Category: Photography

California Coast Road-trip

I drove up out of Sunnyvale taking Highway 1 once I was free of San Francisco north of Golden Gate Bridge. Highway 1, for the most part, hugs the coast meandering its way past scenic cliffs and towns of a few hundred inhabitants. The weather this past week has been less than ideal, the rain is harder, colder rain than Seattle typically experiences. It is with a sad nod and pun that it has dampened my spirits somewhat. Fortunately, today saw glimpses of blue sky between the storm clouds. There were moments, as I climbed up hills on a bend, that all I could see was blue sky; it gave me the sense that I was going drive into the sky itself. As is normal to my wont, I took an unplanned left turn dropping in on Point Arena Lighthouse with its unparalleled views from some 145-feet up atop the lighthouse. I continued northward until I reached Highway 128 just some miles south of Mendocino and Fort Bragg where I started to head south and east toward Calistoga where my friend’s house awaited me.

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San Francisco Peninsula

I spent a few hours along the San Francisco Peninsula today, driving south from the Golden Gate Bridge along Highway 1. It is amazing the difference being on the west-side of the peninsula ridge makes to the lay and ebb of the land. As much as I enjoy large cities such as San Francisco especially when on foot, I equally love the joy of driving along a rural road. And it only takes a few minutes south of the Presidio to discover this kind of chance. And this joy turns to thrill when it is done on a sunny day along a gorgeous coastline, especially for this Seattle-ite who just escaped a cold, winter downpour that hit that fair city today. I am told that the drive further south of Half Moon Bay down to Santa cruz is even more spectacular, but nevertheless even the short circuit I followed really helped to round out my day. The best part might of have been the nap I took in the car, parked facing west basking in the warmth of the sun as it slowly set. I fortunately woke in time to see the last minutes before sunset while looking over my should to the east to see the moon already risen.

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Early Morning at GL

It is truly Winter in Seattle with all that most people attribute to this area: water-weighted washed-out colors.  And as much as we might all yearn for something to let us put down our daily vitamin D capsules, there is still a deeply resonate beauty even in the simple pleasure of walking around Greenlake in these color-challenged mornings. Greenlake is a location that most locals foreshorten to GL in emails and text-messages; a foreshortening better transcoded back to Greylake during this time of year.  Which is to write that as much as I dumped the color in my photographs for black & whites, there was not really much to lose.

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The Piers, Seattle

Today was again another day of perfect Winter weather in Seattle.  Welcome 2011, indeed!  I had the honor to be downtown to photograph a friend’s artwork today; having arrived a few hours early I decided I would take a stroll along the piers of Seattle with my camera to warm up.

For those who have not yet been to Seattle, the piers are one of those hidden gems that I think too often get overlooked by tourists and citizens alike.  It is one of the better places to get a feel for both the industry and tourism that intersects in this area.  You can easily start from Pioneer Square and work your way “north” to end up at the new sculpture park or otherwise short-circuit the trip a bit and end at Pike Place Market.  Along the route are a number of tourist traps that have sufficient charm and self-awareness that warrant a quick perusal of their wares.  And when the skies are particularly clear the views of the Sound and Olympic Mountains cannot be beat other than to go out on the Sound in a sailboat.

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Welcome 2011 to Seattle

Today I took the Edmonds to Kingston ferry and back to celebrate the New Year.  It has been rather cold these past few days albeit this has been offset by a rather lovely tendency for the air to be quite crisp. I started off at Red Twig, a favorite cafe of mine located in downtown Edmonds.  I then walked down to the water before boarding, looking north toward Mount Baker.  I love riding the ferry across the water even if the trip is less than 30 minutes. There are the mountains! And the mountains! And the mountains! And then there are the mountains. All four cardinal directions are filled with sky and water and mountains. It is the best $7 you can spend; better than any matinee show in town.  And then Kingston itself is a lovely little town on the other side with seemingly more cafes per capita than Seattle — an impressive feat all things considering.  I tried to time the ride back to coincide with the 4:30pm sunset; while not a perfect synch up there was a marvelous display over the Olympic Mountains that stretch north-south over the Olympic peninsula.

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