I just found in my files

Original image from a low-fi shoot I did, gosh, back in 1995 or 1996 when we put up the first version of the Visual C++ website over the course of a weekend. We used a video camera and a Play Inc. Snappy... ah, thems were the days.

Not sure when I added all the other crap on top of this image.

Man, am I a digital packrat.

Looks like fall

The art of the shut-in

When you're going batshit because you haven't left the house, you find photos when they come to you.

Now THAT'S a pair of cabbage

Dubious chicken

Yet more fall color

Georgia

Nice light this afternoon

More signs of the season

Whiteboard Palimpsest

Last week's clouds

There's something about photos from the fonecam that I like, although I confess I'm not really sure why.

As Gary Greenberg (the ceramic artist) once said, "You just gotta adjust your aesthetic."

Not quite that small any more

We had dinner tonight with Lisa and Jeff and Annika, who is about six weeks older and considerably bigger than she was on this beautiful sunny afternoon at Matthews Beach.

An experimental photo gallery

Huh. Why is there so much space at the top? So much is mysterious.

Miz Becky represents at Red Mill

... while an undercover cop pretends indifference.

The joys of having an Oregonian father-in-law

Nothin' like a man and his burn pile.

Unfortunately this photo gives no idea of the original scale of the pile -- roughly 6' x 6' x 20' or so (2m x 2m x 7m).

Janel continues her strict regimen of bugging

Are you mocking me?

Emeralds and sapphires

Do you remember Spring?

I remember spring.

Barbed Wire Horse

No, seriously:

Depth

Aliens! Ah seen 'um!

Thelma! Hide the pups!

The San Juans

Looking roughly east-southeast from Mount Constitution on Orcas Island.

Torpedo Onion

Apparently an heirloom variety. Mighty tasty -- similar to a shallot, really, but definitely an onion.

Sometimes, Edgar just wants the world to go away.

Last Friday's team meeting

No, really, this is me paying attention. If I don't take these pictures when I see them, I get stuck on them and can't focus on what's being said.

Speaking of what was being said, this meeting was an unusual experience for cynical, jaded me: I was actually excited and inspired by the meeting. At first I thought it was just heartburn, but then I couldn't deny it.

My manager's theory is that it was because they were talking real numbers and real plans for a change, instead of vagueness and handwaving. Nevertheless... kind of an exciting experience.

Tonight's cool clouds

Blackberries

Boy, it's been a week. Hopefully I'll get back to some more regular updating this week -- including the promised photo updates -- but in the interim, here's another photo from Orcas Island to tide you over.

Orcas island fog

Miz Becky and I spent four days last week on Orcas Island, on a sort of longish weekend getaway. A full report is coming later, once I catch up on all of my other backed up reports, but I thought I'd put this up as a little teaser.

And here's an added gift to you: The same image as a desktop background.

Doors visible and invisible

A field trip!

On Sunday, Miz Becky and I went on a field trip to the Cedar River Watershed, which supplies most of Seattle's drinking water. Miz Becky was there for work, of course, but I was just there to tag along and take pictures.

The focus of the field trip was a proposal by the people managing the watershed to do some thinning of the forests in the watershed. If my memory is correct, 75% of the forests in the watershed had been cut between 30 and 80 years ago, which meant that much of the forest was in a stage called "competitive exclusion", where the youngish trees were very tightly spaced, and choking out nearly everything on the ground. This is apparently a pretty good state for your forest to be in if you're running a tree farm, but not so good if you're looking for biodiversity.

We spent the morning indoors, listening to presentations and discussing their plan. In short, the idea is to do some targeted thinning in the more recently cut forests, to open up the canopy and promote a growth pattern and a level of biodiversity more similar to a "late successional forest". All of which sounded reasonable to me.

After a tasty box lunch (from the pink boxes, I suspect Remo Borrachini's), we drove out to see some trees. Our first stop was waaaay up on "700 road", to see some of the orginal, uncut, old growth forest. And it was beautiful, let me tell you. The photo doesn't do it justice; the thing to notice is how diverse the vegetation is, and how much light there is.

After spending some time talking about the old growth forest, we piled back into the vans and drove back down the road to the parcel they're planning to thin. Apparently the scientists call this kind of environment a "biological desert", and after spending some time there, I understand the term. There was nothing there that we saw, aside from trees, moss, ferns, and mosquitos -- a far cry from the light and activity we saw up in the old growth area.

Notice how close the trees are to each other. Apparently that's why many of the flying creatures (including bats, birds, and flying squirrels) stay out of that kind of forest -- there's just too much stuff in the way to fly efficiently.

All in all, a good time. I highly recommend getting out to the watershed educational center if you're in the Seattle area; it's a beautiful place. Our favorite feature was a set of drums scattered around the central courtyard of the center, with small pipes squirting jets of water above them. The water would play the drums, you see, in different rhythms. Super cool.

Light

Something from last weekend's Circus shoot

Here are a few more pictures from last weekend's shoot with Circus Contraption. Enjoy!

Looking back

That's a lot of devil tongue

Why yes, I did do another shoot with the Circus today. And, as always, it was an exhausting good time.

Outflow

Another teaser from last weekend's trip to the Oregon coast, shot with our friend the Lensbaby.

Encrusted

How was your Fourth of July weekend? Nothing special, I expect, for those of you outside of North America -- do Canadians celebrate Canada Day over the same weekend?

We were in Newport, Oregon, with Miz Becky's family, where we spent a great deal of time sailing. That would account for the Xtreme Tan Line I'm sporting around where my sunglasses go.

You will not be surprised to hear that many more photos are coming... but it's going to be a busy week all around and I'm not sure when I'm going to get to posting them.

Here's a little taste, then.

The crow pictures: Once again I give you what you want

I remembered to bring my digicam in today, and surprisingly enough our friend came back to show off its cool behavior. Here it is this morning, when the light was nicer:

Does that little bit of down in the middle of the wing mean we're dealing with a juvenile here? Anyone? Anyone?

Here's the crow hanging off the feeder and grabbing a load of seeds:

And here it is pecking at the load of seeds it just spit out. Note the pile of sunflower seeds beneath its tail.

It's watching me while I type this.

A rare photograph of your author...

... taken by the delightful sister-in-law, Amanda Jane Kelley -- soon also to be known as Venus, the Goddess of Love.

Do I have a soft spot for the neighborhood slut cat? Yes, yes I do.

Seattle Pride

It's been a few years since I last went to the Seattle Pride Parade, but I figured that this year I had to come out (har har) and support my brothers and sisters, and, uh, brothersisters and sisterbrothers in the queer community. It's been kind of a big year, you know?

One thing I was delighted to see this year (though I've left most of them out of the photos) was the number of large corporations that had employee floats: not just us, but Starbucks, Washington Mutual, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Boeing were there as well. The fire department and a couple of unions had groups there. King County Metro, our local transit authority, was handing out free "commemorative" bus tickets with the word "PRIDE" on them. There were also several candidates there -- and there's really nothing quite like demonstrating your committment to a marginalized community by appearing in public with them. It was great to see.

The parade seemed less "freaky" this year; Toys in Babeland had a relatively modest little presentation, and the various clubs mostly limited themselves to a flatbed truck, a DJ, and a few balloons.

But... never fear. There was plenty to turn my camera on.

Nice light

While Miz Becky and Janel tried to decide if there was live music in our future last night, I found this lovely image on the side of the Warwick. Apparently I didn't quite hold it as steady as I thought I could, braced against the street light.

Flora's dashboard

Recent street photography

I've finally gone through the film I picked up over a week ago, and have made a rough edit... I don't love all of these, but there's something in each one that I like, which I figure is good enough justification to live with them a while.

I should probably write a longer post about this, but I've noticed that I tend to use the digital camera for less personal photos, more "recording" or "commercial" (like yesterday's parade photos). On the other hand, I tend to do the more personal and expressive work on (as I said last week) "good, honest Tri-X". Is that a function of film vs. digital? Or is it a function of the digital camera being an SLR, while the film camera is a rangefinder, and therefore more suited to the kind of personal work I do? Hard to say either way, really.

The Fremont Solstice Parade

Man, yesterday was a beautiful day here in Seattle. A perfect day for the annual Fremont Solstice Parade. Fremont's gotten much more yuppified in recent years, but they're still the keepers of the flame of goofiness in Seattle, and the Solstice Parade is one event I try to never miss. It's a hoot.

This year was even more especially special, though, since several months ago Miz Becky dared herself to join her Samba class in this year's parade. Hours of extra rehearsals, costume trauma, and nerves -- not to mention, a healthy fear of dancing for two hours in the hot sun -- all ended up with a great time, and no significant sunburn!

You know, a mirrored chipmunk.

Atlas gets all Matthew Barney on us.

Store dog

I had a few rolls of good, honest, black and white film developed this week, so you should expect a few posts of them coming your way in the next few days.

Oh, the anticipation!

This guy cheats at hide-and-go-seek.

Are you suuuuure you're covering your eyes?

Folklife 2004

Ah, another wonderful Folklife festival. I only had two days there this year -- Miz Becky and I were preparing for the shower -- but I managed to pack in 14 hours or so of festivities, and saw a lot of great stuff.

The general scene

Performances

A polka interlude

People watching

Animal watching

An early Folklife report

I spent nearly nine hours at Folklife yesterday, where I danced, chatted with artists and musicians, ate food that was bad for me, bought some excellent hand-made knives, and shot about two hundred photos.

Since I'm aimin' to go back today (see, I'm all folksy now) to get a bit more of my Folklife on (maybe not that folksy), I'm just going to post one photo this morning. It's an attempt to answer the question "Was Miz Becky having a good time at the Brazilian music showcase last night?"

Apparently the answer is "yes".

Becky's birthday

(I'm starting to catch up after an extended period of excessive busyness... so expect a few, well, more historical posts over this Memorial Day weekend)

Last Monday, of course, was Miz Becky's birthday. Her parents were in town, Becky and I took the day off, and we all headed up to Whidbey Island for the perfect Miz Becky birthday activity: Nursery hopping.

Fins

When this building first went up I wondered what the fins were for. Then I saw them at sunset and it made perfect sense.

Props to... well, to me!

Hey, look whose publicity photos made it into the paper!

Yes, there was a big article about the Circus' new show in the paper the other day, and it was gratifying to see them use yours truly's publicity photos of them.

Of course, the one of Kari, uh, Sally, on the left, there is nicer in color.

This morning's leaves

This is more like a fall image than one that evokes spring, really.

It's a very Seattle spring this morning, though, which some might say is indistinguishable from fall.

Left behind

Day-glo Mondrian

More fritty plowers

A quick wander around the yard, to see what was blooming today.