Albedo is the reflectivity of the earth’s surface. Ice, white and bright, has a high albedo, reflecting back the sun on itself, whereas water draws the solar radiation deep into its hues. Water is always in flux, mutable — liquid, vaporous, frozen — evaporating, condensing and expanding. This fluidity of form and purpose fuels life…
Rilke in a Seattle Autumn
I first read Rainer Maria Rilke one autumn in “Letters to a Young Poet” — a book handed off to me with pages stained by office carbons. Rilke’s letters to Franz Kappus, published by Kappus after Rilke’s death, are sympathetic and inspired. There’s a reason this collection finds its way to the paws of young…
I Wish I Was the Moon
Full moon rising orange over Seattle last night … the real moon, not Photoshopped into the background. 🙂 I Wish I Was the Moon – Neko Case How will you know if you found me at last ‘Cause I’ll be the one, be the one, be the one With my heart in my lap I’m…
Seattle Birds on a Wire
Like a bird on the wire, Like a drunk in a midnight choir I have tried in my way to be free. Like a worm on a hook, Like a knight from some old fashioned book I have saved all my ribbons for thee. If I, if I have been unkind, I hope that you…
On Little Cat Feet in Seattle
Carl Sandburg’s metaphor of fog creeping in “on little cat feet” over the harbor and sky is 21 words of descriptive perfection. But, it wasn’t this gentle, pitter-patter idea of fog that formed me. It was a more treacherous fog, the fog of the mire, the one shrouding fantastical and coal-black specters: The cloud was…
How Birds Handle Hurricanes
Stay safe, sound, dry and warm my human and nonhuman friends on the East Coast. We’re keeping tabs on the latest reports and send every ounce of positive energy and thought your way. ———————————— I’ve heard some of the more sensational stories of hurricanes blowing birds way off course. But, I wasn’t sure what other…
Flying Into a Half Moon
It’s thematically appropriate that our move to Seattle — Jet City — inspired my first aircraft-on-moon shots. I’d just photographed the Wolf Moon at the Space Needle … layering two exposures to bring the moon into focus. On the ride into the city, I then noticed that this winter whopper of a moon tracked behind…
Seattle Sky Electric
:: They’re tendrils of light, wicked with amperes, coulombs and megajoules … :: A vision in voltage that sparked my night and then my morning, :: Cracking the sky into pieces until it murmured, then crumbled into a cup of reverie. I was awake for this 2am electrical storm over Seattle … one that didn’t…
Heat and the Osprey Canopy
I’ve never heard as much talk about the weather as I do here in the Northwest. Most people I meet do not like the drizzle, despite the fact that it’s an integral facet of living in a marine environment. For me, when the temperature starts to hit 80, I seek basement bunkers. Heat stroke cured…
Say It’s Only a Cormorant Moon …
… sailing over a cardboard sea. The sun came out and I raced down to the locks where, just a few days before, I’d seen the most perfect light on alighting herons. There’s a rookery that spans a ravine, the northern terminus of which is at the Ballard Locks. Several Great Blue Heron couples (Ardea…
