End of the year

In honor of the ending of 2011, we decided to take a drive through Pierce County with our cameras. Saw lots of cool waterways that were hard to photograph and many many trashed and seemingly-abandoned houses (some should have been abandoned but actually had inhabitants). We eventually found ourselves tromping through boggy, mossy mud without slog-worthy shoes at Alder Lake. The best way to describe the location is "stumpy."

Alder Lake stumps

I just finished Cormac McCarthy's Outer Dark and I guess I was looking for ravaged and scorched earth to match the pictures in my head.

Leslie and Son

I've been pretty thin on my posts of late. I've got a little break so you'd think I'd be on top of it, but I'm preoccupied with working on photos. Haven't shot anything for a while so I'm feeling a little antsy. Hopefully, that will change over the next week.

Thought I'd post this picture since it cracks me up (I'm a little dorky). If I had a son and had a farm or a business, I'd definitely have a sign like this one. I love how bright the yellow is. If the farmer had been around, I would have bugged him to let me take his picture. I'm sure he would have been delighted.

In memoriam - Vaclav Havel 1936 - 2011

In memory of a truly great and brave man, Vaclav Havel:

Link to an article on the significance of November 17 to Czechs.

Abandoned phone booths

It's strange to call these things phone "booths" since there's very little that is "boothy" about them. They actually remind me of study carols from elementary school - three sides and the inability for someone to look at what you're doing straight on. Public phones seem to be disappearing. The cell phone has caused the demise of what was once a fairly ubiquitous convenience. It's unfortunate for those who don't have cell phones since they are left searching for a phone "booth" with an actual phone in it (Is this like a food desert in urban areas? A phone desert?). Many booths, few public phones. These pictures are companions to this one that I shot in Florida.

Puyallup

Edgewood

Crumpled structure

As you start to head north, away from Beverly, there is an old agricultural structure that looks like part of it was crumpled by a giant.

This is a satellite image of it and the flotsam surrounding it.

Gone

Not many things seem quite as forlorn as the remains of a house. This is a stark example of a "lost" home on the Lower Crab Creek Road near Beverly. There was a bit of detritus lying on the ground - a woman's shoe, tin cans, glass, rusty bits of things. Close to this was another foundation but it didn't have as much "structure" as this one did - just a few pieces of cement in a low-lying grid pattern. I don't know what the history of habitation on this road was - no one lives there now as far as I can tell.

Gone

At one point along the road I saw a "ghost house" in the distance, but it was too far away to photograph well. I did find the remains of a bridge but couldn't tell what lay on the other side through the brush.

Bridge remains, Lower Crab Creek Road

There are some farmed fields, birds and plenty of hunters on a November Saturday morning, but it's predominantly an empty, beautiful place.

What is this structure?

We saw two of these structures in central Washington. Both were collapsed in a similar way. One was in Cunningham but it was too dark to photograph. This one was in Starbuck. It had a small opening at the bottom that would allow a person to crawl inside it and it had a bit of hay inside. That's all the information I can give you about it. Any information would be appreciated. Thanks!

Collapsing structure - Starbuck, WA

Empty and uninhabitable

This Thanksgiving holiday we went for a long drive through the Washington scab lands. We clocked in over 700 miles over the course of three days driving from the western side of the Cascades to central Washington and back. I photographed this wreckage of a house in Beverly, which is at the terminus of the Lower Crab Creek Road. More photos to come from this trip (I shot over 200 digital images and around 8 or 9 rolls of film).

Beverly

Inclement days ahead

The weather has definitely turned itself toward winter...tremendous rainstorms earlier this week and snow dumping in the mountains (what joyful news to a skier!). Winter in the Pacific NW is generally a grey event that causes many to wax poetic about the brief outbursts of sunshine in August and September. In honor of the grey days ahead, here is a sunny little pinhole photo taken with my Zero Image camera. Take heart, friends. Miss Tomato is out there somewhere bathed in warm sun.

Miss Tomato

Additional blog

I've added another blog dedicated to found photos. Take a look at it at Now Is Found

Placid oceanscape

Flat water in Haida Gwaii, British Columbia.

Encaustic workshop

This weekend I took an Encaustic Photography workshop with Nichole Dement at the Photo Center in Seattle. What a blast. Nichole is an excellent teacher - really knowledgeable and patient. I learned more than I imagined I would and am now completely excited to start doing encaustic on my own.

I worked on two pieces. This is the smaller of the two (6"x6") and includes a photo of an abandoned house that I've posted before. This example includes the photo, a transfer, incising, paint, oil pastels, and, of course, wax. The little "dots" around the orange square remind me of stitches. Hopefully, I can convince hubby that he needs to share a corner of the garage with my new-found obsession.

Light 2

Hellissandur again. This time some golden light on a garage.

Hellissandur garage

Light

Not much to blab about right now. Thought I'd just upload a photo. This is a picture I shot in Hellissandur, Iceland. If you love light and skies, Iceland is a great place to go since it's constantly changing and surprising.

Hellissandur landscape

Another abandoned place

This time it's an abandoned lumber business. Unfortunately, the entire grounds are fenced so the best I could do was to squeeze the camera through an opening and hope for the best. Taken with my Fujica 6x4.5.

Abandoned lumber business

A portrait - Bridget

Bridget - Lubitel camera

Western Washington Fair in Puyallup

Although the Puyallup Fair ended at the end of September, I thought it would be fun to post a couple Lubitel shots I took last year of the park. Though I don't normally print things large, I'm tempted to try to make a really big print of the 2nd image since there's so much going on and tons of color.

Mighty Mouse

Whack

Oddly enough, the Flaming Lips were playing at the fair this year. What a show...I still get high thinking about how great it was. Here are a couple (not very good) shots from the show.

More abandoned houses

Thought I'd upload a couple more abandoned houses. The first is now gone - it's been replaced with an empty field. Back when people lived in the house there were two enormous cedar trees in the front yard. First the trees went. Then the people. Then the house.

Abandoned house - Sumner, WA

This second house is a "ghost house" that I saw in Eastern Oregon. The people are long gone but the house lingers on. This reminds me of the photos of empty houses during the Great Depression.

Ghost house - Eastern Oregon

Slow bike rides in October

Although it wasn't the slowest bike ride I've ever been on, today was pretty pokey-paced. It's autumn in the Puyallup/Sumner/Orting valley (I'm not sure if they're actually all the Puyallup valley) and nature decided that yesterday's deluge was worth a day without rain, so a photographic bike ride seemed like a good idea for a low-key Sunday afternoon. I brought my Mavica 6x4.5 and the Canon G9 in my pack and took a bunch of different rural shots including these shots of an abandoned farmhouse that is slowly being pillaged for its windows, gutters and trim. It's sad to see these older houses stand empty, just waiting for a bulldozer. A few years ago, I met the owner of this house on the trail and he seemed like a nice enough fellow. Who knows what happened - perhaps he died. Maybe he just moved away and no one moved in.

Front of empty house

Side view

Rear view

Aside from the bit of sadness brought on by empty dwellings, I did take some macro shots of snow berries. I especially like that there is another scene "trapped" in the water drops of this image.

Snow berries

Snow berries detail

Sorting

I've been gradually sorting through old photos recently. Attempting to match pictures with negatives (if I can find them) and organizing the negs into labeled sleeves in binders. This has never been an issue with my black and white work since I always put those negatives away. Color work is different since I don't do the developing and I often receive the negs long-sleeved and rolled up after they've been scanned.

Anyhow, the nice thing about going through old photos is occasionally finding little gems that appeal to me now more than they did at the time. Here's a shot I took in Ft. Lauderdale in 2009 (fortunately, I was able to find the negatives so I could scan the original file in and work from that).

Florida phone booth

Iceland "mineral" pile

In keeping with last night's post...another "dirt" pile. I have no idea what this substance was. Perhaps gypsum. It's lovely how the stuff glows against the dark dirt and the stormy looking sky. Dirt piles everywhere, including Hellissandur, Iceland.

Peninsula "dirt" pile

Actually, it's not a dirt pile, it's a gravel pile. I am enamored with dirt, sawdust, gravel, rock, compost, etc. etc. piles that you find along the road. A lot of them are there because they're needed for some sort of road project. Whatever the reason, they bring me weird photographic joy. This one was shot with my Fujica 6x4.5, my new/old favorite landscape camera. "New," because I'm interested in using it again. "Old," because I used to use it an awful lot.

Gravel pile, Olympic Peninsula

Some macros for a rainy day

Spent perhaps too much time indoors today. In addition to some darkroom time, I took some macro shots with the Canon G9 of stuff I had lying around. It might tell you something about my housecleaning habits when you see that I photographed a dead moth, a dead spider and a dying sunflower. They may be dead (or close to it) but they're still photo-worthy.

A Tacoma treat

While driving along Schuster Parkway in Tacoma this evening, I glanced over at the Simpson Kraft paper mill and saw the most beautiful light on the plant. Though I was tempted to continue down the highway, I reminded myself that I would regret not stopping to take a few shots (I had about seven more shots left in my Fujica 6x4.5 that I was itching to blow through). Art trumped fatigue and I pulled over into Thea Foss park.

I walked down to the metal dock and started snapping and chatting to an after-work fisherman about the beautiful light and fish and whether it was possible for me to reach down and grab one of the salmon that were up against the dock. While I was contemplating the logistics of transporting a fish in my car without plastic bags, the fisherman said, "Look, there's a boat coming." I turned to look and saw a dragon boat crew paddling toward us. I then remembered it was Thursday and my mother was probably one of the paddlers. I knew my friend Robyn and her husband Steve would definitely be there. Lo and behold, there Kathleen was in her cute purple jacket and purple sunglasses.

Kathleen in her natural habitat & Steve the oarsman

The dragon boat leader told me that a tug was about to be launched from Martinec and I could go witness it if I jumped in my car and ran down there. Again, I considered ditching the idea, but how often does a girl from NJ get to see a tugboat hit the water for the first time. I drove down to Johnny's dock and joined the small but friendly crowd of people gathered to watch the event. The paddlers decided to row there.

Mt. Rainier, a dragon boat and the 11th St. Bridge - Ah, Tacoma.

Here's a shot of the tugboat hitting the water. Glory be! It floats! A tug is born. A great way to end a late September day. I should trust my photo instincts more often.

A stormy beach camp

In celebration of our wedding anniversary, we went to a place called Cape Alava on the Washington coast. It's a long, long drive on the Olympic Peninsula but there's lots of cool stuff to gawk at (and take photos of). There is a boardwalk hike that takes you through the forest, which is filled with ancient trees, lichen, mushrooms, mosses, fungi, streams and other lovely things to gaze upon during your  contemplative three mile stroll to the beach. Once we arrived at the camping area and set up our tent, we poked around the tide pools and took photos. There is an immense amount of seaweed that washes ashore. I don't know the names of most seaweeds but I'm pretty sure this large bulbous plant is called "bull kelp." I love how the kelp looks as though it's being strangled by the seaweed that looks either like spaghetti or intestines (depending on your mood).

Strangled

The wind was extremely strong. At times I found it difficult to keep my camera still because I was being buffeted about. Because a storm was coming in and the next low tide would occur at 5:30 Sunday morning, we decided to do our beach hike on Saturday afternoon.

If you walk south along the beach, you can eventually get to another camping area called Sandpoint. There is another trail from Sandpoint that leads back to the parking area at Lake Ozette if you are making a giant loop (or triangle) of your hike. Before getting to Sandpoint, there are petroglyphs carved by the native people (I'm not sure if it was the Makah) in the 19th century. There's a very cool one of a sailing ship but we couldn't find it on this trip. Here are a couple figures of the one I think is the easiest to see. The petroglyph is actually lying horizontal but I turned it vertical for viewing purposes.

Petroglyph - Washington coast

I'm glad that we went on our beach walk on Saturday since it was dumping rain and blowing super hard when we woke up Sunday morning (during the night the wind and rain lashed at our tent - making for fitful sleep).

After breakfast under a tree that offered some shelter from the elements, we took one last walk on the beach before the return trip up the boardwalk. The rain had given us a bit of a respite, though the wind was still hard to walk against. Lovely beach and lovely couple days.

View from Cape Alava

Film ends and a farewell

A great feature of film (though some might call it a defect) is the ability to squeeze an extra half-frame out of a roll of film. At the very end of a roll when you think you've got one more shot, sometimes the film counter can miscalculate a bit (couldn't possibly be a result of a messed-up load by the photographer). You take your shot and realize it's a half-shot or less when you try to advance the film and find it stops abruptly. Although it can be frustrating to think that last incomplete shot would have been perfect if only..., I often like the bits of pulled emulsion and snags that show up. An example:

Levi

I like the wisps of light that cross over his face and the "crud" creeping up his chest. Reminds me a bit of spirit photography, though without the ectoplasm.

On a sad note, the neighbor cat who was in the habit of dropping by to visit (and occasionally sneaking into my house) seems to have disappeared. I saw a sign posted by my neighbor, which said that the little guy had gone missing. Unfortunately, I'm afraid he may have been eaten by coyotes, since I saw one walking down my driveway around the same time the cat had gone missing. I miss the little guy, especially since I am currently without a pet. He was pretty funny and awfully friendly.

Bye bye, Sukey.

Some teens - digital & film

Here are some photos I took of my neighbor's kids. All but one were shot with the Mamiya C220. I under-exposed them awfully, but was able to get decent prints from them (though I wouldn't want to blow them up).

Katie

Katie 2

Sam & Ben

Sam

The last shot is the digital image. A very recognizable look to anyone who works with teenagers.