The Pacific

Tulip Time

Every year the Skagit Valley, about 60 miles north of Seattle, celebrates spring with its annual tulip festival. Last year Bob and I planned to get up early one Sunday morning so we would be there at dawn - to get the best light. We imagined the fields of tulips sparkling in the first glimmer of daylight. The weather forecast was the default forecast for this part of the country: partly cloudy, possible rain. I think that has been the forecast for every spring day since we moved to Seattle. It can mean heavy rains, no rain, early morning overcast followed by a clear cloudless sky, almost anything really. So when we woke to rain we thought nothing of it and forged ahead, hoping that 60 miles would make a difference. But when we arrived the rain persisted. So much for the early morning light. Also we had forgotten to check field reports to see if the tulips were actually blooming. They were not. We did find fields of daffodils - but no tulips.

Undaunted we decided to try it again this year. Once again we rose before dawn and ignored the weather forecast. But this time we did check field reports and were assured that we would find the tulips in full bloom. Below are a few photographs I took last Sunday. The first was taken before dawn, when the area was still blanketed with fog. The others speak for themselves.

Photos taken April 2009.

My New Favorite Place In Seattle

is the Chapel of St. Ignatius at Seattle University.

 

When we moved to Seattle almost four years ago my brother Pat urged me to visit the Chapel of St. Ignatius. It took me awhile but I finally got there yesterday. What an experience. I arrived with a class of architectural students and followed along as the instructor, who had worked with the architect Steven Holl during design and construction, explained the thinking behind the design.

 

The interior space is organized around the concept of “a gathering of different lights” with light and dark spaces playing off each other. Holl imagined the chapel as “seven bottles of light in a stone box” with the color and light constantly changing depending on the time of day, the time of year, and the weather.

 

The impact of this amazing space is hard to describe. It is both exciting and comforting – at the same time. There is an intimacy about the space that encourages contemplation and wonder. Although each of the spaces flows into the other, each stands alone.

 

Photos here from the top are of the front and back of the nave, the choir, the reconciliation chapel and the Blessed Sacrament chapel (with a self portrait). 

 

Images taken February 2009

Kilauea: Demon Fire

 

There is something about an erupting volcano that reminds me of both Dante’s Inferno and the beginning of the world. It is both fascinating and terrifying to see fire that does not go out, that builds new land.

Kilauea is currently the most active volcano on earth. It is one of five shield volcanoes that are still forming the island of Hawaii, know more familiarly as the Big Island. Kilauea has erupted 45 times in the 20^th century, with the current eruption beginning in 1983. In March 2008 an explosive event that scattered rock over a 75-acre area was accompanied by the increase of sulfur dioxide gas that has closed much of the crater rim drive.

I first saw Kilauea with Charlie in 1979 when the volcano was relatively dormant. A few years ago Bob and I took a helicopter flight that enabled us to see the molten lava flowing across the seared landscape before exploding into the ocean. This year Bob’s conference on the Big Island gave us an opportunity to see the volcano from the ground. From Volcanoes National Park a park ranger directed us to drive about an hour to an area where we could see the lava pouring into the ocean. We arrived about an hour before sunset, walked 3/4 of a mile across hardened lava and watched as the huge steam plume created water spouts. But the real show happened after sunset when we could see the glow of the lava itself reflected in the steam. The image above was taken after dark.

Image taken January 2009.

It's Not About the Coffee

As the home of Starbuck’s and Tully’s and dozens of independent coffee shops, Seattle is one coffee-drinking place. Not surprisingly, a recent survey found that Seattle is the second most caffeinated city in the country (after Tampa – where they drink a lot of tea) but it comes in at the #1 spot for the consumption of coffee. Although the image of everyone in Seattle carrying around a cup of coffee has become a cliché, there are lots of places to drop in for a cup. It often seems that there is at least one coffee shop per block and in keeping with the pattern we have a Tully’s in our building.

One of the things that strikes me whenever I go for a latte is how so many different people use the space for so many different things. Use of the term “third place” to describe libraries, coffee shops, and other community spaces has become so ubiquitous that it now appears in wikipedia. People use our coffee shop to work on their computers, to meet business associates, and just to “bump into life” (an especially apt description by Kathleen).

It is this bumping into life part that is the lifeblood of third places like my coffee shop. It is true, as many ads for pricey coffee makers claim, that it would be cheaper to make my coffee at home. But if I did that I would miss the chat I had last week with some other residents of our building – wonderful people who I had not had the opportunity to get to know – or learning about the informal inauguration party that will be happening tomorrow. I would miss being a part of an informal community that I value.

Which brings me back to the question: why are there so many coffee shops in Seattle? Is there something about this community that values community? Is the value of serendipity an implicit value in this entrepreneurial town? As the most educated city in the US are we driven by our need to exchange ideas? I’m not sure about the answer but I am pretty sure that it’s not about the coffee.

Monk Seal Pup Revisited

When we arrived on Kauai three days late (another story altogether) Bob and I rushed to Mahaulepu beach to see if the monk seal pup was still there (see November 11 blog for pics of the pup at two days). It had been over six weeks since the little fellow was born and we knew that monk seals are weaned after 5-7 weeks. We were not very optimistic.

 

Still, it was worth a shot. As we neared the location where we had last seen the seals we noticed that the beach was littered with posts and netting used to keep humans away from them.  It looked like someone had made quite an effort to move the barrier as the seals became more active. There was even a makeshift wooden structure to keep the sun off the seals. But we did not see the seals. Even more alarming we did not see the human guards that had been stationed nearby to make sure that the barrier was respected.

 

We walked along the beach thinking we had missed them when we noticed that one of the pieces of driftwood was not, in fact, driftwood. It was the seal pup. It was much larger than before and looked like it had grown from 25 to 200 pounds as expected. Its back and top of its head were still black as pups are when they are born but its underside had turned a beautiful silver color.

 

The mother was nowhere in sight. We assumed that she had left only recently as those who look after the monk seals make a practice of tagging and moving the pup after he has been left on his own. He didn’t look too happy about being abandoned.

 

So here are the after pictures. Our seal is now an adolescent and must fish to survive. His mother won’t return. We wish him well.

 

Images: the top image is a picture of the section of the beach where the seals hung out the last six weeks, the others are pictures of the adolescent seal. All taken December 2008.

Christmas in Seattle

Last night as I was packing for Paris I was surprised to hear Christmas carols coming from outside. When I looked out the window I saw about a dozen ships all decked out in Christmas lights drifting in front of the Olympic Sculpture Park. On deck people were singing and the singing was broadcast so that the entire neighborhood could hear them clearly. It was beautiful. 

Turns out that this is part of the yearly Christmas Ship Festival. For 59 years ships have been sailing to over 45 Puget Sound waterfront communities where choirs bring a special feeling of Christmas to thousands of us. What a treat. And what a joy. Christmas carolers on ships. Where else but Seattle.

Image taken December 2008.

Environmental Portraits

In October I was fortunate enough to be able to take a workshop with Nevada Weir, who is known for her travel photography. In addition to being a spellbinding storyteller she has a knack for pushing students out of their comfort zones. One way she did this was to send us out to shoot environmental portraits with a wide-angle lens. The idea was to capture images of people in their environment. The thing about a wide-angle lens is that you have to get right up on top of someone to get anything interesting. It’s very different from using a telephoto lens that allows you to shoot people from a distance. I find that there is something more honest about engaging people and getting their collaboration in the image making process. They can say no. But you respect their right to say no and when they say yes something really magical begins to happen. You are treating them like a person and not like an object. Plus, you learn a lot about what matters to them.

 

The first two images on this post are from that shoot. But the experience energized me and made me want to begin to capture images of people working. I was especially interested in photographing window washers. I’ve always been a bit in awe of people who will dangle from ropes to clean windows of tall buildings. A few weeks later I had an opportunity to capture Thomas, one of the men who washes windows in our building.

 

I was delighted with the images I was able to capture and wanted to thank him. Today he was back outside my window so I was able to print out the final image on this post and give it to him.

 

Now if I could just figure out how to get on a tugboat.

 

Images - of merchants at Pike’s Place Market and of window washer on the side of our building - taken October 2008

Blur

Back from Kauai I have been going through some of the photos I took. I am trying to find a way to capture the magic of the island. Lots of sunrises and sunsets and flowers, but how do you capture the essence of such a beautiful place. On this trip I tried a few new things like blurring of images, especially flowers. Here are a couple of my experiments. The first is a ginger plant.

The second was an attempt to make a flower border look a bit like an impressionist painting. 

Images taken November 2008.

Swimming Lessons

This morning Bob and I went out to see how the new monk seal pup was progressing. We had hoped to see a little more activity than I saw when I went out several days ago. Maybe we would even see the baby nursing. Instead we arrived to find the little fellow playing near the edge of the ocean under the careful watch of his mother who snorted loudly when he ventured too far.

Soon he hauled himself up the beach – quite a difficult process for an animal that is built for the water. He seemed to be asking her permission to venture a bit further. After a period of what appeared to be a monk seal version of nagging, mom hauled herself down the beach with junior close behind and they were soon happily swimming together.

 

Mom and pup will be on the beach until he is weaned in about six weeks. We leave Kauai tomorrow but will be back in five weeks. We’re hoping they will still be here so we can see what the pup looks like when he reaches 200 pounds and is ready to be on his own.

 

Images taken in Kauai on Mahaulepu beach November 2008.                                                               

Kauai's Monk Seals

Two days ago a monk seal pup was born on Kauai's Mahaulepu Beach and is now being protected by Kauai's Monk Seal Watch Program. Monk seals are among the most endangered creature on earth so the birth of a pup is big news. No one knows how many still exist in the Hawaiian archipelago but around 25 live on Kauai.

Newborn pups are black and weigh 25-30 pounds. In six weeks, while nursing, this pup will grow to 200 pounds while his mother, poor thing, loses a large portion of her body mass as she does not leave the pup to feed during that period. 

In this photo the black blob is the pup while the large grey blob is the mother. 

Photo taken on Kauai, November 2008.