wishes

I wish I had a driver, so I could capture shots on the road. I wish I had gotten back to Seattle sooner. I wish I had more time to explore.

This sunset picture was very strange because it almost looks like there was something blocking the left side and it cast this straight line of a shadow. The sunset earlier made the clouds glow in a very beautiful way, but I was too slow getting out of the car in the garage, so I was left with this photo.

Soon this view looking south on Fifth Avenue will be changing. There is a new building going in next to the church. I like the contrast of the tallest building in Seattle, next to one of the older churches downtown.

Hot food, cold nights

I went to Dick’s Drive-in to pick up cheeseburgers and fries. I missed out on the 55th Anniversary pricing of two-for-one, but that’s okay. Hot burgers and hot fries are good no matter what.

It snowed again. Sunday, today. Just little flake falling from the sky. It’s like we need to be reminded that we are in the middle of winter. I really want to just hibernate. Stay in my comforter cocoon and sleep.

I wish I could get away during the day from the office. When I do get away, it’s for lunch and I’d rather get something to eat than wander around. But soon, I’ll start getting day time shots. I like this photo because I was able to get a night shot from the 40th floor of SMT without the light reflecting off the window.

Break time

I have taken a break from posting, but not from taking photographs.

On Friday, I took a little walk to the shopping center of downtown. I had to pick up some stuff from Office Depot. The Ben Bridge clock is near the corner of Fourth and Pike. There is a website that has photos of all the downtown clocks. This is just my token picture of one downtown clock.

The Alaska Building has been undergoing renovations since the City of Seattle offices moved out in 2006. Apparently they are adding additional space to square up the L-shaped building. I wanted to capture the "topping out" of the steel structure.

Saturday was ramblin’ day. I took some time to get things done and wandered around the Northgate area before settling in at Panera’s for some lunch. I had a nice hot cop of coffee while I settled into my booth with some great guitar music and a book.

Today was work day. Sundays will be work days for the next few months. Too much to do and not enough time, as always. I was walking back to the car with my head down because of the wind and I spotted these man-hole covers. It took me a while but I figured out that the little gold disk on the map indicated where in the city this particular cover was. Now I am on a mission to find more and see if the other's have indicators on them too. Apparently there are nineteen and yes, they all have the indicator button. Something to look forward to in the spring and summer.

Corner of 4th and Marion

This was the other hatchcover I saw on my way to the car.

Meetings, meetings everywhere

I don’t like days filled with travel, meetings and more meetings. By the end of the day, my brain hurts and I want to sleep. Having to think is just too hard.

Tonight was another late night. I walked to a different bus stop and so was able to take a picture of another building at night.

This photo is one of the ornamental walrus heads on the Arctic Building. The Arctic Building ballroom was the site of many, many meetings for the City of Seattle before it was bought and redeveloped into a hotel. The best memory I have of this building is when Barbara and Gene celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. The Dome Room, as the ballroom is called, is this large round room with an amazing glass ceiling and chandelier, as seen in this photo by Joshua Trujillo / P-I

I haven’t been in there since the remodel, but I bet it looks even more stunning after the renovation.

For the birds

The fog was heavy and freakin’ COLD this morning. I almost ran back home just to get under my covers. Brrrrr!

Every evening at the Renton office, there is a nightly roosting of crows around the buildings. In fact, it has gotten so bad, the doors are really gross to touch and you run the risk of getting poop dumped on you. I left late enough for there to be light, but early enough that the crows were somewhat settled.

If you look at the back ground trees you can see that those are also covered in birds. It is a very strange thing to see.

I’m sorry ma’am

There is this amazing art display in the Fourth and Madison Building. You can see it in the lobby on the 3rd Avenue side. Every year this display is put up before the holidays and I think they leave it up until February or so. Last year I happen to be waiting at the bus stop when they were taking these down, so I was able to see how they transported these objects. I have been very curious about how they are moved because they are basically large glass balls with spikes poking out all over. This picture doesn’t give the sense of the scale of these pieces. I think the smallest one is about 3 feet in diameter, including the spikes. You could be impaled by one of these pieces if it was not tethered to the ceiling correctly. It looks really cool from below but alas I have no photos of that view.

I have been wanting to get a picture of these and I was lucky enough to go past the building tonight while the doors were still open. Unfortunately, it was late so the guards were out in force. Well, one guard was out in force. He yelled up from the bottom floor “ma’am, there is no photography allowed in this building. If you want to take photos, you have to get permission from the building management.” What?? Okay, I said. I didn’t take a photo yet, as I so kindly explained to him. He kept repeating himself, and even came upstairs to tell me again, there was no photography allowed. He was very nice about it, and wasn’t being a jerk at all. He just kept repeating himself. I kept asking him, “I can’t take photos from inside the building, correct?” “Yes, that is correct, ma’am. If you want to take photos inside the building you will need permission.” I made doubly sure that I understood and he knew I was asking about only taking pictures from inside the building. So I promptly went outside and took my pictures. Take that mister security officer!

No photo today. I didn’t get out of the house until dinner time. Which is too bad because I know it was beautiful out today. But I did make a collage of the photos I’ve taken so far this month. Except for one. The fish are so freaky weird, I had to include them.

I like it. I was too tired to play with Photoshop, but that project is for next month. More time to play then.

Seattle Sunshine

Not very often in January does the sun shine for Seattle. The sky was beautiful, bright and blue, but it was COLD!!

I had to work today, but I made sure I had some daylight hours to get some walking around downtown. I am working on my quarter schedule for work and play, so hopefully I will be expanding my photos of neighborhoods around town. Here are some shots from Downtown. I had to really adjust my manual settings to the daylight. But I think some of them are not too bad.

4th And Pike Building

Coliseum Theater Building, 5th and Pike

Monorail, Westlake Center

Mount Rainier, view from 58th Floor, Seattle Municipal Tower

Beautiful, colorful, smoggy sunset

Today I got a chance to wander around a few blocks downtown. It was nice to get out during the day and take some photos. I was able to stay away from my auto setting and get some really good shots.


This is the Executive Hotel Pacific Building. If you look up the sides of the buildings around Seattle, the level of detail on the windows and near the roof lines are incredible, and amazing that the builders would take the time to create such beautiful works when they cannot be easily seen from the ground level.

Seattle Public Library. I took this photo as an idea for a future shot. I imagined getting shots of the Torchlight Parade as it comes down 4th ave, but only in the reflection of the library.

I love the library. I have since I was very little and found out you could take books home and it was okay. I remember spending one summer in San Diego, reading tons of books as part of the reading contest. It made the summer seem so long and lazy. Today I get almost everything I read, watch and listen to from the library. The online catalog is the absolute best and you can reserve almost anything and it shows up at the Lake City Library. No more running from library to library trying to get that one must have book.




This morning the fog was heavy and was making the buildings disappear. The Columbia Tower was reduced to one-quarter its usual glory. It just fades into the sky.

When I downloaded today's photos, I was somewhat disappointed to not see a folder from yesterday. There is a gap. My folder list is missing number 14. Poor thing.


I was on the road today and was coming down Boren to turn on James Street. I don't get up near Harborview very often and I don't see my building from this angle. I like the other views better. This view just looks wrong. But I did have to point out where my office is. Way the heck up there. Now just imagine 30 mile winds. Blech.



I am getting so much more confident at taking the low light shots. And I didn't get any blurry shots tonight. I was walking down Cherry from 5th Ave and saw the Smith Tower through the trees. I like the colors (pretty much true to life) and I wanted to capture some of the starkness of the tree and the little star that was peeking through the fog. I really like this shot. It captures the building with the lights glowing, but it also captures the colors of the sunset. Yay!

Carrying around my camera with me everyday allows me to capture oh so many different views of this city we call Seattle. I think as the days go by, I will see more and more interesting items and will have more to document. I found tonight's item as I was waiting for my bus.

Now, one has to wonder why there is a broken chair in the tree. Considering it is right in front of the King County courthouse, maybe someone was trying to escape jury duty? I sometimes wish there was a little story attached to the things in this world, much like a balloon pop-up when you put your pointer over an object on the computer desktop. But alas, we will never know the story of the chair in the tree.