The stretch of beach and road in Seattle that simulates this city’s brand of California is commonly called Alki and Alki Beach. It is a great spot to be on a summer night as the sun goes down and cooler air whips off the Puget Sound. Last weekend salsa dancers gathered on the beach with many hundreds of others to soak it all up. Me too. (Click on each photograph to see a larger picture on separate picture page.)
Last night, July 12, a so-called full buck moon or super moon, took light over the heavens. Hundreds of people gathered along Elliott Bay in West Seattle to watch it rise over the Port of Seattle. It was quite spectacular to put it mildly. I decided to slightly adjust the colors of one of these pictures to punch up the orange. You can see the difference. The colors of the moon last night started as light pink, turning to orange, turning to yellow in about one hour. (Click on each photograph to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)
On these amazingly beautiful summer nights in Seattle, one can finds huge crowds of locals and visitors at Kerry Park, on Queen Anne, snapping photos and gazing at Seattle, the Port of Seattle, and the Puget Sound. It’s quite a nice spot. Come if you can. (Click on each photograph to see larger pictures on separate picture pages.)
The Space Needle is perhaps the most photographed landmark in Seattle. On a nice summer night, hundreds of people can be found on the overlook on Queen Anne that gazes upon this 1960s monument built for Seattle’s World Fair. (Click on the photograph to see a larger photograph on a separate picture page.)
I travelled throughout all of Turkey in 2001 (see some more of my photographs on my Turkey gallery). It was an unforgettable trip. These are some black and white shots I took. I quickly converted these prints to digital images, and I probably could have been smarter about by using a tripod. But I actually like the look of these now. My actual work prints, and final prints, are a lot sharper. The palace is located in Doğubeyazıt, reportedly near the spot where the Bible’s fabled Noah’s Ark landed after the great flood. This is in far east Turkey, a mostly Kurdish region, near the Iran border. A major military base is here, obviously, and stocked with American made heavy armor, from what I remember seeing. I remember seeing goats walking down the main street, outside the Internet cafe where I passed the time.The shot from Payas, of a somewhat infamous madrassa, is along the coastal area, near Iskenderun. It sits next to a famous caravansary and kalesi (castle). This building dates from the Middle Ages. (Click on each photograph to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)
In the United States, our version of a micro-house is likely considered a castle in most developing nations. But some used to the single family home in this country view these new buildings with suspicion and even fear.
Because of growing pains in popular West Coast cities like Seattle, developers are now developing former single-family units into developments with three-story tall, slender homes. The advocates of this trend, developers who are meeting the markets demands and who are making good money, dub their efforts Smart Growth Seattle. They call these new four- or six-per lot developments micro-houses. Proponents of high-density urban growth, like Sightline Institute of Seattle, also support higher density developments.
Neighbors in single-family-zoned neighborhoods have other words for them. Some opponents also have voiced concerns on relationships between developers and city officials and rules for notifying neighbors of developments. Foes of these new homes have called them monstrosities because of how they have been erected uncomfortably close to homes that used to have more buffers, and now those neighbors are dealing with building shadows and obstructed views.
The emotions have run very high because of how the city’s bureaucracy managing new developments was handling the change that is still transforming Seattle into a city with many younger and wealthier tech workers who like these homes and who have no kids. Eventually, the fights spilled into the Seattle City Council, which in May 2014 took action on what kinds of developments can occur on lot sizes smaller than 2,500 square feet. The council voted to lower the height limits for these slender homes on single-family lots. The Times reported that under new rules, no development is allowed on lot sizes smaller than 2,500 square feet.
It is remarkable to witness this growth. I have lived next door to these developments. I have looked out my kitchen window and watched my neighbor sit in his chair watching TV, and I could practically whisper to him, he was that close. I cannot walk one block in Seattle’s bustling Ballard neighborhood and not see these developments springing up. These homes fetch at least $300,000, depending on the area, and likely more in desirable neighborhoods like mine (I am not wealthy, and rent). Here is the new Seattle, in its new form, and more will be coming–many more actually.
I live in King County, the most populous in Washington state, home to Microsoft, Amazon, Boeing, and other major global corporations. Billionaires by the bushel live here, and private wealth abounds. But there is also another King County, just outside those urban areas and in semi-rural communities that are unincorporated. The bustle of Seattle is not found here. In fact in some places, it is quite the opposite. Here are a few scenes on Highway 164, on a drive from the city of Auburn to the city of Enumclaw.
The Port of Seattle is surrounded by light and heavy industrial facilities, including a former cement kiln seen here. There are endless forms, shapes, and typologies to photograph and document in this area. I could spend days in these spaces and still never tell their story.
For those who have never lived in the Northwest or fished, the significance of fishing to the region historically cannot be underestimated. Fishing is a unifying force among many diverse groups, a source of economic development for many small communities, and a cultural and historic legacy for Native Americans.
Fishing rights granted in treaties signed by the U.S. Government with tribes in Oregon and Washington remain in legal force. So-called “fishing wars” and “fish-ins” involved nonviolent and at times near-confrontational encounters among Native fishing activists seeking to reclaim fishing rights granted to them in treaties. These disputes attracted national attention. All of this culminated in the 1974 Boldt Decision that restored those rights in Washington State, and earlier with the Belloni Decision, in 1969, in Oregon. (Click on the Boldt Decision link to get a quick dose on this complex Northwest issue from a paper I wrote a few years back.)
Today, there are fewer fish, mostly salmon, because of decades of hydroelectric dam use on the Columbia River water system and development, but there is also shared management of the fisheries. Sherars Falls, on the Deschutes River, is a historic fishing area managed by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, as provided by treaty rights. I saw lots of tribal fishermen here this week, along with sports fishermen, who pay a daily fee to the tribe. Though developed, with a major railway, power lines, and roads, it is still wild, and the thrashing of Chinook caught on a line is one of the greatest things to experience. And this was really one of the most beautiful places I have visited in a while.
(Click on each photo for a larger picture on a separate picture page.)
By far, my favorite sign in the world, I think, is this one that greets visitors as the drive in on the Al-Can Highway from the Yukon and arrive in the first junction and town in Alaska, called Tok. Go straight, you arrive at Fairbanks. Head left, you come to Glenallen, and then on to Valdez or Anchorage. Do not be fooled. Tok is also a graveyard of dreams, where many who dreamed of a better life, or escaping their problems or the law, or perhaps a Permanent Fund Dividend check without working for it, busted. Alaska is filled with dreamers and also broken dreams. It is what makes it Alaska, and I still love it so. (Click on each photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)
What Beautiful Light 