Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
Sometimes urban elements come together in interesting ways. I just liked the way this looked and the colors. A follow-up to our three duckies from yesterday.
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
. . .say that in your best Edith Bunker voice. Archie McPhee's popular novelty shop will be closing its doors after nine years in Ballard and moving elsewhere. Home of the Devil Duckie and all things plastic, schlocky, and beyond cool, it has been a much beloved fixture on Ballard's main drag. Here's the full scoop. So long, fun little shop, and farewell.
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
A jet black sports car is just making the lights, speeding toward what seems like a barricaded route in the Cascade neighborhood. That's Key Arena off in the distance, and if you were trying to get there, this would definately be a case of "I know where you want to go, but you can't get there from here." The concrete divide is actually the median of Aurora Avenue/Hwy 99, a fast moving, not so pretty north/south main artery through Seattle.
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
Which lane to get in? You can go north from the left lane. You can go south from the right lane. Or, if you are still undecided on the route, you can stay in the middle lane until the last minute and then decide which direction to go. After last night's candidate debate, perhaps you've figured out which lane you'll choose for the presidential election? :-)
It took me awhile to get used to some of Seattle's hanging traffic signs and suspended lights when I moved here for college many moons ago. It all looked so foreign. Does your community hang signs or traffic lights above roadways in this fashion?
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
I had long wanted to catch a shot of the translucent roof and large neon sign on top of Ballard Market (which you saw here in a daylight shot). I was over driving in that area the other night and looked east and just had to stop, even though I was due somewhere else, and capture that rising moon in the background. Somehow, this association came about all of its own as I tried to compose within the tight confines of the only lens I had with me. This is the second in a developing series I'm calling Moon Roofs.
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
I took a couple of abstract shots incorporating the waxing moon over a few nights and thought you might enjoy seeing them. So here is today's. This is the blue shingled roof of the Science Fiction Museum portion of the EMP building. The distorted reflection of the Space Needle is glistening in the undulating surface.
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
Here is Washington Mutual Bank's WaMu Tower seen from on board a sail boat in Elliott Bay. WaMu, known for its amusing free checking accounts ad campaigns and its trademarked "Whoo hoo!" slogan, is singing the Whoo Hoo Blues these days as one of the very large American financial institutions whose mortgage division has been devastated by the sub-prime mortgage debacle. I invite US readers who wish to better understand the taxpayer bail out proposal under debate in congress to view this brief OpEd piece which has a link to the full wording of the legislation as well as succinct notes on key parts of the legislation; or this piece considering alternative legislation, or this piece which shows concern is not a partisan issue but a shared concern of both major political parties, and to phone or email your congressional representatives expressing your own views and concern. Democracy is participatory; we all benefit when we speak our minds and inform our elected government of our will. I'm wishing each of us well in the personal and collective economic challenges ahead of us in the USA.
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
Commuting to and from West Seattle to the waterfront and downtown can be a very pleasant experience for pedestrians and bicyclists via the Elliott Bay Water Taxi. It runs from late April through the end of October and costs only $3.00 USD. That's quite a nice deal considering it offers one of the west coast's nicest views and costs the same as say a trip over the Oakland Bay Bridge into San Francisco, but you don't have to drive and can enjoy the view.
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
Looking southeast from Bhy Kracke Park over South Lake Union's Cascade neighborhood and Capitol Hill beyond. The Museum of History and Industry's new campus at the old Naval Reserve Armory in the new South Lake Union Park is visible in the left foreground. That swath of gold with the red light trails is I-5 and delineates the start of Capitol Hill. If this scene includes your neighborhood, try and find your window!
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
Darker earlier, sunup later, breezes cooling despite the warm days. I bring a little of it indoors to keep it going a bit longer. It rained all day yesterday, and gray today, but Indian Summer is just around the corner with it's crisp air and bright sun. Happy SUNday everyone!
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
Okay, so it's the second overcast gray day in a row after weeks and weeks and weeks of absolute sunshine. If I can't get it outside, at least I can attempt to hang on to that feeling of high summer in El Diablo Coffee's cheerful interior, every square foot of which has been painted with wild, whimsical figures and colorful abandon by Fiona McGuigan & Zephyr Nelson. Watch out, though, it's not just the murals, table tops and chairs that radiate warm fuzzies; that Cuban sunshine in a cup packs a big buzz! Maybe you feel it a little bit in this picture ;^). Here we go into fall on Monday. Hope your last weekend of summer 2008 is great (or last weekend of WINTER for you folks with the blood rushing to your heads down under)!
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
Can you imagine what it must take for an artist to work as a cartoonist like this one who does street portraits in tourist areas of Seattle. How many instant meetings must artists like this go through in a day, and how do they cope with all the varieties of people and personalities they must encounter each day. And if they are shy, how do they calm performance jitters enough to get the job done with a crowd of spectators watching their every move. Do you do your job in public or have some sort of audience, and how do you feel about that?
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
Sometimes I consider the tall clusters of broadcasting towers on Capitol Hill and Queen Anne (seen here) to be an eyesore, much like I thought of the giant Sutro Tower in San Francisco that used to loom over the hill outside our third floor kitchen window and blink at me like Big Brother as I prepared dinner in the evenings. I called it the Martian Tower. Sometimes, though, we can look at things a little differently and make out of their mundane and utilitarian form something more interesting, colorful and more pleasing to view. Not quite la Tour Eiffel, but still a bit sparkley!
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
Guys gabbing during a smoke break on an Experience Music Project concert night. The EMP lives up to its name as an interactive museum and venue that must be experienced, hands on. Most people visiting it for the first time would call it the AMAZING Music Project, and a Seattle destination not to be missed if you have an interest in American popular music and rock from the 1950s to present, or in contemporary architecture.
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
This is Rabbi Eliakim B. David in action. Playing and improvising to some recorded tracks, this dapper street musician in his 80s was keeping it fresh, sending out his sweet tone into the night air, gathering listeners, smiling at the ladies, and switching between alto and tenor.
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
Do you recognize this City Daily Photo Blogger? Yes, it's Katney, of Yakima Daily Photo! She trekked through Seattle yesterday on her 3 Day Walk to help in the fight against breast cancer. Over three thousand participants spent the third day of this amazing walk making their way through the arboretum, the University of Washington Campus, on to Green Lake (where I met Kathy in the morning), through Fremont, out to the Olympic Sculpture Park and waterfront, and then to Seattle Center's Memorial Stadium for their closing ceremony. Seattle was awash in PINK! Kathy is wearing a hat she made for last year's 3 day walk, embroidered with dozens of names of breast cancer patients, and she's holding the patchwork pink ribbon backpack she also specially made. It was wonderful to meet her and wish her well on the last leg of a very long and worthwhile effort. Congratulations Kathy! I can vouch for her completing the 60 miles (I've seen the blisters for myself!), and if you'd like to pledge for the miles Katney walked, go here. For lots more fun photos of Kathy and her fellow walkers, go here. And click on her blog (above) to see more of her adventures on the trail.
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
With the lovely summer nights we've been having, a lot of people are heading outdoors for some fun after dark. This little ferris wheel located in the small amusement area, the Fun Forrest, adjacent to the Space Needle, is slated to go by the wayside with the other beloved kiddie carnival-style rides, and that portion of Seattle Center's campus is to be redeveloped. Perhaps we should request a Seattle Eye be considered, like London's--something that can better match the Space Needle's stature, offer youth and families some fun, and provide another means of taking in Seattle's spectacular views.
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
Winding through the hilly streets, headlights needed earlier as autumn approaches. Coming home after a perfect sunny summer day with hints of fall in the breeze. It surprises many visitors to Seattle how many hills and narrow lanes there can be to navigate to houses tucked into the curves of the topography. It affords everyday views such as this, though.
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
A tiny shop on old Ballard Ave. has intrigued me for years. The window displays are always unique, thoughtful, artfully pulled together, sometimes whimsical, sometimes bizarre, sometimes pure art. The shop has no sign, no advertising, it just draws you in. Or the small, cute pet in the window does. Within are more wonderful things to see like an array of the owner's handmade cards or amazing curios from many times and places. Your only clue to finding it walking by, besides the window displays, is an aging name from a long closed business, "Frank's," embedded in the tile and terrazzo entryway, and this pet gate. The shop is Souvenir, the artist who creates it is Curtis Steiner. You've got to see his amazing interactive sculpture, "1000 Blocks," on display at the Seattle Art Museum, which can be viewed slowly or quickly here. After those mesmerizing 100 variations, you'll want to play with your own Stiener 1000 Blocks set on line here.
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
I walk around Green Lake several times a week. So, why do I often park near here? ;^) Actually I have yet to go in. My walking routine is rewarded strictly by tranquil sounds of background traffic, lapping water, rustling trees, water fowl, kids playing, runner's feet on gravel, bladers and cyclist's wheels against pavement (I don't take the iPod). I usually have camera in hand but don't shoot much, mostly just take in the scenes, colors and beauty as I pass by. Sometimes I watch the people on the trail as I walk, and I recognize some regulars who are there the times that I am (like this skater I showed you last year who does 6 or 7 laps while I walk one!). We nod at each other in passing. On this particular day I glimpsed a famous neighbor walking with spouse in the opposite direction, unnoticed and unmolested by anyone, getting to have a normal day in the sun like the rest of us. Mostly I just enjoy being with my thoughts, having the personal space. I've heard that the confections at Chocolati are wonderful, though.
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
Last month I showed you a pocket camera daytime view of this bench and grass hardscape that is in front of the newly opened UW Medicine Research campus in the South Lake Union biotechnology hub of Seattle. I revisited at night with my regular camera and found new charms the designers had built in, like the lighting under the bench. Reminds me of the light strips on airliners that are meant to guide you in the right direction.
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
This doesn't happen much outside of touristy areas when I'm photowalking the neighborhood and downtown streets, especially at night; but, I came lens to lens with one of my kind the other night. He was sitting under a street lamp on an opposing corner, doing what I was doing, trying to catch some shots of Seattle life. I laughed and crossed to speak with him after I saw through my long lens that the figure was a guy with a camera and not a street person sitting there. He must have thought me crazy at first when I emerged from the shadows, tripod in hand, and said, "One of my kind!" Actually, it turns out he's much, Much, MUCH more highly evolved than I. . . ;^) You can see his work here.
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
Grass silhouetted in nighttime neon street scene bokeh, seen through the colored glass of a streetcar stop shelter on a beautiful summer night. Hope today is the start to a great week!
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
Thought you might enjoy an abstract on this fine late summer Sunday. These glass orbs are part of a lighting scheme suspended at second story level between shiny new buildings on the UW Medicine Research campus in the Cascade neighborhood.
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
Here is Seattle's downtown core from a vantage point not often seen in photos. The common skyline shots are usually taken from the the hill to the left (east) whose green base is showing. From this photo's angle on another hill further west, though, the stacked blocks of buildings take on an almost geometric diamond shape, determined by the city's core being built on a step hill descending to a bay. The distinctive Amazon.com building on Beacon Hill far to the south of downtown is compressed into this scene to look as if it were very near (orange/terracotta colored stair-stepping looking building to the right). But if you were looking back north at the downtown from the Amazon.com building, this is what you would see.
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
I came across this 1960's era faded advert on the side of a brick building on First Hill and thought it was a nice compliment to yesterday's uber in-the-moment Seattle sodas.
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
Jones Soda Co. is a local Seattle business specializing in natural, organic sodas. The company definitely has a distinctive marketing vibe. Their labels and six pack cartons often feature cool images submitted by artists and photographers. This campaign year I had heard that they were distributing "campaign colas" with labels featuring presidential candidates. I had looked for them at the market several times but had never come across it. I had to drop a family member off at an event in South Lake Union and thought I'd do a photowalk afterward. I came across a colorful Jones Soda truck parked outside the company's loading dock. I was shooting away at the orange door, orange bottles in the upper window and orange truck graphics when the loading dock door suddenly went up and an employee took some trash to the dumpster. He was surprised to see a woman with a tripod clicking away at him in the dark. I said something lame like "there goes my orange door," hoping I didn't seem too weird. I asked him about the business and mentioned how cool their labels were and if the candidate sodas had been discontinued. "Why, no, were there any in particular you were looking for?" ;^) Jones Campaign Colas are available online here. One can even submit a photo and slogan for their own "My Jones" label design. I was also told one can go to the company on Friday's to quench their thirst for organic soda for a mere $00.50 USD.
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
I got an email late yesterday afternoon from Daniel Keebler, who is a ranger with the National Parks Service on Mount Rainier. I became acquainted with him and his wife Jerri about 13 years ago through a phone call about our mutual appreciation for the music of Bruce Cockburn. He at that time edited a Cockburn newsletter, "Gavin's Woodpile," which he now has available as a webpage.
He signed his email yesterday "from the mountain." I'd been busy with work and errands indoors most of the day and I thought I would just go out in the yard and look toward Daniel on the mountain and connect with the outdoors for a bit, maybe give Daniel a wave "hi," (yes, I am that crazy ;^) ). My jaw dropped when I saw the mountain, it seemed to be magnified and towered above the city, crystal clear. I grabbed the gear and tried to think of the nearest unobstructed view that wasn't Kerry Park, site of yesterday's shot (I don't want to bore you with too many postcard shots, and I promise this will be the last for a long while). The sun was going down fast, so I hightailed it to this park we started using for barbecues and field games last summer. So, thanks to Daniel who is all the way on the other side of this scene for putting the idea in my head to look that way last evening. "Hi Daniel! Hope it was a great summer in the backcountry!"
Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
A blue scene with towering clouds and a white tower on Sunday evening. Music from the Bumbershoot festival in the distance was rising up to us. I was having a pleasant conversation with a couple from Poland and a fellow from Moscow, and we were all shooting this scene.
Update: Thanks to Knoxville Girl's heads up! As it turns out, Saint Louis Daily Photo's Strangetastes was shooting this scene just a few yards away from me, but neither of us knew it. The sad thing is, we had hoped to meet up for coffee while his family was on holiday in the area, but, due to an email snafu on my part, we didn't end up connecting, except in this shared vision that evidenced our near proximity. Today SLDP also features this same view from almost the same instant on the same day. Cue up music for the Twilight Zone now. . .
Photo "Bergen Harbour," Copyright 2007 Jonas Smith. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonassmith/52614456/
No, this is NOT Seattle! Today CDPBloggers are showing you photos of our sister cities around the globe. Bergen Norway is the second of Seattle's 21 official sister cities (adopted in 1967; Kobe, Japan was first in 1957, and 19 others have come since). Like Seattle, Bergen is a port town and very beautifully situated. King Olav the 5th of Norway came to Seattle in 1975 and dedicated a Nordic heritage plaza in the Ballard neighborhood called "Bergen Place," which features a large colorful mural depicting life in Bergen, as well as stone benches carved to honor Norway, Iceland, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. Many Seattlites trace their heritage back to Norway and the other Scandinavian countries. Photo, "Bergen Harbor," is by Jonas Smith, http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonassmith/. See who your other favorite City Daily Photo Blogs' sister cities are around the globe.
