Seattle Daily Photo: December 2009

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Four Hours 'Til 2010

Awaiting the New Year in Downtown Seatte. Best wishes to you for a very happy, healthy, peaceful 2010 from Seattle Daily Photo!

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

iPhone Wednesday #24: Downtown Buildings

In downtown Seattle one can find a monochrome pallet without tampering with the colors at all. This was shot with and edited in an iPhone.Chuck & Ming may have iPhone Wednesday shots for you, too.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Postcard From Half Moon Bay

Greetings from California where I'm on holiday this week. While I was checking out some crab boats yesterday at Pillar Point Harbor just north of Half Moon Bay, this pelican hopped aboard a bow in hopes of a hand out. Unfortunately for the pelican, Dungeness Crab was selling for $4/lb and it hadn't any cash :-).

Monday, December 28, 2009

Flashlight Under the Covers

Were you/are you one of those kids whose parents had to confiscate your flashlight so that you would go to sleep and stop reading that great book that you just couldn't put down? Well here's a place where they'll leave the light on for you to read by in the dark. Seattle's Central Library which spans the block between 4th and 5th Avenues and Spring and Madison Streets glows in the night like a giant angular mantel on an old fashioned camp lantern.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Westlake Center Station

Not so crowded night scene in the Westlake Center Station where shoppers and commuters can access buses and the new light rail system.Seattle's downtown underground bus tunnel system makes getting around easy.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Downtown Carriage Ride

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming. . . :-) I'm still in California but am posting photos I took in Seattle before I left on holiday. Like many cities, Seattle has a number of coach owners who provide horse drawn carriage rides through the downtown area, a special treat at night during holiday time on a clear night. As you can tell by their expressions, everyone was having fun.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Christmas Postcard From California

Greetings from the San Francisco Bay Area where I'm on holiday for the week. In the town where I am visiting family is a residential Christmas display open to the community that attracts thousands of people who tour the yard each year. It is the home of my sister-in-law's childhood friend who is a deacon in the local Catholic parish known to all as Deacon Dave. For over 25 years he has created a Christmas lights extravaganza in his front yard. I remember in the 1980s when he started there were 3000 or 5000 lights. Every year since the number has grown and so have the crowds to see the fun displays like life sized circling figure skaters, dancing trees, a nativity scene, live doves, and giant shining angels. This year the display includes over 3 million lights. For many this has become a treasured tradition to tour with their children on Christmas. I took this shot with my iPhone. I hope all who celebrated it had a lovely Christmas day!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

The Li'l Beaver at Work

The red engine of the tiny spur line of the Ballard Terminal Rail Road was hard at work pushing some heavy cars along the rails at Salmon Bay. The Li'l Beaver is pretty powerful and can be seen working all along Salmon Bay from Fremont through Ballard to the Locks. Do you have a model train or a Brio set out at your house for the holiday? Wishing you a fun and relaxing day spent with family and friends.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

iPhone Wednesday #23: Christmas Gone to the Dogs

While out walking I spied these retriever guardians sporting Santa hats at the base of an exterior stair case. I guess they are friendly sentinels ready to welcome you. It's my iPhone Wednesday shot where I take the photo and edit it in the iPhone using different apps. Chuck and Ming also have iPhone shots for you today.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Bon Star Street Scene

A patrol car makes its way along Pine Street in downtown Seattle while pedestrians walk about getting some evening shopping done.. Up Pine you can see the backside of the gigantic Christmas star that has adorned the old Bon Marche building (now Macy's) for 52 holiday seasons. Old habits die hard, and I still hear longtime Seattlites say they are going to "the Bon" to see store windows full of running trains and other festive displays when they mean Macy's.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Festive Ballard Centennial Bell Tower

A taxi turns onto Ballard Avenue from 22nd Ave NW on a rainy December night. Ballard's historic district features a lot music venues, restaurants, tea and coffee houses, and bars, so night life is usually pretty lively, but I took this late on Sunday night while walking after a show and it was pretty quiet. The Ballard neighborhood was not annexed to Seattle until 1907 and had its own city hall which stood on this site. The original bell from the city hall is housed in this Centennial Bell Tower now part of Marvin's Garden Park, named for Marvin Sjoberg, a beloved neighborhood character known as "the mayor of Ballard" from the 1960s until his death in 1989.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Tractor Tavern

There were two shows at the Tractor I wanted to see last week, both featuring accomplished fiddlers from my old haunts in the 80s & 90s in the SF Bay Area. I couldn't make it to hear Darol Anger playing as part of a limited five city holiday tour of the Pacific Northwest called Cascadia Yulegrass with some former members of the String Cheese Incident. I did get out Sunday to hear Jenny Scheinman perform with Robbie Fulks, who happened into my frame at left while I was taking a shot of the bar menu :-). More gig shots at More Seattle Stuff.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Our Version of Snow This Year

Last year Seattle had so much snow this week in December you may recall it shut down the airport and left many of the hill streets unused except by sleds, saucers and tubes :-). The city doesn't get enough snowfall to justify a fleet of snowplows, so when it comes down heavy every decade or so and lasts more than a few days, the city just shuts down. No snow so far this year. We are having warm rainy days now, and this is the only version of snow you will find around town. The homeowner arrived home from work and saw me on the sidewalk with a tripod snapping away and apologized that the snowman faced the house instead of the street to entertain her two year old from the window. How sweet!

Friday, December 18, 2009

Skywatch Friday: iPhone Circle Cube Skies

A view of our rainy Seattle skies with a little framing thrown in for you. You are invited to peek at skies around the world today. Just click here. Hope you are enjoying your Friday and are moving into a pleasant weekend.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Still Looking for Gifts?

If I'm on your list, this is where you can go shopping for me :-). Easy Street Records is a Seattle institution that hasn't gone under like so many record stores have in the last decade. There are frequent in-store concerts, a wide variety of music, a good used section, even vinyl. Hand painted murals of album covers adorn their parking lot wall. Up on the hill to the right you can see the Christmas lights on the King 5 broadcasting tower. Easy Street doesn't need extra lights as their year-round neon sign is already pretty festive. So, what music is on your top 5 list for 2009? How 'bout top 10 of the decade?

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

iPhone Wednesday #23: Skies Above Alki

Shadows in the skies, shadows on the water, with the long neck of Alki point bisecting the sunny spot. This is my 23rd in the iPhone Wednesday series. You'll want to check out Chuck of One a Day Mostly Seattle who took his iPhone to an amazing motorcycle show and Ming of Bangor Daily Photo is eating his way through India and taking us with him!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Better Watch Out

Santa Claus is crossing 1st Ave at Pike Street, maybe after a long day of shopping at Pike Place Market. . .or working out at the gym. He's looking a lot trimmer this year . :-).

Monday, December 14, 2009

Catfish Corner

At the corner of Cherry and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, where the Central District, Leschi, and Madrona neighborhoods converge, you will find this Seattle original in "fast food." Catfish Corner will celebrate its 25th year in business in 2010. As you have guessed from their name, catfish, southern style, is the star of the menu; but, if you are craving red beans and rice, you can get your fix here, as well as sides of okra, corn muffins, and peach cobbler. I was drawn in by the large mural of Dr. King painted by James Crespinel in 1995 on the MLK Way side of the building. Crespinel is a well known painter and muralist, and you may remember his Orca mural I showed you here.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

I'm Not the Only One Out There :-)

I came upon another photographer out capturing some shots of festive downtown Seattle. He was behind the whirling merry go round at Westlake Center. I love shots of photographers at work and have a small series of captures like this one called "Shoot the Photographer."

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Photos With Santa

Mom and Mrs. Claus look on as two girls visit with Santa about their Christmas wishes. Family photos with Santa in the downtown Nordstrom window can be seen by folks on the sidewalk looking in the window.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Westlake Center Christmas Tree

Westlake Center is a popular multistory indoor mall and plaza area in the heart of Seattle's downtown shopping district. There is a bus tunnel with Lightrail below ground, and a Monorail station one story above ground. It is home to the city's Christmas tree and many holiday events that draw thousands of visitors.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Bare Tree in the Puddle

The last of the fall leaves are visible in the reflection of a bare tree in a parking lot puddle at a Fred Myers store (lovingly referred to as "Freddies" by some Seattlites) near the ship canal in the no-man's-land between the Fremont and Ballard neighborhoods sometimes called "Freelard" or "Balmont." This shot was taken on an iPhone.

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

iPhone Wednesday #22: Audubon Society Member

This cat was snoozing in a window box, a bird house just out of sight on the roof above and a bird bath (now ice rink) near by. It will have to content itself with dreams of birdwatching, I guess. :-) If there were only a feeder nearby, then the cat might be in luck. This is my iPhone Wednesday shot, late this week, but my friends Chuck at One A Day-Mostly Seattle and Ming of Bangor Daily Photo posted on time. :-)

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Just in Case You Lost Your Bearings

. . .and were wondering where in Seattle you might be, this sign gives you the answer. I spied this nice bit of weathered metal work stashed around back while walking past an old service station now used as a real estate office in the Madrona neighborhood. There were other evidences about that an artistic person probably had a workshop very nearby.

Monday, December 07, 2009

December 2009

Here is a closer look at the tree composed of 1200 lights atop the Space Needle seen in yesterday's shot. If you would like to look out from among those lights at the top of the Needle right now, check out the live web cam that lets you manipulate which direction you are looking out upon in the 360 degree view. You can even choose a "time lapse" view of several time periods during the last 24 hours. Those are fun and you can see the lights do move in the wind, and the Needle casts its own shadow on the ground if you look north at the sunrise time lapse for today.

Sunday, December 06, 2009

View Down the Street

Our cold, clear air is offering up bright vantages of all our skyline markers, from hills and mountaintops during the day to the decked out Space Needle and Seattle's skyline at night. I this view came up in front of me while I was driving around a curve from the northwest. I had to stop and get this shot. There was a vacancy sign in front of the recently remodeled high rise apartments to my left that made me wonder what the view was like from a few stories up. I live on a hill but can only see neighbors' houses, street scenes, a narrow bit of Elliott Bay and West Seattle, and a territorial view (over rooftops and between trees :-) ) of the Needle and Mt. Rainier. What's the view like from your place?

Saturday, December 05, 2009

Counterbalance 9

I took a series of handheld night shots of a bare tree and the colored light parade along the concrete back wall of Counterbalance Park in the Uptown/Lower Queen Anne neighborhood. I put together a mosaic of some of the color variations for you.

Friday, December 04, 2009

Skywatch: Early Sunset

I took this shot out my friend's dining room window at 4:26 PM yesterday, and as you can see the sun is already down. Here at latitude 47, our December daylight hours are short. This view is looking southwest from Queen Anne Hill, with a view of the Magnolia bridge and the marina at the south tip of the Magnolia neighborhood, out over the Sound toward Bainbridge Island and the last flames of sunset beyond. It is Skywatch Friday, and you can see amazing skies from all over the world by clicking the link. And please take a look at what Bibi (A Yankee in Belgrade) posted for me today! Thank you Bibi! I love your gargoyle shot.

Thursday, December 03, 2009

Going All Out

I drove past this Queen Anne Hill neighborhood home this evening and just had to stop and get some shots of this bright multifaceted Christmas display. The owner and some guests emerged as I was snapping away, and he obviously enjoys sharing his good cheer with his neighbors. There is a creche, a train, and caroling snowmen in colored flood lights as well as bells, a wreath, trees, and lots of LED lights. It was a cheery sight in the magical blue light just after sunset.

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

iPhone Wednesday #21: Seattle Animal Shelter

Perhaps your family is like ours and you share your abode with some furry, scaly, or feathered friends. And perhaps at this time of year there is a child in your life hinting to you that it would be purrfect if yet another critter could join the menagerie. If you decide yours is a good home for a companion pet, check out the Seattle Animal Shelter in the Interbay neighborhood. That's where I took this shot of a curious feline staring across the hallway at some rats in a cage in another room. The shelter has many lovely cats, dogs, rabbits, rats, reptiles, hamsters and other small animals that are looking for caring homes. So does PAWS, with a cat center in the Greenwood neighborhood, and their large domestic, barnyard, and wild animal aid facility north of Seattle in Lynwood. Both the Animal Shelter and PAWS use volunteers to help out at their facilities, walk dogs, and provide in home foster care for animals waiting for adoption. They also both can use donations and support through calendar sales and pet/human photos taken with Santa Claws on Dec 13 by local photographer Winifred Westergard with help from Glazer's Cameras. It's my (very late!) iPhone Wednesday shot, taken and edited with my iPhone and apps. Since a dog was featured in last week's iPhone shot, I'm giving equal time to a cat this week :-). Chuck and Ming are sharing iPhone Wednesday shots, as well.

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Theme Day: Waiting

It is City Daily Photo Bloggers' first of the month theme day today: waiting. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.
What do you do while you are waiting? This was the weirdest wait I've had in awhile. There were at least 8 empty tables. It was a weeknight at 6 PM on a popular neighborhood shopping street. I had come way across town to enjoy dinner out as I have eaten at this restaurant before. After entering and standing unnoticed in the small entryway for two minutes, I occupied myself with reading the menu board and deciding what yummy things I might order. I stood there for another couple of minutes, and other patrons turned around to look at me when their partners kept looking my way. Now I'm feeling awkward and kind of invisible as wait staff pass back and forth to tables. I noticed a Glassybaby hand blown glass votive on the host stand in front of me and thought I'd like to get a photo of them glowing so prettily on all the tables while I'm waiting. I took out my camera to get a discreet shot. Click. A wait staff suddenly looked up from the kitchen and said she'd be with me in a moment. A host also appeared from the back. "Hi, how many?" said the host, and after checking her computer screen for quite awhile to find seating for one said with neither smile nor apology that she needed me to come back in an hour and fifteen minutes, and she could seat me then. I sort of have a version of that old college adage that for a TA who is late to class students should wait 15 minutes, for an assistant professor, 20 minutes, and for a full professor, 30 minutes. Well, I was hungry, and this wait wasn't worth two full professors and a TA :-). Having lived many years in the Gourmet Ghetto area of Berkeley, I realize how slammed with crowds a popular small chef-owned restaurant like this can get. With some, reservations are a must. But it has only been at "cattle call" large chain restaurants hoping for bar tab profits that I can recall a small party being asked to wait so very long, let alone to leave and come back. So, I moseyed across the street to another place I also enjoy, was greeted immediately and seated, and had a nice meal and finished before the hour and fifteen minutes of requested wait time were up. Funny thing was, some of these tables remained open the whole time I was dining across the street. In San Francisco in the 80s and early 90s we frequented a small seafood restaurant out in the Aves owned by the chef and a couple of the wait staff. They didn't take reservations and were always so packed there was a line waiting outside. We often hoped there actually would be a line as the owners would often serve a glass of wine on the house to those waiting. Ah, Pacific Cafe, where is your kind of spirit these days? :-) There were never any empty tables and everyone got served your wonderful food and had a great time despite (or because of :-) ) the wait.

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