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.

A photo

Have I told you how much I love bees?

The poor maligned bee. Every yellow jacket and vicious hornet out there gets labeled by frightened people as "bees." Little do they know that a bee is a lovely little creature that just wants to go on its search for pollen and a good flower to laze out in. I once read that bees actually engage in a lot of downtime. So the phrase, "busy as a bee" really means that you're kind of a lazy person always looking for a sunny spot to have a lie down.

How I love the bees especially when they are hanging out in the dahlia garden at Pt. Defiance Park. The dahlias are exceedingly gorgeous right now so I would recommend a visit if you're in the Tacoma region.

Stitch function on the Canon G9

I took a bike ride through the Tacoma tide flats with my G9 the other day and decided to test out the stitch function on the camera. I didn't spend any time in post working on the images beyond stitching them into a panorama in Photoshop. If you look at the telephone wires, you'll see some flaws. I was more interested in seeing what I could do quickly and I'm pretty pleased with the results. The final file size, after flattening and compressing as a TIF, was about 190 MB so this is a bit of a space hog. However, it was made out of 5 images so it's not really surprising the file would be so large in size.

Building in the Tacoma Tide Flats - late day

The light was great and the subject matter is just so appealing.

Just a photo

I'm feeling thoroughly wiped out from a long ten days of work but don't want to end today without a little creativity (there's got to be more to life than endless hours trying to justify your paycheck). Here's a Woca picture I took last summer in Sandspit in the Queen Charlotte Islands/Haida Gwaii off the coast of British Columbia. What a place and what incredible light. Notice the light leak that imprinted on the negative. Shot number 7, eh?

Ball field - Sandspit, BC