Photography

Happy 450th birthday, Bard … we love you
Seattle’s amazing GreenStage company perform William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2013 in Seattle’s Discovery Park.

As I get older, I think I fall more deeply in love with the works of William Shakespeare. It is his 450th birthday today. Happy birthday, oh great master of the human condition. I took this picture at a wonderful production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in Seattle’s Discovery Park. The play was performed by Seattle’s inimitable GreenStage theatre company, who perform the Bard’s plays every summer at many amazing outdoor venues throughout Seattle and beyond. These plays are one of my favorite things about living in Seattle. (Click on the photo for a larger image on a separate picture page.)

Morning Tea in Hoi An, Vietnam
I visited Hoi An, Vietnam, in 2003. That was a fabulous trip, and moments like these stand out as among my best (2003).

I included this photo of two men I met for morning tea in Hoi An, Vietnam, in my series called Being Themselves. Nothing earth-shattering here other than a nice moment with some guys who welcomed a visitor to their town and wore very large smiles. My kinda people. See more of my photos from Vietnam on my web site.

The Pebble Mine area, what ground zero of a resource war looks like
Drill pads were scattered over the prospective site, where samples were taken for further lab analysis (2005).
One of several drill sites in the area of the planned Pebble mine (2005).
Helicopters are the primary way crews are able to explore the remote work site where Pebble is located, upstream from Lake Iliamna and Bristol Bay (2005)
Geologists take core samples to determine the mineral prospects of areas to determine the feasibility of developing areas; these are from the Pebble site (2005).
A work site at the planned, and now stalled, Pebble mine area (2005).

During my six years in Alaska from 2004 through 2010, by far the most protracted and controversial of many simmering resource development battles was the fight over the so-called Pebble Mine. This area is upriver from Lake Iliamna, a short plane ride west of Anchorage. The proposed copper and molybdenum mine is touted as holding some of the world’s largest deposits of copper. But building it would also create a massive open pit operation in the headwaters to one of the world’s most productive sockeye fish hatcheries, and were a spill to occur, the consequences would likely be devastating to the fishery. The battle was heated, dividing even mostly resource-friendly Republicans like former Sen. Ted Stevens (who spoke out against it during my time there), mainly because of the incredibly rich fishing resources downstream that provided good jobs to many Native communities with a renewable resource (tasty sockeye salmon).

I will not get into the debate, which embraced the vitriol and emotion I associated with the “War on Terror” and the “with us or against us” mentality that coincided during my years in Alaska. Regardless of what I say, this project has seen two of the world’s largest mining companies, Anglo American and Rio Tinto, walk away from their stakes during the last year, leaving the remaining company called Pebble Partnership high and dry, without the major financial backing it needs to pull this off. I think the science strongly shows this is not the place to build such a huge mine. Regardless of my opinion, without big money, big mines cannot be developed. And the U.S. EPA is against it. These pictures were taken during my site visit there in 2005, when I worked in Anchorage. I hope these pictures provide a window into one of the hottest battles ever seen in the 49th state. (Note, all pictures were taken with my consumer-grade Canon digital camera–not bad for the tough little workhorse.)

Not necessarily a post-card Seattle picture
Mt. Rainier looms like a giant in the distance above the Duwamish River, in south Seattle (2014).

This happens to be a “picture” I see often, at least when the clouds let me see Rainier behind the industrial facade. Maybe I just like the Duwamish River because it is the one I see most often, and feel some deep pity for. It was once a living thing. Now it is just a place where we built a city, a port, an economy. Seeing the Duwamish every day some times reminds me of what I felt when I saw the Mississippi in Louisiana, where the river is subverted to human desires and the many industries that thrive there. Maybe I just have a thing for rivers?

Not your typical vac shop
One of several art pieces made from vacuum cleaner parts decorates the Vac Shop, in south Seattle (2014).
One of several art pieces made from vacuum cleaner parts decorates the Vac Shop, in south Seattle (2014).

I always seem to discover something new, peculiar, and definitely quirky in south Seattle, particularly the industrial area called SoDo. The Vac Shop eluded my attention for years, until today. How could I have missed this? I have no idea what creative inspirations lie behind these pieces, and I do not think it matters. And, Bibles are apparently in the shop too. Full service, it appears. (Click on each photo for a larger, full-sized image on a separate page.)

The industrial Duwamish in south Seattle
This photograph of the lower Duwamish, in the Port of Seattle, was taken in January 2014.

The Duwamish River, in south Seattle, is a U.S. federal Superfund cleanup site and one of the most developed industrial landscapes in the Pacific Northwest. The area is dotted with cargo container barges, cement factories, shipping and receiving warehouses, and other industrial facilities. Believe it or not, fish swim up this river to spawn, and people fish on this waterway every summer.

When reality is not quite what you thought it was
At the Dakshinkali temple near Kathmandu, male goats and cocks are sacrificed, washed in a stream, and then prepared to be eaten (taken 1989).

In the United States, one estimate pegs the number of animals killed for food production at about 10 billion annually (most being chickens). The methods are hidden from view, seldom filmed, and far from humane. That fact is important to bear in mind when contemplating this picture I took at a temple in Nepal called Dakshinkali. This is a sacred Hindu site where animals (goats, cocks) are slaughtered in sacrifice to the Hindu god Kali. Nepalese bring their farm animals for ritualistic sacrifice, with methods similar to the quick and mostly painless halal and kosher styles of killing of certain animals for consumption. I remember seeing this man kill many goats and cockerels in September 1989. Blood was everywhere. It was all very calm, if not serene. Large crowds of Nepalese stood patiently in long lines waiting for the swift act. I had never seen anything like this before. I realized at that moment that people live their lives in such totally different ways than I do, and in ways that make perfect sense to them, but may seem outright cruel to outsiders (again, remember the dead billions of factory killed chickens in our country). That is a moment I recall ever so clearly, when my perception of reality had measurably changed. That is still why I like to travel.

Oh, those succulent, sensuous tulip petals

Tulips are, by all definitions, the baba-boom of flowers many gardeners plant here in the United States, and in Canada and Europe too. We have fields of them now exploding in the Skagit Valley. In my part of Seattle, I see dozens in full, glorious bloom. Their colors can almost drive a person wild. I love how the colors mix and accentuate each other in some petals. Me, I just do vegetables. I prefer to eat what I plant. I let others plant what I feast with my eyes.

Biking on a spring day with an old bike

 

I have a 23-year-old road bike that, well, I just can’t seem to get rid of. Maybe I will this spring. For now, it works, and it is about as old as my bike pump too, which looks worse for wear. Today I experimented with mounting the GoPro on my handlebars to see what kind of angles would be generated and to see what kind of emotions are communicated when someone is caught in the middle of a very aerobic sport. Biking is one of the most aerobic sports I know, and that is one reason I love it so. As I often do, I adjusted the settings in Lightroom to accentuate the contrast, which is a look I am growing accustomed to. Here’s to spring days, the simple pleasures of riding an old bicycle, and seeing rows of blossoming trees along a lovely lake shore.