Fine Art Photography Blog

With planets, nebulas, smiley faces, and a giant reflecting lake, Seattle’s fireworks are rumored to be among the most impressive in the country. Unlike the show on New Year, coming out of the Space Needle, these are launched from a barge on Lake Union.  Most of these photos were from the Moss Bay dock, where I launch my kayak:

This is one of my favorites of the night; the colorful embers spilling down from the two main explosions, and the streaming plumes of fire shooting upward make up for the darkening sky:

The lake was filled with more boats than water.  As the show went on, a thick blanket of smoke condensed on the lake, obscuring the surface level view in the lake.  The Aurora Bridge is barely visible in the bottom-right corner of the frame:

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Enveloped in the middle of Seattle, Lake Union looks like a bladder being fed by over thin channels. With a clear view of the Space Needle and downtown from most points on the lake, the Center for Wooden Boats along the south shore, pedestrian foot bridges and green belt, and Gas Works Park to the north, it fits in nicely with its surroundings in the Emerald City.

To the west is Ballard, the locks, even a boat elevator; this leads to Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean. To the East is Lake Washington, via the choppy Montlake Cut. Both ways out of Lake Union are to the north, like ventricles feeding into a heart … see the map below. Both of these channels sit under working draw bridges, opening throughout the day to let travelers through the waterways below. Most of the larger industrial ships don’t make it this far, though; these head to the famous unsecured Port of Seattle, between Elliot Bay and the West Seattle Bridge.

The entire lake has an unusual character; a mix between a park and an industrial zone. Lining the shore to the north are tug boat operations, small repair companies, and fleets of moored fishing ships, as seen in these photos. Lake Union is Seattle’s favorite air strip for sea planes … every time I’ve been kayaking, one lands or takes off within a hundred yards. Read the rest of this entry »

In the north end of Ballard, Golden Gardens is a small point into Puget Sound. Beach spreads out in both directions, giving visitors fantastic views into the Olympic Range, making a great hike, and attracting water foul of all kinds.

Across the water is Bainbridge Island, hosting a row of pines in the middle-ground below the mountains. Seattle is demarcated by water, but on a clear day we become a valley between the highlands to the east and the archipelago filling the Sound, our three national parks show themselves. There are many not so clear days, however.

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It’s a 700 vertical-foot climb to the top of Multnomah Falls; about a mile and a quarter each way, mostly over switchbacks. Being a fairly easy hike and only 30 miles from Portland, the challenge isn’t getting to the top, it’s fighting the crowd. Even in the dead of winter, with snow lying next to the upper trail, there will invariably be thousands of people enjoying the great outdoors.

Much of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area has a straightforward history, the type you might hear about in a nature documentary. The Cascade Range of volcanoes - Mount Hood and Mount Adams, both dormant, both visible from the river, could erupt during the 21st century, geologists tell us - began to push upwards a million years ago, and the mighty river carved a deep gorge through them. Incredibly, this is the only passage through the mountains that stays near sea-level. A series of floods ensued; the present day Bridge of the Gods is build on the site of a landslide that dammed the river, creating a lake that may have stretched as far as Idaho.

But the waterfall has a far different history. Read the rest of this entry »

Fog hangs in pockets of the Seattle, particularly near the water, while clouds blow overhead, reflecting the colors of the city behind them. This isn’t unusual for mid January in the Rainy City … most days, the sky scrapers are hidden behind the fog.

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A friend of mine loves one of my photos of the city because it shows a crane … a constant fixture in our skyline. Typically the crane would be a minor distraction, but it strikes a chord, at least with recent Seattle residents. Until the 1970s we were a sleepy hamlet in the northwest, a parochial stop between Vancouver and San Francisco. Boeing and Microsoft changed all of this … along with the passing of time in general.

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By tradition, we like to ring in the New Year with a fireworks show from the beloved Space Needle.

Living in Queen Anne, I hiked up to Kerry Park for the show. Near the top of the hill, and situated directly opposite both downtown, in the background, and the Space Needle; this is the one place in the city where the Needle looks like it could be standing next to other sky scrapers.

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The mountains that hold up the sky above the Columbia River are beginning the long, sluggish process of donning their winter coats. Mount Hood, true to its image, looks like a gargantuan tepee covered in what could well be permafrost. Other peaks are dusted in white along the tops of their ridges, growing large snowfields for the season, but less stark than Hood’s glaciated peak.

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Amgen is a California-based bio engineering firm. Steel beams woven together to form what looks something like DNA. This is clearly a metaphor; the pedestrian bridge over the railway hugging Puget Sound leads to a state of the art research complex. Stylish and substantive, the bridge itself looks as nice as the view it provides:

This is one of my favorite photos.

A bit of luck was involved here; during the two minute exposure on a dark night a train came roaring underneath, burning the image of its headlights into the frame. The intense darkness forces the shutter open for what would normally be an unfathomable amount of time. Seattle’s cloud cover reflects the city light back downward, and given enough time, the wind carries them through the sky, leaving faint blurred traces reminiscent of Van Gogh’s Starry Night.

Elliot is the main avenue along the waterfront north of downtown and bordering Queen Anne. Just to the west, separated by rail lines, is a series of parks: Myrtle Edwards, Smith Cove, Elliot Bay, and, ultimately, Discovery Park, one of Seattle’s favorites. The Helix Bridge connects the Puget Sound waterfront to the rest of the city, and is one of only a few crossings in the area.

Because of the convenience - a trail runs from Kinnear Park, near my apartment, down to Elliot - I’ve walked or biked across this structure a hundred times. A labyrinth of trails lead past loading docks where herons, egrets, and even the occasional osprey hunt:

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In Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest, the Boulder River Wilderness Area is remote and obscure. At 75 miles from Seattle, and without skiing, many locals can’t easily point to it on the map. Along with the natural splendor, this makes for hiking heaven. There are more campgrounds between Silverton and the end of the paved road than Starbucks downtown; all are closed for the season.

The area is home to centuries old virgin western hemlock and red cedar, 60 million year old fossilized plant leaves, Big Four Mountain which will hopefully be the subject of a future post, and the famed Ice Caves. This is an easy and well maintained single mile hike, starting at a picnic area build on the site of the old Big Four Mountain Hotel. A boardwalk guides visitors across the bog and to the base of the mountain, towering more than a mile above. The caves themselves are more like tunnels into a permanent ice field; the roof is unstable, and hikers have been seriously injured, even killed, here. Read the rest of this entry »