Sun up, sun down

It's fun to stare out the window at work. At my old job in an office on Seattle's waterfront, my desk faced west and I had unmatched views of the sun setting behind the Olympic Mountains every evening. I worked a second shift, and the sunset was the highlight of the night. At my new job I work much earlier, and my desk faces east. Today was the first day since being there that I realized I may have some nice sunrise shows over the Cascade Mountains each morning. We'll see how it goes visually -- those sunsets were often pretty spectacular. But there's something nice about just being awake for the start of a new day.

Joy of Holga

Finally got my first roll back from the experiment that is Holga. I got this camera two years ago and had never loaded film in it. I had heard about all kinds of taping needed to keep light leaks to a minimum. Other than the gigantic light leak that I caused myself by popping the back off before the roll was finished, I had no real light issues with the prints I got back. I like the blurry black corners -- and it's surprisingly sharp for a piece of plastic. A few more right here and more to come, I'm sure.

Ride and park

I got a new bike that gets me off my ass and out from in front of a computer when I get home from work. The exercise is nice, and the chance to take some photos during some of the best light of the day is nice, too. I've been going through Golden Gardens park and past Shilshole Marina as part of my rides. Quite a quiet scene there compared to a weekend day in the middle of the summer.

Up above it all

A couple constants that I love about Seattle: The Aurora Bridge and floatplanes. I like bridges. They're marvels of engineering and the Aurora Bridge just happens to be cool to look at from the neighborhood below, and when you're driving on it (i hate the sketchy center lane) it affords wonderful views of mountains to the east and west. The floatplanes are great because they always seem to be buzzing overhead, taking off from and landing on Lake Union. It's a cool reminder that we live around a lot of water. So here's today's ode to both. Oh, and read my friend Mike's piece on the P-I's Web site about Aurora jumpers. Sad.

Auto drive

I hate people who use their cell phones while driving. Kinda cliche, I guess. Everyone fucking does it. But ya know, everyone sucks at it, too. I wonder how people feel when they drive by me and catch me pointing my camera out the windshield. They better just keep driving. Because if I catch 'em looking at me I'll take their picture. And I'll post it on some nasty porn site. Check out this here flickr set dedicated to driving distracted.

Kodak's lost moments

Honestly I'm bored with certain aspects of the digital lifestyle. The immediacy is nice. The cost is nice. But I just dug through a few packs of prints from last summer, and scanned this shot from up near Banff, B.C., and it felt like old times. When it would take me all day to scan and clean up a mess of vacation prints. I haven't filled a photo album in 2 years. Everything is on the computer or some disc in a drawer. Oh well. At least you can't get your greasy fingerprints on my flickr photos.

Downtown weekend

Somehow if you pack a suitcase, take a bus downtown and check into a hotel it feels like you've taken a little vacation. Staying above the Public Market, eating at a couple of our favorite places, walking the streets and taking lots of pictures was our idea of a good time on a drizzly Saturday in February. Please enjoy many more images right here.

It's fun to 'miss'

Posing people at parties is all fine and good for photo albums and such. But the joy of pointing and shooting without composing is once in a while you get something interesting. I just like this backyard bbq shot of Denise and Tanya and their beer cups because it's not obvious. And there was lots of talk that day with new homeowner Jill about her fruit trees.